I don’t know about you, but I keep wondering when our economy is going to turn around. It seems like every year it is the same chorus: the Government has no money; things tough; things slow; it ain’t easy; and the list goes on. While we see signs of hope with the opening of new and rebranded tourism properties, for ordinary people like you and me there has been no meaningful economic progress in Anguilla. We seem stuck in a never ending mire of deteriorating infrastructure, increased taxation, growing debt, unemployment, limited scholarship opportunities and stagnated development.
Sometimes I wonder what we are doing wrong, especially when we note that our neighbours St Kitts and Nevis can afford to give public servants double salary for Christmas while our Government continues to struggle to meet salary payments on a monthly basis. Additionally, our fellow British Overseas Territory, the BVI, has been successful in arranging for direct flights from North America, when Anguilla cannot even hold on to LIAT flights, such flights having been discontinued from this month. I am certain that we in Anguilla have as much human capital and brain power per capita as our Caribbean neighbours, so why is it that several of them have been able to successfully weather the global economic crisis and continue to thrive and forge ahead in certain spheres while we seem to be crippled to the point of immobility? It seems like we are barely able to meet basic needs like keeping our schools, health facilities and government offices open, far less to invest in better programmes, services and facilities to improve the quality of life for our people.
After pondering this issue for some time, and observing the behaviour of several influential people in our society, I have arrived at the opinion that, as a people, we have a tendency to be self-destructive – and that is the greatest impediment to our development. In Anguilla, while we pay lip service to the importance of development, our actions indicate that we are more concerned about scoring political points, so we use all available avenues to spew destructive criticism without regard to the fact that, in this technologically connected world, we are conveying a sense of instability and intolerance which deter investment.
Additionally, successive Governments have failed to develop a long term national development plan but rather use their party’s manifesto as the development plan for the country while they are in office. This means that when Governments change, national development agendas change; projects are halted; sometimes the baby is thrown out with the bath water and there is no continuity. We are therefore a country following a short term vision and getting nowhere. However, the unfortunate reality is that even if we had a long term plan there is no guarantee we would stick to it because the level of support for anything in Anguilla seems to depend on whether you like or dislike the persons behind the particular idea, initiative, product or service.
What I find most disheartening is that in the never ending political tug of war and the efforts to discredit each other in the eyes of the public, few seem to remember that public office is not supposed to be about who holds the reins of power but about serving the best interests of the people of Anguilla. Instead our people are being used as minions to spread anger and discord.
I often wonder if our heroes like Collins O. Hodge, Peter Adams, Wallace Rey, Walter Hodge and others can see the state of Anguilla now, what would they think? Frankly, I think they would be ashamed, not because of the state of stagnation that we seem to be in, but by the fact that the stagnation is not so much the result of external influences or oppression by others, but of our very own making – because we have disrespected their legacy and put self above country rather than country above self.
From a people whose love of country and each other transcended family, community and political lines, to a people who seek to destroy each other even if the country is destroyed in the process, I cry for Anguilla!
