- 2 years ago
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00:00Well, welcome back Trinidad and Tobago. We're of course heading up the islands now.
00:05We just touched base with Tobago but joining us via telephone is Prime
00:09Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of course
00:13to give us an update on preparations and what exactly is the situation on the
00:18ground across in SVG. I of course have to tell Mr. Prime Minister thank you so
00:25much for joining us you have to be one of the most accessible and media
00:30friendly Prime Ministers in CARICOM and the Caribbean. Thank you so much Dr.
00:35Gonsalves. Thank you, we all have our important roles and thank you for having me.
00:42Good morning to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Yes Mr. Prime Minister, could you give us just an
00:48update as to what the situation is like at this moment in SVG? Well as you
00:54yourself would see from the satellite images of the movement of Hurricane
00:59Meryl, it is it is moving towards the southern Grenadines, the Eye and the
01:13St. Vincent Grenadines and the northern Grenada including Caricom and
01:20Petit Martinique. It's moving at 20 miles per hour and it has sustained
01:30speeds of 120 miles per hour. Significantly the eye is very well
01:39defined and it's a big eye, to use the word of our local meteorologist, massive eye.
01:44And it's coming towards us in St. Vincent and Grenadines and in Grenada.
01:53The southern Grenadines for us will be affected first Union Island,
02:01Kanawhan and but remember the band for hurricane force winds is 35 miles,
02:11that's the that's the width. So it's going to hit us and of course the
02:20certainly storm force winds. We are we are as prepared as we can be, we have a
02:27reasonable system, fairly well tested you know. We have 1174 persons in
02:36shelters across St. Vincent and Grenadines and we are waiting on Meryl.
02:45So at this point in time have you have you all experienced any wind, high wind
02:51activity, gusty winds and of course well storm force winds at this point and
02:55heavy rainfall just yet? Yeah we have had we have had rainfall intermittently. It
03:05will come. The meteorologist reported to me a short while ago that our
03:13meteorological station out at Argyle, that's the area of the airport, the gusty
03:21winds were reported at 40 miles per hour but not sustained yet. But if you look at
03:30the satellite image, you'll see how the eye is moving. Like I have it right in
03:39front of me on my desktop computer as we are talking. And this hurricane is
03:52gonna blow off a lot of roofs and we have to be very careful that we don't
03:55lose lives. And I continue to speak to all people. I spoke I spoke to them last
04:05evening at ten past six. I declared an impending natural disaster as required
04:18under our National Emergency Management Organization Act. There was put all the
04:25systems in place, juridical and otherwise, and waiting. And of course hoping for the best, praying for the best, but prepare of course for the worst.
04:39That sounds exactly what fellow Prime Minister Mia Mottley would have said to
04:43her people. I did tune in to your media briefing to your citizens on Saturday.
04:50That is just when the warning was declared for St. Vincent and the
04:55Grenadines, of course. Mr. Prime Minister, you did warn your citizens don't
05:00stay out at bars, don't stay out at bars too late. You stress the importance of
05:05preparedness. Do you find that your citizens would have complied?
05:11I didn't feel that they were listening on Saturday as well as they should have been listening.
05:17But I found that by Sunday morning, they were listening more and more. And you
05:29know, I spoke to them as you know, twice on Sunday, twice yesterday and outlined
05:37to them the stakes. You know, it's a life and death business and we have to
05:41protect lives, limbs and property. I mean, I myself, I am prepared to go downstairs in the Prime Minister's residence, just in case anything happens to the upstairs. So, nobody can take any chance.
06:01And of course, Mr. Prime Minister, having not, I mean, situations have changed but
06:07you'll have, I'm sure, still recovering from that recent natural disaster, the
06:14volcanic explosion. That is right. And to be hit now by Beryl and you did mention to
06:20your people that they've got to be on their P's and Q's because there's a
06:24system just behind Beryl AL-96. What do you anticipate the repercussions of
06:32Beryl will be? And you know, that window of getting back on track and being
06:38prepared again, let's say AL-96 does develop into, you know, a tropical storm
06:44or even a hurricane again? Yes. Well, it depends on the magnitude of the hit. But I was
06:53talking to some of my cabinet colleagues. In fact, even the Minister of
06:59Finance, who happens to be my son, dropped by me last night. Well, early in the
07:07evening. And we're talking about having to reorder priorities. You know, it's a
07:15fact of life. But we have put aside some resources. You know, we had to set up a
07:26contingency fund a few years ago. And 1% is point of our VAT goes into that. So I
07:33have a little nest egg there. The deal is the humanitarian relief, just in case the
07:42worst happens. Of course, it's not money for development, but just to keep body and
07:47soul together. And I have also have at the World Bank a sum on the
08:01catastrophic deferred drawdown option. So I'm as best as we can with our limited
08:13resources. And given all our vulnerabilities, we have we have put some
08:18things in place. And we have a good machinery under the National Emergency
08:22Management Organization. Not perfect, but good. And all the shelters are open and we
08:34our people have shown themselves to be disciplined. Because here and there you'll
08:40have one or two who we would not by nature, but circumstances may lead them so
08:49to do. And we are as ready as we possibly can be. And we just make our systems
09:00better as we go along. Yeah, so this is going to be this is going to be a
09:03difficult one. And it's going to be it's going to set us back. We had come out of
09:10COVID come out of the volcanic eruptions quite well. And we were we were growing.
09:17The economy was growing on an average better than any of the others in the
09:21Caribbean, save and accept Guyana, which has the newfound oil wealth and doing
09:26quite well. My colleagues across the region have been in touch with me at all
09:32of them. And I've been in touch with other agencies. I got a call from my
09:39ambassador this morning at the United Nations. The Secretary General of the
09:46United Nations sent a message to me that you make a call. He's my good friend. And
09:56United Nations agencies would be involved the usual ones. The World Food
10:02Programme is already on the ground.
10:06Prior to this, in fact, at our National Emergency Management Council meeting on
10:14Saturday morning at eight o'clock, I had a regional representative of the World
10:19Food Programme who happens to have been in St Vincent. And in fact, he still is in
10:23St Vincent. We invited him and his colleague to come to the meeting so that
10:28he can see how we do our business.
10:34You know, we have been at this many, many times. And I personally so it's and we
10:41just have to keep our patience on a calm.
10:44Yes, that is important for leaders. But of course, Mr. Prime Minister, we know
10:48that Caribbean people are very resilient people. And we know that even within the
10:53region, we have very generous partners. At this point in time, I know it's it's a
10:58bit premature. But are you able to anticipate the type of assistance St
11:02Vincent and its dependencies may need in recovery from barrel?
11:07Well, I will I will I will say this to you, objectively speaking, you tend to
11:13get assistance for humanitarian relief. You know, but when it comes to develop
11:28mental monies and monies for recovery and rehabilitation, it, it comes pretty
11:36slowly. And you have to borrow the money. COVID causes to increase our debt, volcanic
11:46eruption causes to increase our debt. Unfortunately, you know, 90 odd percent of
11:54the debt 98% of the debt is on highly concessional terms. And we're grateful for
12:02that. But still have to pay back the money. There's not a free lunch about, you
12:08know, yeah. Even though, even though we're not, we're not, you know, we're not
12:12causing the global warming. It is the nature of life and living. And I, I take it
12:24as I find it and try to find the spaces in the global political economy to do things
12:34within the interests of our people. While at the same time, we at home, like, for
12:40example, the establishment of the contingency fund.
12:43I think, Mr. Prime Minister, this is one of the things that you of course, and your
12:48regional counterparts would have advocated for at the international scale when we do
12:53have those international is that it is in fact, small island development states that
12:58we bear the brunt of, you know, global issues. And as you rightly mentioned,
13:03recovery is not just humanitarian aid, even, you know, we look at people and we
13:08don't realize that natural disasters are in fact, life changing events, and they have
13:14great psychological impacts on citizens. You know, how do you recover from things
13:18like that?
13:20Well, you have all the time to be listening to the roots. You know, one of the things,
13:29to use a metaphor, a lot of people who listen to the leaves, and very often they
13:39think that the leaves are answering questions which are properly posed. But you can only
13:47get the answers properly. If you have the questions, right questions coming from the
13:57roots, because the answers are creatures of the questions. And you have to always be
14:06grounded. It's a simple proposition I'm advancing, but it's fundamental.
14:18Very profound thoughts there shared by you, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. I know at this point
14:23in time, the priority of yours and so many across the region will be to protect life
14:29and limb. As we close off this interview, let me take the opportunity to wish you all
14:33the citizens, residents, even visitors of St. Vincent and its dependencies all the
14:39best as you brace for the full impact of Beryl. Is there anything you would like to
14:44see in closing?
14:46Well, I'm very grateful that you've given the opportunity to speak to the people of
14:50Trinidad and Tobago. And I just say that we are as prepared as we can be. And we are at
15:00a place where we wait with a patience and with a calm. Even though the seas are rough
15:10and the winds as I look out to the window, exciting the leaves more than usual. Within
15:23within a couple of hours, we're going to get hit. And the southern Union Island will
15:29get it hit before us on Union Island and Kanawha will get hit before us and then
15:35and St. Vincent. It's we're in for a rough ride today. A lot of roofs are going to come
15:42off. And we have to rebuild very quickly. But most of all, I'm hoping, praying, and
15:54no one gets injured. No one dies. In 2021, we evacuated one fifth of the population.
16:01With the 21 volcanic eruptions in April 2021. And nobody died and nobody got injured. What
16:10people, people often get injured and killed. Not only during the, during the hurricane,
16:23hurricane, but because they come out a little too soon.
16:31And a little too anxious to get back to normalcy. We have to do this properly. We
16:36have to do this orderly. And that's what I'm trying to do.
16:43Waiting with patience and calm Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph
16:49Gonsalves. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. And as I mentioned before,
16:52all the best to you and your citizens. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you again.