“Celebrating the Grenada Revolution in the times of Covid: Focusing on the Economy, Education, Health and Peoples Power” is the theme for this year’s fully virtual public forum to mark the 42nd Anniversary of the Grenada Revolution.
The Grenada Revolution Celebrations Committee (the GR Celebrations Committee) is putting final plans in place for its first-ever virtual programme to mark the grand event scheduled from 4:30 pm to 7 pm, on 13 March 2021.
A professional panel of 3 eminently qualified specialists — an Economist, a Public Health Expert, and an Educator — will lead the presentations, to be followed by what is expected to be a lively and robust interactive discussion.
The panel comprises Dr Anne Hickling–Hudson, Dr Sonia Nixon, and Dr Brian Francis.
Dr Anne Hickling–Hudson, a Jamaican, is a Professor of Education in the School of Cultural and Professional Learning at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. Her PhD, from the University of Queensland in Australia, comparatively analysed adult education in the Grenada Revolution and afterwards, and in 1996 she won 2 awards for thesis of the year. She was involved in teacher education in Grenada during the Revolution under the then National In-Service Teacher Education Programme (NISTEP).
Dr Sonia Nixon, a Public Health Specialist and Chair of the Grenada Cancer Society, last served the local Ministry of Health as Senior Medical Officer, with responsibility for chronic diseases. She was among the first set of students travelling to Cuba in September 1979, mere months after the Revolution, to study medicine. Besides her MD she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health. She is known to be very passionate about the implementation of a universal healthcare system to ensure that everybody has access to at least basic care and that “they are not made bankrupt because they have a disease.”
Dr Brian Francis, a former Permanent Secretary/Director-General in the Ministry of Finance in Grenada, holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Florida with specialisation in International Trade and Economic Development. For over a decade, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the UWI, Cave Hill Campus. His extensive work experience includes the post of Director, Economic Affairs and Regional Integration at the OECS Commission in Castries, St Lucia; the Chief/Senior Research Officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Barbados; and Economist at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank in St Kitts.
The two-and-a-half-hour session on 13 March will also feature a virtual exhibition on the achievements of the revolution and a range of cultural items, including poetry, songs of the revolution and steelpan.
Apart from the professionally packaged virtual programme on 13 March, a quiz on the Grenada Revolution runs from 1 to 12 March at 6:35 am, on weekdays, on GBN’s Good Morning Grenada. Members of the public will get an opportunity to answer a question each morning and win a prize.
Just like it did for the highly successful 40th anniversary celebrations in 2019, GREMFO (the Grenada Revolution Memorial Foundation), has teamed up with several individuals locally, and in the diaspora, for this year’s event.
GR Celebrations Committee
Excuse me. I thought that this was a simple power struggle by a bunch of dictators who had disguised their true intentions in communist political rheteroic? “So what exacy would we be celebrating? Repulsive at the very least!!!
The celebration of Grenadians history and achievements in 4.5 years should not be forgotten.
What is the pulse if Revolution today? What is the pulse of Independence 1974 or the Fedon insurrections at the end of the 18th century? Telling history from those who lived it is always important regardless of the pulse today.
What is the Pulse of the man-in-the-street of the relevance of the Revolution TODAY, having occurred 42 years ago?
Knowing ur pass is knowledgeable information for the future.