{"id":51057,"date":"2017-04-03T10:12:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T10:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=51057"},"modified":"2017-04-03T11:12:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T11:12:51","slug":"at-uvi-denmarks-prime-minister-announces-five-year-scholarship-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=51057","title":{"rendered":"At UVI, Denmark&#8217;s Prime Minister Announces Five-Year Scholarship Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; First announced <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/featured\/the-u-s-virgin-islands-one-hundred-years-under-u-s-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\">during his Transfer Centennial commemoration address<\/a><\/span> in St. Croix on Friday, the prime minister of Denmark,\u00a0Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, made his promise to start a five-year scholarship program to the territory&#8217;s college students official at UVI on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The program will be funded through the Danish Finance Act of 2018 and will begin that same year. It commits just over $140, 000 annually for 10 students to study for one semester at participating Danish universities, and funds the students&#8217; tuition and living costs.<\/p>\n<p>During his Transfer Centennial address on St. Croix, the leader of Denmark delivered a speech that fully accepted responsibility for actions of his ancestors, making no excuses for the horror so many faced. In announcing the scholarship program on Friday, he said about the territory&#8217;s youth,\u00a0\u201cLadies and gentlemen, this time around we will not hold them back, we will push them forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fviconsortium%2Fvideos%2F1243607079086861%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The prime minister was sure during his address to highlight the bravery of legends like\u00a0Moses \u201cBuddhoe\u201d Gottlieb, known as General Budhoe, the free black man who led the 1848 slave rebellion on St. Croix.<\/p>\n<p>After acknowledging the 100th milestone of U.S. rule of the USVI, Mr. Rasmussen went straight to the core of his speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe preceding years have not been forgotten \u2014 neither in Denmark, nor in the Virgin Islands,\u201d he said. The prime minister mentioned the town names such as Christiansted and Frederiksted, as well as the design of the town buildings, stating that they served as reminders of how close the USVI and Denmark were nit. He also acknowledged the thousands of Danes who visit the territory annually, and said both he and the people of Denmark feel a special bond with Virgin Islanders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut although we share a common past, we have not always shared the same story about that past,\u201d he said. The prime minister said when he was a child, there was a popular Danish story about the \u00a0Danish West Indies that spoke of the USVI as an exotic location with peaceful coexisting. He also mentioned a famous Danish King who had abolished slavery, but said Danish slavery of the USVI continued after it had been abolished, and living conditions only improved on paper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe true heroes were the men and women who stood up to the injustice,\u201d Mr. Rasmussen said, later adding, \u201cI suggest we also look somewhere else in our hearts and minds. I suggest we ask ourselves is there any justification for suppression? Any argument for treating people brutally? And we all know the answer; the answer is no. There\u2019s no justification whatsoever for the exploitation of men, women and children that took place in these islands under Danish flags. There\u2019s no justification for slavery. It is unforgivable. And it is a dark and disgraceful part of Danish history. So when I search my heart and my mind, there\u2019s no doubt that the true heroes of the past are the men and women of the Virgin Islands who defied suppression. They were not given their freedom, they took it back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rasmussen became emotional almost to the point of tears at various points of his address. He continued to praise the pioneers of the uprisings that ultimate led to freedom, including\u00a0Queen Mary Thomas, Queen Mathilda Macbean and Axeline \u201cQueen Agnes\u201d Salomon, who led a movement that ended with <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/opinion\/fireburn-virgin-islands\/\" target=\"_blank\">the famous Fireburn.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must acknowledge what had happen in the past, and we must acknowledge that what happened in the past has affected where the island is today, because we can\u2019t undo the past, what we can do is to improve the future,\u201d Mr. Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister said with Denmark now acknowledging the atrocities of the past, and with both sides deciding to embrace the future, \u201cToday the people of Denmark and the people of the Virgin Islands share a common historic path, and today we share the same view of history, and today we share the same heroes. And hopefully we shall also share a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Feature Image: Prime Minister\u00a0Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, center, holds conversation with USVI Governor Kenneth Mapp during the Transfer Centennial commemoration event on St. Croix. (Credit: Ernice Gilbert, VIC)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; First announced during his Transfer Centennial commemoration address in St. Croix on Friday, the prime minister of Denmark,\u00a0Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, made his promise to start a five-year scholarship program to the territory&#8217;s college students official at UVI on Saturday. The program will be funded through the Danish Finance Act of 2018 and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1078,11,191,147],"tags":[6698,6699,5205,1014,121,613],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>At UVI, Denmark&#039;s Prime Minister Announces Five-Year Scholarship Program - V.I. 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