New Year’s Day Address by Premier Fahie
Ole Year’s Day Address
by Honourable Andrew A. Fahie
Premier and Minister of Finance
Thursday, 31 December, 2020
My dear people of the Virgin Islands, a pleasant good day and God’s blessings to you and your families.
I trust you are having a safe and enjoyable Yuletide Holidays, and that you are continuing to be vigilant to protect your loved ones and the wider community by adhering to the health protocols.
As we close 2020 and we look forward to the New Year, we do so with Hope that comes from our covenant with our Almighty God, who reminds us in 2 Chronicles 7:14, that in the face of pestilence and hardship:
Bunji Garlin during his performance at the Jamnation fete in 2019.
Allan V. Crane
While some think the absence of Carnival’s usually frantic party season isn’t much of an issue, Soca star Bunji Garlin has taken to song to remind the public of the wider economic fallout in his release ‘Heart of the People.’
“You so caught up with enjoyment that you don’t see the level of employment. That could have save life when yuh think this woulda destroy them. Carnival is a sea that deep,” the four-time Soca Monarch posits in the song, released on Boxing Day.
The 2021 Chutney Soca Monarch is on.
And like most Carnival-related events that will take place next year, the competition will be virtual.
Speaking at a press conference via Zoom this morning, Chutney Soca Monarch founder George Singh said over the last 10 years of producing the CSM, producers have noticed a trend that has proven that the bigger audience looking at the competition has not been the live audience, but the online audience that can vary from 100,000 live viewers to more than one million viewers over the first month that the event stays online.
He said the audience comes from all parts of the world such as the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean regions such as Guyana, Suriname and Barbados.
What a year this has been.
When we ate our black-eyed peas and rice and popped our champagne on Old Year’s Night 2019, we had no idea 2020 was going to be the year it turned out to be especially on the entertainment front.
Luckily, we got to experience Carnival which, it turns out, was the last for the foreseeable future. COVID-19 ensured the complete shutdown of the entertainment sector as our Government sought to manage the number of infections locally.
Virtual became the new frontier for entertainment and as we head into 2021 it looks like it will certainly remain a part of the landscape even when life resumes some level of normalcy.
Chutney Soca Monarch goes virtual
Wednesday 30 December 2020
KINGLY PERFORMANCE: In this file photo, Imran GI Beharry performs en route to the 2020 Chutney Soca Monarch crown. PHOTO BY CHEQUANA WHEELER
The Chutney Soca Monarch (CSM) contest has now been added as the list of events being held virtually during what would have been the Carnival season continues to grow.
George Singh, the event’s producer and Southex CEO, made the announcement on Wednesday in a Facebook Live post.
He said CSM 26 will be a total online/TV experience.
Singh said the event will give viewers the opportunity to contribute their votes to the final result tally.