By Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 13th September 2023)- “I always keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening here in our Federation, and I have one caution to make… and that is we ought to be cautious when considering the mandates and directives of external institutions whose one size fits all policies don’t address our uniqueness so how can they address our problems?” So said the featured speaker at the Prime Minister’s Lecture Series, Ms.
Psyche Southwell, an accomplished software engineer and fashion blogger, who is national of St. Kitts and Nevis based in the United States. She was on the topic of ‘Let our size be our strength’ during the session held on Tuesday 12th September 2023 at the St.
Kitts Marriot Resort, observed under this year’s theme: ‘Growing Sustainably, Developing Maturely, Building Resiliency: Independence 40.’ As gathered, she is Customerfacing Senior Software Engineer in a company which is the industry leader providing solutions and technologies for indoor location tracking in an area called RTLS (Real Time Locating Systems). Southwell continued: “Rather than taking outside generalized approaches, we can develop homegrown specialized solutions that reach everybody.
We can be known as the Caribbean federation that reaches everybody. We can join a handful of countries in the world that reaches everybody. We can reach everybody because our small size is in fact our strength.” She has advised: “Let our size be our strength.
We often use the expression ‘We small but we tallawah’… but we often use that expression to evoke this idea that despite being small, we [are] strong and we are mighty. I want to deposit tonight. What if our super power was the fact that we are small?
What if being small was actually our super power?” According to her, “The last university that I taught at had a population that was larger than the combined population of St. Kitts and Nevis, and on any given day if university officials wanted to reach everybody, they could; it was plausible.
So, – LOCAL NEWS – why can’t we? Why can’t we reach everybody? The answer is: We can. We can ensure that in St. Kitts and Nevis, every student can pursue a quality education regardless of the circumstances they were born into.” “We can ensure that every student can sit a foreign exam and acquire the learning materials to do so at no cost to them.
How do I know that? I benefitted from a programme like that; just like that… I stand here before you as the beneficiary of a programme like that. My parents benefitted from a programme like that [and] because I was in school with our Prime Minister and I know he benefitted from a programme like that too.
And how is it that a country like ours could provide a progressive policy like that? It’s not easy but it’s made easier because of our smaller population. We can reach everybody,” Ms. Southwell added. She highlighted that “Poverty remains a prevalent problem in St.
Kitts and Nevis, and this one of those social issues-that despite the fact I don’t work in the field directly anymoreit is still near and dear to my heart, and in my opinion, inequalities and injustices perpetuated by poverty are our greatest threats to growth, development and sustainability; the very theme that is anchoring our independence for the year 40.” Additionally, she touched on the work environment exposure she had during her career for which she embraced “an understanding of poverty which connected the dots for me.” According to her: “It connected the dots for me because it made sense in the world that reared me…and one of the things I left and take with me in every field… is how we understand the problems, and hear this: The way that we define problems directly shape the solutions that we put forward.” Ms. Southwell gave reasoning for advice given about advancing policies explore the unique circumstances and the vulnerabilities of the Kittitian and Nevisian experience.
“Policies and programmes often fail, and they don’t fail because they are not good ideas, they don’t fail because they are not well 3
intentioned. They fail because they do not match or address the problems at hand, and if we continue my friends to define poverty solely as a lack of income or a lowness of resources, every policy will fail, every anti-poverty programme will fail to eradicate poverty if we are only looking at resources. ‘We small but we tallawah’.
We in the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis have the ability to explore the unique circumstances and the vulnerabilities of the Kittitian and Nevisian experience, and hence advance policies that actually take that experience into consideration.” Front Banner Photo: Featured speaker at the Prime Minister’s Lecture Series, Ms.
Psyche Southwell seen while making her presentation on Tuesday 12th September 2023 at the St. Kitts Marriot Resort. (credit: SKNIS) 11
