“There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. Good pride represents our dignity and self respect. Bad pride is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” (John C. Maxwell).
Pride is defined as “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.”
Anguillians have always been looked upon as a people who time forgot. In his book, “In A Crowded Barracoon,” V.S. Naipaul wrote an article in which he referred to us as “Anguilla: A Shipwrecked Community.” While I thought the article, was condescending,
I thought it did offer some positive aspects of the Anguillian diaspora.
It has been almost fifty years since that article was written and, given from whence we came, we are still unsure of where it is that we are going. A perusal of the literature suggests that we are a passive people, prone to believe what the party line gives us. The children of God roamed around the desert for the simple reason that they were ungrateful after being delivered from bondage and became distrustful of their leader. They were not quite ready for what was on the other side. Like the Israelites, we too, have been delivered from a very oppressive central government, and we too like the Israelites, have been wandering for over 40 years with nary a light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe there is something to Naipaul’s assertion after all, for we seem to be stuck in a time warp. We’ve had good intentioned leaders and I’m sure at some point or another each, in his own way, thought he did what was best for the country. That being said, we still find ourselves woefully wanting the bare necessities of everyday living. Everything is way too expensive and those charged with getting things going again are all talk and no action. All one has to do is listen to our very talented calypsonians to know what is, or isn’t, going on on the rock.
Times have changed. The world has changed. No longer must we be satisfied to act as though we do in fact live like a shipwrecked community. Do you know what it means to be called a shipwrecked community? We’ve all read Robinson Crusoe, and we have a general idea of what being shipwrecked entails. Because they see us as a shipwrecked community, doesn’t mean that we have to accept that designation – in fact it should be quite the contrary. We are talented and bright, and with the right push we can all be proud of our accomplishments which leads me to pose the question: Why are we settling for less? We seem to have forgotten that 1958 petition which simply said: “a people cannot live without hope for long without erupting socially.”
Despite what we may have thought about Bradshaw, he had a vision for his people which, at one time or another, included us though, in retrospect, his actions said something else. A book by Whitman T. Browne reveals that the paltry sums that were doled out for Anguilla were actually designated by the British Government, but that still doesn’t change the fact that he could have done quite a bit more than he actually did. Till the day he died in 1978, he fought with the so-called plantocracy who basically kept Kittitians living in squalor, on a very meager wage, and under sub-human conditions. As a matter of fact conditions were so bad that here is how they were described by Harold Innis (1983): “The social conditions prevailing in St. Kitts were deplorable. The standard of housing was poor. In Basseterre where the majority of the population lived, hovels were densely packed together in areas such as Irish Town and New Town.” Bradshaw fought for better wages and better living conditions. Unfortunately, none of his fight was applied to help us.
While we did not face a plantocracy in Anguilla, we face a similar problem with those investors who come to our shores to do business. It is easily understandable that when one invests his or her money, he/she expects to get an excellent return on the said investment, but investors should not be the only ones benefitting from those returns. True, their investment has provided jobs for the people, but when our people don’t participate in the plentiful returns then that’s not a win win situation – and when those employees are making a paltry $3.50 per hour, that’s more like indentured servitude. Sharecroppers had a better deal.
An editorial which appeared in this paper on September 7th challenged those who do business on our shores, those who have benefited quite handsomely from our choicest pieces of land and beaches, to do more to help us out. While the editorial goes on to say that some investors have pitched in and helped out, we still have a long way to go. Not only will they benefit from a productive Anguilla, so will we. And though I don’t think that we ought to be begging these people for anything, I join with the editorial page in saying that it’s high time that these mega corporations, which reap untold wealth from our island, begin to give back.
These are issues that an astute government ought to be on top of. We continue to go along to get along and that is totally unacceptable. We see people losing the will to go out and look for a job simply because there are no jobs to be had. In the 70’s and 80’s, the population of Nevis was drastically impacted simply because there were no jobs to be had and so people started to leave. Granted, Bradshaw may have had something to do with that , but the fact remains that people left in droves. In Anguilla, we find ourselves in an untenable situation, one in which we never know from one day to the next what will happen. A similar thing is happening to us. Our young people are moving away in droves. If one didn’t know better, one would swear that the loss of our young people to foreign shores might very well be intentional.
We are a British Overseas Territory and as such is governed by a constitution that we, as a people, had nothing to do with. It has taken away quite a bit of what we initially acquired in the 1976 constitution. It wreaks of our leaders not knowing what we really had and, through bad horse-trading, managed to be outsmarted by the British Foreign Office. Remember, Sparrow in his “English Society” pointed out that Britain won a war through small talk. Colville Petty in his book, “Where there is a Will, There is a Way,” made the assertion that the constitution was written without any input from Anguillians. While it may have looked like we went forward, in reality we gave up quite a bit from the 1976 constitution. It is also the general consensus that the 1982 constitution didn’t provide nearly enough protections. We took one step forward and two steps backward. I can still recall the headlines in the major newspapers: Anguilla turns back the clock. I guess you can say we opted for the lesser of two evils. We were given ministerial government without having been fully versed in the art of such. Don Mitchell, in one of his many articles on the topic, contends we were sheepherders and fisherman tasked with the job of running a government.
Whitman Browne made a very astute observation that: “As far as the new indigenous people on the islands were concerned, Britain did transfer the forms of its governmental institutions to the area. But it did not commit itself to the substance and the spirit of democracy.” He went on to say that: “For centuries British ethnocentrism, European racism, and the greed for wealth and power which fostered slavery, continued to pervert the dominated people’s being.”
Is it any wonder then that, here we are almost fifty years later, still haggling over constitutional and electoral reform. America went to war with Great Britain over the issue of taxes. “No taxation without representation” was the battle cry. I’m not advocating that we go to war with Great Britain, but I think, an article which appeared in the Guernsey Press entitled “Bloated House of Lords, but still no voice for Crown Dependencies” – in which the editorial listed 3 key points: 1.UK Prime Minister’s House of Lords appointments damaging to British democracy. 2. Effect will be felt on Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories. 3. Need for such jurisdictions to have representation in the House of Lords and later in the House of Commons – is cause for concern.
It appears that Prime Minister Cameron has come under fire for several appointments to the House of Lords that will have a direct effect on Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories. The PM was accused of affronting democracy and bringing disrepute on the British Parliament. He is being accused of exhibiting behavior similar to that of a king who feels that he can do whatever he likes simply because he doesn’t care for he has said that this is his last term as PM.
Well if the Prime Minister does not care, we should find that very worrisome for it does indeed affect us. Here’s why: Firstly, because the Queen plays a constitutional role in all such jurisdictions. The Crown means the UK government, and granting membership to members of the House of Lords by the PM means that the status of the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories becomes more diminished and less autonomous.
The report goes on to say that despite the fact that the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories all have their own systems of government, and their own PM equivalents, they are all represented on defense and foreign policy by the British Government – and whatever happens the British Government is ultimately responsible for their good governance, and whatever happens with the British Parliamentary democracy in some way affects them. The British Government is ultimately responsible for their good governance and that that right has never been challenged.
What happens in both Houses of the UK Parliament will ultimately affect the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories in varying degrees. The report says unlike other countries such as France, which have overseas territories representation in both Houses of Parliament, the United Kingdom still has not brought in similar rights for the British Overseas Territories voices to be heard, and it appears that the Brits did not learn anything from past history. So why do you think we have no representation in the Parliament? Is it because we’re invisible, or maybe we don’t deserve to be heard? When do we stop pussyfooting around?
So it boils down to simply this: We are being represented by people who in some cases don’t even know that we exist, much less where we are. It is amazing that each set of Dependencies falls under a different form of constitutional procedure. Both the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies, with populations of 350,000 and 290,000, are all denied representatives on affairs which the UK Parliament and the UK Government decide for them.
The UK faces a myriad of problems or situations, and so do we. They have a system in which they’re forced to respond. We have a Westminster model which at this time is woefully inadequate. We have issues such as the banking problem which has been allowed to drag on and on. In light of what the initial reason was for the hijacking of our two indigenous banks, the fact remains that nothing has been done. Our Chief Minister who also happens to be our Minister of Finance, and Chairman of the Monetary Council, has been all but missing in action. Rumor has it that the banks are likely to be combined and, if that were to happen, it would create a monopoly which in turn gives Anguillians less options. It was nice to see our House adopt a resolution, brought forward by the Honorable member of the opposition, Ms. Webster, for the establishment of a Committee to deal with the banking situation. Hopefully, this is the catalyst that will get this thing resolved.
It is time that we restore the pride as one of the guests on the Mayor Show on KOOL FM admonished us to last Saturday. In order to do that, we have to be willing to work for the good of the rock, the rock that we were willing to die for. We have to demonstrate that we are all on the same page. The reticence with which this government is operating causes one to wonder if it’s too early for buyers remorse.
John C. Maxwell says there are two kinds of pride, good and bad. Which one do we want to exemplify? The time has come for us to hold our heads up high once again. Too many of us sacrificed too much to be shut out of enjoying the fruits of our labor. We won’t get anywhere by just sitting and waiting. Let us renew the dream, the one we had back in 67, when we decided on self-determination. Let us go forward, with every ounce of strength that God gave us, and make this place proud once again. So until next time, may God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
