It is a wonderful honour, and a distinct privilege to deliver the 11th Walter G. Hodge Memorial Anguilla Day Lecture, sponsored by the Social Security Board and the Anguilla Community College.
Firstly, permit me to explain what I mean by “viewing 50 years of change through generational and other lenses”. In sociology, the “systematic, scientific study of human society”, researchers wear different theoretical lenses – which are the preconceptions and prejudices that they bring to their observation of the world. Thus, different people can look at the same social situation and understand it in different ways, because they see it through different social lenses. As Robert Wade, London School of Economics Professor stated “What is seen by the eye is transformed and colored by the vision of the mind.”
So it is that we all here can look back at the last 50 years in Anguilla and see many different things depending for example on whether we look through political, economic, culture, social or even other lenses. My task tonight of looking back over 50 years is complex enough without the benefit of “systematic, scientific study” which, incidentally, I will undertake in my ongoing doctoral studies in “creative leadership for innovation and change” in Anguilla. Two months ago, Mr. David Carty at the Anguilla Country Conference, in commencing his lecture, said he first saw things through the eyes of his father, then his own, but recently he has started to see things through the eyes of his grandson. I am, very unashamedly, copying that structure for my lecture this evening. I therefore propose to view the past 50 years through the eyes of 5 generations, and these will of necessity include viewing through political, economic, social and other lenses.
I begin by presenting the generation I shall call “The Elders”, represented by Joseph Benjamin Hodge. In the lead-up to the Anguilla Revolution, this man, my grandfather, played so significant a role that he was honoured posthumously in 2007 with the Anguilla Badge of Honour and Queen’s Certificate. He was described in a British newspaper as “The Oldest Hawk on the Island,” and he certainly was the oldest person ever honoured for services to the Revolution. His grandson-in-law Atlin Harrigan, revolutionary leader, lived in his house, the house which also often gave sustenance and shelter to Ronald Webster. He helped to guard the Island Harbour beach with his constant companion, a rifle, and also attended and gave counsel at the meetings planning the revolutionary events at his son Walter Hodge’s house. He died in 1968, at age 84, having experienced approximately 1 ½ years of an Anguilla free of domination by St. Kitts.
Secondly, I will look through the eyes of “The Revolutionaries”, represented by Walter Griffith Hodge, his son, and my father. He was born in 1920, and in 1939 – 1940 attended Teachers Training College in Trinidad. However he never took up teaching because he was expected to teach in St. Kitts for less money than it would cost to live there. He then taught himself navigation, built boats, and sailed up and down the Caribbean. During this time, he contested the election for the single seat in the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla House of Assembly, in 1943 at age 22 he was the youngest person to have ever been elected to either that House or the separate Houses which replaced it after the Anguilla Revolution (i.e. in St. Kitts-Nevis, and in Anguilla). He therefore had the experience of having seen the system from the inside, when he was an elected member and could do nothing to improve the situation in Anguilla, and having travelled widely, he was aware of the degree to which Anguilla had been neglected. It was therefore no surprise that he was at the forefront of the Anguilla Revolution. He lived to see the success of the secessionist movement and 22 years of transformation after the revolution until his death in 1989. As we memorialize this man tonight by having the lecture bear his name, we are painfully aware that in the last months, we have lost many of our revolutionary heroes recently, including most notably Ronald Webster, Father of the Nation! We must never forget them!
Thirdly, I will look through the eyes of “Children of the Revolution” – through my own eyes as a representative lens of my generation. I was born in 1962, so I very well remember many of the formative events of the revolution which took place in my parent’s home at Junks Hole. In fact, I believe that nobody remembered my 5th birthday, because of a meeting held on that January 7th 1967, which was critical to the events which followed. I remember not being able to go into a certain room in our house because that was where the guns were held. I also remember what Anguilla was like that first Anguilla Day, and I have observed the changes, and have been a participant in many of those changes, in Anguilla over the last 50 years.
Fourthly, I will look through the lens of the generation whom I shall call the “The Grandchildren of the Revolution”. My firstborn daughter, Dr. Timarah Hodge, born 20 years after the Revolution, in 1987, will represent that generation. The generation of professionals who have stayed at home to serve her people. The generation who can hardly believe that the pre-Revolution Anguilla we describe really existed. The generation who has to be taught “What makes me Anguillian”. The generation who appears to have little time for the God of their fathers. The generation where murders don’t seem to surprise any more. As the only female among the five generations, she will also represent the women of Anguilla. The women who watched their children starve to death, yet bore more because they believed that there would be a better day and that where there is life there is hope. The women who stayed at home while their menfolk went off to the canefields of Macoris, to the big lights of New York, Perth Amboy or Slough, to the Virgin Islands, or to the refineries of Aruba and Curacao. The women who fed the men who guarded our beaches against invasion. The women who were at the frontlines of the revolution, who had no fear of the bullets and bayonets of the British Red Devils or the batons of the London Bobbies. The mothers whose hearts are broken every time another they bury another son.
And fifthly, I will look through the lens of the future – through the eyes of my first grandchild, Jordaine Timothy Wes Fleming, who was born in 2015, 1 ½ years before the 50th anniversary of Anguilla Day, which we just celebrated. He represents “Anguilla’s Future”. He who was born with a cellphone in his hand. He will have no idea what is a knicker, or a sloe, a top, a roller, a slingshot, or a killiban. Who will know nothing of a bushpa, a coal pot, a cotter, kerosene fridge, a radio, a blackboard, chalk, a ground, jollification, social, or a lantern. Who already knows the sound of the siren of an ambulance, and a police van. Whose food comes from a Chinese store. Who has already gotten more shares, likes and snaps (if that’s the right term) than I have.
So, before I detail the changes in Anguilla over the last 50 years, I will summarize the generational lenses through which they are viewed:
1st Generation – The Elders: The first 1 ½ years;
2nd Generation – The Revolutionaries: The first 22 years;
3rd Generation – The Children of the Revolution: The entire 50 years:
4th Generation – The Grandchildren of the Revolution: The last 30 years; and the
5th Generation – Anguilla’s Future: The last 1 ½ years.
I will refer frequently to Colville Petty’s A Handbook History of Anguilla (2015) to help to set pictures of the Anguilla those generations experienced. I will also assume that you know much about what exists today, and concentrate on what it has changed from, for comparison purposes.
Firstly, then, to the lenses. The First Lens represents “The Elders”. This generation would have experienced drought, hurricane, famine, starvation and deprivation, and pitiful, if any, response from the Central Government in St. Kitts or the Administering Power, Great Britain. In 1890, a famine caused by prolonged drought required 3,500 persons out of the population of 4,000 to receive assistance. Over a 15 year period, 1884-1898, 868 deaths were recorded in Anguilla, an abnormally high death rate of 57.86 per 1,000. This is more than 12 ½ times the current rate of 4.6 per 1,000, put differently, instead of the 64 persons who died in Anguilla in 2015, there would have been 804 deaths at that rate. Anguillians were literally starving to death in 1884, the year Joseph Benjamin (Dody) Hodge was born. That was one year after Nevis joined the Presidency of St. Kitts and Anguilla, booted it from the name of the Presidency, and cut its share of the already meager pie. It appears however that that shakeup in the Presidency must have alerted somebody that there actually were people in Anguilla, because only in that year (1883) did authorities begin the official registration of births and deaths.
Around 1890, Anguillian men began to move to the Dominican Republic to work on the sugar cane estates there. Dody and his brother joined them, but did not stay like so many did. That very industrious and wise man returned home, owned a schooner The Thelma, and eventually bought Junks Hole Estate and Scrub Island where he planted cotton and raised animals. Life in Anguilla was tough, and the people continued to suffer from a lack of concern by the colonial authorities. In 1911, the census recorded 4.075 persons, 1562 males and 2513 females. In 1921, the census showed 4,230, with 1447 males and 2783 females. The number of males declined, as they had to go overseas to seek work and send remittances back home to support their families. Anguilla’s name was still not included in the name of the Presidency, and there was no elected representative for Anguilla until 1936, when the right to send a representative to the St. Kitts Legislature was restored. For the first election under the new provision, only 133 persons out of a population of over 5,000 met the property or income requirement to be eligible to vote.
In 1943, during World War II, a grass emergency airstrip was built. It remained unpaved for decades. In 1968, 1,100 feet was paved, and in 1974 the entire 3,600 foot runway was paved. We wonder when our administering power spends hundreds of millions building airports in the middle of nowhere that are not used, how is it that we cannot get an airport yet? The UK Government has spent £285 million to build an airport in St. Helena which cannot be used for commercial flights, and £215 million to build the airport in the Falklands.
In 1944, Albert Lake opened his 24ft x 12ft building at the Mahogany Tree. In those days he would walk from the Valley to Island Harbour to purchase an animal (goat or sheep), then walk back to the Valley with it to butcher and sell the meat. We know what his business has grown to today. Anguilla’s major business place in those days was The Factory, which commenced trading in the first decade of the 1900’s, and derived its name from the ginning and baling of cotton in preparation for export. According to an article by Colville Petty, during 1910 – 11, cotton exports totalled 148, 595 lbs. The Factory readily accepted cotton in exchange for groceries, and other goods, available at its general store. The resultant barter system, which survived until the early years of the 1950s, made life less difficult for the many low-income families in Anguilla. The Factory’s general store carried a wide range of goods. There was hardly anything that one could not buy there – construction materials, clothing, foodstuff, medicines, etc. It even offered a quasi-banking service which allowed Anguillians to cash cheques drawn on foreign banks. Back then the island’s economy was heavily dependent on remittances from overseas – on monies from those Anguillians who had gone abroad in search of work. Around 1939 it began producing colas. The supplies included, kerosene (for household appliances like lamps, lanterns and stoves) and, from the 1930s, gasoline for the handful of motorcars on the island, even coffins – one in 1931 cost $11.54. The Factory ceased operating in the 1960’s. In 1950, Hurricane Dog destroyed or heavily damaged 411 out of 1185 houses, many of them made of wattle and daub and thatch roofs. And then of course Hurricane Donna devastated the island in 1960. (There was also a hurricane in 1955).
Joseph B. Hodge died in an Anguilla which had changed little during his lifetime. Anguilla had nothing, got nothing. Anguilla had no paved roads, no electricity, no pipe-borne water, no telephones, no attention from Britain, no respect from the Central Government, etc., conditions which sparked the cries for revolution, sparks which erupted into flames which he helped to fan with his very last breath. The tangible changes that he would have seen in that short period between the Revolution and his death would have been the political break with St. Kitts, the absence of the St. Kitts police, the presence of journalists from the world press attracted by this strange tale of 6,000 people in an impoverished island choosing to go it alone, and the commencement of efforts to “build a new Anguilla”, with their attendant challenges. Tonight, I call on us to remember his sacrifice and those of others of his generation and preceding generations who stuck to this Rock, Anguilla, no matter what!
My Second Lens is that of the generation of “The Revolutionaries”, exemplified by Walter G. Hodge. In the year he was born, 1920, there were 109 deaths in Anguilla, more than twice as many as the 52 in the year I was born, 1962. A picture of the Anguilla of that generation follows:
In 1953, the Valley Secondary School opened with 114 students. Those who did not live in the Valley had to either find someone to stay by in The Valley or close by, or have a bicycle, or like my mother who passed the entrance exams but had neither, be unable to attend. In 1958, a memorandum from the Schools Building Officer to the Superintendent in St. Kitts (both government officials in St. Kitts) stated “I do not share your doubts that Anguilla is likely to be developed within the foreseeable future .. but even if it took as long as 300 years, a correct start now would be well worthwhile”… You can come to your own conclusion as to the attitude of officialdom towards Anguilla. In 1959, Lloyds Hotel opened with 14 rooms.
In 1960, the census put Anguilla’s population at 5,810. Life expectancy was 60 for males, 63 for females. 41% of the labour force was in agriculture, 18% in services, 12% in construction, 12% in sea transportation, 5% in fishing and 5% in commerce. 57 % of the labour force was unemployed, 8 out of 1,320 houses had electricity, 43% obtained water from public standpipes, 25% from wells and springs and 22% had cisterns, 56% of houses had 2 rooms or less, 63% had no toilet facilities. And that was BEFORE Hurricane Donna devastated the island, destroying over 500 houses leaving over 1000 homeless, and almost entirely wiping out the merchant fleet of 14 schooners and sloops. In 1965, Anguilla Airways owned by Clayton Lloyd and Jeremiah Gumbs started operation, in 1967 Clayton Lloyd began to operate Valley Air Service. During the 1960’s, the domination of the Anglican and Methodist churches in Anguilla began to be seriously challenged by the entry and/or growth of the Adventist, Church of God, Baptist and other denominations. Prior to this time, the Methodist dominated the western section, the Anglicans the eastern section, with both Methodist and Anglican in the centre, along with a small catholic congregation. The leaders of both the established and new denominations strongly supported the Revolution.
And of course, Walter Hodge was a leading participant in the 1967 Revolution, and subsequently the island’s first Treasurer. Thanks to my sister Diane, now a serious researcher and unpublished writer of the Revolution, I have been able to see the first Financial Statements of Anguilla, for the period June 1 to November 30, 1967 balanced at $142,102.75, when donations and a personal loan of $34,000 from the Chief Executive (Ronald Webster) are included. The December 1967 accounts showed a balance carried forward of $11,252.26. Later he became Controller of Customs, and Ships Surveyor. In his last decade he saw the birth of the Social Security System and NBA, as well as the take-off of the island’s tourism economy with some of the finest luxury hotels in the world. And he would have doubtlessly been very satisfied when Anguilla finally was formally separated from St. Kitts in 1980, and continued to advance economically up to the time of his death in 1989.
The Third Lens is from “The Children of the Revolution”, represented by yours truly. In the year in which I was born, 1962, the Rendezvous Bay Hotel opened with 5 rooms, (later added 5 in 1963 and 10 more in 1970). In 1967, the year of the Revolution, the school I attended – the one-room East End Primary School – had 458 students, this increased to 485 in 1969! There were no flush toilets, no individual chairs or benches, no separations between the classes other than the blackboards, and classes in excess of 50 students! How in the world students were expected to learn only God knows! But yet they learned, and the East End Primary School consistently produced some of the island’s finest scholars. For a list of just some of those scholars who have made sterling contributions to Anguilla, see Mr. Petty’s book “A School and Its Community”. By the way, generations of students studied in that same school building, participated in concerts and cantatas, and developed a real attachment to the school, which was in fact the first government-owned school on the island. I am pleased that it has been restored, but how can I be happy when it remains closed to us who love that place so? 2017 marks the 100th year since its construction. 100 years ago, the FIRST government school in Anguilla was just being constructed! In the 20th Century, in an island flying the flag of the greatest empire the world has ever seen! I hope that January 23rd next year, which marks the 100th anniversary of its opening, will see it appropriately celebrated and functioning, serving its community as it has always done.
The 1974 Census had Anguilla’s population at 6,519: 3,088 males and 3, 431 females. It recorded that “few people have electricity, toilet facilities for many households are primitive, 792 houses out of 1,588 rely on pits only and 318 houses have no facilities whatever. Kerosene is the main type of fuel used for cooking, followed by gas. Only 18% of the total population was reported to be working during the week before the census and 15% of those in employment were working part-time only. 28 persons were employed in the hotel industry (9 males and 19 females). Life expectancy was 65, males and 69, female.”
Today, Anguilla has one of the highest life-expectancies in the world of 81.4 years, with male: 78.8 years and female: 84.1 years (2016 est.) Only 12 independent countries and a number of dependencies have higher life expectancies! In this regard, we have come a very long way in a very short time! Thousands are employed in the tourism industry, boasting over 2,000 rooms (hotel and villa), and visitor arrivals exceed 175,000 per annum.
Mine was the generation of Joe Gumbs’ sodas and matinees at the Casino, music by Jesse and the Fantastics and the Mod Squad, “Socials” at Lucas Wilson’s place, Easter Monday Bazaars, August Thursday boat race (yes, not all year round back then). Mine was the generation that witnessed constitutional change, economic growth, loss of our traditional values such as caring for each other and sharing and respect for elders, and a frightening increase in crime. Recently I spoke to a Bajan who was a policeman here up until 1990. He told me that at that time there was one prisoner in the jail. I asked him if he was certain and he said emphatically YES. Today there are about 50, most of whom I could easily be their father.
I have been privileged to participate in the formation and growth of the Social Security System, today recognized as the most important national institution for the socio-economic development of our people, and of the National Bank of Anguilla. But I have also witnessed more invasions than many a seasoned soldier anywhere in the world. The British invaded in 1969. Since then, I have witnessed the invasions of CARICOM, the Spanish, and most recently the Chinese. Is it not strange that almost unique among the Caribbean countries, Anguilla never changed hands between the colonial powers because the Anguillians were so ready to defend her, yet in recent times it appears so easy to be invaded? I am not knocking for one moment my Caribbean brothers and sisters who have come to contribute to our development, once they contribute, and definitely not knocking the persons who have come from Santo Domingo, allowing us to repay the favours their forefathers extended to ours earlier. I am all for increasing our population, two-fold if necessary to make us more economically viable. But I am saying that we must retain and maintain what makes us Anguillian. And we have to examine what is the effect of killing our local businesses and replacing them by Chinese establishments, 22 at my last count!
Mine was the generation that didn’t have to go overseas to look for work, in fact mine witnessed a reversal with people coming here to work. This produced a dependence on self which has often extended into selfishness. It has therefore brought about the death of the practice of “Jollification”, neighbor helping neighbor so everybody’s ground gets planted, foundation gets poured, or boat gets built. One of the outcomes of this is the loss of the sense of community within villages. Sadly, mine was the generation that saw the end of so many Anguillian businesses, the end of our dominance of banking, commercial shipping and air transport among these islands. In 1967, you could get a flight every morning to St. Thomas, in 2017, you might have to take a ferry to St. Maarten, a flight to Tortola, and another ferry to St. Thomas. Here are some of the additional changes in Anguilla during my lifetime:
1977 – Recurrent expenditure $3.24 million, revenue $2.02 million, deficit by grant-in-aid. There were 1,936 primary students, 367 secondary students. In 1980, there were 1,432 primary students, and 459 secondary students. Formal separation from St. Kitts-Nevis was achieved on December 19, 1980. While I was born in a household with an electricity generator, island-wide electricity finally reached our home in 1980. By 1992, 90% of houses had electricity, increasing to 93.6% in 2001, and 98% in 2011. 1982 – 1,828 vehicles, up from 997 in 1974. In tourism, there were 225 rooms, including 32 hotel, 79 guest house, 114 villa and cottage. 1984 – per capita income was EC$5,377. 1989 – School of Continuing Studies of University of the West Indies (UWI) opened, it transitioned to the UWI Open Campus in 2008. In 1999, GDP was $232.85 million, per capita GDP EC$21, 279.80, growth rate 11.3%, and unemployment rate was 8.3%. In 2001 – Campus B of the Albena Lake-Hodge School opened with 472 students. 2006 – GDP $425 million (doubled in 7 years), Per Capita GDP $29,835, a growth rate of 19.3%. These are amazing figures! 2008 – 2009 Budget $339 million. That year, the Global Financial Crisis hit Anguilla extremely hard, the island has still not fully recovered. In 2009, the Anguilla Community College opened. 2010 – there were 31,977 phone accounts, up from 6,603 in 2000. 2011 – there were 6,000 vehicles. 2013 – Central Bank intervention into CCB and NBA, 2016 those banks were replaced by NCBA. The 2017 Budget is $270 million; and there are over 10,000 Vehicles 10,000 and 2,000 Hotel Rooms.
The Fourth Lens will be that of “The Grandchildren of the Revolution”, represented by Dr. Timarah Hodge. If we exclude her pre-primary school days, she will have observed exactly half of the 50 years since the Revolution – the last 25 years. Since she is the only one of the 5 generations that I can realistically interview, I have asked her to tell me about the changes in her lifetime. This was her response.
“I have seen much growth in Anguilla. I have seen the development of our education system go from my CXC exams being entirely on paper to some of this year’s CSEC exams being on the computer. I’ve seen an increase in the number of persons going off to college and university. I’ve seen the growth of small businesses and an increase in the number of entrepreneurs on the island. I have seen the rise and fall of our local banks. I’ve seen Anguillians make it to the Olympics and the West Indies Cricket Team. I’ve seen development of our tourism sector with an increase in the number of private villas, hotels and restaurants. I’ve seen the development of the health sector with the addition of the Dialysis and Psychiatric Unit, and am very concerned about seen the frightening incidence of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension and the number of persons reporting for emergencies caused by preventable accidents such as “popping” on motorbikes, etc. I’ve seen a significant increase in crime both burglaries and murders, and the crazy village versus village violence. We need to develop the criminal justice system so that we can solve our crimes and have perpetrators caught and sentenced in a timely manner. Throughout Anguilla I have seen growth as a country and growth of our people. We should never get comfortable with where we are, and we should always try to develop all sectors and not just some.”
I’m reminded though that the Grandchildren of the Revolution includes those who have seen even less of the 50 years through their lenses, and for whom the horror of the crime and murders must be even more magnified through their lenses. We can get a glimpse of what they think or want from this year’s 50th Anniversary of the Revolution Theme “50 Years Since the Revolution: Transforming, Empowering and Building Our Nation” which was submitted by Joya Hodge. As I mention my daughter Joya, I am constrained to remember a visit I paid to her Majesty’s Prison, and so many of the prisoners shouted out to me “Joya’s father!” Not Olive’s son, not Ken’s brother, but Joya’s father – signifying that they were her age-group, under 25. Sad, so sad!
The fifth lens is that of the generation I call “Anguilla’s Future”, represented by Jordaine Fleming. His lens, of necessity, will be a telescope – looking out into the future. 50 years of the 367 years since European settlement in 1650 is only 14% or 1/7th of our recent history. Country Anguilla represents only 14% of our post-settlement past. But 100% of its future is ahead of us! And the future belongs to him and to future generations of Anguillians yet unborn. It will be a future far different to our past.
Technologies will change the way we think, and live even more than we can imagine. Just for example, Dubai recently appointed its first robot cop, yea a real Robocop to its police force, and plans to have robots as 25% of its force by 2030. It can speak 6 languages, has facial recognition skills, can give and receive payment for traffic tickets etc., and can transmit images live to headquarters. And its employer doesn’t have to pay wages nor social security! Gaming technologies will advance into education, testing, virtual tourism, and many other aspects of life. And terrorism will expand its nasty violent tentacles further into our countries, affecting more and more persons. Anguilla will have to pursue political independence to achieve the dream which our forefathers committed to. After all, we are now 50 years old, and my mother would have kicked me out of her house by now if I didn’t get my act together and left on my own! I call on us to stop the political tribalism and set out to seriously plan for Anguilla’s independence – and claim our God given right for self-determination which our fore-fathers seemed to understand so much better than we appear to. Climate change threatens to swallow our beaches and coastal areas, making our already small island even smaller. The following slides indicate how Anguilla will be changed through sea level rise due to climate change as the sea moves into the ponds and other low-lying coastal areas – including Sandy Ground, Meads Bay, Island Harbor, Savannah Bay, Long Pond, The Forest, Blowing Point, Rendezvous Bay. What happens to an economy based on tourism in an Anguilla without beaches? What happens if we the children and grandchildren of the revolution consume without caring about sustainability? What legacy would we leave to “Anguilla’s Future?
18 years ago, the First Chairman of the Social Security Board delivered the 1st Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture. He spoke of this relationship between past and the future, and I would like to refer to excerpts of what he said then:
“Present day Anguilla was born out of the political womb of 1967. The Anguilla of the future will owe much to the political behaviour and practice in which we engage at this time… this is a most significant moment for us politically as it relates to the kind of political culture we are fashioning, knowingly or unwittingly. Principle needs to triumph over expediency, the general good needs to be given first place to narrow individual or partisan considerations, personal ambitions for power and to wield power need to give way to the participative process of representative democracy… Whatever is done will have an impact on the future for good or ill. Let us hope that Anguilla is not disadvantaged as a society and as a people, made up of all the members of the community sharing this rock… an environment, which over the centuries has shaped a hardy, self-reliant God-fearing, loving, united, industrious, friendly and warm-hearted people. The Rock, with few natural resources and a small population … that dared to think in 1967 that if they took their destiny into their own hands, they could carve out a better life for themselves and their children. These same values are needed to sustain the society in the fast changing future.
So today we stand on the threshold of the future with an unfinished work. We are challenged to achieve sustainable economic development and economic democracy in the years ahead, …We are challenged politically to fashion our own political culture that is true to the noble qualities of our forefathers, that permit new Anguillians born or migrating here to develop a sense of pride and loyalty and patriotism, that emphasizes the value of working for the common good…. We are challenged to turn our attention and focus our energies not only on economics and the quest for material things, but also on the issues of the social development of the least among us, of providing opportunity for those who otherwise would fall through the cracks, of limiting the negative impacts of economic development, and recognizing the human, civil, political, economic and social rights of all the people. We are challenged to care for the environment, … We are challenged to keep the lessons of our history before us and to be reminded from whence we came, to teach the present and future generations what it is to be Anguillian, what is the essence of traditional Anguillian character and why we need to hold on to the values that have distinguished us over the past generations.”
What Mr. Fahie was saying was that there should not be “A Tale of Two Anguilla’s”. Unfortunately tonight, I must tell you that there ARE two Anguilla’s. I quote from the Government of Anguilla’s Country Poverty Assessment 2007/2009 Final Report Part 2:
“The picture that emerges from these individual stories is of a society in which those at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale are experiencing some amount of difficulty in coping with the very changes associated with increased prosperity that the territory has experienced in recent times. These are persons who lack the requisite education and labour market skills to take advantage of the “new economy? associated with the rise of Anguilla in the niche areas of the global economy of which it has been able to take advantage. This mismatch between human resource capabilities and the needs of the Anguillian economy in the future probably, given the historical pattern of the society’s development, affects a significant enough constituency of the society… These persons, it is evident, have been left behind by the most recent changes in the economic fortunes of the country. They, like many Anguillians, have a legacy of chronic deprivation. However, unlike those who have broken that tradition, their own immediate circumstances and the life choices and decisions that they and their immediate forebears have made have left the respondents faced with very challenging life situations. The case studies seem to suggest the continuation of a cycle of deprivation informed by a synergy of mating and family formation, lack of adequate labour market preparation, inadequate incomes and inadequate social agency support. It is in the interest of the society to break the cycle of poverty in which these individuals appear trapped. Indeed, some of them appear to have been stymied by circumstances beyond their control after making much headway in this direction. Breaking the cycle will only be possible through strategic interventions in the form of counselling, training and welfare based on official recognition of the inestimable value of human resources. Whether the resources or the will exist to enable such interventions to take place remains to be seen.” These are sobering words indeed. What is even more sobering was that the Poverty Assessment was undertaken during the period 2007-2009, when the full fallout of the 2008 Financial Crisis had not yet occurred. What then is the situation today, 50 years after the Anguilla Revolution?
In conclusion, I will say that viewing the past through various generational lenses has brought home to me the fact that lenses are strange things indeed. Let me quote from a poem “Class Divide” I wrote recently, to illustrate:
“Windows, frames that contain and control you, through which one can see but cannot touch; Lenses which clarify vision but limit the view, focus creating prejudice, blinding to so much”.
I spoke earlier of the future requiring a telescope. The great French writer Victor Hugo has stated “Where the telescope ends the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?” Both the telescope and the microscope use lenses. However, microscopes are used to magnify small objects that are at a short distance from the viewer whereas telescopes are used to magnify large objects that are at a large distance from the viewer. Thus, when we look at the big picture, through our lens, we often are blinded to things right around us, and when we look at the things close to us, through our lens, we are often blinded to the things far from us.
When our forebears thought of a brighter future for Anguilla, they were content to be blinded to the harsh realities of the moment – the drought and famine, and the abandonment by Colonial Power and Central Government. When our Revolutionary Leaders and the brave band of Pioneers led 6,000 of us, without resources but with a strong spirit of independence and self-determination, to secede from St. Kitts inspite of the will of Great Britain and even its military might as a world superpower, they were prepared to be blinded to those who scoffed and said it was impossible, and to sacrifice even their own lives for their freedom. They were prepared to be blinded to the negative forces and the naysayers, and to look far ahead with a vision of building a new Anguilla. We, the Children and the Grandchildren of the Revolution must, in that same vein, not allow ourselves to be blinded to the possibilities of the future, Anguilla’s Future, by the problems of today. Neither must we allow ourselves to be so future-focused that we are blinded by the injustices of today, in particular injustice perpetrated against the weak, poor and vulnerable amongst us. As we set out on that journey towards an unknown future, let us be mindful then of the words of Marcel Proust “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. And as we set out to build a new Anguilla, let us remember the clarion call “God has a plan for every man, for me and as well as you, To rebuild our little island ‘til its altogether new, So men of purpose come along, there’s work for us to do, with Christ our pioneer!”
THANK YOU!
