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ECCB Celebrates 23rd Anniversary2006-10-01
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Let me express my appreciation on behalf of the Monetary Council, Board of Directors, Management and Staff for so graciously allowing us to use this lovely Cathedral for celebrating our Anniversary.
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We gather to give thanks to the Almighty for bestowing on us the many blessings he has over the past 23 years both as an institution and individually. Our appreciation of how fortunate we are as a people in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) can in one way be measured by contrasting our circumstances with those of others in the international community.
The international community is now quite rightly taken up and consumed in a way it was not before with the mass poverty which exists in the developing countries. In abstract statistical terms across the world we see unacceptable levels of deprivation in people’s lives. Of the 4.6 billion people in developing countries, more than 850 million are illiterate, nearly a billion lack access to improved water sources, and
2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation. Nearly 325 boys and girls are out of school. And 11 million children, under age five, die each year from preventable causes equivalent to more than 30,000 a day. 1.2 billion people live on less then $1 a day, and 2.8 billion on less than $2 a day. Where these figures move from abstract statistics to stark and horrifying reality is when we see with constant regularity the plight of the people of Darfur in the Sudan on our television sets. It is a reality which is unreal to us as we could not imagine anything like that happening in the Caribbean.
For this we must give thanks and pray that our brothers and sisters in Haiti will see a steady improvement in their circumstances. We must also ponder in our hearts the reasons for our good fortune and what we in turn must contribute to the general good in return for the Almighty’s goodness and kindness to us as a people. Good fortune in fact can only be enjoyed if we become loving and caring contributors to our communities, nations, regions and humanity. Our contributions must be both at the personal and collective levels.
At the personal level we must endeavour to develop whatever talents we have to the fullest in the service of both God and man. Unlike others we do have the environment in which this is possible. It all revolves around our attitudes and views of life. One writer said, “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect” and another said, “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape”. We must take and make our opportunities as they arise and always be cheerful givers as opposed to constant and selfish takers. We must remember that nations are aggregations of individuals and that we are the nation.
As nations in the Caribbean we have made a significant contribution by the way we have conducted ourselves but we can make an even greater contribution by coming together to safeguard, maintain and improve our circumstances. We can lead by example in a world which sometimes seems frankly out of control. As a zone of peace and tranquility we can show others that it is possible to live in peace with ones neighbours to everyone’s benefit. Our institution has tried over the years to maintain the stability of our currency and financial system to provide an environment in which the basic economic, social, and political freedoms could be maintained and enhanced. We hope we have been in some small way successful in this goal.
We have been ever so lucky to have so many people of good will, both within and outside the institution to support our cause. Most of all however, one can constantly feel the hand of God on our institution guiding us in the right way, chiding us for our mistakes and assuring us that faith can move mountains.
For this we are truly and humbly grateful.
Amen
K Dwight Venner
Governor, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
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