After more than 500 years of rich history, the Confederation of St. Kitts and Nevis is entering a new chapter as the hottest second-home destinations in the Caribbean. - USAtoday reported.

Discovered by Christopher Columbus, St. Kitts was home to the first French and British Caribbean colonies and is known as the region’s “Mother Island.”

Always flush with sugar cane, it has remained relatively wealthy and undeveloped. Along with smaller Nevis, it gained independence in 1983. Now, these Caribbean islands are trying to become independent from agriculture.

Brian Kassab, owner of the nation’s largest real-estate company, Brian Kassab & Associates, said:

We always had very high yields of sugar cane until two years ago, when the government ceased the industry and decided to focus on golf and eco-tourism. So this is a turning point in our history.

Most of the land is untouched, lush and tropical. Nevisians take pride in preserving its beauty. It consists of rain forests, waterfalls, volcanic peaks and vast stretches of pristine Nevis beaches.

In selected residential development zones, buyers are exempt from the nation’s 10% foreign ownership fee. The confederation is a tax haven with sophisticated banking, a stable government, very low real estate taxes ($400 a year on a $4.5 million house) and no income or rental taxes. A current plan offers expedited citizenship for foreigners who spend more than $350,000.

Go scope out the territory and check out pricing on a Nevis Vacation HERE!

Nevis Island Lover ~ Becca Briley

Speaking of books… Students in Nevis West Indies are being provided books on the Rich History of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

They have been given the tools to broaden their minds and expand there ever growing educations.

This donation was made possible by the First Caribbean International Bank!

SUN St. Kitts & Nevis News reported:

Students in Nevis now have the opportunity to expand their knowledge on the development of St. Kitts/Nevis. They received copies of a new publication “St. Kitts and Nevis, A Portrait of a Nation, Celebrating 25 years of Independence” authored by Federal Minister Dr. Timothy Harris on 8 Oct., at the Red Cross conference room. The donation was made possible through the collaborative effort of the First Caribbean International Bank.

The book is titled “St. Kitts and Nevis, A Portrait of a Nation, Celebrating 25 years of Independence.” It was compiled over the past year. It outlines St. Kitts and Nevis’ transition from a British slave colony, to an independent nation. The book also points to the Federation’s increasing presence on the world stage.

Dr. Harris said the bank along with other entities in the Federation had seen the need for corporate involvement and provided sponsorship to enable schools and educational institutions to have copies of the publication.

Harris urged the students of the Federation to utilise the book for research in the area of history and said it was important that they understood their past and appreciated it…

“You have to plan, you have to have a sense (belonging) and the earlier you plan what you want in life the easier it becomes to manage your life … If you are going to be the genuine leaders that take us to the next stage of development, you have to be a lot more prepared than the leaders before you.”

Read more about this from another article HERE.

The birth and history of Nevis Island is so beautiful!

Nevis Lover ~ Becca Briley

Where there is a will, there is a way! That is the message Nevis Island Minister is sending out to the Nevis youngsters.

“You can achieve regardless of age.” Nevis Minister Hensley Daniel said this to the youths of Nevis, as he celebrated Nevisian author and senior citizen Bertram Roach of Hamilton for his novel, Only God Can Make A Tree.

Daniel recently told the Department of Information he was proud of Roach’s achievement and offered public acknowledgement of his accomplishment.

Sun St. Kitts/Nevis newspaer quotes:

“What that must say to the younger people, is that if you develop a purpose in life and you work toward achieving that purpose, you can do just about anything. Mr. Roach says to Nevisians you can achieve regardless of age,” he said.

Daniel, who is also responsible for youths in the island, urged young people to get busy instead of wasting time to get involved in crime, violence and drug abuse.

This book actually sounds like amust read for me, as a Nevis Lover!

The novel, published by Athenia Press in the United Kingdom, tells the story of post-slavery Caribbean life.

According to Roach, his book details the culture, festivities and realities of the period and place. It was set in St. Kitts.

“This is not the usual story of pirates and local stories. It tells of what happened to the offspring of the slaves and the mixture of the races….

“I grew up on a sugar plantation in St. Kitts and Nevis. The stories I tell are my real stories,” he said and added that he had already completed the manuscript for his second novel.

BOOK DETAILS ARE AS FOLLOWS… PROVIDED BY ATHENAPRESS.COM:

Adrian is the son of a black Caribbean woman and an Irish immigrant father, and is blessed with the pale skin and European features to allow him social mobility in the rigidly hierarchical society of twentieth-century Caribbean life. He falls in love, but is offered the opportunity to improve his social standing, and thus the rest of his life, if he can suppress his heart’s desire and decide with his head. Will he choose Julia, the only woman he has ever really loved, and settle for being an overseer, or will he opt for the plantation- owner’s daughter, Alice Mills, who could provide him with the social standing he has always dreamed of?

The consequences of his eventual decision are weighty and far-reaching, affecting not only Adrian, but all those around him, showing the harsh realities of life in this earthly paradise. Set on the idyllic islands of St Kitts and Nevis, this gripping saga is the true story of a family of mixed race and mixed fortunes.

You can buy his book online at any of the following websites:

amazon.co.uk

alibris.com

eruditor.com

borders.co.uk

Glad to share the good Nevis News

Becca Briley

Election Day was yesterday in the states and the 44th President of the United States was named.

Nevis has a positive outlook! This was a huge historical moment as the barriers were broken.

The Presidential race was called for Barack Obama at 11p.m. on the East Coast, 8p.m. on the West. An hour later he was on stage at Grant Park in Chicago, speaking to the tens of thousands of supporters gathered there.

The Communications Unit of the St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister reported that the election of Illinois Senator, the Hon. Barack Obama, as President of the United States of America, “is a power of example.”

“In theory, this was supposed to have been an almost statistical impossibility,” St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said Wednesday in a message of congratulations to Obama on behalf of the Government and People of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

“Yet, through vision, strength of character, and resolute adherence to principle, you have won not only this most esteemed position by a landslide, but indeed the respect, support, and admiration of peoples and nations as far flung as disparate as one can imagine,” said Prime Minister Douglas to President-Elect Obama, who won Tuesday’s United States Presidential Election.

Obama is the first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office. He is also the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

He received 52.3 percent for the popular vote to and 46.4 percent for McCain. He received 349 of the Electoral College to McCain’s 147.

Douglas hosted the election event for St. Kitts and Nevis Island as he also used the occasion to speak to the young people…

“What this young man has achieved is a clear indication that we too can achieve. From humble beginnings, (he) spent very little time with his father, but was close to his mother and grandparents. He learned what is meant to be discipline, to be focused, to work hard, respected himself and respected others.”

“We have seen history in the making,” said Prime Minister Douglas, who noted that when President-Elect Barak Obama started his race for the White House two years ago, the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, which has strong fraternal affiliation with the philosophy of the Democratic Party of the United States “aligned itself with Barak Obama.”

“He believed in being his brother’s keeper. These are lessons that we have learnt from his great victory, the march to great victory by Obama,” said Prime Minister Douglas.

“I am happy to be a part of this historic occasion,” many said with tears in their eyes as Obama mounted the stage to deliver his address to over 200,000 people in Chicago.

The Obama Labour Party event was also in celebration of the long fought dreams of men like the Right Excellent Sir Robert L. Bradshaw and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

You can read more about this Caribbean event from SKNVIBES.com.

It sounds like the majority of Nevis and St. Kitts are very happy about the election outcome!

Nevis Lover Becca Briley