Caribbean region may grow, but…
Governor of Barbados’ Central Bank, Cleviston Haynes. Photo by George
Alleyne
Vincentian community, political activist is dead
Caribbean Life, F BQ eb. 15–21, 2019 29
By Nelson A. King
Moreen King-Anthony, a Vincentianborn
community and political activist
in Brooklyn, who unsuccessfully
contested the 41st Council District in
Brooklyn in 2017, died at a hospice in
Brooklyn on Friday. She was 59.
King-Anthony’s daughter, Marisha
King, a Brooklyn resident, told Caribbean
Life that her mother succumbed
to cancer after she was diagnosed a few
months ago.
King said her mother died at Calvary
Hospice at 55th Street, between 1st and
2nd avenues.
“I feel bad,” she said, using other
words, such as “numbness, disbelief,
sad” to describe her feelings.
“I can’t believe it,” King added.
King-Anthony — who was a foundation
member of the Brooklyn-based St.
Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora
Committee of New York – migrated to
the New York over three decades ago.
She built a successful career in early
childhood education, founding two daycare
centers in the Brownsville and
Bushwick sections of Brooklyn.
King-Anthony, a former East Flatbush,
Brooklyn resident, served as executive
director of Traditional Educational
Centers until her “untimely demise,”
according to Sherrill-Ann Mason-Haywood,
chairperson of the St. Vincent
and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee
of New York.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the
SVG (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
Diaspora Committee of New York and,
by extension, the Vincentian Diaspora
and SVG have lost yet another of its
foremost community warriors,” Mason-
Haywood told Caribbean Life, stating
that King-Anthony, “will leave a void
that will not be easily filled.
“It is truly with sad hearts that
we join in mourning the loss of our
dear sister, comrade and friend, Moreen
King-Anthony,” she added. She was
a selfless, quiet warrior who believed
deeply in the power of the community.”
Mason-Haywood – who, in recent
years, also lost her husband, Maxwell
Haywood, her predecessor chair of the
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora
Committee of New York, to cancer
– said King-Anthony was born the
South Central village of Diamonds in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Jan.
18,1960.
She said King-Anthony was “a selfpublished
author,” who “had the good
fortune of seeing her first book come
to fruition, with an author’s proof copy
delivered to her on her most recent
birthday in January 2019.”
King-Anthony, who held an associate’s
degree in Human Services, bachelor’s
degree in Liberal Arts and a Master’s
degree in TESOL (Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages),
worked with Victim Services for a while
before founding her daycare centers,
Mason-Haywood said.
She said the daycares “now provide
exceptional services to over 300 children
and their families, and provide
jobs to over 30 people.
By George Alleyne
A growth trend among most member
countries of the Caribbean Community
organisation, CARICOM, is projected to
continue this year and strike an average
two percent expansion of those
economies.
Grenada is set to lead the way in
2019 because of its increased activity
construction, tourism, agriculture and
private education according to the Caribbean
Development Bank (CDB).
“Increasing growth rates are projected
for Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad
and Tobago, driven by developments in
the energy sectors.
“Growth will return in Anguilla
and will continue in the British Virgin
Islands and Dominica, as recovery
from the 2017 hurricanes continues,”
the regional bank stated in its 2018
Caribbean Economic Review and 2019
Outlook.
CDB’s placement of the economy of
Dominica simply on the recovery scale
in 2019 contrasts sharply with projections
of another regional organisation,
the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
that forecasts this island will head the
list of Caribbean economies.
ECLAC projected that Dominica,
which is in recovery mode from devastation
by hurricanes in 2017, is set
to lead the way, and is far ahead of its
peers, in projected economic growth at
9 percent.
This agency of the United Nations
had also stated that Antigua and Barbuda
will take up the distant second with
4.7 percent growth, closely followed by
Guyana at 4.6 percent.
These conflicting projections nevertheless
meet in agreement that external
factors, as has always been the case, will
have an impact on the projections.
For 2019 this impact is likely to be
negative.
ECLAC reported on expected international
‘economic uncertainties’,
which “will intensify and will arise
from different fronts. This will have an
impact on the growth of the economies
of Latin America and the Caribbean,
which, on average, are seen expanding
1.7 percent.”
“The greatest risk to the region’s
economic performance over the coming
year continues to be a sharp deterioration
in the financial conditions facing
emerging economies.”
Consistently, CDB stated, “growth
prospects partly depend on developments
in the global economy. The
International Monetary Fund is forecasting
that global growth will decline
to 3.5 percent in 2019, from 3.7 percent
in 2018.”
Another area of agreement in the two
projections is on the expected performance
of Barbados, which both organisations
declared will lag behind the
region.
ECLAC forecast a below par performance
for Barbados for this year in which
it will not measure up to even a full single
digit growth in its economy this year
by clocking in at 0.5 percent.
CDB stated, “growth in Barbados is
expected to be flat as continued fiscal
retrenchment could dampen the effects
of favourable tourism performance.”
Governor of Barbados’ Central Bank,
Cleviston Haynes, showed agreement
with that dismal outlook for island when
he said while reporting on the 2018
performance, “over the past decade, the
average rate of growth was -0.7 percent.
Revitalizing growth is therefore critical,
but the forecast for 2019 is for growth to
be flat. Tourism is expected to perform
favourably due to an anticipated expansion
of airlift, special events like the
English cricket tour and an increase in
ships docking at the port.”
With its economy in the midst of
recovery, Barbados still has an outside
chance of bucking these economic forecasts
as the groundwork is currently
being laid for a resurgence in foreign
investment through drastically lowered
taxes, and smaller and more efficient
government, two vital pillars on which
economic growth could be built rapidly.
Vincentian activist Moreen King-Anthony
dead at 59 years.
Sherrill-Ann Mason-Haywood
Continued on Page 30