Dr Friday urges prayer for peace in Ukraine

OPPOSITION LEADER, Dr Godwin Friday on the occasion of this country’s National Heroes Day, has called on Vincentians to pray for peace in Ukraine and every other part of the world where there is conflict.

National Heroes Day was celebrated this year in its usual fashion with a wreath laying ceremony for St Vincent and the Grenadines’ first national hero Paramount Chief, Joseph Chatoyer at the Obelisk in Dorsetshire Hill.

“…We know all too well from our history and indeed from international current events that national sovereignty is not guaranteed. It is a fragile ideal that is mostly won through struggle and must be defended at every turn. Chatoyer taught us that,” Friday said.

The opposition leader noted that the world is now more interconnected than ever and that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is sure to be felt in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

As such, the economic fallout is sure to affect this country through higher prices for oil and other commodities.

“We must prepare for it to help cushion the effects on our people who have already been through…so much hardship over the past year,” Friday said.

He also pointed out that Vincentians serve in the armed forces of NATO countries; specifically the United States and the United Kingdom “and will no doubt be called up and positioned in Europe to ensure NATO allies who fear the spreading conflict”.

“A war of aggression is a grotesque absurdity, especially in this modern era. With every moral fibre in our body, both individual and collective, we must denounce it and oppose it,” the opposition leader said.

“In doing so, we will be upholding our proud legacy and the values we have defended throughout our own history…let us pray for peace in Ukraine and in every part of this world where there is conflict.”

Friday said there is perhaps no better time than National Heroes Day to strive for better by coming together and pledging “to lift our game for the common good, to transcend mediocrity and limited thinking and aim higher to consider how we are now and might become Heroes in our own right”.