by Denika Compto Tue, Oct 5, 2010n

The independent voice in St.Vincent and the Grenadines has not been silenced.

This conclusion was arrived at by two of the three secondary school students, in the Zone Two preliminary round, of the Lions Club Lime Secondary School Public speaking competition.{{more}}

Although only three of the six schools in this zone participated, the voices of the St.Vincent Grammar School, Chezaul Walker; West St. George Secondary, Lisa Hussein and Campden Park Secondary, Kerisha Horne, were heard very clearly.

The topic under discussion was, “The silencing of the independent voice in SVG. Fact or Fiction?”, which participants from the St. Vincent Grammar School and the West St. George Secondary established to be fiction.

Walker and Hussein said that the independent voice of SVG cannot be said to be silenced after witnessing the rapid increase in radio talk shows and call in programs, and the numerous editorials and opinionated letters in the three local newspapers.

On the other hand, Horne, from the Campden Park Secondary, argued that the independent voice has indeed been silenced. She said that if there are any independent voices in this country, you could count them on one hand. Horne said that her view, an independent voice is one that is not linked to any political party. She said that the test of independence is that of one who is able to criticize “even his own” constructively.

The impromptu category was very well attempted. Walker, whose topic was “Uniform”, encouraged the students to respect their uniform because it’s what identifies them as belonging to an organization. Protecting our birds equals protecting our tourism industry, was the plea of Hussein with her topic “Birds”. Horne’s encouragement to the audience was to respect the elderly in her topic, “The elderly”.

Zone two of the preliminaries took place on Wednesday, September, 29 2010 at the Peace Memorial Hall, while zone three was held at the same venue on Thursday, September 30.

Zone three was somewhat disappointing, seeing that there was only one school, the Georgetown Secondary School, participating in the zone. However, the lone participant, Jemmel Williams, did not lose courage but comfortably and convincingly delivered his speech.

His topic was, “The reference to TNT as an ATM for Caribbean countries is a highly inflammatory and provocative statement”. Williams concurred with this statement, seeing that it caused a “firestorm” in the region.

He urged the Government and the people of this nation to use our own resources instead of exporting them to the “ATM” for a low price and importing their finished product for such an exorbitant cost. He made reference to the closing down of the factories, for example, the Diamond Dairy to support his position.

In his impromptu presentation, “Grandpa or Grandma”, Williams enthusiastically stated that he loves his Grandpa and Grandma. He said that “Grandpa/Grandma” are the ones who pass down the culture and customs from generation to generation, and the reason for him being procreated.

The preliminaries continued on Friday, October 1, 2010, during which schools in Zone four spoke on the topic, “Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is symbolic of an unhealthy alliance between politicians and drug lords in the region”. Zone four comprises of the St. Martin Secondary, the Barrouallie Secondary, Buccament Secondary, Troumaca Ontario secondary, Petit Bordel Secondary and the Union Island Secondary.