If we look at what’s happening around us, we must come to the conclusion that we are not immune from such happenings and that, sooner or later, we were bound by the law of averages to be included in the grand scheme of things. We went through a brutal year and a half of contesting the last general election and, by anyone’s standards, it was just plain outright nasty – and that’s putting it mildly. And anyone paying close attention could see what going forward would be like; in that we have a country that is split in two, sets the table for all sorts of machinations, the likes of which we are not quite ready to deal with.
That being said, we now find ourselves facing one challenge after another. The banks remain unresolved, and now the talk of the United Kingdom wanting to take over the Ministry of Finance takes center stage. Can anyone say with any degree of certainty what is happening in Anguilla? We have radio stations from coast to coast and each one spouts its own rhetoric. Whom do you believe? Whatever happened to transparency? At the risk of being redundant, I said in last week’s paper that, in the absence of true leadership, people will believe anyone who steps up to the microphone, that they will crawl through a mirage to drink the sand, words from Hollywood, that seem to be appropriate right now.
Anguilla is not your run of the mill British Overseas Territory – quite the contrary. In Anguilla, we have what is the envy of the rest of the world, to be a little esoteric, terra firma, land, land, land. Land is what everyone wants to get his/her hands on, and at times we all act as though we really don’t know the true value of what – through our forefathers – we have inherited. And though those schooled in the fine art of the law have tried to educate us, it appears that their admonitions go in one ear and out the other. When will we learn, to use Lord Short Shirt’s calypso from a few years back.
What we’ve been hearing on the radio waves for the last two weeks is very troubling for, in the absence of our esteemed government, what are we to believe? Whatever happened to regular press conferences? Knowledge is power. If you don’t know about something, you can’t very well deal with it. We keep hearing that Anguillians don’t like to read. Our last Chief Minister used to boast that if you don’t want Anguillians to know something, you publish it in the papers because I guarantee you that they won’t read the papers. Maybe there’s something to that, for I keep getting the same song that people don’t want to read long articles. Well, that’s their problem.
What’s to become of us? Can anyone honestly answer that question? We are tethered to the United Kingdom because we chose to be. We were at a point in time when we were politically unsophisticated in the art of governance, and the British knew that, and therefore they gave us the keys to a sophisticated piece of equipment knowing full well we weren’t fully equipped to drive it. We had been kicked around from one presidency to the next, until we were finally thrown in with St. Kitts and Nevis which turned out to be the most unholy of alliances, and the rest as they say is history.
I’m not about to accuse the British of any underhandedness, but all one has to do is to look at what has been allowed to happen to us. We have some of the most brilliant people there are in Anguilla, and why for the life of me are we not up in arms about this trend that continues to take place. We have a white governor, an attractive young woman, who appears to be unassuming, who fits into the grand scheme of things – coincidence? I think not. We have a white attorney general, and we have a white chief of police. Have I missed anyone? Does anyone see a pattern here? Who’s next?
In addition to Whitehall sending in their people, one has no other option but to think that the game is afoot, to use the Brits own lingo. The question that we the Anguillians should be asking is, what the hell is going on here? We are hearing of this land tax that would tax properties based on their location, and now the transfer of the Ministry of Finance to the governor’s office. What? Are we not qualified to oversee the expenditures of our own government? Do they really think that we are still wearing the title of Bobo Johnny, that they could come in and pull this crap? Are we slowly losing that which we fought for? Are we slowly becoming an endangered species in our own homeland?
I’m sorry if I sound angry because I am. My father and others put their lives on the line for this 35 square mile rock – and for what? At one time or another the British, by their own admission, said we were worthless, that we were better off under water than above it, that the place was only fit for goats. I know we are a very forgiving people, but we should never forget what they have done to us. Do we not remember that they had several ships in the harbor ready to transport us to Demerara to be indentured servants to another class of people? Did we forget that all of the white folks abandoned the island and left us to fend for ourselves? Come on!
We live in a representative democracy, or so we thought. It is up to us, the people, to demand of our government which is rightfully ours. We have in place some of the institutions needed for running a government, but we still find ourselves sorely lacking in the knowhow of the everyday functions of said government. Now, one has to ask, is that intentional or just lack of oversight? Whitman T. Browne writing in From Commoner to King asserts that: “Britain did transfer the forms of its governmental institutions to the area.” He concluded that “it did not commit itself to the substance and spirit of democracy.”
At a time when we as Anguillians should be coming together as one, we find ourselves farther apart now more than ever. We have just elected a brand new government and for the first time, as I’ve said before, we have a very capable one. We have in our Chief Minister a man whom I’m sure can match wits with the best of them. Let us give him a chance to do the job for which he was elected. The last thing that he or anyone in government needs right now is to hear a lot of noise as was demonstrated last Saturday night on local radio. That sounded more like sour grapes. We have to be constructive in our criticism, and if we can’t do that then we should just ‘shut up.’
Right now everyone is concerned as to what is going to happen. We don’t know what the Brits are up to and we should be very concerned. We have been mistreated for so long that we probably thought that was the norm. True, we are a British Overseas Territory and, as such, ought to be treated with the dignity that we deserve. Right now, the British government has allocated $544 million US dollars for the development of several independent Caribbean nations, among them Jamaica, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent. What’s wrong with that picture?
I was always of the impression that you take care of those for which you are responsible, and then worry about the others later. Mr. Cameron in his jaunt through the Caribbean, just recently, was probably sending up a trial balloon, as to the receptiveness of this money, to head off anymore demands for reparations. Who knows. It is amazing, though, that the money will be disbursed to former colonies of Great Britain and none to the BOTs who are in dire need of help right now.
The fact that we continue to get short shrift by the Foreign Office helps to solidify that there is no help on the way, and for that same reason, we, now more than ever, must keep our eyes on the prize or, like some other municipalities, it will be snatched away from us. So, I say again, it is imperative that those persons whom we elected be at the top of their game, and to be ever so vigilant as to the goings on on our tiny paradise. As it appears right now, we don’t have anyone in our corner, and it’s coming down to zero hour.
As long as we continue to fight among ourselves, nothing will get done and it will be to our detriment, for while we’re fighting among ourselves a third party will very calmly walk up behind us and take everything. Let us all get behind Victor. Victor says it ain’t happening, then it ain’t happening. This ‘I told you so rhetoric’, that’s being put out there now by certain members of the Diaspora, is not helpful. Let us pick our spots and use them wisely. Remember who it is that we’re dealing with. Remember Sparrow said, they won a war with small talk. Remember that. So until next time, let us make sure that we don’t become an endangered species. May God bless us all, and may God continue to bless Anguilla.
