This is the final edition of The Anguillian newspaper for 2021. We are saying goodbye and, perhaps, happy riddance to a year that was fraught with many problems and fears. One of them was COVID-19 which began in March 2020, forcing Anguilla into lockdown – and even now the virus is raging throughout the world with the emergence of a number of variants, some said to be more infectious. Both the rates of infection and death have soared into the millions around the world. In little Anguilla, since the beginning of the pandemic, the island has had, up to Tuesday, December 14, 1592 cases with 1521 persons recovered, four deaths and 67 active cases.
If we had not closed our borders early in 2020, our present situation would have been far worse. By doing so, however, we suffered much loss in tourism dollars and employment with the closure of our ports and hotels. Our Health Team has done very well in managing to keep us, and our visitors, considerably safe through various protocols – and for this we are grateful.
We are also thankful to the UK Government for repeatedly providing large sums of money for COVID health facilities and technical assistance for Anguilla, apart from the 60 million pounds for rebuilding educational and health facilities following Hurricane Irma. We also received further assistance under the UK Government’s Resilience Fund for other new projects including the redevelopment of the Carter Rey Boulevard and improvements to the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport.
But we are painfully aware that we cannot depend forever on the UK Government, and the British taxpayers, to bail us out of our financial and economic dilemma. There is much talk on the island, particularly among our Government leaders, about financial independence. Nothing is actually wrong about that in this day and age when our people are known to be independently-minded, resilient, and must see about themselves. What we have to guard against, however, is over-taxing our people, although Government thinks this is not the case when it comes to the Goods and Services Tax to be imposed in July 2022.
There is much hope that our current tourism season will be a good one for all of us – the Government and the people of Anguilla; our investors and property owners. As we continue to open our doors to visitors, from throughout the world, we hope there will be no great spikes in COVID-19, and its variants, to threaten the health and lives of our people. We also hope that our many visitors will continue to observe the protective protocols now in force, and those expected to be introduced later on – if necessary.
We take this opportunity again to welcome American Airlines and passengers to Anguilla; Aurora (Anguilla) Resort; Cape Air; Trade Wind Aviation; and Silver Airline. Anguilla will profit greatly from this new and additional airlift and travel opportunities for our visitors. We also offer our best wishes to Lloyd’s Aviation Services as it works on building its FBO Terminal to handle and expand its jet flights and travel opportunities to Anguilla.
As we approach Christmas – or the Festive Season as it is also called – we wish all our people, and those coming to visit and live among us, a most enjoyable and prosperous time. Let us hope that the real story of Christmas, and its message of peace and goodwill to all mankind, will continue to play out in our lives.
We take this opportunity to thank all of our employees, advisers, readers, writers and advertisers for their loyal support during 2021 – and look forward to their continuing assistance in 2022.
