A young group of the Cadet Corps, from Campus B, attired in their uniform and bearing what may have been old models of Leinfield shotguns, stood rigidly and undeterred outside the Post Office in drenching rain – on Tuesday afternoon, November 1 – awaiting instructions from their Commander. They later marched through torrents of water cascading down to the nearby James Ronald Webster Building which houses the Social Security Office.
The occasion was the unveiling of the Social Security Board’s Corporate Flag, with its New Logo, as part of the observance of Social Security Week. The performance of the obviously committed and serious youngsters was simply marvellous and they, and their Commander, Neville Hamilton, deserve much commendation. Awaiting the boys and girls are the planned varied benefits that they will later derive from Social Security when they grow up, find gainful employment and contribute to the national pension and benefit system. For them, and other coming generations of Anguillians, is a most thoughtful and successful set of social development provisions which were initially put in place for their benefit by the visionary leader of the Anguilla Revolution, Mr. Ronald Webster.
Now unwell, aged and retired, the Father of the Nation lays at his Sea Feather’s residence while still being remembered, honoured and lauded for his outstanding contribution to his island home. Having embarked on a most daring bid to set Anguilla on a course to political and constitutional self-determination in 1967, he followed up that action by paying attention to the social development of Anguilla and its people through the founding and introduction of the Social Security system in 1980. It is through him, as creator, the initial and successive Boards, Chairmen and Directors, who steered the system over the years, that it has seen its development and success to this day.
What is of particular interest was that the system was embarked upon at a period when, through lack of economic development, there were very few employment opportunities to drive the system through contributions from the workforce. It was therefore a leap of faith in the dark, but with a light at the end of the tunnel, that Social Security, with its contributory requirement, was ventured into. Today, its financial holdings are said to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the system is exceedingly active in providing a multiplicity of benefits as well as liberal and gracious contributions in community donations and sponsorships.
The continued success of Social Security is very much dependent on economic development and job creation that had always been the bedrocks and pillars of growth for the people of Anguilla in terms of benefits. The hope therefore is that, as time progresses, there will be greater public and private sector development of the island and, by extension, the creation of an abundance of new and sustained employment opportunities to further contribute to the pensions and other varied benefits for the people of Anguilla – and others who live and work among us.
We thank our Father of the Nation, Mr. James Ronald Webster, for his astute and visionary leadership in founding and introducing Social Security, now a most successful and growing institution of social development – and soon national health insurance – for our people.
