Earlier this year, I made the assertion that the above phrase has been the rallying cry for politicians and scientists alike, from the Kennedy Brothers to Naradev Sarno. I further contended that if ever there was a time when we might use it, as our rallying cry, that time would be now. Well, I still stick to my assertion, so much so, because we now find ourselves in a place which requires us to act. Since I wrote that essay we, as Anguillians, have been given some news, both good and bad. First, the good news: We now know when our elections will actually be held. It’s no longer the Chief Minister’s secret as it had been for quite some time. And now for the bad news: It appears that it’s once again “silly time” in Anguilla. Who can believe some of the stupid and ill thought out things that are going on right now. We finally know when the election will happen, but what we find to be distasteful is the rash of objections to certain individuals being able to exercise their constitutional right to cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice. This is so hypocritical. Sam, let me ask you this? Would you contest their right to vote if you thought they were going to vote for your brother? Remember this: what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander. If this is how you plan to win an election, good luck. I’ll tell you what, though, the cream always rises to the top.
That being said, there are lots of issues facing our tiny paradise and, until these are addressed, we are simply conducting an exercise in futility. With the impending election now slated for the 22nd of April, one is forced to ask the question, was all this really necessary? The answer from a rational thinking person would be a resounding no, this was really not necessary. There are so many things that need to happen, that whoever wins the election, and is tasked with forming the government that will govern for the next five years, will indeed have to hit the bricks running and that’s why now, more than ever, we the people of Anguilla need to put country above self. I say, again, country above self because for far too long we’ve looked out only for ourselves.
We are in crisis mode and there are those out there who are saying that we’re in good shape. Right now we face the distinct possibility that our kids will have a much more difficult time than we had to endure and we remember what we had to endure. I don’t get it that, after all this time, after some forty odd years, we’re still not quite sure what it is that we want, or what it is that we’re doing. We have slowly disassociated ourselves from that which made us unique. It’s as though we’re embarrassed by who we are. We fail to properly recognize those who got us to this place. We constantly hear from the usual suspects that you don’t live here, so what do you know. That is a cop out and those of you who spout that rhetoric know full well that you’re being intellectually dishonest.
Not only are you being intellectually dishonest, you’re also being hypocritical. You lambast us coming from Island Harbour. You say that we live in the States, implying that we don’t have the right to claim that we’re Anguillians. How dare you, sir, and I use the word sir, loosely. Where were you when my father Walter Hodge, Atlin Harrigan, John Webster, Ronald Webster, Bob Rogers and the rest of the heroes of the revolution (which by the way the man that you constantly find yourself defending called a skirmish) were trying to get us to this place – and you have the gall to try and chastise us? You need to stop and keep your mouth shut if you don’t know what you’re talking about and, by the way, your esteemed leader picked a man from Island Harbour to head his party, what do you have to say about that? He also lives in the United States. How’s he different from those of us that you consistently call out, eh?
Well, given where we are right now, the uncertainty, and the deliberate and contemptuous manner in which we’ve been treated, by this government, begs the question, what’s one to think? We have to insure that we’re never to find ourselves in this place ever again. We need responsible leadership, one that will see to it that all the safeguards, checks and balances are put in place. This time around we need representatives who truly care about Anguilla, not about a pension check. We need leadership that will see to it that our kids are properly educated, that they have proper healthcare, that we all have sustainable wages and salaries, that our people are able to save, and not live from paycheck to paycheck. We need to have leadership that will see to it that our economy is diversified. We need leadership that will make sure that we benefit from our natural resources – leadership that will see to it that we are getting all the necessary monies that are due us (our hospitality taxes); that our people are fairly treated in the work place; leadership that will remove the levy and not add VAT. I know it’s a tall order, but then no one said it would be easy, and that is why it will take someone with the wherewithal, the compassion, the temperament, the intellectual bandwidth and, most of all, the will to make the hard choices.
We are tasked with extricating ourselves from this bog that we find ourselves mired in. As I’ve said many times before, we came out of the starting gates in a way that would have made Zharnell Hughes proud but, somewhere along the way, we started to believe our own publicity and therefore started to behave like the grasshopper and not the ant and, as a result, we’re now suffering the consequences of not having a vision of where we’re going, much less a plan on how to get there. Marcel Fahie puts it more succinctly in a piece he wrote for the first annual Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Social Security Board, called: “Looking Ahead To Anguilla At The Dawn of The 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities,” in which he made the assertion that we had achieved significant development during a 20-year period to which he referred as a façade of prosperity – meaning a “false appearance.” He went on to say that he viewed our prosperity as extremely fragile because it was nowhere close to being sustainable at the time.
Mr. Fahie pointed out several reasons for his assertion that our economy was fragile, among them: the significant number of businesses not being financially robust and healthy; the high incidence of seasonality in the tourist industry resulting in a low annual occupancy rate of around 40%; and a tax base that was not large and strong enough to support a level of government tax revenue, sufficient to fund Government’s recurrent and capital expenditures on a sustained basis including the financing of borrowing. Another reason that he listed for our fragile economy was that we didn’t, and still don’t, have an adequate infrastructure – needed for sustained development – fully in place, most notably in the areas of public water supply, port and airport facilities, public electricity supply and roads. He concluded his assertions by saying that the economy was fragile because the industrial relations climate was tense and a greater harmony and a sense of partnership were needed.
It has been argued by many and most notably by the late Vivien Vanterpool, writing in Anguilla 40, that Anguilla’s social growth did not keep pace with its economic growth. Mr. Fahie listed several reasons for this, among them: lack of harmony in the industrial sector, paralleled by increasing social dislocation, a gradual rise in crime, erosion of traditional values, the weakening of roles of traditional institutions, notably the Family, the Church and the School, a marked increase in delinquent and inappropriate behavior and a general coarsening of manners and the erosion of civility.
This is what Mr. Fahie said some sixteen years ago, words that have turned out to be prophetic. We still stand at the threshold of the 21st century trying to find our way and we have yet to do any of the things that Mr. Fahie said needed to happen if we are to go forward as a successful and prosperous nation. He listed a number of challenges that we faced then and still do – challenges such as a lack of sustainable development, a fashioning of our political culture, true to the noble qualities of our forefathers, one that allows Anguillians whether native born or migratory to develop a sense of pride, loyalty and patriotism that puts the interest of country over that of self interest. Also, he challenged us to focus our energies on the issues of social development to provide opportunity for those who would otherwise fall through the cracks, to limit the negative impacts of economic development and recognize the human, civil, political, economic and social rights of all the people who inhabit this Rock.
The late Bob Marley, in one of his songs, tells us that: “Each One Teach One.” As I’ve said earlier, this was the initial offering for the Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture Series, a series that later had such luminaries like the late Dame Bernice Lake, Don Mitchell QC and the late Dr. Lincoln V. Lewis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, and so on. What this series did was to capture Anguilla at a point in time, and offered a snapshot of where we were as a country, and where we needed to go. The Hughes Administration did not see the need to continue the series, and so because Social Security sponsored the event, they discontinued the sponsorship. Knowledge is power and when you deprive your people of that knowledge, it speaks volumes about who and what your priorities are. We, of course, know what they are. For someone who professed to love Anguilla, your actions have been contrary to your words.
Mr. Fahie closed with an admonition and a challenge actually: “We must care for our environment, manage it for our present generations without destroying it for the use of future generations. We are challenged to keep the lessons of our history before us and to be reminded from whence we came, to teach present and future generations what it is to be Anguillian, the essence of traditional Anguillian Character and why we need to hold on to the values that have distinguished us over the past.”
He said we can learn from our neighbors’ mistakes while our situation is still manageable. Remember Churchill said: “When the situation was manageable, it was neglected and now that it is thoroughly out of hand, we apply too late the remedies which might have affected a cure.” Are we up to the challenge?
So there it is. We face the daunting task of trying to right the ship. It will require hard work and dedication, a person with a “heightened sense of purpose,” the words used by President Barak Obama at the dedication of the Edward Kennedy Institute in which he concluded with a phrase often used by the late senator: “Dream and say why not?” So let’s elect our leaders who will not only “Dream and say why not,” but do so with a “sense of purpose.”
On the 22nd of April, let us all go to the polls and vote our conscience. Let us choose those people that we, in our minds, know are best qualified to take us to the next level. This is not for the feint of heart. The time has come to answer the question: “If not us, then who, if not now, when?” We know what needs to be done. We have proven time after time, when our backs were against the wall, that we had the wherewithal to come through so, before I go, let me again quote the 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, when he admonished his people to: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country?” And so again my Anguillian brothers and sisters, what are you going to do for your country? In the meantime, may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
