Caribbean Times 55th Issue - Tuesday 13th December 2016

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10 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g Tuesday 13th December 2016 Governor General Sir Rodney Williams address at V.C. Bird Day Wreath Laying ceremony GOOD MORNING I am delighted to be with you on this important day on the calendar of holidays in Antigua and Barbuda—today, December 9 th when we celebrate V C Bird Day. Few Antiguans and Barbudans will dispute the assertion that Sir Vere Cornwall Bird is a justly deserving recipient of our highest honour of National Hero. Sir Vere’s leadership was so impactful, that with his team of loyal nationalists, he led the charge to rescue our nation and its people from misery persistent poverty and the illiteracy that stalked our land at the time. He was not a man who could see his fellow citizens of Antigua and Barbuda suffer and accept the status quo. He was a man of compassion and a man of action! He was a man with a quick eye and a dexterous management of any crisis; he was bold and exhilarating in steering the ship of state in high winds, rough seas and full sails. There is a point beyond which boldness becomes rashness; a point perceptible to intuition. Beyond this point V C Bird never went. An unerring instinct guided him. His immense popularity was due partly to his extraordinary personal affability but chiefly to the genuine intensity with which he responded to peoples’ feelings and supported the interest of his countrymen. The public knew that they not only had a high mettled master but also a devoted servant in every sense of the word; a public man; a patriot! The imprint of his hand was stamped everywhere. Sixty years of labour and exhaustive exertion. He worked for a single purpose, the ‘cause celebre’ of Antigua and Barbuda. He made me feel that I was similarly involved in this odyssey. The consciousness of this realization was his reward. In other words, only when the people grasped the vision he shared, did he feel that he had achieved his purpose. My acquaintance with him was one of the most satisfying incidents of my life. I first knew him as our father’s friend and a regular visitor to our home in Swetes, especially on Sundays when he would drive to the country and share dinner with us. My father and Sir Vere would spend hours discussing the affairs of the country and how problems could be solved. Personally for me, it was a delight to have the opportunity to turn around his blue Austin Westminster in a position that would enable him to return home, since he hated reversing. On several occasions, when he was not in the mood to drive, I was given the responsibility to pick him up and bring him home for discussions. I recall on one occasion as we passed Buckley’s Road he looked to the left and said to me that we needed to build a road to open up the area between All Saints Road and Factory Road. I asked him why he wanted to build more roads when he could not even maintain the one we were driving on at the time? He said to me that we should open the road because it would allow more persons to go in and build homes and develop the country because Antigua and Barbuda could do well with a larger population. Over the years our acquaintance grew until I became his personal physician alongside Sir Cuthwyn Lake. After being elected an MP I became his advisor, once again, alongside Sir Cuthwyn Lake and attended Cabinet at his invitation; then I became a Minister of his Government and attended Cabinet in my own right. On one occasion as Minister of Tourism, the hoteliers came to me complaining that the upcoming summer that year would be so bad that they would be forced to close their hotels. We then came up with plan to bring in charters to boost the industry. Sir Vere objected and said that he did not want any hamburger tourists in Antigua and Barbuda. He wanted persons Governor General Sir Rodney Williams who would spend money. He turned me down on several occasions and when the time was drawing near for a decision, Sir Vere asked the late Comrade Eustace Cochrane to tell the Cabinet his view on my proposal. Comrade Cochrane told him that a charter would come straight from their destination to Antigua and Barbuda. All persons on board would stay in Antigua and once they stayed, they had to spend money. At that point V C Bird finally agreed. That was the man, only what was good for his country was good for him. God, in my view, sent us Sir Vere Cornwall Bird and other lieutenants who would change our circumstances. Yet, on his birth, Vere Bird was perceived as insignificant and inconsequential. We know this because of the treatment which was accorded this great man by the Registrar of Births at the Court House. First, the official with responsibility for entering births in the Register at the Court House, completed writing another child’s name in a column of the Register before he discovered that he made an error. He drew lines through the first child’s cont’d on pg 11
Tuesday 13th December 2016 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g 11 cont’d from pg 10 name and merely inserted Vere Cornwall’s between and below the scratched names. That act, when examined one hundred years later, has the look of sloppiness and a certainty that this child would not matter. No-one, the Registrar must have thought, would likely examine that Register following Vere Cornwall’s arrival on earth. He was so wrong! Although none of us was present in December 1909, it is possible to make some reasonable conclusions about the thinking of the official. In his hand was a certificate from the hospital. It indicated that a poor black mother named Amanda Edghill, living in a slum area called Garling’s Land, had given birth to a third son; further, he learned from the data on the certificate, that she was not married to the father of her first two sons by one man, and was not married to the father of her third child, whose father was a different man. This infant, he evidently thought, did not matter. Yet, Vere Cornwall Bird became the most important person to be born in Antigua during the 20 th century. His leadership, his application of sound policies, his moral framework, and his commitment to his people lifted him to the status of Father of the Nation. Second, I tell this history about Vere Cornwall Bird’s birth in order to demonstrate that the circumstances of one’s birth have become less of a predictor of the way in which the life of anyone—born in our Antigua and Barbuda—is likely to turn out. The greatness of Vere Cornwall Bird, a God-send, is discerned from his overcoming of the circumstances of his birth. I wish to point out the obvious, especially to the youth of Antigua and Barbuda. Noone selects his or her parents. No-one determines, when he or she is in the womb, how well his or her pre-natal care will be; or whether, after birth, that as an infant you will be well-fed, well nurtured and provided the inoculation shots required in order to grow up healthy. No-one could be assured, especially in the early 1900s in Antigua and Barbuda, that one’s mother would not be compelled to drink Cooks Pond water, because there was no clean running water and no APUA pipes in those days. Vere Cornwall Bird’s leadership assured all children born in Antigua and Barbuda— in the latter part of the last century, up until this day—that their parents would have access to clean water for infants, even if desalinated. That all will have decent homes at affordable prices. That every infant will receive the inoculation shots that have eliminated diseases that used to kill infants in large numbers. That healthy diets would become commonplace, although many now choose to eat fatty foods and sugary drinks to their detriment. And, above all, that every child has access to free primary and secondary education and a growing number to tertiary education. These factors—clean water, a healthy diet, a home in which to live, and access to school including tertiary education—will lift any healthy young boy or girl, who takes his or her lessons seriously, out of poverty and into a better place. The lives of all of Vere Bird’s lieutenants, during the struggle to free our country from the stranglehold of colonial rule, are the stories of men and women who rose to heights beyond the expectations of their colonial masters. V C Bird Day reflects a hard won victory as our democratic beach head. It is a defining moment in the fight for freedom and progress. It is our own D day; akin to the Homeric myth and legacy so that his efforts do not pass over the horizon of living memory. By celebrating V C Bird Day, our nation is demonstrating eternal gratitude for the long, arduous exertion and sacrifice of a truly great leader. It is a badge of honour for those who fought with him, to reflect upon and for the young to aspire knowing that they NATURALIZATION NOTICE Notice is hereby given that Joseph Eid of Radio Range, St. John’s Antigua, is applying to the Minister for Naturalization and that any person who knows any reason why Naturalization should not be granted should send a written and signed statement of the fact to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs stand on the shoulders of the Father of the Nation and that they have within them the same genetic predisposition to use this as national oxygen for the growth, development and advancement of this and future generations. Some men are legends in their mind; others are legends in their time. V C Bird was a legend in his time. THANK YOU ALL IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA (PROBATE) A.D. 2016 CLAIM NO. ANUHPB In the Matter of the Estate of ENID SMITH, also known as ENID BROWN, Deceased TAKE NOTICE THAT Kenneth I.E. Smith of Mount Vernon, New York, 10551, U.S.A will make an Application to the Probate Registry in the High Court of Justice as Intended Administrator of the Estate for an Order for a Grant of Letters of Administration of the Estate of ENID SMITH, also known as ENID BROWN, late of Bell View Heights who died on the 18th day of March, 2013 be granted to KENNETH I. E. SMITH of Mount Vernon, New York, 10551, U.S.A the brother of the said deceased. All persons beneficially interest in the said Estate or who oppose to the said Grant are requested to send particulars to the Registrar of the High Court, not later than fourteen (14) days from the date of this Notice. DATED the 12th December, 2016 Joy Dublin Attorney-at-Law
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Caribbean Times 55th Issue - Tuesday 13th December 2016

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