“If you want to know your past, look into your present condition. If you want to know your future, look into your present conditions” (Buddhist saying).
Simply stated, one’s present condition has as much to do with the past as it has to do with the future. And if our present condition is a precursor for the future, we in fact have an awful lot with which to be concerned. A wise person once said, in order to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been. That being said, we in Anguilla seem to have forgotten where we’ve been and much less where we’re going.
I sincerely believe it’s extremely important that we pause for a moment and reflect on where it is that we came from, for based on our actions of today all that we do is inconsistent with our history. Are we the same people who, when we were being encouraged to abandon our homeland, for parts unknown, chose to stay put? Are we the same people who, when we were faced with drought, disease, and every other calamity that one could think of, chose to stay and weather the storm? Are we the same people who when attacked not once or twice but three times, repelled our vastly superior opponents? Where is that spirit that we have ‘em right where we want ‘em attitude?
That we have to consistently remind ourselves of our origins is in itself an exercise in futility and that is the sad part. James Baldwin said: “Know from whence you came. If you know from whence you came, the possibilities for going forward are endless.” So why then do we consistently make the same stupid mistakes time and time again by returning the same despots to office all the while expecting different results? That’s Einstein’s definition of insanity. Are we masochists? Bob Marley said: “One day the bottom of the bucket will fall.”
In 1967 we found ourselves having to fight the fight of our lives for our right to self-determination. Our action came about because of our persistent requests to have a say in our own destiny. We had consistently written to anyone who would listen, everyone from the Governor of the Leeward Islands, to Queen Victoria herself, and all to no avail. And after about the fourth request to have us removed from the bondage, that we found ourselves subjugated to, we petitioned the Governor of the Leeward Islands that: “A people cannot live without hope for long without erupting socially.” And once again our cries would fall on deaf ears.
It would not be for another ten years and a series of events that we would actually take control of our destiny. This all came about through a series of antecedent events that set in motion our protector Great Britain’s plan to offer its former colonies Associated Statehood and had not the sole representative to the presidency of St. Kitts Nevis and Anguilla, Mr. Peter Adams’, access to a document which spelled out Britain’s plan for Statehood for the Tri-Island State, we in Anguilla would have been none the wiser of the U.K’s and Bradshaw’s plan for Statehood.
It’s been well documented, most notably by historians Colville Petty and Nat Hodge, the events which followed, starting with the Queen Show on that fateful night at The Valley Secondary School, and the bedlam that ensued all the way up to that fateful day when Britain shocked the world community and invaded a sovereign country that they were tasked to protect – who wanted nothing more than to have a say in their own destiny. Granted, there were many trials and tribulations, betrayals and anything that could possibly happen, but through it all we were resolute and focused and, throughout, kept our eyes on the prize – that of our own self-determination.
Whether or not we achieved self-determination remains to be seen for we have made some decisions, and, done some things, that are highly questionable and, frankly, were not by any stretch of the imagination in our best interests.
Our real trouble would seem to have started with the introduction of ministerial government, for we were handed the keys to a very sophisticated piece of equipment with lots of moving parts, but without an operations manual. Here we were, an island of some 6500 residents, being given this newfangled toy with which to play without knowing the benefits and dangers of the said toy. To their credit, Britain did transfer the forms of its governmental institutions to the islands, “but did not commit itself to the substance and spirit of democracy,” (Browne).
Don Mitchell in his walls without borders seems to have summed it up beautifully when he said that: “We stepped off into comparative self-government on the wrong foot.” He goes on to say that: “It would be completely mean and insulting for us to pour scorn on our forefathers of the nation. But the truth is that the fishermen and goat herders who were the fathers of our nation had little formal education and no grounding in the principles of good governance. The British completely failed to introduce such notions, the result of which was inevitable.” And while I disagree with Mr. Mitchell in his characterization of our people, I will however point out that there were those fully capable of running the government – the problem was a lack of consensus in which way the country should go.
We seem to have this sense of entitlement: “I born here.” This nationalistic attitude seems to be the fare of the day. And according to Mitchell, is it used as a justification for bad behavior, for as he puts it: a qualification for a job and a justification for an unwillingness to pay taxes and hospital fees. “No one can tell me what to do with my property” has triumphed over the introduction of planning laws. We remember the uproar over the planning Bill some years back, so much so that the AUF fearing a backlash quickly shelved the Bill.
Our 50-year history has shown nothing but bad politics and is it any wonder, then, that we now find ourselves right back where we started, only this time the stakes are a lot higher, and this time we find ourselves at the mercy of a government that doesn’t seem to be up to the task at hand. So that being said, what is it from our past that determines our present condition? Is it the fact that we are too independent, that we are too xenophobic, that we don’t take advice very well? What is it that determines our present condition? Is it greed and avarice, is it envy, or is it, as Mr. Mitchell points out, that we have found ourselves with this newfangled toy that we are totally unqualified for and are incapable of operating, or, is it every man for himself and God for us all?
What is it? Is it that we, as someone pointed out on the radio the other night, settle for whatever is given to us? Where are the people of ’67, who when they were told we would have to accept Associated Statehood as part of Bradshaw’s St. Kitts Nevis and Anguilla, told Bradshaw what he could do with his Associated Statehood? Where is that spirit?
We were a people who were basically shipwrecked according to V.S.Naipaul. We had to fend for ourselves. We were so backward that we didn’t even know that there were some things that couldn’t be done. Did that hold us back? No, it didn’t. It just helped to strengthen our resolve to go forward. When my father took the Excelsior to Curacao with nothing more than a sexton, did he know that it had never been done and it couldn’t be done? No. And not only did he do it – he got there within hours of his estimated arrival time.
Anguillians have always been a people who found a way to get things done. When no one came to our shores, we built our own ships and sailed up and down the Caribbean plying our wares. When no airlines came to our shores, we founded our own – Valley Air Service and Anguilla Airways.
When no one would lend us money, we went ahead and founded not one but two indigenous banks. We became the talk of the Caribbean. We were the gold standard by which others measured themselves. Everywhere you went, there was an Anguillian-owned aircraft touching down, flown by Anguillian pilots. We have since, either through greed or that crab in the barrel mentality, managed to marginalize ourselves to where we are now considered our own worst enemy. Gone are our many ships that plied the waters of the Caribbean, gone are the indigenous airlines, and slowly going are the local merchants whom we grew up with – and of course gone are the two indigenous banks that we as a people built.
So with regard to our present circumstances, how did we get here? That is the question that everyone ought to be asking of the powers that be. A democracy, especially one such as ours, one that is a representative democracy, requires that the people be involved. Ours is not a dictatorship as some have suggested, myself included. Ours is based on a system of checks and balances which includes all three branches of government: the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. All three should work in concert to assure that good governance is the end result.
Well, needless to say, that isn’t the case, for we find ourselves now worse off than ever before – and the sad thing is that our governments, not just this one, have all contributed to our impending demise as a people. For when you have laws that are being rammed down our throats to our detriment, when we have our leader saying that we might have to settle for second class citizenship at the same time that he was praising the Father of the Nation, a man I might add, who rescued the said CM from the obscurity of packing boxes in a New York warehouse, to be a part of his government only to be stabbed in the back, and now to listen to him talk nonsense about accepting second class citizenship in our own country is a bit too much.
