The three years that His Excellency the Governor, Mr. Tim Foy, OBE, has had in Anguilla have been challenging but he was able to handle his tenure of office very well. This came out in an interview he had with The Anguillian newspaper last week.
He arrived in Anguilla just about two weeks before Hurricane Irma fiercely struck the island on September 6, 2017. It was from then that his challenges began. The category 5 trans-Atlantic hurricane shutdown the vital tourism industry; sent home its employees; severely destroyed or compromised education and health facilities; and called for a robust rebuilding programme at a time of economic and fiscal hardship.
With that situation, came the global Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown of Anguilla in March 2020; the shutdown of the tourism industry and the economy again, despite the fact that Anguilla was voted, for the fourth time, as “Best Island in the Caribbean”; the enforcement of stringent measures to protect the borders of Anguilla and control the community spread of the virus; and the outlay of large sums of United Kingdom Government financial aid and equipment. It is still a fluid situation on the island. With the Covid-19 situation still much in sway, came the June 2020 district and island-wide elections. The polling resulted in a change of government with the Governor suddenly finding himself in the middle of a transition from the United Front Government to the Anguilla Progressive Movement Government – and from one set of administrative policies to another set. The change of Government is not the issue. It is dealing with the stalk realities that the Covid-19 situation is still very much a concern and a burden; that there is an urgent need for the tourism industry, the mainstay of the economy, to reopen and rebound, while protecting the people of the island from the Covid-19 virus.
Although the Governor has the cooperative assistance of the machinery of Government, including the public service and various special administrative teams, both the internal security and the overarching supervision of Anguilla fall under his governorship.
While all of this is on his plate, Governor Foy calls to memory, at this time, his experience during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. A reason for the reflection is that it is the third anniversary of the hurricane – and his third and final anniversary in Anguilla. When Irma struck, it severely damaged Government House at Old Ta where he lived; and blocked the road from his residence. He was forced to catch a lift on a truck, from an obliging driver and his passengers, to the Emergency Operations Centre in The Valley. There, along with Disaster Management and other personnel, he coordinated the arrangements to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane.
With vivid memories of Irma, the people of Anguilla – as well as those who were in the path of the hurricane, and its destructive force – are now closely monitoring every weather system. “The very last thing we need now is a hurricane,” Governor Foy observed. “Just as the economy was beginning to really pick up in 2019, in terms of tourism, Covid hit us; and now, if we have a hurricane compounding that, I dread to think what would happen.”
He went on: “Anguilla will cope. Britain will stand by Anguilla if that happens. Hurricanes destroy our lives in different ways. Some people lose their lives; others lose their livelihoods; some lose their life’s savings in terms of their houses. Putting those back together is nearly impossible and my sincerest prayers are that the Good Lord should spare us from a hurricane in 2020 – and for as long as He sees fit to do so. This is because the consequences are just dreadful, but we will cope and get through. Anguillians always do. We will see what happens.”
Governor Foy was delighted that the UK Government had provided sixty million pounds sterling in humanitarian aid to Anguilla for the varied education and health facilities, as well as other public sector projects, on the island. “I think that project activity has given a real stimulus to the economy,” he said, adding, as stated in last week’s interview, that he had undertaken to request further British Government assistance to Anguilla in 2021 – as he did not see Covid-19 disappearing that quickly.
In reviewing the challenges he encountered during his tenure of office, and those currently facing Anguilla, the Governor said that even now, as his departure draws near, he will continue to work hard with the Government to ensure that the island overcomes the problems it faces in 2021 and beyond.
He added that the challenges he experienced were all part of his job to serve the Government and people of Anguilla; that he enjoyed his tenure of office; and that he was continuing to work without thinking about his approaching departure to give way to the appointment of another Governor.
