“Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad” (Greek Playwright).
It is with trepidation that I put pen to paper, for it appears that we all have lost the will to reason. Everything that is needed to be said has been said – and all that is left now is a call to action. What will happen next is anyone’s guess. When leaders have been chosen to lead and they’ve done everything to the contrary, then it is time to remove those leaders by whatever means necessary.
In that the only recourse that we have is the ballot box, waiting another three and one half years is not a luxury we can’t afford. We do not have in place the mechanism by which to remove a leader short of catching him or her in the most heinous of crimes, so the only other option is civil disobedience and, by that I mean, a total shut down of the country with all that such action entails.
When a government ceases to function the way that it should, then it is time for that government to go, for what is being done in the name of good governance right now is nothing more than high crimes against the Anguillian people – and the fact that we have stood silently by, on the sidelines, makes us complicit, and our own worst enemy.
As we look at the events of the past six and a half years, we are facing a constant reminder of the incompetent, and some may say cavalier manner in which our governments have operated.
The purpose of a government is to look out for the well being of its constituents – to do for them what they can’t do for themselves. In other words to see to it that we have in place an infrastructure that serves all, not just a chosen sector, a police force to ensure the public safety of all and so on.
That being said, it is also incumbent on a government that it does nothing to the detriment of its people. That cannot be said about our government in Anguilla, for we have seen them do one stupid thing after another, starting with the closing of the two indigenous banks, to its latest foray in which it is about to forgive a major tax debt of a hotel operator – money that is owed to the Anguillian people. From there it has been one thing after another, as we stood by and asked much, to our chagrin, just what in the world is going on? It was as if you stood by and watched as your child ran out in the street in front of an oncoming vehicle while you could do nothing.
We have marched and picketed, held unity rallies, written newspaper articles, had discussions on the radio and all to no avail.
We have gone from a people once considered a shipwrecked community to being the gold standard by which our Caribbean brothers and sisters measure themselves. We were those people who, when no one would visit our shores, built our own ships and plied our wares from Hispaniola to the north to Venezuela in the south. We at one time or another had more pilots than anyone else. Everywhere you looked an Anguillian-owned aircraft was touching down somewhere.
It is said that when you are given lemons, you make lemonade. Long left for dead, we had no choice but to make lemonade out of the lemons that we were left with. We were fortunate enough to have inherited, one way or the other, what makes us unique today. We are unlike anyone else anywhere in the world in that we are landowners. Of the 22,400 acres of land on Anguilla, 95% of which is owned by we, the people, makes us different and this is a known fact, which also makes it that much harder to understand why our government would behave in a way that’s not conducive to our well being right now.
All of our governments have been guilty of some bonehead move that ultimately cost us, but the latest action by the Victor Banks led government is a head scratcher. Mr. Banks informed the lone opposition member that he was proposing to give the operators of Cap Juluca a seventeen million EC dollar tax break, knowing full well that she would be off island the same time as the Governor, and would not be there to at least debate the issues.
Folks, Victor’s rationale for giving the Hickoxes this seventeen million dollar tax break makes no sense. They are about to walk away with a hefty sum of money in addition to our tax money – money that is owed to us, and Victor has the gall to say that we will make twelve to fifteen mil on the sale, and that’s just a hypothetical. His justifications for making this deal just do not add up. Again the only people who are going to benefit from this deal are the lawyers who are negotiating it.
While we listen to Victor try and justify his bad policies, we can’t allow him to continue to disrespect us. He feels that he’s home free with what he’s done with the banks and, as long as we do nothing about it, he will get away with the largest heist of Anguillian wealth. He used us to justify closing the banks and he’s doing it all over again to sell his Cap Juluca deal. He brings up the fact that the Anguillians will lose their jobs if Mr. Hickox does not get his deal.
Victor needs to understand that we are fed up and sick of his rear end, and we are not going to pay one damn cent in taxes unless the government makes the necessary cuts to its bloated bureaucracy, and start to focus on those things that concern all Anguillians – not just his family and friends. It’s time that he starts to govern not just for some but for all, and if that doesn’t happen we won’t pay one damn cent in property taxes, and he can have the whole damn place locked up.
Victor has once again resorted to using us as human shields to justify his actions. He did it with the banks when he voiced concern of the banks being lost. He was concerned about the 4000 depositors and thus his justification for saving the banks. So he puts us out front to deflect the oncoming onslaught and then pretty much left us alone to fend for ourselves while he heads for the high ground.
Human shields, history tells us, is the use of civilians as defensive weapons in order to render combatants or military sites safe from attack.
Though we are not under military attack, we might as well be for what this government and past ones have done amounts to economic blackmail. In 2006 when the Junks Hole development was being considered, the then Chief Minister, Mr. Osbourne Fleming, was presented with a dilemma when Mr. Sillerman, then the developer of the Flag project, gave him an ultimatum. Kill the Junks Hole project or I will shut down my project – and in the process put over 500 Anguillian workers out of work. So there again, put the Anguillians out front to deflect any attacks and that is exactly what Osborne acquiesced to.
So here is our CM once more using us the people as a human shield to justify his actions with regard to Cap Juluca. His concern for the people who work at the hotel is admirable, but what about the rest of the country. Shouldn’t the 17 million go to its rightful owners? Think about what could be done with the cash. If Mr. Banks is so concerned for the welfare of the workers, fearful that they might lose their jobs, then use the 17 mil to put them back to work. Is there no one who can tell this government what to do? We always talk about the low hanging fruit; why not try to harvest some of it?
It all comes down to leadership or lack of it. We have elected a leader who really has failed to lead us.
The Anguillian people are just tired of being used, and for all the wrong reasons. It is the general consensus that no one really gives a damn about us for if, they did, what has been allowed to happen really wouldn’t have. We were The Mouse That Roared, and that roaring brought with it ramifications that to this day are still being felt at Whitehall. And while they may not say it in public, I’m sure that when our Lords and Ladies get together, we’re the butt of their jokes. I can just hear them, those damn Anguillians, why don’t they just bloody go away?
We have problems, some we have committed and some that were committed for us. We have in place our Governor Ms. Scott who at first comes out on the right side, but later on changes tack. We have a Commissioner of Police whose job it is to ensure public safety, and all that it entails, allegedly acting in a way that’s contrary to his oath of office. What’s going on here? Are these folks being over ruled by higher ups?
Our protectors are concerned with one thing and one thing only: that we do nothing to embarrass the Empire. What about we the people? We are not the ones running the government. We are not the ones who decided to close our indigenous banks to protect certain individuals. We are not the ones who decided that rather than cut government, impose a tax on the people. We are not the ones who decided to raise the property tax by as much as 150% on a people who can’t pay. We are not the ones who are trying to forgive a 17 million dollar tax bill simply to be collegial. We have been kept in the dark simply because the ayes have it and they can do whatever the hell they want. They can suspend the rules and have a free for all because we the people gave them that power and there’s nothing we can do about it, or is there?
The British have given us much to work with, but they’ve held back the important elements that would allow us to function properly. It’s like giving us a rifle without the firing pin. We are suffocating and it’s in their best interests, if they don’t want to be embarrassed anymore, to come in and clean us the mess that they were a party to. Until such time, may God continue to help us and may he bless Anguilla.
