Best week ever
The week that was
January 12, 2016

Best week ever

The brave men of the fire brigade of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force frequently come in for scathing criticism for their handling of fires around the country.

Not this time however! For over 10 hours last Thursday morning, SVG’s strongest and bravest battled a raging inferno at the Public Works Department, never letting up until the last ember had been doused and the fire had been brought under control.{{more}} Onlookers say some of the firefighters collapsed flat on their backs from exhaustion, but through it all, fought the fire in a strategic, intelligent manner! Of course, having at their disposal the new fire engines bought for the Argyle International Airport was a big plus! Congrats guys!
 
 

Runner-up:

Damion Dublin is showing Vincentian youths that sporting excellence can be achieved in any discipline you set your mind to. It doesn’t just have to be football, cricket or basketball – which are among the more popular sports that young people flock to in SVG. Dublin, who is the current national men’s singles champion in table tennis, recently placed another feather under his cap by scooping the men’s singles open title in the Excel-sponsored Super Four tournament in Grenada. Congratulations, and keep flying the banner for Vincy excellence high!
 
 
 
 
 
 

WORST WEEK EVER:

Dozens of poor and indigent people around the country literally had their hopes of having their homes repaired and upgraded go up in smoke last week, when building material, valued at EC$1.2 million, was burnt in a mysterious fire at the Public Works Department last Thursday morning.

Police say they suspect arson and now people are asking: Why and Who??

Was there any connection between that act and the firebombing of VINLEC just a few days before? What about those who in a cyber Room openly called for War and for the town to be burnt down? What are they saying now?

 

Runner-up:

No stranger to the Worst Week accolade, MP for Central Kingstown St Clair Leacock gets dishonourable mention once again for the undeserved political hiding he gave former NDP Chair and Queen’s Counsel Parnell Campbell last week, calling him “unprincipled and unethical” for his involvement, on the Government’s side, in an application made in court by the NDP’s Ben Exeter.

What The Major seems to be blind to is that another Queen’s Counsel, a man who was once a high-ranking member of the SVG Labour Party and the ULP, himself appeared in court on behalf of Exeter in the same matter. No condemnation or puking there, by the Major.

Campbell’s saint-like forgiving of Leacock’s harsh words is admirable, but it’s certainly got to sting when someone who used to be close to you sticks the boot in like that.
 

If I had a question in SVG Parliament

I’d ask the minister in charge of electoral matters to say once and for all, if by examining the counterfoil of a ballot paper, there is any way for one to tell who a person voted for, as had been claimed in a recent court matter.

 

Media Watch

When will Vincentian media practitioners include more investigative journalism in their repertoires? With most media houses reporting the same news on a weekly basis, it is high time that at least one of them stepped out from the confines of the flock, and started flexing that investigative muscle. With the media industry on a whole suffering a decline in viewership/sales and subscriptions, investigative journalism is one of the ways it can be boosted. Especially in the face of the ease of access to the Internet and social media, where ‘news’ is broken mere minutes (if not seconds) after anything happens. Bring us the important issues that are hardly spoken about/discussed; and bring us issues other than politics, crime and scandal!