It has been a little over two months since the AUF cleaned up the opposition and swept into office. Alright, you’ve had time to savor your historical win – now it’s time to tell the people of Anguilla your plans for reversing this downward spiral that we have long been mired in. One can understand why we would be a little impatient right now. After all, you can’t blame us if we’re a little skittish for, as the old saying goes, “once bitten, twice shy.” You’ve taken your bows, your victory laps – now it’s time to get on with the business at hand, business I might add that is fraught with minefields which require a delicate balance between know how and action.
It is true that we didn’t get in this mess over night, and therefore it would be impractical to expect that we would get out of it in the same manner. However, that being said, given that the last administration failed on a consistent basis to enlighten us as to what they were doing on our behalf, one can understand why this time around we want to know.
For far too long we have been a very passive people who have simply gone along to get along. The time has come for us to get off our collective butts and assume an active role in our democracy. Last time out, we took the word of an administration that they would right the ship without us asking for, or seeing, specifics. I don’t like beating a dead horse, but we all know how buying a ‘pig in a poke’ turns out. We are very familiar with all of the clichés and, sometimes, they do come in handy.
As I’ve said, it has been a little more than two months since a new government has been installed, and we are still waiting to hear what’s on the agenda. Time is of the essence here. I agree that the new government needs a little time to get up to speed. What I don’t agree with is the silence that exists right now. I know for a fact that an invitation has been extended by the Mayor Show for representatives of the government to come on and outline their program. So far, we’ve not gotten a commitment.
Anguilla is once again at the crossroads of its national development, and when or how we move forward depends on those tasked with leading us out of this bog we find ourselves in. In an article written by Mr. Banks in the Spring 1994 edition of Anguilla Life Magazine called “A New Focus: Partnership and Participation For Financial Development,” he very clearly laid out a very ambitious plan for achieving such an objective. Even as far back as 1994, one had to be impressed with the foresight with which he planned to achieve the government’s stated goals – goals that would result in the improvement of the quality of life for all Anguillians.
Whether or not Mr. Banks’ plan was put into action, the fact of the matter is that we are still very much in dire straits. True, the downturn in the economy of 2008 affected everyone, and Anguilla was not immune to the trends that were taking place – and while just about everyone else dealt with their toxic assets we, as part of the Eastern Caribbean Banking System, are yet to deal with ours.
We live in perilous times as was borne out the other night, at the AME Church in South Carolina, USA, when a young 21-year-old white male walked into the church, sat with the pastor and other church members for about 45 minutes and then took out a gun and, in cold blood, shot and killed 9 of them. Now, no one is saying that something like that will never happen on our shores, but it should serve as a wake up call for us to stop and reflect on who we are as a people, what we are doing, and where is it that we want to go.
We now live at a time when the laws of man no longer seem to apply. Look at what is happening on the island nation of Hispaniola where thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent are being repatriated back to the land of their parents. As a Caribbean people, what are our responsibilities? Do we sit passively by and turn a blind eye? I’m reminded of a poem written by a German priest, Martin Niemoller, during the height of the Nazis rise to power. It said: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did nothing, because I wasn’t a Socialist, then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist, then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out, because I wasn’t a Jew and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” I ask the question again: what do we do? Who will speak for us? Do we turn a blind eye to the atrocities that are being committed against a people whose only crime is that they were born of the wrong parents? Do we just stand by and let a racist people bully the less fortunate whose only crime is that of having the wrong skin color? Did we forget that we have families in Santo Domingo?
Sunday morning, as I watched the first mass at the AME Church in Charlotte, South Carolina, since the Wednesday night attack, I was struck by the power of the church. It also became evident that the church still plays an important role in the lives of us all; and as the entire nation mourned for what has now come to be called “The Emanuel Nine,” it became obvious that the young man, whose name I will not even say here, did not achieve his stated goal of a race war. It is said that: “Evil triumphs when good folks do nothing.” Well, the good folks of Charlotte came out en masse to try and heal a very troubling wound. So I will ask the question once more: what shall we do for our Caribbean brothers and sisters? Do we remain silent, or do we raise hell? The minister in his sermon to his parishioners last Sunday morning, exhorted them to: “raise hell, but know why you’re raising hell.”
In Anguilla, we have the luxury of living in a democracy that guarantees us certain rights and privileges, but we should remember that once upon a time we were told what we could and couldn’t do. We fought to change that. When we could not support our families, we were fortunate enough to be let in to other people’s countries, thus allowing us to take care of our families. As a consequence, we have relatives all over the globe. Do we deny them their birthright when they finally show up to claim it? Somewhere it says live and let live. The good book says that we are our brother’s keeper. In Charlotte, in Haiti, in Santo Domingo, Beirut (Lebanon), and wherever else people are being persecuted for all the wrong reasons, do we turn a blind eye because it’s not our immediate problem? Is that what the good book intended when it asked us to be our brother’s keepers?
Folks, when a 21-year-old youth walks into a church and, in cold blood, slaughters nine innocent people during a bible lesson, we have to take stock and ask the question: how is this possible? What could possibly cause someone so young to be so bitter that he could plan and commit such a heinous act? Was it economics, or was it pure and simple hatred? Is this the new form of “Strange Fruit” that famed Blues singer Billie Holiday sang about over some fifty plus years – the new form of lynching? Rather than Black bodies swinging in the breeze, and strange fruit hanging from the from Poplar trees with blood on the leaves, and blood on the roots … sadly, it’s now Black bodies lying in the pews, with blood on the floor, Strange Fruit lying in the House of God… After he had committed his heinous act he had some parting words for the one person that he allowed to live. He said: “[Tell them] I’m tired of you raping our women, taking our jobs, you must go.”
“As a Caribbean people we are blessed.” So says the lyric of a famous calypso. The song then goes on to contrast our idyllic lifestyles with those of other regions in the world which must face the constant whistles of incoming shells and the rapid sound of gunfire. Are we truly blessed as a Caribbean people? Are we immune to what’s happening around us?
What’s going on? What do we do? Where are our elders, our pillars of strength? Who among us will come forward and take the mantle?
We are faced with many pressing issues, some of which affect our young people, and I’m afraid that they are beginning to feel left out of the process. We have to, as a people, teach our children and teach them well. They must be made to feel that they are an active participant in our democracy. In today’s Caribbean online newspaper, a letter was sent to the Editor in the hope of catching the eye of Grenada’s Prime Minister, Mitchell, begging him to help the teens of his country for they are being consumed by alcohol and petty crime for which they are being incarcerated in large numbers. These are wake up calls for us as a people. Let us learn from other people’s mistakes and try to avoid the pitfalls of others, for if we don’t do that then we have only ourselves to blame.
Now that the celebrating is over, in our beautiful island, the time has come for us to roll up our sleeves and get down to the work at hand. There is much to be done. The question is: who will step up and get it done? As we’ve seen, we are faced with many challenges, many of which require hard choices to be made. Do we have the cojones to make the tough calls? What are we going to tell those displaced folks on Hispaniola? Are we going to be isolationists, or are we going to let them know that this is wrong and totally unacceptable, and that we as a people stand with them, or do we simply wait till there is no one left to speak for us?
Remember, we in the Diaspora once depended on the goodwill of other people’s countries to survive, and I honestly believe that if ever there was a time that the golden rule was needed, that time is now. So let us do unto others as we’d have them do unto us. For as Rabbi Heschel says: “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” Who will take responsibility for this trend of behavior or, better still, who is to blame? Is it the church? Is it the family, the school, the law? Just who is it that’s responsible? In Romans 3:23 the bible says: “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”
When a people become disenfranchised, and it seems like there is no hope, the human psyche resorts to survival mode. When the status quo is being maintained on the backs of the less fortunate – those who made the sacrifices – anything is possible. If we are to be our brother’s keeper, then it’s up to us to stand up and be counted, for if we don’t we are just as bad as the oppressors – for when we remain silent, evil triumphs because we did nothing.
So now that the euphoria has worn off of the resounding victory at the polls, what do we do for an encore? A cursory perusal of the horizon will tell us that there is much to do. Are we up to the task? Can we make the hard choices? Do we have the intestinal fortitude to make the tough calls? Will we look out for our young people and guarantee that they will not become collateral damage? For in the long run “we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” (MLK). What’s the plan? You’ve taken your victory laps, now get on with the people’s business. Until next time, may God bless us all and may God continue to bless Anguilla.
