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 layers of good intention begin to peel away through misuse, distraction, and neglect.
Regardless of which side of the spectrum you fall politically, the future of SVG is already being laid as a result. Let’s not get lost in what divides. What matters most is what we, as a people, do with the opportunity in our hands.
We’ve lived with technology for years, so the sight of a laptop isn’t new. What makes this moment different is what it demands of us. This isn’t about access anymore; it’s about accountability. Information is now within everyone’s reach, and what remains to be seen is whether we can use it with purpose.
These devices strip away excuses. A child in a small village now has the same reach as one in a city classroom. The difference, from here on, will be how we think, how we apply ourselves, and how we treat the privilege of access. That’s where progress either takes root or fades.
To the young people holding these laptops, understand this: what you have is power disguised as plastic and metal. It can make you sharper, more aware, more capable than any generation before you. But it can also make you careless if you treat it like a toy. Don’t use it to waste time proving who you are to strangers online. Use it to learn something that the world can’t easily take from you: skill, discipline, understanding and most importantly integrity.
You’re growing up in a time where information is free, but wisdom still costs effort. Make that effort. Read beyond the headlines, question what you see, and use your curiosity to build something real. Every hour spent learning, every idea you test, and every project you finish are victories that push this country forward.
If you use these devices well, you will do more than improve your own lives; you will redefine what it means to be Vincentian in the modern world. You will prove that small nations are not limited by size but by imagination. When your work, your ideas, and your innovations begin to travel beyond our shores, the story of this country will change. The world will see a people who didn’t wait for opportunity to come knocking but built doors of their own.
That is the real promise in your hands, not a machine but a chance to make Saint Vincent and the Grenadines impossible to overlook.
Every generation reaches a point where it must decide how to face change. Years ago, when new machines filled the factories of England, some workers destroyed them, afraid that progress would make them useless. History remembers them as Luddites. They were not fools. They were men trying to hold on to what they knew, even as the world moved on without their permission.
We are living through a similar test. Nobody is breaking machines today, but we still find ways to waste what could build us. A laptop can start a business, write a book, design a bridge, or connect one idea to another across the world. It can also become a hiding place for laziness and distraction. The issue now is not whether we have the tools, but whether we have the discipline to use them to build something that lasts.
The responsibility does not rest on students alone. Parents, this gift in your child’s hands is a kind of fire. In the right grip it gives light, heat, and work. In the wrong grip it burns the house down. Your task is to help them learn the grip and the guard. Sit beside them. Ask what they are making, not only what they are watching. Help them choose fuel that lasts: lessons, projects, practice. Treat the blue glow as a hearth to gather around, not a curtain to hide behind.
Our young people are not only learners. They are builders. If we guide them well, they will take this fire and forge things that outlive us: honest work, clean ideas, useful skills, new chances for families who have had too few.
