In part one of this article, I delineated some of the issues we, as a people in Anguilla, have long faced. And though we have moved on from the residual effects that W.M. Macmillan wrote about almost one hundred years ago, issues that the Moyne Commission was supposed to have fixed continue to haunt us today.
At first glance, everything may look rosy. However, a second glance reveals an underbelly, the likes we’ve never seen. Incompetence, corruption, avarice, and a sense of not knowing who we are, to name a few.
At present, we find ourselves mired in the muck that is social media, and for a people who, just a short while ago, pinned our hopes and dreams on the promise of ‘change can’t wait,’ once again have been sold a bill of goods upon which we are still waiting.
We are still suffering from what Historian Colville Petty referred to, as “the disability of having no political responsibility. When the Vestry was disbanded, the people had no opportunity to learn politics.” So concluded the Wooding Commission.
So, with that being said, we have turned gullibility into an art form. We will swallow hook, line, and sinker the tripe that’s fed to us by our government, and that’s saying a lot. What colour will you paint your house after it’s burned down?
While the world is imploding on itself, we, the people of Anguilla, continue to fall for the empty promises of our politicians, even though we know they can’t deliver, hope springs eternal. Still, we’d instead maintain that I’d vote for my cousin who hasn’t a clue, instead of voting for the other cousin who has a plan to propel us into the 21st century…
We have repeatedly failed to ask ourselves when we will learn to see these charlatans for who and what they are. When will we acquire political maturity? Damien Hughes wrote in the 40th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine of Anguilla’s Revolution that: “If we are honest with ourselves, we would all admit that the level of political development has suffered from political immaturity, political insensitivity, political naivety, nepotism, and even an electorate that is still in dire need of political education.”
He says “that our mind has become – if you are not with me, then you are against me, so I must destroy you at all costs.” We still suffer from that soldier crab mentality, where if I can’t have it, neither can you. We continue to play a zero-sum game with our politicians, where one side wins at the expense of the other. It seems that what’s at stake does not really matter to them, for if it did, they would not do the things they’re doing right now. We, the people, need to educate ourselves.
In a speech on July 25, 1963, regarding the United States Committee for UNICEF, President John F. Kennedy said: “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” So, as our young people leave the island in droves, we are basically abandoning any hope for the future. Our young people are going simply because they don’t see any sign of a future in Anguilla, a sad commentary given that those who hold the cards are the same ones who benefitted from Anguilla’s largesse.
It has been more than fifty-five years since we’ve been at this game of self-determination, and it appears that we don’t have a clue as to what self-determination entails. When we were tethered to the oppressive regime of one Robert Bradshaw, we had someone to blame. We have long since jettisoned Bradshaw, so now, where do we cast the blame? For what is being served as self-determination is nothing more than ‘politics of the belly’ or ” politicians enriching themselves and their cronies while allowing the vast majority to languish in poverty.”
When and how we became so docile is anyone’s guess. We have become willing participants in a new form of tribalism that pits brother against brother, sister against sister, and so on. We long for the days when we were all singing from the same hymnal, but the introduction of the Yankee Dollar has turned us into people that even we don’t recognise.
Our politicians are lazy. They want the adulation and perks commensurate with the office, but they bluntly refuse to educate themselves about what the job entails. We have natural resources such as our territorial waters teeming with fish, Sombrero Lighthouse, through which 20 % of the world’s shipping passes, and I could go on and on. Why are we not reaping any benefits from those assets to name a few? Is it that our leaders are so incompetent, or is it just too much of a bother to use one’s brain?
Our guys are very good at going to London, hat in hand. We will go to London hat in hand with nary a plan for making Anguilla self-sufficient. Bob Marley sang: “Every day the bucket a-go a well, one day the bottom a-go drop out.” Whether or not they tell us that we’ve gone to the well one time too many, remains to be seen.
In his seminal “Warning from The West Indies” some hundred years ago, W.M. MacMillan contended that the mother Country (UK) owed it to her colonies to embark on a considered policy of expenditure to make up for past neglect. The crumbs that they begrudgingly throw to us are nothing more than a down payment that we’ve been owed for all the years of benign neglect.
We, the people, must decide what we want and how we achieve it. The Brits are happy to let us go. As I asserted earlier, they are probably sick and tired of us. We have a working force of about six thousand, and it is unfair to have them foot the bill for the incompetence of our governments.
Anguilla now finds itself in a precarious position, and what we do going forward will determine whether we survive as a nation.
Because we are weak, and have no bargaining power, we are coerced into accepting whatever crumbs are thrown at us. We are being backdoored into situations that we fought to get out of. We are flirting with danger, and the sooner we learn what’s at stake here, the sooner we must kickstart a plan of action to save what is rightfully ours.
As the title of this piece implies, this is a warning from Anguilla, and it is one that we will not like. We are on a trajectory that, unless someone runs interference, we are heading into uncharted waters. Waters of which even my dad, with all his knowledge of navigation, his skills with triangulation, and his sexton, could not pull us out of this dive into the abyss, from which there is no return.
W.M. Macmillan highlighted many of the problems we face, and while some things have changed, the more they remain the same. In his book, he writes about the doctrine of trusteeship: “these backward islands are our sacred trust – under tutelage till capable of standing by themselves—is comfortably vague.” He continues: “It may be used to justify decent paternalism, where the trustee protects, but taking all the responsibility stifles real progress.” Some radical critics insist trusteeship should mean actively preparing subjects for full self-government.
So, there you have it. My fellow Anguillians, judge for yourselves. Has anyone prepared us for full self-government? Could it be that we are being set up for failure, in which case, we remain victims of our own creation? Do we really expect a mother country who referred to us as flag-waving pickaninies, sub-human, beasts of burden, property, real estate, and chattel to give a damn about us?
We need to take what little pride we have left, muster up the courage and assert ourselves to get what we want. Failure to do so will forever haunt us as spineless bobo johnnies, who made Bradshaw’s words come true when he said, “Anguillians don’t know what they want till they get what they don’t want.”
The stakes are high. We must ask ourselves if we are willing to put in what is needed to win this game of life. Are we ready to make the sacrifices, to get what we want? It is said that anything worth keeping is worth fighting for. My fellow Anguillians, is our homeland worth keeping? Till next time, may God help us, and though we’ve lost our way, may He continue to show us the way. Time will tell.
