Author: Eddy Smith

Guide Stars Lessons: What we do with the Fire Not every matter invites calm discussion, but some demand it all the same. The government’s recent laptop initiative is one such moment… one that asks for reason instead of reaction. Everyone can feel how tense the times are, and silence often seems the wiser choice. Still, some things deserve to be said plainly. We’re watching a turning point unfold that could either define or derail us. Hundreds of young Vincentians have just been given tools that, if used wisely, could catapult this country forward. Yet already, the signs are there as the…

Guide Stars Lessons: A Formula for National Pride Read with intention… Every twenty years, master carpenters in Japan dismantle a national treasure and start again. At Ise (eyes) Grand Shrine, the Shikinen Sengu rite rebuilds the sanctuaries piece by piece on an adjoining plot, using timber felled and cured years prior, joints cut so precisely they vanish from sight. The deity is transferred in a hushed night procession, tools are cleaned, apprentices are taught, and the old structure is taken down without sentiment. No names are burned into beams, no signatures are hidden under floorboards, nothing carved into its pillars.…

Here is a warning you wished someone gave you sooner: the world is not merely getting digital; it is being rebuilt at high speed while we sleep. Each month the tools that move our money, prove our identity, and settle disputes, change the rules without asking. In the Caribbean we have a habit of waiting to see how it plays out, then discovering the shoreline moved overnight. One morning you wake up and the bank branch is a login screen, your signature is a six‑digit code, and the “referee” in an argument is a timestamp you cannot fake. Authority is relocating…

Guide Stars Lessons: Speak So Tension Has Nowhere To Live I have seen it too many times to ignore. A question is asked, or an instruction is given, and the person on the receiving end freezes. Their face tightens, their body shifts, silence takes over, then suddenly comes the attitude or defiance. It is not that they are foolish. It is not that they are incapable. What we are watching is a gap in how we prepare our people to communicate under pressure. We pour effort into producing capable students. They pass advanced maths, defend projects, lead group assignments, complete…

Some myths are so deeply rooted in us that they survive even after history has proven them false. The myth of the lone hero is one of them. We cling to it because it flatters us, it whispers that greatness can be achieved in isolation, that our victories are ours alone. But in the debris of every fallen civilisation, in the archives of every enduring one, the truth is carved in stone: no one ever built anything that lasted by themselves. Not the pyramids. Not the Great Wall. Not the Renaissance. Behind every name we remember are countless others whose…

Guide Stars Lessons: What Institutional Loyalty Demands What if after years of doing your part, no fuss, no fanfare, you looked around and realised the institution you’ve been loyal to is not loyal to you? Not out of spite, just neglect. What if your effort blended into the background, unnoticed, unspoken, expected? In my last piece, I wrote about the need to build common purpose. That kind of purpose cannot exist without loyalty. Not loyalty that depends on recognition, but the kind that is grounded in principle. There is a scene in the movie First Blood where Rambo reflects that he once flew gunships…

Guide Stars Lessons: Building our National Common Purpose Criticising is easy. Anyone can spot flaws. But real change doesn’t come from merely pointing out what’s broken, it comes from rolling up our sleeves and building something better. Across our nation, many are quick to condemn institutions that have, despite all odds, continued to function under immense strain and with limited resources. Acknowledging weaknesses is essential, yes. But true progress lies in carefully assessing those weaknesses and committing ourselves to the long and difficult work of crafting solutions. In my last opinion piece, I highlighted ideas from a respected Argentinian thinker…

Guide Stars Lessons: When Crime Learns the System It’s easy to court attention with blood-soaked headlines. A gruesome killing here, a drug bust there, each fresh headline jostling for the public’s outrage and political mileage. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the conversation around crime often sounds more like campaign banter than nation-building strategy. But while slogans fill the airwaves and blame circles the drain, the actual machinery behind crime, (how it forms, spreads, and mutates) often goes ignored. Recently, I had the rare pleasure of meeting Dr. Marcelo Sain, a leading thinker on criminal networks and state security in…

Guide Stars Lessons: No Church in the Wild? “If you can’t go to heaven, don’t force.” My uncle would say it with a chuckle, quoting some old head from the block. I remember hearing it as a child and laughing, not because I understood it, but because the room always erupted with a kind of knowing amusement. It felt like a punchline wrapped in gospel. Only years later did I start to feel the weight behind those words, maybe the statement was challenging something deeper, and it forced me to ask the bigger question: what does it really mean to…

Guide Stars Lessons: Later is a Lie I lost a friend recently. It wasn’t expected (like what loss is…). One minute we were joking around, the next I’m hearing that he’s gone. Just like that. No warning. No time to prepare. It made me sit with something I don’t usually allow myself to feel. How fragile this whole thing is. Life. Time. Presence. We talk like we’ve got years to sort things out, reconnect, say what needs to be said. But moments like this remind you that we really don’t. Later is a lie. We say it all the time.…

Policing the Individual: Why Freedom Needs Boundaries No one likes to be told what to do. It’s human nature. From childhood, we test boundaries, resist orders, and value autonomy. Yet, as we grow, we discover a basic truth: society cannot function if everyone acts entirely as they please. In a world that prizes freedom, we sometimes forget that freedom is not an absolute, but a negotiated privilege, one that exists within boundaries. Today, the work of policing the individual sits at the center of this paradox. While many bristle at law enforcement’s presence, especially when it comes to small infractions…

Guide Stars Lessons: Big Fat Liars They don’t kick down doors or come with warning signs. They smile. They praise. They lean in just enough to make you feel seen. And that’s how it starts. They mirror your passions, echo your values, act like they’ve finally found someone who gets it. But it’s all performance. A trap dressed in flattery. You don’t even realize you’re being studied, every word you say, every strength you show, every crack you expose, they’re collecting it, piece by piece, to wear like a mask. And when they’ve taken what they came for, they vanish.…