By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn Democratic Congresswoman
Yvette D. Clarke on the
day after Christmas said she was
“appalled” by the uptick in anti-Semitic
hate crimes in Brooklyn and
the greater New York City area.
“I am deeply appalled by the
recent spew of anti-Semitic hate
crimes in our city, especially during
Hanukkah, the season of celebrating
our light overcoming darkness,”
said Clarke, the daughter of
Jamaican immigrants, who represents
the 9th Congressional District
in Brooklyn.
“I am proud to serve a diverse
community that has come together
to rise in the face of hate and
to protect and uplift our neighbors;
that is the Brooklyn way,”
she added, stating that the 9th
Congressional District is “home to
some of America’s oldest Jewish
communities, and I will continue
to fight to ensure their culture is
respected and that their community
is protected.
“Violence toward our Jewish
community will not be tolerated
under any circumstances,” Clarke
continued. “My office will continue
to monitor and work with local officials
and law enforcement to end
this violence and acts of hatred,
and to bring the perpetrators to
justice.”
On Christmas Day, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said he was “disgusted to
learn of the verbal and physical
attack” against an Orthodox Jewish
man on the upper East side of Manhattan
on Tuesday.
“This horrific and cowardly act
of anti-Semitism is repugnant to
our values, and it’s even more despicable
that it occurred over the
holidays,” said the governor, disclosing
that the was directing the
State Police hate crimes task force
to provide the New York Police
Department (NYPD) with assistance
in its investigation and “to
hold the attacker responsible to the
fullest extent of the law.”
“I’ve said it before, and I will say
it again: We have absolutely zero
tolerance for bigotry and hate, and
we will continue to call it out whenever
and wherever it rears its ugly
head,” Cuomo affirmed.
Caribbean Life, January 3, 2020 3
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves (sixth from left), Foreign Minister, Sir Louis
Straker (to Gonsalves left) and staff at the Mission to the United Nations.
Permanent Mission of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations.
SVG begins ‘historic journey’
on UN Security Council
By Nelson A. King
As St. Vincent and the Grenadines
on Wednesday officially assumed a nonpermanent
seat on the United Nations’
Security Council, the country’s Ambassador
to the UN, I. Rhonda King, says
the “historic journey” begins with “Three
Stories and a Prayer: The Manifestation of
the Prophetic Imagination.”
“With the audacity of David, the widow’s
faith, the spirit of Chatoyer, the
prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, we begin
a historic journey,” said King in a statement,
stating that St. Vincent and the
Grenadines has become one of only 15
members of the most powerful organ of
the United Nations.
She said that, just 40 years after
achieving independence from Great Britain,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has
become the smallest nation ever to serve
on this prestigious body, “which is tasked
with maintaining international peace
and security.”
“On Jan. 2, 2020, we will plant our flag
outside the Security Council chamber
and take up our seat at the horse-shoe
table within the chamber, where we will
remain for the next two years,” said
King, noting that St. Vincent and the
Grenadines enters the Security Council
“on the cusp of its 75th anniversary and
at a time when the world is riddled with
challenges, and the rules-based system
is increasingly under threat on many
fronts.”
While stating that St. Vincent and the
Grenadines is “not without its own homegrown
challenges,” King invoked “the
spirit and audacity of hope,” and reflected
on “what is possible and the transformative
opportunity that is before us.”
The ambassador noted that, in 1763,
Britain assumed suzerainty of St. Vincent
and the Grenadines, and that, with the
exception of a few years of French occupation
(1779 – 1783), the country remained
under British colonial rule until internal
self-government in 1969 and constitutional
independence in 1979.
On independence, she said St. Vincent
and the Grenadines joined the international
community, gaining “the right and
assumed the immense responsibility to
chart our own course in an increasingly
complex world.”
King said some have even argued that
small islands are not viable as independent
states, but added that “we have
seen, difficult though it can be, that
this micro-, multi-island state has made
great strides through strategic, creative
and innovative measures and faith in
Almighty God.”
She said that the story of David and
Goliath in the Bible “reminds us that
the small can overcome the powerful,
that the small overcomes the powerful is
more often the case than it is not.”
“As a young nation, we will be remiss if
we believe the fight for our independence
to be is a done deal,” King said. “Small
states, by definition, are vulnerable in a
world, where international law is compromised
and only might makes right.
“This makes us natural defenders of
the international order that protects us,”
she added. “Indeed, it is the responsibility
of a small state.”
Similarly, the envoy said that, in a
world in which the nexus between climate
change and security “becomes
clearer by the day, in a world in which
climate change is an existential threat to
the Small Island Developing State (SIDS),
in a world where climate change threatens
to make the independent citizens of
a Small Island Developing State stateless
in the not-too-distant future, the Small
Island Developing State has the responsibility
to its citizens to be bold and
advocate vociferously in the international
arena for climate justice now.”
“The Small Island Developing State
must fight for its protection, it must fight
to hold carbon emitters accountable, it
must fight for behavior change, it must
do so even as it grapples with its own
homegrown challenges,” she said.
“The Small Island Developing State
cannot afford to wait,” she added. “Our
independence is an ongoing project that
must be protected and defended, simultaneously,
on all fronts.”
King said that charting St. Vincent
and the Grenadines’ course through “the
multifaceted challenges endemic to globalization
is buttressed” by the country’s
faith, alluding to a line from the national
anthem: “Our faith will see us through.”
In the Bible, in 2 King 4, she noted
that the prophet Elisha asked the widow:
“’How can I help you? Tell me, what do
you have in your house?’
“’Your servant has nothing there at
all,’” she said, “’except a small jar of olive
oil.’”
To that question, King said St. Vincent
and the Grenadines has answered: “We
have educated, creative and innovative,
young men and women who speak the
languages of countries from far flung
places.
“We can, today, converse with the
powerful, permanent five members of
the Security Council, for instance,” she
said. “We can speak Russian, Mandarin,
French and English, and we speak Spanish,
too.”
Clarke
‘appalled’
by rise in
anti-Semitic
hate crimes