As we look at the economy of Anguilla, and as we look at where individualism has gotten us as a nation, it is clear that, as a small island still trying to have an established economy – other than a three- or four-months of the year tourism industry – we have lost our way, and we have no real synergistic focus in terms of our island’s development.
We look at the fact that over sixty or seventy years we have had several Anguillians owning aircrafts and flying for airline companies to move people around. We have had Anguillians owning boats – sometimes owning several boats – responsible for shipping and sailing across the region.
The issues highlighted in this article are not unique to or limited to Anguilla, but rather, they appear to speak to issues across the Caribbean.
If one was to go as far back as the early days of the Slave Trade, you would note that slaves were owned by the slave traders or by their masters and they worked on farm land to enrich the treasure chests of their masters. Ironically, the goods that the slaves produced were transported back to Europe on the same ships that brough the slaves…the ships brought in human cargo and they took back sugar cane, coffee, and cotton.
‘When sugar cane was no longer king’, the estate owners or masters abandoned the islands for the most part and we were left on our own to find our way.
Some years later, we saw the emergence of the tourism sector and again, the products we had were natural beauties – beautiful beaches and wonderful tropical climates. What we failed to do was to work collaboratively to put together a product that could be on offer to the would-be tourist coming out of North America, across Europe, or further field.
Who built those establishments to accommodate the tourists in our Caribbean islands – mostly on our finest beaches? The North American and European with capital, once again took advantage of cheap and unskilled labour which became the workforce to construct those establishments. Who owns the hotels? Certainly, not the people from the Caribbean.
When we step back and look at the cruise industry, the Caribbean is still the number one cruise destination in the world. Do we, as Caribbean people, own the cruise ships? No, not even one. Most are owned by North American and European investors. The best we will get out of it is that they will hire some of our Caribbean people as cheap labour to work on the cruise ships. Where do the profits from cruising in the Caribbean go? The profits go to the cruise ship owners and companies.
We look at the international banking sector. Most of the international banks established and operating in our Caribbean islands – Barkleys Bank, Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank, First Caribbean Bank, etc – are owned by North American and European companies. So, where do the profits from international banking go? Not to anyone in our region.
We see the renewable energy sector emerging in the Caribbean now – something that should be affordable for many Caribbean islands to finance on their own, because of the cost of the product relative to the rates of electricity across many of the islands. Instead, what we see happening is that some of our governments and greedy citizens link up with ‘vultures’ from outside the region who see us as easy prey to come into the islands and exploit our potentially profitable markets.
They try to convince our leaders – both in the political and electricity sectors – to let them come to our islands, build, develop and expand the infrastructure, then obligate us for up to 30 years to pay them huge profits. They take the profits off-shore and our people don’t get the opportunity to maximise on the true low cost of energy that would enable them to engage in nation-building or to enable them to lower the cost of living in their individual households and individual businesses that are electricity intensive. Isn’t this exactly what is happening right now with diesel? The profits from the sale of diesel and gasoline leave our Caribbean shores. Corrupt governments and greedy citizens would much rather take bribes and kickbacks to have someone come from outside and establish our renewable energy plants for us than seek the resources to help us ‘do for ourselves.’
People of the Caribbean, don’t start doubting yourselves or your ability to pull yourselves up by the bootstraps. Instead, let us pool our resources together, engage in nation building that is sustainable and that will help secure a future for our grandchildren and for generations to come.
Don’t allow people from outside or inside the Caribbean to convince you that you can’t do certain things on your own, or that you can only achieve a certain measure of success when you involve a European, a North American, or an Asian.
We have it within ourselves to not allow anything or anyone to stand in our way of achieving greatness. Just like the investors can go out into the international market and find inexpensive capital, we can do the same as Caribbean people. It requires us to put together a compelling business case to would-be investors and once the investors see an opportunity to make some money from the interest charged and where their investment is not at risk of failure, they will fund the project.
We must have more confidence in ourselves and be synergistic in our approaches. Some of us have gone to the same institutions of higher learning as the investors, but merely because they look different from us, some of us have succumbed to their overtures to be our masters when we are quite capable of being our own masters within our own countries, working with our own people to build a better, stronger, sustainable island and region.
Don’t ever doubt yourself and believe that you can’t. We all can if we put our thoughts and minds together. Together, we can move mountains. So, let’s do it Anguilla. Our past does not have to equal our future.
—–Contributed without editing by The Anguillian—–
