By Robert A Emmanuel
In an action-packed day of activities, Kerron McKenzie stepped into the shoes of Lindsy Thompson as the Resident British Commissioner to Antigua and Barbuda yesterday.
From a meeting with Education Minister Daryll Matthew, to a meeting with youth leaders such as Caleb Gardiner, Dwayne Simon and Michael Joseph, McKenzie got a small taste of what it is like to be the diplomatic representative for the United Kingdom to the twin island nation.
The ‘RBC for a day’ initiative, introduced with the support of the Directorate of Gender Affairs (DoGA), urged candidates between the ages of 18 and 25 to submit a two-minute video explaining why they should be the RBC for a day.
On Observer AM, McKenzie spoke about his sentiments following the announcement, stating that “the feeling is exceptional—I am not going to lie—it’s a wonderful feeling”.
“As soon as I finished off the phone call, I went to my dad and he was super proud of me,” he added.
According to Thompson, who has been guiding the young McKenzie through the process, the initiative was to give young people a platform to advocate for issues important to them.
She said, “The British High Commission has a number of initiatives to try and support and allow Antiguan and Barbudans to grow—we have scholarships, we have our internship programme and we thought, well, what else can we do?
“And we thought, well, why not give a young man, [and] a young woman…the female successful candidate will be in January, and give them the opportunity to use my job as a platform to advocate for issues that are important to them, and hopefully they can learn a bit from us, and we can learn from them as well.”
Male applicants were asked to give one idea to reduce male suicides while female applicants were asked to give one idea to reduce gender–based violence.
Political Officer for the Commission, Kadeem Joseph, said that out of over 10 applications sent in to the Commission, Kerron McKenzie’s application was a cut above the rest.
McKenzie is pursuing a degree in Banking and Finance at the University of the West Indies Five Islands and hopes to enter the field of investment banking.
In explaining the agenda for yesterday, Thompson stated that “we really wanted to give RBC McKenzie the full gambit of diplomacy, so we’re doing media this morning, we are then going back to the High Commission, where [McKenzie] is going to have a meeting with the political officers in our network, . . . our colleagues in the OECS.
“Then we have a meeting with Gender Affairs to talk about the male suicide issue, in particular, then he is hosting a lunch with a number of stakeholders, all interested in various areas of gender affairs.”
Additionally, the RBC for a day met with Education Minister Daryll Matthew, where he said he planned to talk about youth unemployment and the need for a formal internship programme for tertiary-level students.
