GOVERNOR COMMENTS ON BATON, LITTER AND SAMS RADIO

Invited to SAMS Radio 1 this morning, HE Governor Capes commented on the Queen’s Baton Relay, the problem of litter and the anniversary of SAMS Radio 1. Here is an excerpt of his comments:

Queen’s Baton

‘It’s important that we recognise our sports on St Helena. We are a part of the Commonwealth, of the 70 Nations, and that’s important, but it’s also about profiling St Helena as a very special place. There’s a BBC film crew accompanying the Baton and I’m sure St Helena will feature in their final cut, because everywhere else they go they will be arriving by airplane mostly and next time the Baton comes here it will be by air. So it was really nice to capture the RMS event yesterday – an historic occasion.

‘The schoolchildren made it.  They were very well behaved and patient, a little bit excited, and it all looked very good for St Helena with lots of atmosphere.’

Litter

‘Rubbish is something that has been irritating me. I love going into Plantation Forest and it’s nice to have it on your doorstep to take a walk, but when you see how a few thoughtless people can throw glass bottles into a beauty spot where people go with their children and dogs, you think well, what goes through their mind? What does somebody think when they’re throwing a glass bottle into a public place? Do they really want to hurt and injure people? It’s a minority, but I think it will help if we all make an effort to show that it is not acceptable behaviour, to spoil our beautiful places around St Helena and also to endanger people’s safety and health.  It’s unacceptable that people who do it don’t care about their fellow Saints and their neighbours, it just shows a lack of respect for our community and for St Helena. And if you look at the bigger picture, we were talking about the Baton coming here and a chance to showcase Helena for what it is – a beautiful Island with lovely people – if when they’re filming they see old beer cans and broken wine bottles in a corner, what does that tell you about St Helena?

‘If we’re serious about developing tourism, and that’s what we are doing, then we have to care about our community and our environment. It doesn’t take much to put a bottle, a crisp packet or a cigarette packet in a plastic bag and take it home, so I think we all have a duty to try and encourage the idiots who throw this litter and glass around to persuade them that actually there’s a better way of living.’

SAMS Radio 1

‘You’ve had a very successful year since you kicked off just over a year ago, so congratulations on that and well done – I think you’ve made a huge difference. The people have a choice of listening, a choice of opinion and I think you’ve done a great job in attracting a young audience. A lot of younger people enjoy what you do.  You’ve also had your flagship programmes like Sunrise and Juicy Mango, and Second Chance Sunday is very useful. The outstanding thing you did last year was the Election coverage where you broke some ground with very thorough interviewing of candidates, which was very good. So Happy Birthday to everyone involved in SAMS Radio 1. May there be many more.’

SHG

20 February 2014

 

 

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St Helena Government Communications Hub

Telephone: 22470
Email: kimberley.peters@sainthelena.gov.sh