Greetings, Antigua and Barbuda.

Greetings, to the rest of the world who are with us in the Internet audience.

Antigua and Barbuda is still shining with the afterglow of Carnival.

You, too, must sense this.

For all who experienced it, Carnival 2005 succeeded spectacularly in keeping the Wadadli Spirit alive.

By all estimates, participants in and spectators for the number one summer festival hit record levels this year.

By all estimates, costuming, compositions and performances attained new heights in Carnival 2005.

By all estimates, BET, the American Television network, will take Antigua Carnival to record numbers of viewers around the globe.

This will be via a half-hour show that BET shot live on location, here in Antigua and Barbuda in the run-up to, and during Carnival.

Now in post-production, the BET show will premiere this fall.

It will be seen by untold millions in the United States and around the world, in repeat broadcasts, into Spring of 2006.

Credit for BET's in-depth involvement in and coverage of Carnival 2005 goes to the Carnival Development Committee and to the Ministry of Tourism.

I congratulate these organisations on the arrangement for BET to provide this potent marketing opportunity for Antigua and Barbuda.

I thank and commend all the volunteers and all the organisations that made Carnival 2005 come alive as the super success it turned out to be.

By all reports, Carnival 2005 was a peaceful and joyous love fest.

Only two persons were reported as victims of injuries at the hands of others in Carnival-related incidents.

Those injuries were considered minor.

Great credit for the safety and good order of this year's Carnival celebrations goes to the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Police Force.

The Police Force is now under the command of the first female Commissioner of Police in this part of the world, Ms. Delano Christopher.

For their sterling performance in ensuring a clean, safe and thoroughly enjoyable Carnival 2005, I salute our top cop and our recently restructured police high command, together with our police officers of all ranks.

I acknowledge the valuable role of our Defence Force in all of this.

Throughout the Carnival season, our soldiers remained at the ready, as ever present allies to our Police Force.

Last year, in response to a surge in incidents of persons committing crimes involving violence, or demonstrating a propensity to violence, the government introduced a number of legislative measures to aid law enforcement.

Those measures have proven to be of immense value to the society and to the safety of our citizens and residents.

They were manifestly a factor in the orderly conduct that we witnessed during the Carnival Season. Not surprisingly, the leadership of the Opposition party stridently opposed those measures.

The Opposition leadership will continue their calculated and dangerous tactic of attempting to legitimise criminal conduct as a justifiable response to the economic crunch that has resulted directly from the corruption, ineptitude and atrocious fiscal policies that the ALP inflicted on Antigua and Barbuda for decades.

The voices of gloom and doom and personal invectives continue to spew froth from Opposition quarters.

The day after Carnival, the voices of race hate and class confrontation were trumpeting their vile and venom.

They even went on the attack against Nigeria and that country's President, who visited Antigua on Tuesday.

It was most unfortunate that the lead voice in belittling the country from whence many of our ancestors came, and insulting the President of Nigeria was that of former diplomat who once represented Antigua and Barbuda at the highest international level.

Any goodwill expressed by the Voices of Hate and False Witnessing seems to be reserved for the lawless in our society.

While our opponents would coddle criminals, the Sunshine Government recognises an obligation to respond to challenges to public peace and safety with serious measures.

In any event, the selection of Antigua as the venue for the Inter American Human Rights forum this week is fresh acknowledgement of the regard in which the international community has held this country since March 23, last year.

Over the past sixteen months, Antigua and Barbuda has distinguished itself for good governance and for our landmark enhancement of individual entitlement for all citizens.

Acknowledgement for this also comes from the UNDP.

The regional office of the UNDP is voluntarily providing funding for a programme to advance institutional mechanisms for good governance in Antigua and Barbuda.

These mechanisms support the implementation of our Freedom of Information Act; our Integrity in Public Life Act; and our Prevention of Corruption Act.

The United Progressive Party introduced this landmark trilogy of integrity and citizen entitlement legislation in our seventh month in Government.

These measures will ultimately contribute to improving the standard of living and enhancing the quality of life the Antiguan and Barbudan people will enjoy.

Under previous administrations, large amounts of money that should have gone to providing public services to the population were diverted to the pockets of high government officials and their accomplices.

The new integrity laws and the new standards of governance that the UPP administration has brought into force are meant to make sure that the diversion of funds from the state to private pockets are a thing of the past.

I have already declared my position on such matters quite categorically.

There can be no compromise with integrity in my administration. Corruption is a cancer that can rapidly spread from occasional to endemic.

Corruption in public life should therefore be cauterized at the very first symptom.

This country, more than any other, must permit no compromise on the strongest possible measures to prevent corruption.

That dismal legacy of the deposed dynasty must never again be permitted to surface in Antigua and Barbuda.

With all of this, it is perhaps appropriate for me to now acknowledge a particular debt of gratitude to Opposition commentators.

Every day, on their Hate Radio station, they publicly lament the lengthening period since their loss of power, on Judgment Day, March 23, 2004.

On this score, it is generally believed that the Opposition leadership's wailing and the gnashing of their teeth is destined to be an unrelieved condition for a very long time.

At any rate, that condition is expected to extend well beyond the five-year time line of the first term of the Sunshine Government.

Back, however, to my declaration of gratitude to the Sunshine Government's Loyal Opposition.

On Friday, the day before yesterday, Opposition front-liners reminded the world - and they reminded yours truly - that Antigua and Barbuda had completed the first 500 days of Government in the Sunshine.

The Opposition's daily count of the tenure of the Sunshine Government reveals the burning obsession of the leadership of that group over their loss of the power that the Antiguan and Barbuda people wrested from them 502 days ago.

They focus on the passing days of the calendar in the way that a convicted felon serving a long sentence marks off the days on the wall of his cell.

The Opposition leadership is fixated on the projected date of the next General Election.

Their return to power by the next election is the principal concern of the collaborators in the dynasty that appears convinced that governing Antigua and Barbuda is the exclusive birthright of a single family.

As I say this, I can imagine Antiguans and Barbudans all over the world, and friends of our country, reacting to that proposition with one sentiment:

"Perish the thought, they must all face justice!"

Though the UPP administration shares this sentiment, we insist on being meticulous and deliberate in ensuring due process as justice takes its course.

That course is inexorable. Justice for those guilty of crimes against the state and against the people is as sure as the sun will rise.

This reference to Sir MacLean Emmanuel's prophetic verse, brings this grand master of the art of calypso's counsel this Carnival to mind.

With profound wisdom and with all-embracing effect, Short Shirt brought clarity to those clamoring for instant solution to every problem with a chorus of three words, eleven letters.

"It takes time."

Another titan in the Calypso art form continued to dominate the competitive arena in Carnival 2005.

With no such tolerance, with little charity, and with unforgettable impact, Queen Ivena conquered all comers, male and female, on her way to her fifth Queen of Calypso victory and her third consecutive Calypso Monarch triumph.

Ivena's achievement is without precedent and without parallel.

She has gone where no calypsonian, no performer, has gone before.

Ivena is richly deserving of national recognition appropriate for a woman who, in tandem with composer, consistently delivers socio-political commentaries that rank with anything any other Antiguan woman, Jamaica Kincaid included, has produced.

With all of this, the Sunshine Government is proceeding with other dominant priorities.

It is perhaps fitting that we reflect, today, on the decisive difference the Sunshine Government has made in our first 500 day semester.

Our overriding concern continues to be that we so govern Antigua and Barbuda as to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number of our citizens.

We have been doing this on very limited resources in an economy decimated by our predecessors.

To intensify the financial crisis created by the disastrous policies of the previous administration, a significant portion of the country's revenue streams were long ago committed to servicing portions of the close to $3 Billion debt left by the ALP.

In the circumstances, we had no option but to proceed with the re-introduction of personal income tax.

However, it's so structured to exempt a targeted 75% of all income earners from paying any personal income tax.

Together with this, we slashed the rate of consumption tax on dozens of staple food items and other high volume consumer products.

We have significantly increased the base rate of old age pensions.

We are providing all school children with free uniforms.

The Opposition derided this initiative.

Parents welcome it.

In a programme that will ultimately serve the bulk of the schools population, every day, starting next month, the Sunshine Government will begin to supply thousands of nutritionally balanced meals to children in a number of government schools.

We kept our promise in delivering Christmas Gift Barrels at a $1.00 a barrel to thousands of families.

In the face of major increases in the price of oil over the past year, the Government has provided subsidies amounting to millions of dollars to hold down the price of gasoline and diesel fuel at the pumps.

This, however, can no longer be sustained and we can expect some adjustment in prices almost immediately.

We have commenced road improvements across the nation and this will intensify over the coming months.

Work on the completion of the construction of the Mount St. John Hospital will commence shortly, with a soft loan from the Exim Bank of the People's Republic of China.

In a related matter, let me publicly recognize the significant voluntary work being done by the group of patriotic Antiguans and Barbudans in the refurbishing of the Holberton Hospital.

The government owes them a debt of gratitude and promises to work closely with them in accomplishing the task of significantly upgrading Holberton. In a matter of weeks, my government in partnership with the government of the People's Republic of China will break ground for the construction of the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in time for World Cup Cricket 2007.

The Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium is another gift to the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda from our friend the People's Republic of China. My government cherishes the excellent relationship with China and will continue to develop strong ties.

Barbuda is now better equipped with essential facilities than ever before in our country's history.

For the first time, the MP for Barbuda is a Minister in the Sunshine Government.

In another first, he was a member of the Antigua and Barbuda delegation at the recent CARICOM Summit.

We have just completed a new facility for vendors in downtown St. John's.

We have brought the Deep Water Harbour up to full compliance with new international standards for port and ships security.

We have retained international consultants for the VC Bird Airport development project, which is now underway.

To protect jobs and air services, we continue to contribute to keeping LIAT aloft.

In 2004, in a very challenging globalised trade environment, the Antigua and Barbuda economy achieved a 4% level of growth that was second only to oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago.

To protect revenue streams, we have suspended discretionary Duty Free Concessions.

A measure of the impact of such concessions on the economy is that in the month preceding last year's elections duty free warrants for the importation of some 1,000 vehicles were issued by the last administration.

We have begun to pay the country's debt to governments and institutions across the globe, and Antigua and Barbuda is steadily winning acceptance and respect in regional and international affairs.

More and more, our counsel and involvement is sought on regional and global issues.

On top of all the Sunshine Government has achieved in our first 500 days, the 2005 Carnival Spectacular was icing on the cake for Antigua and Barbuda.

We look forward, now, to an equally successful Independence Homecoming Festival in a couple of months.

I look forward to welcoming back many times the numbers that came home for Independence last year.

All can look forward to continuing progress in the next 500 days, and the next 5,000 days, of Government in the Sunshine.

I am Baldwin Spencer, your Chief Servant.

Thank you for joining me today for this edition of Action Agenda

Until next time, may God be with you and your loved ones.

May God continue to bless our beloved Antigua and Barbuda.