Lions Club South Public Speaking competition heads to final stage

The preliminaries of the Lions Club South Public Speaking competition began on September 25 at St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown.{{more}}

Zone 1 combines the Girls’ High School, St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown, Dr JP Eustace Memorial Secondary, Bishop’s College Kingstown, Thomas Saunders Secondary and Emmanuel High School Mesopotamia.

The six students each gave a prepared speech on “The behavioural practices of many Vincentians are unbecoming for a top rated tourist destination.”

They highlighted St Vincent’s tourism product and cited CNN ranking the country fifth among nine destinations on “World’s top destinations for 2012” and third among 12 destinations listed by Travel and Leisure.

However, debaters also spoke of littering, price inflation and tourist harassment.

The representative of the Girls’ High School agreed that some Vincentians acted in ways that were unbecoming.

She, however, said the negative aspects should not outweigh the positive.

“… rather than focusing on the negative behaviour of the minority, we should applaud the positive of our culture,” she said.

The Zonal Preliminaries ended on September 28. The six top public speakers will then be chosen to represent their schools in the final, which is slated for October 27 at the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall. (BK)