Timing is everything, no matter what. In Ecclesiastes 3: 1 tells is that: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck that which is planted.” So whether it’s a political crisis of sorts, or a sudden run of good fortune, it will have been all for naught, if we are unable, or unprepared, to handle the situation.
Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who successfully landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, surely had time on his side, though short it may have been – 208 seconds. And while Captain Sullenberger had time to, as he puts it, “compartmentalize and focus,” Captain Wan Amrin Bin Hussin of Malaysia’s Flight 17, the ill fated flight, shot down over Ukraine on July 19th 2014, had no such choice. In fact he probably never even knew what hit him. The difference between both flights is that the US Airways flight was hit by birds and through the highly skilful flying of the captain was able to land, while the Malaysian Flight 17 was hit by a terrorist’s missile and disintegrated in the air. In both cases time made the difference.
So whether or not time is on one’s side, it is important to take advantage of every waking moment for, as we know, time cometh not back. So not only is time very important, but the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunities that have presented themselves to you is vital. There is an old saying that says “he who hesitates is lost.” And it would appear that we as a people do that with regularity. We are now part of a global community and as such need to start behaving in a manner commensurate with such a responsibility.
As a high-end tourist destination, we cannot afford to use the old adage from the movie Field Of Dreams, “that ‘if you build it they will come.” That is no longer the case. As a region, whose bread and butter is derived from tourists visiting our shores, we can no longer sit back and rely on colorful phrases, though alluring they might be, to bring visitors to our shores. In a recent article on the Caribbean newsnow.com, the headline read: “Cuba: The Caribbean’s Wake Up Call.” The very first line says: “For far too long the Caribbean has taken tourism for granted, according to a white paper issued by The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) entitled: Cuba: The Great Disruption for the Good of The Caribbean.”’
With the normalization of relations with the USA, it has become easy to travel to Cuba now. According to the CHTA President Emil Lee, “Cuba is well established as a destination for many long haul flights, and shows great potential to be a regional air hub, much like San Juan.” The paper goes on to say that travel to the Caribbean could be stimulated significantly by adopting policies and practices which eliminate visa and travel barriers etc.
While everyone sees Cuba as the new kid on the block, CHTA CEO Frank Comito asserts that the region can’t blame Cuba for its success. He added: “We need to look at those factors which have contributed to its success – product diversity, infusing culture and history into the visitor experience, investments in education and training, competitive pricing, lower operating costs.” Mr. Comito concluded by saying: “We need policies and practices which drive business, and not drive away business.” There is an old Turkish Proverb that says: “It’s not just the fault of the axe, but the tree as well.” So whether or not we build it, sit back and wait till they come, it’s up to us. According to Mr. Comito, the White Paper candidly states that “relatively little effort has been spent on turning the most tourism dependent region in the world into the most tourism competent.” We hear what Mr. Comito is saying, but the truth is in what he doesn’t say. The paper says: “The coming Cuban disruption just might be the tonic that the countries need individually and collectively, to build the kind of strategic approaches to tourism development that will yield sustainable results for its citizens.” Do we seriously have to be nudged by what someone else is doing for us to do anything? How many times were we told that the early bird catches the worm?
In my Elementary 7th grade class, our teacher gave us a scenario in which the job was to identify the laziest kid in this group. The teacher took out a hundred dollar bill to give to the laziest in the group. All of a sudden everyone was jumping over each other to get the bill, all except one student sitting in the back of the room. The teacher asked if he didn’t want the money and the student replied yes. The teacher said well come and get it. The boy stayed in his seat and told the teacher to simply: “Put it in my shirt pocket.” We tend to sit idly by and wait for everyone to “put it in our shirt pockets.”
For whatever reason we, as a region, are some of the most arrogant people. We coast on our laurels and expect that the rest will automatically fall into place. The allure of white sandy beaches, tropical breezes and warm summer nights, and Cuba Libres, are still very much our trademarks, but they are not exclusively ours.
In this day and age, too many things are happening for us to be caught flat footed. In this ever-changing world, the fleet of foot will be the ones to first cross the finish line and grab the brass ring. As a country with a brand new government, we must take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves and, conversely, if the opportunities don’t come forward, then it is incumbent upon us to create those opportunities. To simply sit back and wait for something to happen would be tantamount to courting disaster. Four months have passed since the installation of our new government, and we’re patiently waiting to see which way we’re heading.
Anything worth having is worth the fight, but as I look at what’s happening around me, I’m reminded of the quote by Frederick Douglas in which he said: “Power concedes nothing without demand.” So when we are none the wiser in what is happening with our country it boggles the mind.
It appears that the general consensus regarding us is that we’re still a bunch of cheeky upstarts, in a colonial backwater, who don’t have much, stuck in a 60’s time warp, who couldn’t survive without Britain, basically ruled by Miss Scott, so says our newly minted Chief of Police, Ms Amanda Stewart.
As an Anguillian whose dad, through his brilliance at the Treasury Department, fought for and kept Anguilla afloat during the dog days of 67-69, who was also the de facto leader of Anguilla, a job for which he was never really appreciated, I was floored to read such tripe. I can’t believe that in this day and age, someone would have the temerity to think such things much less put them in print. This is not the first time that we’ve been subjected to such treatment. We have been disparaged by several members of the British Government time and time again. We have been disparaged by our former CMs who saw fit to call us beggars, ‘chupid,’(stupid) – and jackasses by a sitting member of the previous government. So this is nothing new, but when those comments come from someone whom we invited here, and whose salary we pay, one has to ask what the devil was she thinking?
In the same week that we celebrated Emancipation, it is unbelievable that we’re still enslaved though not in chains, but we might as well be. We are shackled to loans that we can’t pay, and the way things are going we don’t know what’s going to happen next. Anguillians are a very proud and arrogant people and, as such, hates like hell to hear anything about us whether true or not, and it further infuriates us when it comes from an outsider.
Upon reading the article, my conclusion was there’s no way that Ms Stewart can effectively do the job for which she was hired, knowing how she really feels about us. I thought that she should apologize and take the next flight out to Belfast. However, seeing that she apologized and said that her comments were slanted by the reporter, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. She showed poor judgment even if her comments were taken out of context. We will take abuse from our own, but surely not from an outsider. To the Chief of Police, here’s a bit of advice that might come in handy later on: “When of another you would speak, five things observe with care. Of whom you speak, to whom you speak, and how, and when, and where.
Last week I wrote about the things that were on the AUF’s manifesto circa 2000 and one would hope to see some action with regard to those items, the banks first and foremost, simply because those banks represent who we are, and everything we own is invested in them, so it is incumbent upon you, Mr Banks, as the Minister of Finance, and the Chairman of the Monetary Council, to seek out those people who possess the knowledge of banking and monetary affairs, not the ones who got us in this mess in the first place, but those who can advise you going forward. Here I think we need to chose the lesser of two evils. Do we continue to let the ECCB run the show, or do we seek advice from England without giving up our sovereignty. Our future depends on a development strategy, both financially and socially.
While we sit around waiting for something to happen, it is incumbent upon the rest of us to raise the awareness of those whom we’ve tasked with taking us forward. History will show us that the great industrialists and entrepreneurs, those people whose names adorn institutes of higher learning and financial institutions, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Buffets, the Jobs and the Bill Gates, all had one thing in common before they became realists: they were dreamers.
Sometimes one has to create his or her opportunities. One can’t simply sit around. The recent inclusion of Cuba, our long estranged Caribbean relative, back into the fold, as the white paper stated, should be the wake up call that we needed. It might very well be that in that it forces us to get off our collective butts, and actually be forced to think creatively for the first time. The question that we should now be asking our leaders is what are we going to do? Do we accept Cuba’s re-emergence back into the fold as our fait accompli, or do we accept it as a challenge? What are we going to do?
At first glance, it may seem that we have all the necessary moving parts in place, but upon closer observation it becomes glaringly obvious that those moving parts are inadequate for the machine with which we want to travel. Let me give you two of the most important cogs in the machinery – the first of which is our ports of entry. Let’s start with Blowing Point. With all due respect, that place is inadequate to handle the volume of visitors. It is outdated and, to be frank, it’s an embarrassment. If we plan to compete with everyone for our share of visitors, we’d better have the facilities to handle such. We consistently hear of plans to build a new facility and that is all it has been – just talk.
Our second port of arrival is the Clayton Lloyd Airport which has been, and continues to be, the topic of many acrimonious debates. In addition to being inadequate in terms of length, it is an embarrassment to us as a people. Restroom facilities are not only in disrepair. They are downright archaic in this day and age. There is no doubt that we want to be a world class destination, but there has to be a way of getting here in less than two days. We are still smarting over the fact that we spent a ‘ton load’ of money to build the place and came up woefully short. The fact that American Eagle picked up and left, tells us something about our governing skills. We have to stop negotiating against ourselves.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We’re just another player on the world stage and if we want to shine we have to up our game. There is much to be done, and whether or not those whom we have elected are up to the task, only time will tell. Frederick Douglas said: “Power concedes nothing without demand.” We are in the fight of our lives, and entering the ring unprepared is equal to getting in there with one hand tied behind our back. Now that we’ve been reminded of our backwater village, trying to be of country status, we have our work cut out for us.
Someone in a letter to the editor complained about the Governor being the only one to make the choice of who gets the job. Well, Mr. Chief Minister, you’ve long advocated for constitutional reform. What are you waiting for? Are you, as Colville Petty says: “ Too much in love with the system?” Man up and let’s get moving. Our time is now, and the bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that there is a time for everything. Whether or not we seize the opportunities, both gratuitous or otherwise, it is up to us, and us alone. So until next time, may God continue to bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
