Where does the term emancipation originate? Emancipation comes from the Latinate term emancipare- to emancipate or mancipium- slave. Translated literally, emancipium and mancipium mean to free the enslaved. Emancipation for scores of us in the U.S Virgin Islands and the rest of the Caribbean, symbolizes freedom from the shackles and bondage of African enslavement. Who does not want to be free to live his or her life as freely as he or she possibly can? While the same might be true, there are critical aspects of our cultural and political states of being that disallow us from enjoying the high levels of freedom of which we envision or dream. Here in the U.S Virgin Islands our Emancipation from the Danish Empire and Danish Rule occurred in the 1800s. Our territory was fully under Danish Rule since the 1670s. For example, Fort Christian and…
Earlier this year, the Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) reported that it had ten to fifteen days…
People of African descent have a unique struggle that flows on the global stage, like a river that twists…
Pictured above, lifelong friends: Lifelong friends | Mrs. Emelda Dizon, Mrs. Dinorah Singh, former…
Implementing the Constitutional Convention Voters…
Staff Consortium March 24, 2023No democratic task is more important for a people than drafting its constitution, a document that is…
Opinion | To the 35th Legislature: Beware the…
Staff Consortium March 15, 2023Fast backward six years or so, to the months just before the September 2017 Hurricanes. At the time,…
.jpg)
Op-Ed: Fostering a Culture of Collaboration in…
Staff Consortium November 16, 2022As the Member of Congress representing the United States Virgin Islands who serves on the House Agriculture…
.jpg)
Five Years After Hurricane Maria: A Transformative…
Staff Consortium September 20, 2022Like many Virgin Islanders, September 6, 2017, is forever etched in my mind. For what seemed like an…
Because the economy of the U.S. Virgin Islands is almost entirely dependent on tourism, the multiple impacts from the pandemic and two destructive hurricanes almost brought it to a halt. Yet, despi...
Frank Crosswaith was born in 1872 in Frederiksted. He immigrated to the United States in his teens. He attended the Rand School of Social Science. In 1925, he founded an organization called the “Tra...
The cost of housing in the U.S. Virgin Islands is very high, both to construct new dwellings and to rent property. The high cost of housing contributes to social and economic problems-- overcrowding...
Editor's Note: This opinion was submitted to the Consortium by Dr. Gerard Abate on Fri. Aug. 12, 2022. Dr. Abate works at the Juan F. Luis Hospital and in private practice, and he expressed to the Con...
As a practicing attorney on St. Croix for thirty-one years, I am compelled to correct the misinformation that was tossed about at the Town Hall Meeting held on Monday, August 10, 2022. My knowledge o...
Dear Editor, the West Indian Company, Limited would like the opportunity to commend the Public Finance Authority on its recent vote to provide $17 million in funding to dredge the Charlotte Amalie har...
The V.I. Consortium recently reported that the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority had miraculously “discovered” a surplus of $17 million in gross receipts tax revenues in the coffers of the P...
“Soy de aqui como el coqui!” (Puerto Rican Adage) “I am from here like the leap frog!” “We bahn ya!” “We from hey!” (Samples of Virgin Islands- VI Creole) The above quotations...
The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the tourism industry at large, and on the cruise business in particular. As a region largely dependent on the cruise business, the Caribbean took an incred...
To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free.
.png)
