“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.
The Mayor likes to say that Anguillians don’t know what they want, till they get what they don’t want.” What is it that we want? While we may not know what we want, we can definitely tell you what we don’t want. Independence should be our ultimate goal and any reasonable thinking person will agree with that. What they will not agree to is, that since things are going they way they have, we might as well be free to call our own shots.
American laureate, the late James Baldwin, famously wrote that a people should: “Know from whence you came, and if you know from whence you came, the possibilities for going forward are endless.” In Anguilla, we suffer from selective amnesia, for we don’t seem to know or remember our history. So here is a brief version.
Prior to the spring of 1967, we have had to fight for our sovereignty, starting in 1745 when we took on a force of six or seven hundred French soldiers on Crocus Bay. The second military invasion took place in 1796 by two French warships – this time at Rendezvous Bay with orders to kill every man woman and child and destroy everything. Anguillians sent a fast cutter to St. Kitts to get help. Meantime, they had given the French more than they could handle. When the HMS Lapwing appeared offshore, they scamper-
ed.
The third military invasion of Anguilla took place on March 19, 1969 when the British sent in 315 Red Devil paratroopers who were supported by the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and a standby detachment of London policemen waiting in the wings on Antigua.
Anguilla till that time did not seem to matter to anyone – not St.Kitts, and surely not England, for the records will show that time and time again we wrote and complained to anyone who would listen all to no avail. We asked for direct administration from Great Britain twice in 1966, in June and October only to be ignored. Why did we suffer such a fate? The Governor in chief back in London said of Anguilla: “Tis not worth keeping. It were to be wished that Anguilla were as much under water as above it. Tis fit for nothing but goats.” Given all that has happened over the years, one has to wonder, is that the general consensus? Is that how they see us?
Anyone, familiar with our history, would think that our leaders would try with every breath to ensure that we got the best of everything. We had to do without the bare necessities of life, things that our neighbors to the south, in St. Martin, enjoyed. St. Martin was, and is, an overseas territory of both Holland and France. Need I say more? Did they matter to their home countries? What happened to us? Fly into St. Martin on any day, at any time, and one will see to what I’m referring. We have had leaders who really didn’t lead. We’ve had leaders who were on banking boards while doing business with the said government. We’ve had leaders who were willing to borrow money using as collateral our social security fund, we’ve had leaders who were coaxed to bring in the ECCB to seize our banks. We’ve had leaders who did everything except lead, and now here we are once again with a government that does not lead, but wants to govern. How much more of this will we take?
V.S.Naipaul wrote in his book Across the Crowded Barracoon said this of us: “This feeling for their island, this sense of home, makes the Anguillians unusual among Caribbean peoples. The land has been theirs immemorially; no humiliation attached to it.” Lord Caradon was quoted as saying to Naipaul the same year: “For a number of strange and historical reasons the inhabitants of this island are passionately devoted to the spirit of independence. And this is, I think, the root of it all. It’s not surprising, it’s happened before in the world, and it’s in many ways admirable.” Why can’t we see this?
Can we seriously stand by and let this government close our indigenous banks, allow a resolution Trust Company based in Antigua, staffed by Antiguans, to come into Anguilla and dispose of our land and homes, land that we had to fight for? Will the British actually let this government close two banks and start one that is run by the government? Don’t we already have enough cronyism and corruption to go around?
Every Englishman’s home is his castle. Are we not then entitled to the same right? Why is it then that we, as Anguillians, are subjected to the whims of an uncaring government which, by all accounts, have basically sold us out? Why are we being taxed by this government when they’ve done nothing to get the economy going? If we couldn’t pay our taxes before, how are we expected to pay increased taxes now? What is going on here? Is it to maintain a lifestyle for a bloated bureaucracy? Eleanor of Aquitaine told her young son, Henry, when he talked about taxing the people of England to finance his war with the French, that: “Milking a dry udder will get you kicked off the milking stool.” These are words that our government might heed.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a paradox if ever there was one, is very crafty in their dealings with us. They are, like the office suggests, looking at us as though we are foreigners. The U.K. has been trying for so long and hard to unload its former colonies, that the recent tour by Prime Minister Cameron, bearing gifts, should be cause for concern. All of a sudden he wants to reestablish ties to the Caribbean? Why, what has changed? Could it be that the Caribbean has other suitors in the form of China and Russia?
Donald E. Westlake, in his book “Under an English Heaven,” explained that: “After the end of slavery, every Anguillian family, white or black owned its own home on its own plot of land with its own chickens and goats. Many of them had become craftsmen, tradesmen and fishermen, and Anguilla-built boats were already famous up and down the islands, as they are to a lesser extent today. White or black, slave or free, every last Anguillian was a property owning middle class petit bourgeois.” We paid dearly for that right – and should not allow anyone, especially someone who had nothing to do with our revolution, to take it away from us.
It has been almost three years since our banks have been in receivership and it has been business as usual. What has changed since the banks were hijacked? Again it goes back to a people without knowledge of their history and culture is like a tree without roots. Does anyone remember before the founding of those two banks, how hard it was to get a loan from the other banks? We are slowly losing everything. We once again find ourselves in an untenable position. Our protectors who have been vacillating back and forth are simply waiting for us to self-destruct.
My fellow Anguillans, do you really think that an AUF founded government bank will be in the best interests of all Anguillans? Think for a moment. Without capital, what will we do? Do you see, for example, members of the AUM getting a loan from this bank when its being run by the cronies of the AUF? Folks this is a Pandora’s Box that no one wants opened. What is it that we want? I’ll tell you what we don’t want: a government which used the bait and switch ruse of dishonest merchants to win an election. If we don’t stand for something we’ll fall for anything, and therein lies the rub.
Romans 3:23 says: “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” We are all to blame. From our ill-equipped and incompetent leaders to ‘we the people’ who stood by and did nothing. Everyone has heard the breaking news on Radio Anguilla and is waiting with bated breath to see what the British will do. They are as much responsible for our current predicament as we are. Had they used the tough love that was needed, we wouldn’t be in this position right now. Let us hope that it’s not too late to right the ship. Until next time, may God bless us all and may He continue to bless Anguilla.
