And changing gears now….last week we asked the holidays minister why government had decided to let Emancipation Day - which is on Tuesday, August first - be observed on Monday, July 31st. It creates another long weekend - but it has angered activists who see it as a slight and a disrespect for a day which is of paramount importance to persons of African descent.
The Minister said it was slated to create less of an interruption to the work week:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"The recommendation is to have a holiday in the middle of the week causes great unproductively for that week, and so the thinking was for those holidays that fell in the middle of the week we would give it on a Monday but at the same time we have to acknowledge that if you want to celebrate Emancipation Day on, in this case I think it's the Tuesday, by all means, you can still celebrate Emancipation Day on the Tuesday. And so it is just a matter of like I said the committee making recommendations. I've already sent over the information to that committee for them to review for 2024 if it is that. They see fit to recommend that emancipation day be held on, or the holiday given the following year on the day it falls then that might happen but this year for 2023 it will be, the holiday will be on Monday but you can certainly celebrate on Tuesday."
Jules Vasques:
"Do you feel, as sister Yaya asserts that it is a minimization of the slavery experience?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"No, absolutely not I do not share that view at all that it is in any way minimizing the hardship a lot of people will be celebrating on Tuesday itself. It's just a matter of when the holiday is given not when you celebrate it. You celebrate it on the day but the holiday is given on Monday."
The UBAD Educational Foundation has written a formal letter of complaint to the government about this change in dates.
