USVI-On-Line

I happened upon these videos. They provide an interesting perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1RWGd9h ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVzir4e ... re=channel

Thanks so much for posting, Lex! The videos were great.

There was also a link to a project being started by a Nike employee to benefit the kids of the VI:
http://www.usingsportforsocialchange.com/home

Seems pretty cool!

Lex, I appreciate your posting these links...they offer some excellent insight into the life of St John youth.

After recently reading Education Department Again Returns Millions to Washington Unspent by David S North, I felt angry and saddened...now even more so for any opportunities lost...

http://www.onepaper.com/stjohnvi/?v=d&i ... 1223616400

A sobering picture !

ok lex--that was hard to watch--not that we are not all aware of these situations to some extent.

so, you spurred me to action (well, we'll see) i just wrote to Raja Bell (the SUns) and as soon as i find contact info to Tim Duncan (spurs) --both of these guys are from St Croix --so maybe the plight of other USVI kids might spark their interest. Duncan actually has a foundation but seems to concentrate mainly on san antonio and some on St Croix.

I am not sure if the overall NBA does any philanthropy--
sadly, i don't think that i will get any response, but who knows?

It's apparent that a lot of help is needed. Hopefully, those in charge will continue to move forward and let us know how we can help....I assume that there will be a way to make donations!

If the children in those 2 videos are representative of the average young adults in St. John I'd say they are doing something right.

I'm sure the directors grabbed the best kids for the video but that was honestly, refreshing.

Love the accents too.

IMO what they need is a more effective government, not money thrown at the problems.

Yeah, make the school in Cruz Bay a parking lot and see if the Park Service can provide some peaceful land for a new school.

I'm a network engineer and installation tech. I would be glad to take a day of my vaction and put in a network for these kids somewhere so they could have internet access. I sit behind a desk all year, so swinging a hammer, running some wire, or doing some painting for one afternoon while I'm on vaction wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit.

SoulvilleUSA wrote:I'm a network engineer and installation tech. I would be glad to take a day of my vaction and put in a network for these kids somewhere so they could have internet access. I sit behind a desk all year, so swinging a hammer, running some wire, or doing some painting for one afternoon while I'm on vaction wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit.

I think there are probably a lot of us who could share our skills and would be willing to take some time out of vacation...I wonder how someone on STJ could put together a "want/need" list and provide contacts for us.....

lark22 wrote:Thanks so much for posting, Lex! The videos were great.

There was also a link to a project being started by a Nike employee to benefit the kids of the VI:
http://www.usingsportforsocialchange.com/home

Seems pretty cool!

Bumping this back up with the suggestion that the two videos linked in the post by Lex and the link above are very much worth a look...

Thanks

I thought I might also add this link:

http://www.seestjohn.com/culture_food_for_thought.html

Not everybody experiences STJ the same way. The West Indian population and culture is becoming increasingly less prominent on STJ, being replaced by a kind of island lifestyle developed by folks from the mainland. Most businesses that visitors patronize are owned and staffed by people from the mainland. Most visitors have little or no contact with STJ's West Indian population. This is happening, but much less so, on many other islands. On STJ, the West Indian population hasn't gotten much of a share of the tourism dollar. It's said that tourism is the goose that lays the golden egg, but soils its own nest.

When we first started going to the Caribbean, we were very aware that we were visitors to another culture. We went to learn about, appreciate, respect and participate in that culture. We didn't expect things to be like they were at home, and were going there because they wouldn't be like home. It's not like going to Tibet or up the Amazon, but the Caribbean and its people and their culture is different than things are on the mainland. We try to bear in mind that we are visitors. Not everyone on the island is on vacation and not everyone came there from somewhere else or has somewhere else they could go.

We enjoyed our last trip to Virgin Gorda for a lot of reasons. Among them certainly was a stronger sense of being in a West Indian culture. And most businesses are owned and staffed by local people. People still have most of the control of their island, which I think results in a different kind of life and a different attitude and relationship with tourism and tourists.