Editorial

22.AUG.08 The unification of the Caribbean, the English-speaking nations at least, has long been a cherished dream of Caribbean citizens, even though ...

15.AUG.08 Culture Minister René Baptiste is heading a sizeable Vincentian delegation to the tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) being held t...

08.AUG.08 The newly-formed People’s Movement for Change (PMC) made a bold challenge to Prime Minister Gonsalves’ oft-repeated boast that he (Gonsa...

31.JULY.08 Tomorrow, Friday, August 1, 2008, local activities to commemorate Emancipation Day, and celebrate this important milestone in the history o...

25.JULY.08 The tragic events of Wednesday, July 23, 2008, represent yet another bloody blot on our history. It is said that we as a people often wait ...

18.JULY.08 Small-island states like St Vincent and the Grenadines are finding it increasingly difficult to keep afloat in the real world of the 21st c...

27.JUNE.08 The fact that the Common Entrance Examination results were published only in Searchlight newspaper this year had nothing to do with discrim...

Europe has its EU (Economic Union). CARICOM is moving in that direction, albeit not as fast as necessity demands. Now the smaller countries of the Eas...

13.JUNE.08 Hardly a week passes without some report either in the print media or via the many radio talk shows about allegations of violent excesses b...

06.JUNE.08 The United States of America is indeed a mighty country gifted with enormous resources. It is also a country of great contradictions. Found...

30.MAY.08 With the advent of the month of June, Carnival activities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines move into high gear. Three decades after the cha...

23.MAY.08 Two important events in the development of this country took place this week. On Monday, May 19th, 13 pieces of heavy-duty equipment to be u...

16.MAY.08 Another successful Fisherman’s Day was held on Monday. Our congratulations go out to all the participants, the winners in the various cate...

09.MAY.08 Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan to this country, His Excellency Jack Cheng, is in the final days of his tour of duty to this c...

02.MAY.08 Yesterday (May 1st), the Labour Movement in St. Vincent and the Grenadines held activities in Barrouallie to commemorate the biggest event o...

25.APR.08 Those of us who have had our heads buried in the proverbial sand with regard to the crime situation here had it rudely yanked out on Wednesd...

18.APR.08 The people of the world, the poor especially, are being faced with steep, sometimes astronomical increases in the cost of living, as a combi...

11.APR.08 “...The political will to implement common decisions taken is the challenge...”(Hon. Patrick Manning, Prime Minister, Trinidad and Tobag...

04.APR.08 Wednesday, 2nd April 2008, was declared World Autism Day by the United Nations. This declaration is significant because Autism is only the t...

28.MAR.08 The worldwide outcry over steeply rising food prices has helped to focus some attention on the state of Caribbean agriculture and the region...

20.MAR.08 Last week, we carried a story on our front page of an assault on one of our reporters while she was on duty outside the High Court in Kingst...

13.MAR.08 Another National Heroes Day/ Heritage Month is with us. Tomorrow, March 14th, having been officially designated National Heroes Day, is quit...

07.MAR.08 March 8 is recognized globally as International Women’s Day (IWD) - a day when women of ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and politic...

29.FEB.08 No matter how we squirm to face unpleasant truths, the Caribbean today faces a major socio-economic problem in relation to crime. Crime in i...

25.JAN.08 The shocking revelation this week about the high incidence of adolescent mental instability, reported on page 3, and the resultant numerous ...

18 JAN.08 Political pundits and Caribbean people throughout the region are still coming to grips with the surprise sweeping of the polls by David Thom...

11.JAN.08 This week’s two-day strike action by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union (SVGTU) has found the government not only taken ...

04.JAN.08 As we welcome the New Year, many Vincentians, like others around the world, are reflecting and making resolutions, hoping that this time aro...

21.DEC.07 Last year, the staff at Searchlight pledged to reach out each Christmas to a needy person or family in the spirit of love and goodwill that ...

14.DEC.07 Sometime today (Friday) the House of Assembly is expected to conclude the debate on the 2008 Budget and then adjourn for the rest of the yea...

07.DEC.07 The shock waves from last week’s earthquake are still reverberating throughout the Caribbean. Although we all are aware of the region’s ...

30.NOV.07 Many Public Servants are this week beginning to get the feel of an early Christmas as Government makes the first of its payouts promised for...

23.NOV.07 Antigua has become the latest Caribbean country to be caught up in a spate of apparent drug-and-gang-related murders, causing much consterna...

16.NOV.07 This week the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union (SVGTU) once more organized activities to mark Teachers Week. As has happened ev...

09.NOV.07 Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves once again has managed to steal the limelight and score political points on his opponents. He used the oc...

02.NOV.07 Change is tough, and when one has been operating in a particular manner for ages, change can be a person’s worst nightmare. However, chang...

26.OCT.07 Tomorrow, October 27, 2007, the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at home and in the diaspora, celebrate their 28th anniversary of t...

19.OCT.07 “People with this kind of attitude should not be in the Public Service” - Hon. Selmon Walters, Minister with responsibility for the Publ...

12.OCT.07 Activities to commemorate World Food Day will be held world-wide next week under the ambitious theme “Food as a Right”. As has become cu...

05.OCT.07 When the punishment meted out by our penal system does not serve as a deterrent, and rehabilitation seems not to work, what options do we as...

28.SEP.07 The International Cricket Conference’s (ICC) inaugural 20/20 Tournament concluded in South Africa on Monday of this week, with victory for...

21.SEP.07 SEARCHLIGHT welcomes the initiative of CARICOM governments to place the issue of healthy living of the Caribbean people so high on their age...

14.SEP.07 The Commission of Inquiry set up to enquire into the failed multi-million dollar Ottley Hall Project has once more been temporarily halted p...

07.SEPT.07 By the time this Editorial reaches most of our readers, our sister state of Jamaica will be in the process of swearing in a new Prime Minis...

31.AUG.07 The generally good academic performance of students in the country is commendable and must be praised. However, percentage pass rates can so...

24.AUG.07 The many thanks and praises that we utter here in SVG for once again being spared the wrath of a rampaging hurricane must be tempered by our...

17.AUG.07 Yet another political row has broken out between government and Opposition, this time over the appointment of Camillo Gonsalves son of the P...

10.AUG.07 By the way, a few thousand copies of Searchlight newspaper were printed here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week. For the first time...

03.AUG.07 Just over two weeks ago, the House of Assembly approved, unanimously, the Report of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and re-commit...

27.JUL.07 Every citizen concerned about life, limb and the pursuit of happiness, not to mention the fundamental rights of women and children, can only...

20.JUL.07 Thousands of our young students and pupils are now savouring their annual long vacation break over the July-August period. For them it is a ...

13.JUL.07 Carnival this year truly lived up to its slogan of “Power of Culture, Spirit of Fun”, as was demonstrated by the superb display of our c...

06.JUL.07 For Vincentians, the annual mid-year Summit of CARICOM Heads of Government often gets subsumed by the Carnival festivities. With both taking...

29.JUN.07 Four to six weeks ago there was an atmosphere of trepidation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as Carnival approached. The spate of brutal m...

22.JUN.07 Caribbean people, at home and abroad, are following with keen interest events in Washington this week where Caribbean leaders have been enga...

15.JUN.07 The entire nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has every reason to be proud of the results of the 2007 Common Entrance examination. We ...

08.June.07 “Police Week” concludes this weekend bringing an end to the activities organized for this purpose. The week could not have come in more...

01.JUNE.07 It happens almost every week. Our reporters are challenged and even threatened by persons holding official positions. These threats usually...

25.MAY.07 Earlier this week St. Vincent and the Grenadines hosted a meeting of CARICOM Ministers with responsibility for air transportation. The meeti...

18.MAY.07 The latest fatal shooting in the Paul’s Avenue area last Sunday night and continued reports of other acts of gun-related and criminal viol...

11.MAY.07 As is expected, the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from May 1, 2007 has been the subject of heated discussion. The airwaves are v...

4.MAY.07 THE ONGOING BITTER political rivalry between the nation's two parliamentary forces, the governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) and the opposition...

27.APR.07 There are far too many guns on our streets and we have to take action before it is too late. Earlier this month, Searchlight reported that B...

20.APR.07 Geography can be a powerful factor in the development of a country or region. It can either be an impetus to or facilitate progress or it ca...

13.APR.07 Get your tickets at reasonable prices! Bring your food, your water, your music! Your Conch-Shell, your whistle! It’s cricket Caribbean sty...

05.APR.07 St. Vincent and the Grenadines prides itself on being a “God-fearing society of believers”, even though our actions sometimes contradict...

30.MAR.07 There are rare moments in the history of our country when the national interests take precedent over narrow partisan ones. One such occurren...

23.MAR.07 Two hundred years ago this Sunday, on March 25th, 1807, the British Parliament passed an Act outlawing the grossly inhuman and dehumanising ...

16.MAR.07 In her message to mark Commonwealth Day, Monday 12th March, Her Majesty the Queen stressed the need for mutual respect and understanding in ...

08.MAR.07 Any nation's police forcE is subject to the greatest of scrutiny, and when it is perceived to fall short of expectation - reproach. It is no...

02.MAR.07 The issue of the protection of witnesses scheduled to testify or who have testified in criminal trials is now much more than an abstraction ...

23.FEB.07 The flamboyant Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made his second visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, leaving heated discussion in hi...

16.FEB.07 Leaders of the nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) would by now have returned to their respective homes and jurisdictions after the...

9.FEB.07 It is with huge sigh of relief that most Vincentians would have welcomed the resumption of the Ottley Hall Inquiry. After all it has dragged ...

2.JFEB.07 Now that Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Ralph Gonsalves has made a Parliamentary statement on the release of the prison...

26.JAN.07 The announcement last week Wednesday that the Ottley Hall Marina debt had been reduced from EC$167 million to EC$16.2 million was greeted al...

19.JAN.07 There is absolutely no restriction on the taking of photographs in public places unless specifically barred by a court order. Despite this, ...

12.JAN.07 Last week the police force celebrated the 8th anniversary of the establishment of its public relations department. Searchlight congratulates...

05.Jan.07 The two weeks before Christmas saw three proverbial red herrings being drawn across the trail here. The biggest from Howie Prince, Director ...

When Jill Jackson penned the words to the song "Let there be peace on earth" in 1955 she knew exactly what she was talking about but chances are that ...

Dec.15.06 Congratulations to Arnhim Eustace on his re-election to the leadership of the New Democratic Party at its Convention Sunday. The party rank ...

Dec.15.06 In a television appearance on Saturday and in a press release issued this week, the Commissioner of Police refuted claims made in our front ...

Dec.08.06 It’s that time of year when we celebrate the birth of Christ and most of us plunge headlong into the spirit of giving. If money doesn’t ...

Dec.1.06 There are some mandatory qualifications which journalists must have if they want to work in the field. An associate degree, a Bachelors or Ma...