A common expression often heard among our island folk and recorded in our cultural history, especially with reference to Anguillian seafarers, is that the “sea is in our blood”. Our people, young and old, like all others elsewhere, enjoy splashing, frolicking, swimming and diving in the sea, boating up and down on it and eating sumptuously in homes, restaurants, hotels and villas of the abounding, varied and appetising marine life it offers. Yet how infinitely treacherous and disastrous the sea can become in seconds, resulting in the drowning death of loved ones, and tortuous moments of unparalleled grief for families and friends!
The examples of this type of misery, caused by persons being lost at sea inAnguilla, have been all too frequent and painful over the years. Every timesomething like that happens, it opens new wounds of grief and melancholy. While there has been an abundance of relief that two abled-bodied fishermen, Claude Richardson and George Romney of Blowing Point, were rescued several days ago, it is a matter of profound sadness that the eldest of them, Cecil Edwards (Kitto), a live-wire and likeable personality of Sandy Ground, remains lost at sea. His memory,and the fact that his body has not been recovered, will be a haunting experience for his family and friends who would normally like to see closure to that ordeal. Maybe a church service or some other form of comforting remembrance can help, but the void will unfortunately continue until, perhaps, the passage of time provides “a Balm inGilead”.
Safety at sea is forever a matter that cannot be taken lightly. It is with this is mind that fishermen and their families inAnguillaowe a debt of gratitude to Social Security for its contribution in purchasing and delivering a quantity of safety equipment for fishermen as a group. Interestingly, giving donations from this source involves every contributor to the System and so whatever gratitude the donation may engender, it must be extended to all contributors as well.
It was very skillful marketing by Social Security, at the presentation ceremony, not just to appeal to the members of the fishing community to become involved in the System to get the benefits it offers to self-employed persons, but to have actually distributed contribution forms to them on the spot. They appeared to have been keenly interested and probably, pretty soon, there may be a number of new contributors.
We salute our fishermen who, over the years, have braved ouroften turbulent waters, travelling great distances to the limits of our fishing grounds and returning with large catches of fish to satisfy the needs, and sometimes gluttonous demands, of the local market. Some of them, either due to insufficient personal funds, or downright carelessness, have been going to sea without radios, life-jackets and other safety equipment, a silly and daring practice which has been to their disadvantage and risk. They must take all possible steps to see about protecting their own safety, while also benefiting from the equipment which Social Security has now provided.
Our fishermen will always have the prayers of their dependent people behind them. Nothing comes to mind so fitting, in terms of their protection at sea,than the wording of the powerful hymn “Eternal Father Strong To Save”, commonly referred to as the “Navy Hymn”, which has undergone much revision to broaden the scope of its application. In times of national and personal anguish and despair, it has brought much comfort to countless seafarers and their families. But when there is some tangible contribution towards that type of spiritual support, like the contribution of safety equipment from Social Security, it is also really something to be thankful for.
It is a costly and timely gesture by Social Security “for those in peril on the sea” (a phrase from the above hymn), and the statutory body must be complimented for its continued liberal contributions to various causes related to national and social development. This is especially so when one considers that, with the continued severe unemployment on the island, contributions by workers have sharply declined.
It is hoped that economic recovery and job creation would soon rebound in order, once again, that Social Security can have the level of intake of contributions it needs to function effectively and to continue its social development work in Anguilla.
