Carnival

Penny Legg should not have been censored. So wrote one of my correspondents. I do not know Penny Legg. I only know that she is the wife of the Governor’s Staff Officer. She also writes for The Anguillian Newspaper. She writes well. She recently did a post on her blog about the knifing of the young man in The Valley over Carnival. I reported at the time that I thought the post she wrote was quite perceptive. The following day, the post disappeared from her blog.

It was an innocent enough post. Indeed, she claims that she only removed it because of viruses and the spam that it attracted. Some of my correspondents think they know better.

Perhaps, the only criticism that could have been made about the post was that it naively came to the conclusion that any American or European traveler could care in the slightest what the fate is of a poor black Jamaican lad in Anguilla. As if such a stabbing would have any impact at all. Still, the post was caring and concerned. It should not have been removed from the blog. It should be preserved.

This is what she wrote:

Sunday, 10 August 2008
Carnival Trouble

As the 2008 Carnival season comes to a close, there were reports of a stabbing yesterday, Saturday 8 August, as rival gangs decided that the Last Lap Sunrise Street Jam, in the streets of The Valley, was the perfect place to stage a riot. I understand that police had to be drafted in from neighbouring island, St Martin, to assist Royal Anguilla Police with bringing order to the island once again.

This morning there is nothing about this event in the media, but talk is rife and people are shocked. There is no official news on the victim yet. It is understood though that the hospital broadcast calls for blood donors to come forward. As our radio, along with most of the rest of our possessions, is in a box waiting to be shipped, we missed this appeal.

If Anguilla means to ride out the world recession it must clean up its act. People have less money for holidays in their pockets and this must inevitably equate to fewer tourists coming to the island. Anguilla only has tourism. Without the tourist dollar, pound or euro Anguilla will sink. An American family, for example, faced with the option of going somewhere in the US or going to Anguilla for their well earned break, will look at crime levels and make judgements on how safe they feel the destination to be. At present, a local US resort will win hands down. Anguilla needs to look critically at the problem it has with its youth.

Some serious thought needs to go into formulating a response. Leaders also have to look hard at role models and throw the book at those who betray the public's trust. If those people youth look up to are seen, for example, to brandish and fire a gun, and are seen to get away with it, then what message does that send to the young of Anguilla? Role Models who commit crime should be used as an example and punished accordingly.

I am sorry to be leaving Anguilla but sorrier still that Anguilla is in its present state. Whatever prompted the riot yesterday, nothing gives anyone the right to stab anyone else.

Posted by Penny Legg at 09:57

I think her post is worth preserving. The visiting touroids could not care less that the young man subsequently died.