标签： Africa

With Antigua Carnival 2025 fast approaching, organisers are ramping up safety measures for both revellers and bystanders.

Marcelle Freeland, Chair of the Mas and Parades Sub-committee, confirmed that a dedicated parade safety committee is now in place and has already met with mas troupes to review safety protocols.

“All vehicles will be inspected, and each troupe will receive a safety booklet outlining rules and regulations. First aid kits and fire extinguishers are mandatory,” she said.

Parade events include the LIAT T-shirt Mas on 26 July, Children’s Carnival on 27 July, Jouvert and Monday Mas on 4 August, and the Parade of Bands and Last Lap on 5 August.

Freeland urged spectators to avoid gathering at corners and to comply with safety officials. Plans are also under way to install barrier systems with assistance from law enforcement.

She highlighted Redcliffe Street, Independence Avenue, and Queen Elizabeth Highway as ideal viewing areas, while discouraging the public from walking through performing troupes.

“This is their moment to express themselves without interference,” Freeland added.

Antigua Carnival 2025 runs from 25 July to 5 August under the theme _‘It’s A Vibe’_.

I am deeply troubled since yesterday when I learned of the death of the teenager in the attempted robbery situation.

Many people would conclude that he got exactly what he wanted and until and unless it is someone very close to us, our feelings about issues of this nature would always be less compassionate and more judgemental.

Children were not born bad. Their environment, the lack of parental guidance and control, friends, social media and the “village” has driven most of them into some unseemly ways. We cannot underestimate the huge influence “bad company” can have on our children.

Criminal exploitation is a huge and growing danger for many teenagers and young adults as they are regularly targeted by older and more seasoned criminals because of their vulnerabilities.

Many are targeted into carrying or doing drugs, shoplifting, stealing, and more. The high cost of living is putting some families under pressure and many are unable to afford the essentials.

For many teens, this kind of uncertainty and stress at home is hard and it makes them an easy target for criminal groups.

Teens are often recruited to make “easy money” to help their family and to live an affluent lifestyle in an environment that looks and feels exciting and away from the home pressure. We are aggressively losing a lot of our finest teens through criminal exploitation.

Whilst I do not wish to lay any blame for this young man’s ultimate demise, where assistance and intervention is given, there must be consistent, up to date and timely follow up.

Some people are not as strong and as resolute as others. Their hands must be continously held daily and they must be bolstered and encouraged regularly throughout their journey.

They were already programmed, indoctrinated and brainwashed and the “change journey ” is not going to be an easy and an overnight thing.

We have to be more targeted and diligent in our desire to help them. It cannot be a once off placement and then they are forgotten.

We also have to enlist the help of social workers, case managers, counselors and other professionals to assist them along the way.

We have lost a teenager in a most distasteful manner and I hope that going forward we can all do more to save the others from similar outcomes and consequences.

A man convicted of causing death by dangerous driving has been ordered to pay $30,000 in compensation or face more than two years in prison.

Kevon Small, found guilty in April for the 2021 death of Colin Anderson Joseph, was sentenced on 16 July. The court ruled he must pay $20,000 to Joseph’s widow and $10,000 to his mother. The first $15,000 is due by 25 December 2025, with the balance by 31 April 2026. Failure to pay will result in two years and five months’ imprisonment.

Small was also fined $2,000, to be paid within six months or serve three months in jail. His driver’s licence has been suspended for five years.

The fatal crash occurred on 1 September 2021 at the intersection of Market and New Streets. Video footage played during the trial showed Joseph attempting to cross the road when Small’s vehicle struck and ran over him.

Joseph, 50, suffered a fractured skull and severe leg trauma. He was declared brain dead and died in hospital shortly after.

Small, 34 at the time, claimed he slowed at the junction and only realised there had been an impact after turning. He also cited a medical condition but offered no evidence, and admitted he was not on any medication.

Just looking into the eyes of our youth tells the whole story. They look as if they have given up; some are just in limbo, while others are pushing back with crime and violence. A visit to work places, banks, government reception, security posts, or just walking the streets, establishes a lost generation among the failures of their adults.

All that is budgeted for our youth is a colonial styled education without frills. Gone are the days of extra curricular activities which forced discipline and encouraged skills. Our generation of the colonial era not only had household, yard and animal chores, children were subject to terrible beatings by parents for wrong-doing. All that is now considered outdated and corporal punishment of children is frowned upon.

The school’s curriculum is still geared to teaching to read, write and spell, all the other subjects are for getting into schools of higher learning, and not applied to investing skills into the economy by a young and talented scheme.

Each year hundreds of young people are dumped into the government and private workforce without ceremony or consideration of their future. They are just given ‘jabs’ with no thought of growth and ambition. Their passion gets watered down and ultimately wasted, as the daily grind of small island life and the badmindedness of old plantation prejudices deplete their value, leaving them sad looking and dull.

The attitude of those whom offices and banks place in reception, girls, well made up and well dressed but sullen, no pleasantries in greeting customers, no real helpful involvement, monosyllabic and aloof – they are everywhere!

Gone are the days where young people were encouraged to learn a trade for dark days, when jobs might be few, and the ability to do something with one’s hands filled the gap between jobs. Herding animals, learning mechanics, dressmaking or embroidery, cooking classes, baby-sitting and childcare, among all things small island communities demand, our children learned and delivered after school.

It is these extra curricular activities which evoked the finer attitudes to life and community involvement, which are so important and now missing in our lives and the lives of our children.

Technology is great, but unless there is a foundation that feeds, clothes, and cares for its people and especially its youth, it is still pie in the sky, unattainable to most, and a crying shame!

The Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission (ABRSC) welcomes with enthusiasm the decision of the Cabinet of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda – in response to its advocacy – to appoint a committee ‘to conduct research and provide recommendations on the renaming of three streets in St. John’s, as an initial phase of a broader initiative’. We are also pleased that the objective is – in the first instance – ‘to commemorate and honour the legacy of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, George A. Weston, and George Alexander McGuire’ and in the second ‘to identify other Antiguan and Barbudan unsung heroes who were never honoured or celebrated’.

It is important we recognise that the decision of Cabinet is one with regional significance. In 2017, nearly a decade ago, the CARICOM Reparations Commission, of which the ABRSC is a founding member, resolved in its recommendations to CARICOM Governments that _‘all statues and memorials dedicated to persons who ushered and directed the genocide against the native people of the Caribbean, such as Christopher Columbus, and those who defended and practised the crime of enslaving others, denying them their humanity… be removed from places of public celebration.**’**_ Further in a2019 resolution, the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at its 36th Meeting called for ‘ _a coordinated regional initiative to rename monuments that glorify colonial violence’.

There is Commonwealth judicial precedent for re-naming efforts. ABRSC recalls the 2020 decision of the British Crown courts that the public display of statues of enslavers and committers of crimes against humanity is a ‘hate crime’ and that ‘reasonable force’ can be used to remove them. Our ‘hate crime’ is the desecration of our public spaces and institutions and our ‘reasonable force’ is government policy and public opinion.

The ABRSC interprets these decisions not only as a rejection of the continued existence of public spaces bearing the names of those who committed ‘colonial violence’ but also a call to find space and opportunity to honour those who have worked heroically to advance the development of our nation.

ABRSC sees the decision to establish the naming/re-naming committee as support for the United Nations (UN) initiative of the **Second International Decade for People of African Descent (2025–2034)** under the theme to _‘promote recognition, justice, and development for people of African descent worldwide’_. We interpret ‘recognition’ as the acknowledgement of the contributions and humanity of people of African descent and the opportunity to promote education about African heritage and history.

ABRSC calls for full public participation in the research the committee is expected to conduct and the recommendations it should make. We will suggest to the committee the staging of at least one public consultation but urge responsible written recommendations be sent to ABRSC by August 31st (email: abreparations@gmail.com; facebook: @Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission) for:

• Names/locations of public spaces/institutions which should be considered for re-naming, and
• the recommendations – with historical information and reasoning – for those ‘unsung’ s/heroes who should be considered for honour.