By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts –Media Relations Officer Pavel Martinez of the Logos Hope, the popular book fair boat, has underlined the significance of reading an actual book versus reading an electronic version of a printed book from a handheld device.
“Mainly the most important thing for people is to read. It doesn’t matter if it is in a book, tablet or phone but certainly something is special in a book; you can have it in your hand. It’s kind of a relationship with a physical object; something you can treasure. Someone meaningful in your life can give it to you or the subject can become very meaningful and you cannot have that in an electronic device.”
Martinez made the disclosure while having a chit-chat with this media house following a question posed.
This week, the Logos Hope departed the shores of St.Kitts-Nevis following a 5-day revisit (Friday 30th September to Tuesday 3rd October), docked at Port Zante in Basseterre.
He said that there are 5,000 different book titles found in the exhibition.
“Logos ship belongs to a humanitarian organisation. This is not out first time in St.Kitts and Nevis. We came first time in 2010 but actually Logos Hope is our fourth ship in the organisation. I know some of our previous ships came here before. We started this organisation in the 1970s so it has been a long time so this time now with the Logos Hope, we are the largest floating book fair in the world; we have more than 5,000 different titles in exhibition here. We have more than a million in our storage system.”
Commenting on the book fair aspect of the boat, Martinez shared the vision of the organisation.
“Our goal is to provide knowledge, help and hope; that is our three goals and yes the books are part of the knowledge and we think that it is important for the people to come closer to the culture. If one person learns how to love to read, this person can do whatever he want s with his life. The knowledge is the key for the success that’s what we think and we try to provide books for all kinds of people. We have children’s book, academic books, ways of life, cooking, travelling, entertaining-all kinds of books you can find here.”
Books were sold by unit price tags with 100 units being equivalent to EC$6, the lowest cost.
Asked about the general affordability of the books, Martinez replied: “That’s because actually we are a humanitarian organisation. We don’t try to get rich by selling the books so we provide them as cheap as we can because we try to help that is why they are so cheap. This is just one side of our organisation. We also provide free donations of books to jails, orphanages-places where they cannot afford books and we provide them free for them.”
He pointed out that on the ship there are 100 volunteers from 62 different nations.
“So it’s not just about the ship, we try to provide for the local people to come and know all these international people. We have some shows and events on board for the people to know a little about how interact and how inclusive it can be.”
Martinez also informed that the organisation plans on spending the whole year in the Caribbean region. He pointed out that the tour kicked off in January with Guyana followed by Trinidad and Tobago.
Other countries visited were Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, The Bahamas.
“ …and right after St.Kitts and Nevis, we are planning to go to Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Martinez added.
The 2018 tour is slated to begin in South America starting in Colombia.
The Logos Hope book fair was officially opened on Friday 29th September following a ribbon cutting event which was preceded by a welcome ceremony featuring appearances by members of the international crew on the ship.
Governor General of St.Kitts-Nevis Sir Tapley Seaton and Premier of Nevis Hon. Vance Amory helped to cut the ribbon along with Hope Logos representatives.
Other people in attendance included Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Carlene Henry-Morton; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour Ron Dublin-Collins; Opposition Leader the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas (immediate former prime minister) and also well-known community and youth activist Dr. Terrance Drew.
The ship’s opening hours were: Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (10 AM to 9 PM) while Sunday was 2PM to 9 PM.
Entrance fee was EC$ 2, a charge which did not apply to children under the age of 12 and senior citizens over 65 years old.