Joycelyn M. Searles aka Sistah Joyce calls on Government to address needs of VG with her two songs 'Wake up Virgin Gordians' and 'One People' for the VG Easter Festivals 2014. Photo: VINO

Sistah Joyce is aware that there is likely a strong competition on this year but is prepared to defend her crown with all her might. Photo: VINO/file

She took a hard swipe at government for failing to address the growing needs of Virgin Gorda in a timely and reasonable manner and has chosen the stage as her platform from which to send her wake up message to Government and the people of Virgin Gorda.

Her two songs for the Virgin Gorda Easter Festival this year are ‘One People’ and ‘Wake up Virgin Gordians’ both of which she said send strong messages to her fellow people of the Islands as well as to the Government of the Territory.

She said that she will be coming strong to defend her crown this year but at the same time hoping to cause her people to be awaken and begin the fight for a better life for Virgin Gorda. She said that the messages of her songs are hinged on reality.

“One people, we are one people and instead of trying to bring down each other we need to start trying to lift each other up. In these hard times anyway you could, go ahead and lend a helping hand.” She told Virgin Islands News Online.

But the harder swipe will be dished out in her song ‘Wake up Virgin Gordians’. “Since I come to live at Virgin Gorda I come and meet the people struggling and pleading for certain things in the community and up to today nothing so as the Monarch I am pleading to my fellow Virgin Gordians for us to wake up, come together and demand betterment for Virgin Gorda,” she said.

She said that the betterment needs to come from the level of Government as the people of Virgin Gorda have been trying on their own to raise the standard of living on the Island. “But the people don’t have certain amount of resources and collaterals to deal with certain things, that’s what government is there for, government is supposed to help its people,” she said.

She did not throw the blame of the state of Virgin Gorda only at the feet of the NDP government but also those of the past. “… both governments, they are just straying away from the fact that this is small community but it’s a growing community,” she added.

The growth of the Islands is evident in the words of Sistah Joyce “Every day you seeing three and four big bellies” and the fact resorts and other businesses are expanding everyday coupled with the fact that governments continue to issue work permits. “You as government ain’t looking at that you giving a work permit, so many more people coming into this little, small place, no kind of proper resources.”

The famous local singer cried on the state of health resources on the island saying, “These people (Government) sleeping on that.”