REMARKS BY: EDWARD A. HARRIS, PRESIDENT OF THE GUYANA – ST. LUCIA ASSOCIATION AT THE:
MAY 20, 2006
REMARKS BY: EDWARD A. HARRIS, PRESIDENT OF THE GUYANA – ST. LUCIA ASSOCIATION AT THE:
40th ANNIVERSARY OF GUYANA’S INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS & AWARDS CEREMONY Held IN ST. LUCIA ON THE 20th MAY, 2006 AT THE DAME PEARLETTE LOUISY PRIMARY SCHOOL, UNION, CASTRIES, 6.00PM
Salutations:
Hon. Dr. Henry Jeffrey, M.P., Minister of Education Snr. Member of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Government of Guyana.
Mr. Lokesh Singh, Honorary Consul for Guyana to St. Lucia
Members of the Executive Board of the GSLA
Specially invited guests, Fellow Guyanese and Friends.
It is a privilege and a pleasure for me to be here with you this afternoon to celebrate the 40th Independence Anniversary of Guyana. Forty (40) years in the life of an individual, a country or in any sphere of life is an achievement and calls for celebrations. Today, we will celebrate like never before in the eight year history of our Association. We are going to sing, we are going to dance, some of us will receive awards for being outstanding Guyanese in St. Lucia and we are going to have a feast. Thanks to our many sponsors who will be individually recognized as the programme progresses.
I would like to publicly thank my hard working Executive for making the activities of this afternoon possible. I will now ask them to stand and receive a round of applause in appreciation for their services. It has not been easy but the faithful few within the general membership of the Association continue to make us as Guyanese living in St. Lucia – proud.
Guyanese have given much to St. Lucia at the professional and business levels. Our teachers, our nurses, other professionals and our Entrepreneurs are outstanding. This is only been possible because the St. Lucian citizens embraced us and made us feel at home. We are sincerely grateful for that.
I wish to assure the Hon. Minister that we are very interested in the developments at home and thanks to the Internet, we open our daily newspapers every morning. We are concerned about the level of lawlessness that pervades our country. We are convinced that a political solution could be found to deal with the social and economic problems in Guyana.
Constitutions must be made to be relevant to the needs of the people and our people are looking for such guidance. In the Caribbean, few politicians can be considered old men and women, we have a young group of politicians in our region but we are yet to see the political developments reflect the youthful energies, especially in Guyana. We are very much concerned about Guyana, our homeland and we pray for peace and good Governance, especially as we come to the run up to general elections.
For the past 2 years our Association has been encouraging local business persons to attend Guy Expo and as a result two delegations visited Guyana. We plan to continue this programme as it is one way of ensuring that St. Lucians get a feel for life in Guyana and as a result see us as partners in development. Guyana is a great country. The question is asked what went wrong? And all Guyanese must conclude something went radically wrong. It is time we correct it? That is the challenge of the current or any future Government. What went wrong will not just go away, there must be decisive action on the part of our leaders.
In St. Lucia our races live in harmony as reflected here this afternoon, you see the smiling faces. We will like you to take back to President Bharat Jagdeo, members of his cabinet and all the people of Guyana our very best wishes for a peaceful and happy 40th Independence Anniversary Celebrations.
We in St. Lucia will continue to support the efforts of our brothers and sisters in Guyana. We are very pleased at the level of interest shown by the Government as the President and Ministers take time off to be with us to update us on developments at home. Even this afternoon our Minister stayed back to ensure that he shares this moment with us. Give the Hon. Minister a big round of applause.
Happy 40th Independence Anniversary!!! And may God bless you all!!!!