A MESSAGE FROM MISS INDEPENDENCE TO STUDENTS

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ast month Kurnisha Augustus was crowned Saint Lucia’s 2018 Miss Independence. She has since begun performing her duties as queen, and her most recent endeavour was to address students of the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School on World Commonwealth Day, which was celebrated on March 12 this year.

The Miss Independence pageant has had affiliations with the British High Commission to Saint Lucia since its inception thirteen years ago and still adheres to the mandate: to promote the values and principles of the Commonwealth. Kurnisha Augustus plans to work with the specified mandate during her reign and also to make inclusive the theme for this year’s pageant, “Esprit de corps: Developing our national pride”. The following is the speech she offered to students this week.

Fifty-three countries will come together today, 12 March, 2018, to celebrate Commonwealth Day under the theme ‘Towards a Common Future’.

Commonwealth Day, held on the second Monday in March each year, is an opportunity for individuals, communities and organisations to promote the Commonwealth’s shared values of peace, democracy and equality, and to celebrate the association’s rich diversity.

Affinities of history and inheritance from the past are strong, yet we are bound together by a sense that the Commonwealth is a powerful influence of good for the future. People of all ages from different cultures are weaving an ever-growing network of links which connect us in our diversity and our common purpose. It is this unity that is expressed in this year’s theme: Towards a Common Future.

Experiences of life differ widely throughout the Commonwealth and throughout our many communities in Saint Lucia and we each make contributions from sometimes very different viewpoints. But we are committed to the same goals. Together we offer each other encouragement and draw strength from this mutual support.

I am delighted, as the current Miss Independence 2018, to be part of a process, which seeks to build a brighter, united future in which every one of us can play a part and share in its rewards.

As our leaders get set to meet in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting we must ensure that they can carry our concerns as young people and as students across the waters. That they can address global challenges we face as a people and work to create a better future for all citizens with a focus on sustainability, safety, prosperity and fairness, in line with the theme of the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

As young people, too often we remove ourselves from the happenings of the outside world (more the politics) and we tend to connect more with what’s hype and what’s the latest celebrity gossip. But how often do we take time to reflect and even research on our presence and representation within the Commonwealth?

For example, our young persons like Ajani Lebourne who continues the history in 2017 as a student leader by being the second Saint Lucian to receive the Queen’s Young Leaders Award. Before him was community youth worker Tevin Shepherd who became the first Saint Lucian youth to be granted this award in 2016.

Or our historic victory at the Commonwealth Youth Games in July of 2017 where Julien Alfred captured Gold in the 100m finals. She is a former student of the Ciceron Primary School and the Leon Hess Comprehensive School.

Now remember, the Commonwealth is a voluntary intergovernmental association of 53 member states, almost all of which were formerly ruled by Britain—directly or indirectly. Therefore, the group encompasses nations from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. The states involved agree to share a common set of values and ideals, and acknowledge a shared history and traditional trade links.

For us as young people the Commonwealth provides access to sporting and educational glory and opportunities, such as the Chevening Scholarships where we currently have three Saint Lucian students studying in the United Kingdom: Kendal Elva, Allisha Ally and Louise Victor.

I urge you to take some time today and reflect on the theme ‘Towards a Common Future’. Understand that together as young people, as students, we need to stand together for a common productive future for each other.