France’s overseas territory of Guadeloupe will to go into a new partial lockdown for at least three weeks to tackle a surge of Covid-19.

The new measures will start on Wednesday, with the re-introduction of a daily curfew between 20:00 and 05:00. Travel during the day will be restricted to a 10km (six miles) radius.

Bars, gyms, stadiums and swimming pools will be closed but shops will stay open with restaurants being able to serve at lunchtime.

Valerie Denux, director general of Guadeloupe’s regional health agency, says the number of cases has multiplied by more than 10 over the past three weeks, to more than 3,000 cases a week.

“We’re in a catastrophic situation,” she adds.

The news comes as another French Caribbean island, Martinique, returned to lockdown on Friday for at least three weeks. And the French island of Reunion entered a partial two-week lockdown this weekend.

France is facing a fourth wave of the virus with about half of the population fully vaccinated. But the figures are significantly lower in the French overseas territories, according to AFP news agency.

On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron went to TikTok and Instagram to try to counter misinformation about vaccines following a third weekend of protests over a controversial Covid health pass.

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NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 28, 2021) — The issue of destruction of historical sites on Nevis has surfaced again with the recent destruction at the historical Slave Market site in Charlestown, prompting historical conservationists to voice concern over the incident.

In a press statement by the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society (NHCS) on July 23, 2021, the society registered its alarm with the act.

“On behalf of Nevis citizens and residents, we are alarmed by the recent destruction at the historical Slave Market site in Charlestown. Nevis is unique as a ‘living museum’ dotted with hundreds if not thousands of sites, structures and antiquities. The sites represent an important – even if painful – legacy of our enslaved ancestors; they are testament to their hard work and must be protected and preserved for future generations,” the statement said.

The NHCS also reminded that the destruction of historic buildings, sites or monuments – even when privately owned – is a punishable offence and it is urging members of the public to report any damage, destruction or theft of stones to the society, even anonymously.

Meantime, Mrs. Evelyn Henville, Chairman of the Nevis World Heritage Committee, also expressed dissatisfaction with the destruction.

“We are truly saddened at the end result of the slave wall coming down. It is a place that is highly sacred and it is also extremely important to what we are doing in World Heritage, and so it was very disappointing to see that happen. The Director of Physical Planning stated that there were no permissions granted.

“An application for a permit should have been made given the fact that this site as well as numerous sites in Charlestown are protected in the Nevis Zoning Plan Ordinance under Charlestown Historic Area and Conservation Area,” she said.

Mrs. Henville also spoke of the wall’s significance to the island’s quest for UNESCO World Heritage designation.

“It is an extremely important aspect of the enslavement period of our forefathers. It is an extremely important aspect of the World Heritage theme. Our theme with regard to World Heritage is ‘Nevis an early Colonial Caribbean Agro Industrial landscape’ and as such the enslavement period of our forefathers plays a big role in this theme.

“As we have stated, we have to get past the chains and the pains and we have to show the universal value of the enslavement period and its contribution to the development of the developed world, and as such this slave wall and where the barber shop is located and that green space in-between the FLOW office and Octagon [Bar] are all crucial aspects of what we are researching and recommending for World Heritage and must be respected and conserved,” she said.

Mrs. Henville further added that “the owner sought assistance over the years with conservation of the wall which has been showing damage for years, but to no avail from the relevant authorities.  The owner has promised to secure the stones and we all must partner with him to erect this very critical part of our history.  It is imperative that all Nevisians become involved in protecting this heritage,” she said.

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By Loshaun Dixon

‘Swim to Win’, a program organised to teach Nevisians how to swim and be safe in the ocean, is pushing for swimming to be part of the school curriculum, following the successful hosting of the Inaugural Christena Memorial Swim Camp

‘Swim to Win’ was started in January 2020, and is a collaborative effort between the government, Department of Sport, Department of Education and Department of Youth.

Speaking with the Observer, Coach Anne McLindon said the goal of ‘Swim to Win’ is to get people safely into the water.

“Last year was the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Christena, and in honour and memory of those whom we lost, we started the program.”

Last August, Premier Mark Brantley announced the establishment of the camps, as part of activities marking the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the MS Christena Ferry.

McLindon said the programme is being offered to all ages and all abilities. She said when they launched ‘Swim to Win’ in January 2020, they trained some instructors.

“We have a very specific way that we teach swimming, but everything starts with safety. We want all of our swimmers to be safe in the water; whether they are at the beach or on a boat, they need to learn survival skills.”

She said they teach freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, and students are from the age of six. But they are developing the program for younger swimmers.

“We are trying to reach as much of the community as possible, and by the end of this week, we would have worked with over 300 swimmers.

“In the mornings this week, we have done our very first Christena Memorial swim camp, and that is done with Cecily Browne Integrated (CBI) School. These children have learned so much this week; they are incredible. They are learning how to float and swim and be safe, comfortable and confident in the water, and becoming a success.”

A total of three weeks of swim camps will be conducted by the ‘Swim to Win’ program this summer

McLindon said after a delay in the start of the camp, she worked with 40 swimmers to assist them in learning and developing confidence in the water.

“The achievement is just indescribable. We had a very successful week, and this week we are building on that in the morning with the CBI, and in the afternoon with 15 paid instructors.”

She said all the instructors started as volunteers, then were provided with training, and they then become paid.

“They do go through some rigorous training, and we develop them as instructors and swimmers themselves.”

McLindon said the ultimate aim would be to get a swim program as part of the school curriculum.

“Our goal ultimately working with the department of sport and department of education is to get our swim curriculum into the schools. We want to have a pool of qualified instructors go into the schools and teach swimming as part of the curriculum.”

She said they had to convince some people who were scared to come and learn to swim.

“We meet you wherever you are, take it step by step, and we go as slow as our swimmers need us to go. A lot of it is building trust between the swimmer and the instructor. I am not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do…we build the trust… I will be safe and will teach you how to be safe. There is no rush for us. We are here for them and to get them into the water comfortably.”

The swim coach said that the length of the program goes from beginner to competitive.

“There is no end to the program. We start with people who don’t want to get in, and we work with you and continue to develop your personal skill. Our program goes up to competitive swimmers, and our hope and goal are to enter our swimmers into swim meets.

“This is a program that is comprehensive – from brand new scared swimmers to developing high level international competitive swimmers.”

The first Christena Memorial ‘Swim to Win’ camp concludes today (July 30).

McLindon said they will give out awards to swimmers, and will have medals for everyone who came through the swim camp.

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By Loshaun Dixon 

A couple from the United States was hit with fines this week after they broke quarantine protocols last weekend.

Farrakhan Assegai and Natasha Robinson were in quarantine at Montpelier in Nevis, and had to pay a US$500 fine after they left quarantine to travel to St. Kitts

According to Superintendent of Police, Cromwell Henry, the incident took place last Saturday when the couple left quarantine without authorization.

“On the morning of Saturday, July 24, the couple left their quarantine without authorization and journeyed to St. Kitts via a ferry. They were eventually located at a residence in Frigate Bay that night, and were taken to a government quarantine facility at the OTI to complete their quarantine and to be tested.

He said their test results returned negative, and they were released from quarantine on Tuesday, July 27.

“They were taken back to Nevis where they were arrested and charged for breaching their quarantine, and were taken before the Charlestown Magistrates Court where they were convicted and fined US$500 to be paid in one day.

“The fines were paid and they were allowed to leave the Federation.”

Henry warned that the police have taken a zero-tolerance approach to breaches of quarantine, as this puts the entire community at risk.

“This includes persons required to remain in self-quarantine at their homes on the instruction of any medical officer. We continue to solicit the full cooperation of all residents to adhere to all COVID-19 protocols. Whatever instructions or directives are imposed by any medical officer, these are all intended to keep everybody safe.”

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By Sir Ronald Sanders 

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States.   He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.  The views expressed are entirely his own)

Much has been written about a meeting, convoked by the present Chair of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), to discuss “the situation in Cuba” which he was obliged to defer after objections by several member states.

The present Chair is the Ambassador of Uruguay, Mr Abdala Washington.  He convoked the meeting on Monday July 26 to be held at 10 am on Wednesday 28 July.  While the Chair has the authority to convene a meeting of the Permanent Council, it is unusual that he did so without consulting member states.  After all, he expected member states to participate in a meeting on a subject matter on which he decided; the least he might have done was to consult with the coordinators of the regional members of the OAS to determine their views.   This is normal practice on any matters that would obviously be controversial.

In any event, no consultation was held, and OAS member states were surprised to be given less than 48 hours to discuss Cuba which had not participated in the OAS since 1961 when it was suspended by a general assembly of the OAS.  It should be noted that, apart from Haiti, no CARICOM member state was a member of the OAS when that suspension occurred.  Heading countries that voted for the 1961 suspension were such notorious figures as Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay, Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza and Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti.

Since the 1961 suspension, Cuba had been discussed by the OAS only once.  That was in June 2009 when the general assembly decided to lift the suspension at its own volition; Cuba had not requested its lifting.

The 2009 resolution itself stated that “the participation of the Republic of Cuba in the OAS will be the result of a process of dialogue initiated at the request of the Government of Cuba”.   Cuba’s response was that it had no interest in participation in the OAS.

The de facto position, therefore, is that Cuba has not been a participating member of the OAS for 60 years and has no wish to be a member.   A sudden, unexplained decision to discuss Cuba in the Permanent Council troubled member states who could see no productive outcome from it.  Indeed, if anything, such a discussion was considered to be harmful to diplomatic efforts to try to improve relations between the US and Cuba which was one of President Biden’s undertakings during his campaign to be elected President.

Further, on the same day that the Chair of the OAS Permanent Council issued his unexpected convocation of the meeting to discuss Cuba, CARICOM Heads of Government had written to President Biden saying that they were “troubled by the circumstances in Cuba”, referring to protests that had taken place on July 11.  They attributed the protests to the 61-year-old US trade embargo, punitive measures imposed by the Trump administration, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  They said, “All of this, together with threats to its national security, have contributed to placing Cuba in conditions of abnormality in which normal criteria and expectation cannot be applied”.   They called on President Biden to lift the embargo “so that all the rights to which the Cuban state and its people are entitled can be respected and upheld”, and they recalled that “under a previous US administration of which you were a part, significant strides were made in this direction, and could be advanced to beneficial effect”.

Passing strange was an email sent to many OAS delegations by an Organisation called “Youth and Democracy in the Americas”, formed by Venezuelan nationals with help from the OAS Secretary-General, Luis Almagro.  Curiously, this organisation, told OAS Ambassadors on 27 July that it had “presented a petition to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Dr. Luis Almagro and subsequently our President Cecilia Navas met with the President of the Permanent Council of the OAS and also Uruguayan Ambassador, Washington Abdala, to request a extraordinary session to discuss the serious humanitarian situation suffered by our Cuban brothers and sisters and the dangers facing democracy in the Republic of Cuba”.   They went on to say, “in view of the fact that the Permanent Council of the OAS has accepted our request and has convened a special session for tomorrow, July 28, with the situation in Cuba as its central theme, we therefore request your participation… “.   It was evident from this email message that the Chair of the Permanent Council and the Secretary-General had accepted a consulted with an external group that has a specific political agenda, and not with member states of the OAS on the holding of a meeting to discuss Cuba.  A very odd way to behave, causing more questions to be raised, concerning the motives for the meeting.

Thirteen CARICOM countries formally urged the Chair to reconsider holding the meeting.  I was authorised by those delegations to send the letter in my capacity as Coordinator of the CARICOM group. ASeveral other countries sent similar letters, and for fear of calling a meeting for which there would be no quorum, the Chair decided to defer the meeting, pending an Opinion from the Legal Department of the OAS Secretariat which is answerable to the Secretary-General and routinely produces opinions consistent with his views.

The legal opinion has now been produced and, predictably, it concludes that the Permanent Council has “the competence to consider the situation in Cuba” because since Cuba never formally withdrew from the Organisation, it remains a member notwithstanding its publicly stated position that it has no interest in participating in it.  It seems membership can be conveniently forced on the unwilling.

No possible useful purpose will be served by any meeting to discuss Cuba.  The OAS can enforce nothing on it.  Any discussion could only satisfy political hawks with an eye on US mid-term elections where winning South Florida with the backing of Cuban exiles would be a prize.  The task of the OAS should be to promote peaceful and cooperative relations in the hemisphere, not to feed division and conflict.

Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com

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A young man in Nevis was shot early this morning in his home in Stoney Grove.

According to reports about six shots were heard at around 3:00 am.

The Police PRO Jacqueline Bryan has confirmed the Police in Nevis is investigating a shooting incident that occurred in Stoney Grove this morning at about 3 a.m.

She said a man was shot and injured and is warded at the Alexandra Hospital.

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Police in St. Kitts and Nevis are investigating a double homicide in Newtown Tuesday night.

Law Enforcement identified the deceased as Kyle Williams and Akeem Parris of Carty Alley who were shot by masked assailants.

Williams is reported to have died on the scene while Parris succumbed to his injuries at the Hospital.

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