Goodbye, Jack

Early this morning, NDP leader Jack Layton lost his battle with cancer at the age of 61. He was probably the only federal politician that I truly liked. He was warm, caring, hard working, and always optimistic. He brought the NDP from being a barely viable party to being the official Opposition party. That is a pretty incredible feat, especially when the Prime Minister is Conservative.

Time To Get Politcal

Ok, with Election 2011 out of the way, it is time for me to get political. I know my crafty blog is probably not the BEST venue for it, but what the hell - it is the venue I have. For my crafty readers who are completely uninterested in my rant, I will post a cute free gnome embroidery pattern for you tomorrow to make up for these past few posts :)
Yesterday the Canadian government went from

Independence!

The airwaves and the local newspapers this past week have been filled with talk of the need for Anguilla to seek independence from the United Kingdom. Anguillians have always been the most independent-minded West Indians, so the discussion is a healthy one. From the earliest days of colonialism we have had to make do on our own. Why not now?

No metropolitan power ever ruled us directly, until after the British Invasion of 1969. Alone among the seventeenth and eighteenth century colonies of the Leeward Islands, Anguilla elected its own Governor who was then approved by the Governor in Chief in Antigua. In the other islands, the Lieutenant or Deputy Governor received a patent from the Monarch. Not the Anguillian Deputy Governor.

No expatriate colonial elite, unlike our richer neighbours, lorded it over us. Our flocks of goats and fishing boats during the colonial period were at our own disposal. We were, the truth be told, throughout most of our history, too beggarly-poor. It took a long time before we had our own formally appointed Executive Council. Our first ExCo was established after the 1976 Constitution. Not even after we acceeded to rule by St Kitts in 1825 was there any real interference in the activities of the local Vestry that had always run Anguilla's public affairs.

No British Governor sat in any government house in Anguilla until Charles Godden was appointed Anguilla's first Governor in the early 1980s. Whatever gains we have made socially and economically in recent decades, it has all been done right here in Anguilla.

Today, it is arguable that Anguillians are better off and more economically and socially independent than some of the so-called independent States in the region. Though we are a British Overseas Territory, once we follow the law and the regulations, the British leave us alone to conduct our affairs.

Why then the loud boasts that we raise all our own revenue, and that he who pays the piper should call the tune, and, in recent days, the call that British supervision should be ended? Why all the hysterical talk now from certain quarters of the need to seek political independence from Britain?

The answer is: smoke screens and camouflage. According to what we have been reading in the press and hearing on the radio, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office seems to take the view that our governmental leaders have not been following any of the Constitution, the law, or the conventions of government in relation to borrowing. Their view appears to be that the new administration has ignored the rules, and gone off on a frolic of its own. The result has been an unfortunate division that has in recent days arisen between Government House and the local administration.

The British Minister for the Overseas Territories has been in Anguilla.  He has asked for an explanation of the Chief Minister's signing a letter, apparently not authorised by the Executive Council or by the House of Assembly. This 9 July letter authorised our Social Security Board to negotiate a US$200 million loan. The government of Anguilla by law guarantees all Social Security borrowing. Such a guarantee of a loan requires conformity with the Borrowing Guidelines agreed years ago between Anguilla and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Anguilla has exceeded its borrowing limits and is presently in breach of the Guidelines. The Minister is supposedly quite miffed at our irresponsible actions.  It is this incident that appears to have caused the UK Minister to question the actions of our government, and that has caused the resulting reaction by our leaders.

Whenever a country's leadership acts outside the law, when it has been shown to be self-destructing, when it becomes desperate to stir up a misguided following in its support, then the cry arises, “Let us join together against the foreigner in our midst. They are all traitors and will betray the nation! Out with the British!” A call for nationalism against “the other” is then seen as a unfiying force. The madness of it is that such ploys, obvious as they are, are so often successful. Then, confusion and chaos prevails over reason and common sense.  Every sensible Anguillian hopes that is not what is happening here.

The call to patriotism, to standing united against the brutal British, has all the ring of the revolutionary catch-phrase, “Liberté, egalité, fraternité!” And of Hitler's insane tirades against the Jews. Few thinking persons in Anguilla really believe that we are fighting against some reactionary evil foreign regime. Anguillians will forget Dr Johnson's warning, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” at our peril. Have no fear. Most of us realise that the call for independence is no more than false patriotism, a smoke-screen designed to hide defects in governance.

So, let me answer boldly, and with no concern for the inevitable labelling of being a neo-colonial lackey, and a running-dog of the imperial British. No, Anguilla is not ready for political independence. Yes, the people of Anguilla are independent-minded and normally we can run our own affairs. No, this is not a normal time. No, the call for independence being made now is not being made to advance our interests. Yes, it is more likely being made to hide the incompetence and wrong-doing of our politicians. And, I mean the politicians of all parties, past and present.

Anguilla will be ready for full internal self-government, and subsequently for independence, only after we have put in place the essential building blocks of democracy. We will be ready to hand our fates over to our local politicians, of whatever stripe or colour, when the British at last permit us to place in the Constitution the checks and balances and the watchdog institutions that will permit the people to hold those political leaders to account when they go astray. It isn't enough that the Constitution be amended in some hurried “reform”, and some legislation be cobbled up and passed without real discussion. These institutions must be working and functional. In my view, they must be proven to work for at least one full generation before we go independent if we are to be sure of our civil rights.

Until that has happened, we would prefer not to bare our necks to the sword of vindictiveness held above our heads by small-minded politicians who derive pleasure from lording it over us the ordinary people, knowing that we have little or no redress under our present system of government.

If we want to learn what victimisation really is, let us go independent like Antigua and Barbuda or St Kitts and Nevis did without a Constitution designed to protect the citizen against political and administrative abuse.

Until that time, when we have the institutions of democracy in place in our Constitution and in our law, we surrender what little protection being a British Overseas Territory affords us at our peril.

No, we are not receiving any grant in aid from the British government and taxpayer, and, yes, we raise all our own revenue ourselves. Yes, the piper calls the tune. But, no, we do not have to join the chorus when the song is out of key.

No, we are not yet at that much-to-be-desired point of being ready for political independence from the United Kingdom.

Related posts:

Due diligence

 

Integrity

 

Self-government

Protests

The vast majority of the people of the TCI welcome the temporary suspension of their Constitution. The evidence is plain to be seen in the following video:

         The demonstration appears to have been mounted to protest Minister Bellingham's announcement of the delay of the general elections and the restoration of a revised Constitution until after the investigation and prosecution process has advanced further.

         The small number of the followers of the discredited politicians present at this “spontaneous” demonstration shows how few TC Islanders support the avaricious political aspirants of that unfortunate country.

         The pre-printed signs and posters that the demonstrators are holding, put a lie to any suggestion that this was a spontaneous "human rights demonstration".

         And, what is Michael Misick doing wearing a Cap Juluca hat from Anguilla?

        What thuggery!

AllVoices

Anguilla in the overseas press.  When I first read the article on Anguilla in All Voices I was concerned.  How could a newspaper publish such rubbish about UK "oppression" of Anguilla?  This is an extract:

“Anguilla has been nervously managing United Kingdom's threats to take governance of the country. Anguilla, a self governing and autonomous island country in the Caribbean, is also an UK territory with an installed UK governor overseeing "proper governance".

Just prior to the General Elections in the UK, Chris Bryant, the Foreign Affairs Minister at that time, had not only made threats against Anguilla but decisively and unilaterally rejected Anguilla's proposed budgets and refused to review amended budgets. This had many local government officials worried about UK's agenda there and saw this act as a sign that the UK was not willing to allow the Anguilla government to continue.

When speaking of Anguilla, the UK officials compare Anguilla to the Turks and Caicos. Recall that the UK invaded Turks and Caicos last August 2009 for what the UK called corruption concerns. However, nearly a year later, the UK has been unable to prove any local corruption and has pieced together a circumstantial case by using uncorroborated testimony by a dubious local opposition party …’ etc

I asked around about the paper and the author of the article.  I am not worried any longer.  A correspondent wrote me:

AllVoices is a blog, disguised in the form of an online newspaper,
where anyone can post any lies or rubbish.  Chris Burke is a
fictitious person who is an apologist for the Misick criminal
conspiracy.

I then Googled the four words Chris Burke journalist Turks and got enough to satisfy me that the characterisation of both is accurate.  The blog is unmoderated.  The author is reputedly a fanatical supporter of Misick masquerading as an English journalist residing in TCI.  She first started writing under this pseudonym in January of this year.

Nation Builder

Why I do not believe that Jerome will join Hubert in a “national government.” To recap, for those who do not realise what is at stake in Anguilla's political establishment. Hubert Hughes and his Anguilla National Movement was the successful party in the recent Anguilla general elections. The AUM won four of the seven seats in the Anguilla House of Assembly. The Governor appointed Hubert to be Chief Minister. Acting on his advice the Governor has appointed his other three successful party candidates, Edison Baird, Walcott Richardson, and Evan Gumbs, to fill the three remaining seats on the Executive Council. Victor Banks' outgoing Anguilla United Force lost the election, retaining only two seats in the Legislature. This transferred the AUF to the opposition benches in the House. The Anguilla Progressive Party of Brent Davis won the one remaining seat. That winning APP candidate was Jerome Davis. That places Jerome on the opposition benches. There, he joins Othlyn Vanterpool and Neil Rogers of the AUF.

      Throughout the election campaign the members of the APP repeatedly assured their supporters that none of them would break ranks, if elected, to join with another party in forming a government. We were invited either to elect a majority of APP candidates to form a government, or, if a minority was elected, they would serve the next five years in opposition. In spite of that promise, Jerome is said to be consulting with his constituency stalwarts on whether he should break with his party, leave the opposition ranks, and join Hubert's government.

      It has been widely published that Hubert has invited Jerome to join in a “national government”. Hubert has been quoted as saying that a national government is needed in Anguilla at this time. National government in time of extreme external threat is permissible. It calls for the most exceptional circumstances. National government is a code name for government with no opposition, a dictatorship in short. When the outside threat is so severe that we are prepared to give up our freedoms and liberties, surrender our democratic right of opposition to certain elements of government policy in the interest of defeating the enemy, then only is national government acceptable.  During the Second World War, the British Labour party joined with the Conservative government to form a national government.  It dissolved immediately the War ended.

      From Hubert's point of view, if he can tempt Jerome into joining him, there are only advantages. With his superior political experience, he could ensure that Jerome was no threat or challenge to his government. To quote Lyndon B Johnson on why he did not fire J Edgar Hoover as the head of the FBI, “It is probably better to have him on the inside of the tent pissing out, than on the outside pissing in.” There is no doubt this is a brilliant move on Hubert's part. Trust the old fox of Anguilla politics to think up such a smart move as that!

      By securing Jerome's allegiance, Hubert's government would become more secure. Instead of having a bare majority in the House of Assembly, he would have a comfortable majority. In case Sutcliffe Hodge did not prevail in his promised challenge to Neil Rogers' successful recapturing of the Valley North constituency, this would give him a vital buffer in case one of his Ministers became ill.

      Sutcliffe is said to have promised to support Hubert's government if he should win the North Valley seat. He lost the vote, but is suing for Neil's win to be overturned. Even if he successfully challenged Neil, he might not do any better in any bye-election, in the event that the judge ordered one. Or, if he prevailed, Sutcliffe might prefer to remain in opposition, and to fight for honest government from the opposition benches. Hubert needs the reassurance of another seat in the House now, he cannot afford to wait for Sutcliffe.

      From Jerome's point of view, there are temptations to join with Hubert. He would be gaining a front seat at the banquet of power. This should mean that he could lobby for some of the crumbs of patronage that will fall from the table of government. He may be able to get positions for himself and his main supporters, a pay-back that some of them may expect and may desperately need. He will have a taste of power, a seat at the decision-making body of the nation. Politicians drool over such a prospect. He might even convince himself that he could be a force for good once he was in government.

      The critical point of view in all this is the people's. From our point of view, Jerome joining a government that did not belong to his party would be only a negative development. We could no longer rely on him to keep government honest, something he could only do from the opposition benches. If he gave his allegiance to such a government then, when government made a mistake, he would have to keep quiet about it. He would no longer be available to introduce independent Motions, Resolutions, and Bills in the House, and lobby and argue for their passage. He could not organise the Public Accounts Committee to oversee government expenditure of public funds. He could not challenge government from the government benches. A voice for the people would have been lost. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either naïve or simply does not know how government works. Hubert's reign would become essentially unrestrained.

      Other than Neil, who has never been known to speak in the past on any of the topics of transparency, accountability or integrity in government, there would be no advocate for good government in the House. Othlyn Vanterpool, the sole AUF member of the House if Sutcliffe were to win the election petition, would be as equally unreliable as Neil would have been as an advocate for transparency, accountability, and integrity in the new government. His timidity and inactivity in his last position as Director of Fisheries does not give us any confidence that he would suddenly become a champion for integrity in government.

      Don't get me wrong. I am not assuming that Hubert's government is inevitably going to go rogue. I am not attacking Hubert. I am assuming that, no matter how hard Hubert tries, there will be a need for an opposition to do what a good opposition does: to point out the mistakes that are being made, the concerns that are not being addressed, and the promises that are not being fulfilled. The likelihood is that Hubert will be so busy worrying over the economy for the next couple of years that he will put his undertakings to introduce good-governance measures on the back burner. We shall need a vocal and active opposition in the House to remind him of his campaign promises. That is why we need a Jerome on the opposition benches.

      If Jerome were to be seduced into Hubert's 'national government', he would have shown himself to be unreliable. His reputation for integrity would be shot. He would have turned his back on his party. He would be seen as having been willing to sell them out for thirty pieces of silver. A viable, energetic, enthusiastic, developing political force, the APP, would have been betrayed, perhaps mortally wounded. It might be difficult for the party to recover from such a near-mortal blow. Neither Jerome nor the APP would be likely to gain an increase in public support in the next general elections. It would more likely than not be the end of Jerome's career in the House of Assembly. The likelihood is that, having cut ranks and crossed the floor, he would never win his seat again. Could this be what President Abraham Lincoln meant when he famously asked, “Am I not destroying my enemy when I make a friend of him?”

      The damage to Jerome would be the least of the loss to Anguilla. It is vital for a healthy democracy that we have a robust and active opposition in the House of Assembly and in the country, whether it be the AUF or the APP, to keep the new government on their toes. It is precisely the absence of such an effective opposition over the past ten years that is largely to blame for the island having sunk insensibly into bankruptcy and discredit. Jerome joining a “national government” with Hubert Hughes would be a loss for Jerome, for the APP, and, most of all, for Anguilla.

      The Jerome I know has too much political savvy to make such a short-sighted, party-destroying, nation-denying, career-ending mistake.

Congratulations

Some reflections on the elections.  I am happy with the election results.  I have no doubt that the Anguillian electorate has spoken loudly and clearly.  Congratulations to the victors, and commiserations to the losers.  Better luck next time.  And, there will be a next time, perhaps sooner than we all realise.

This is DeFosto’s satirical calypso on Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s palace that he has just had government build for him in the heart of Port of Spain in Trinidad.  The music reflects so clearly what Anguillians thought about the United Front Party and the incumbent politicians that I invite you to look at it to get a sense of how relieved we all are in Anguilla at the outcome of yesterday’s elections.

The elections are not completely over.  The likelihood is that, in the coming weeks, Sutcliffe Hodge will challenge Neil Rogers’ victory in the courts.  To this day, Neil has refused to demonstrate something that only he can do, and that would have cost him nothing: that he has effectively renounced his US citizenship, something that he is required to do under our Constitution if he is to be legally qualified to sit in the House of Assembly.

Will the Hon Hubert Hughes, our new Chief Minister, remember James Frankel of La Samana hotel in St Maarten?  In about 1979 Frankel was given an Aliens Landholding Licence by the Government of Anguilla to purchase land at Maundays Bay from Emile Gumbs, and to lease more of it from Government.  He began building what was to become the Cap Juluca hotel.  The following year, during the election campaign, Hubert took as one of his main campaign planks a threat to force Frankel to re-negotiate the Licence.  He said he wanted to see more density on the beach.  Now, a licence of this sort, which contains mutual undertakings and promises by both government and the developer, can be considered a contract.  Ronald Webster made Hubert Minister of Tourism in the new government that took office in 1980.  Hubert continued to make it clear to Frankel that his licence was not going to be honoured.  Frankel sued the Government for anticipatory breach of his licence agreement.  I do not know what advice the A-G gave government.  But, government hurriedly agreed with Frankel that in exchange for his dropping the suit, he could sell his licence and project for a goodly profit to Friedland and Hickox, who became the next developers of the hotel.  If Frankel had continued with the case, the likelihood is great that Government would have lost it, and been ordered to pay him substantial damages.  Will Hubert make the same mistake all over again, as he is promising to do?

Congratulations are due to the IT team which put together a brilliant website to cover the results as they were coming out.  If you have not seen the web pages before, you can get the election details here.  The elections map which showed the results as they developed was particularly good.  Congratulations again to Rudy Webster, Romero Kelsick, Garson Kelsick, Ludwig Grant, Damien Harrigan, Vaughn Hazell, Roxanne Romney, Duquaine Brooks, Dwayne Smith, and Karenda Brooks.  You did a magnificent job of bringing the elections to those of us who stayed home glued to our computer screens.  Don’t put away the software just yet!

Politics

The United Front? I received a cartoon today in the mail that I thought I would share with you. It shows the members of the United Front in the best light that I know. Here it is:

I believe it is called "a nest of vipers".  Do you recognise the snakes in the grass? Will they succeed in seducing the voters of Anguilla in the upcoming elections?  Only time will tell.

Malfunction

System malfunction?  Overseas Report has a very interesting article by Benito Wheatley on the British Virgin Islands political culture.  Everything he says is applicable to Anguilla.  I urge you to read it for yourself.  His point is that the people of the BVI are discontented with the political system of that Overseas Territory.  He ascribes this discontent to the political culture of the Territory. 

In the BVI, as in Anguilla, recent governments can claim to have improved the territory’s progress and development.  Yet, some areas of society are worse off than previously.  Something is undermining government’s effectiveness.  He believes that the blame lies in certain political practices that have been adopted.  It is not that the politicians are particularly corrupt, it is that the system they have inherited and have continued to cultivate seems almost designed to cause suspicion and disquiet. 

The first corrupt practice he refers to is post-election patronage.  The culture of Anguilla, as in the BVI, and no doubt of every British Overseas Territory in the West Indies, is that the first thing a new government does is to dissolve the various Boards, Commissions and Committees established by the previous administration, and appoint their own political supporters in their place, no matter how inappropriate and incompetent they are.  They say it is expected of them, and they are only considering the expectations of their followers.  There is nothing further from the truth.  This is a system of British Foreign Office encouraged victimisation that has existed in our Leeward Islands since the earliest colonial times.  Political victimisation is designed to muzzle a segment of the population and to inhibit free speech in order to give the administration free reign.  It makes life easier for the Foreign Office as well as for the local administration.  It is an evil system that the British themselves have now done away with.  No politician in that country can appoint a single person to a Board or a Committee without that person being vetted by an independent body established for the purpose of ensuring that ability and merit outweighs political patronage.

He calls the second problem with our governments the “headstrong” approach to governance.  We in Anguilla well know what he means.  This is the system whereby Ministers are encouraged to believe that only they know best.  There is no need for real consultation with the people on certain matters.  They have been appointed “to rescue the people from themselves”.  Ministers, by their election to the House and appointment by the Governor, believe they have been empowered to take decisions, even when they are contrary to the opinion and advice of technical experts.  There is no need to give specific examples from Anguilla.  Every one of the public works projects, awards of licences, and granting of permits over the last ten years have proceeded under this system.  It is facilitated through the agency of compliant permanent secretaries.  The inevitable result of this style is that public confidence in the integrity of government leaches away.  The public becomes more and more disenchanted with the system of governance.  Their only pathetically inadequate remedy is the quinquennial return to the polls.  It is inadequate because the flaw lies in the system that each administration functions under, not with the individuals who happen to have been elected.

Tied to this problem of the headstrong approach to governance is the lack of transparency.  Contracts are awarded under a veil of secrecy.  Villagers wake up in the morning to find that a public road has been bulldozed through their midst in the night.  The Chief Surveyor approves the alteration of boundary marks when the affected neighbours have not been notified of the proposed change.  The public works tendering process is neither constitutionally mandated nor otherwise protected from political interference.  On the contrary, public works contracts are viewed as a political opportunity to keep contractors happy and in the right camp.  Worse, many contracts are awarded to political favourites without any consideration of the public interest in having the work done at a reasonable cost and to an adequate standard.  The standard argument in support of this approach is that if government had to consult the public on every issue nothing would get done.  Our governments fail to accept that a proper functioning democracy depends on a consistent and dependable consultative process.  People who are affected by public works decisions must be given a chance to make their input, even if it slows the pace of government.

His final criticism is the corrupting influence of the constituency system.  We in Anguilla all know about that.  The politician with the means to buy off the majority of his voters is almost guaranteed to win his seat in the House.  When most elections are won by majorities of less than one hundred, it helps if you have more relatives in your village or district than the other candidate.  We expect our politicians to favour the constituency from which they were elected.  We demand the right to approach the Minister and ask for his help with a personal problem, even if it means corrupting the system designed for the protection of the public.  Planning permission objections are overruled, work permits are granted, and residence permits are awarded, depending on who is the individual applying.  This is so routine that Ministers tout it as proof of their concern for the interests of the little man, a source of popularity.  It is not recognised for the corruption that it is.

The blame for this must be put where it belongs.  The political system, the Westminster Model, does not function efficiently in Anguilla.  We need to put more checks and balances in place.  Structural change is needed in the way we do government in Anguilla.  A course of re-education for all our senior officials in the principles and practices of transparency and accountability is urgently needed.  A legally enforceable and mandatory tendering process for all contracts above a certain level is essential.  Transparency in the award of contracts would be a first step.  The granting of permits and licences on the basis of merit only, is universally demanded.  The vetting of political appointees requires no great change in the law, only a commitment to transparency and accountability.  Island-wide elections must be provided for in the new Constitution.  These reforms are needed by all the Territory governments of the West Indies.

Debates

ALHCS Debates.  The student and staff members of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School Literary and Debating Society have organized a series of debates among the political candidates in the upcoming general elections in Anguilla.  The exercise is not only meant as a contribution to the discourse leading up to the elections, it is also a praise-worthy effort to raise much-needed funds for the members of the Society to pay their airfares and hotel expenses in attending the next Leeward Islands Debating Competition for High Schools.  The timetable for the debates among the political candidates has been published for some time.  The Anguillian Newspaper published a story on the topic in its issue of 29 December 2009.

The first debate was held yesterday.  It was intended for the three candidates from the West End constituency to show what stuff they are made of.  The participants were to be Wilmoth Hodge for the APP, Walcott Richardson for the AUM, and Kenswick Richardson for the now discredited AUF.  Only Wilmoth Hodge turned up.  The cowardly candidates of the other two parties failed to show up, leaving Wilmoth alone to field all the questions.  He answered valiantly the multitude of issues put to him by the young members of the Debating Society.  By all accounts, he acquitted himself well. 

When our young people fail to meet our expectations, we are quick to jump all over them, none more so than me.  When they do something worthwhile and creditable, they deserve all our encouragement and congratulations.  Shame on you both, Walcott and Kenswick Richardson.

Other competing and contrasting views can be read here, and here.

Illiterates

The gossip around The Valley was about the demand of Viceroy to bring in 70-odd Nevisians to complete the staffing of their Anguilla hotel.  Why Nevisians? you may ask.  Because Four Seasons Hotel in neighbouring Nevis trained hundreds of locals to run a hotel to the highest standard.  Four Seasons has been closed for a year.  It closed down thanks to Hurricane Omar.  As a result, there are hundreds of trained, unemployed hotel staff in Nevis.  Just 100 miles away from Anguilla.  What more obvious solution to the understaffed Viceroy Hotel than to bring the unemployed Nevisians to Anguilla?

The anticipated advantage for Viceroy was that they would be employing vulnerable, malleable immigrants.  At the slightest sign of stroppiness, or independence of mind, these foreign workers could be cowed into submission by threatening them with deportation.  That should keep them quiet!

The problem is that in Anguilla there are hundreds of young people who are out of a job.  They are demanding to know what their government is doing to look out for them.  Elections are around the corner.  Government was anxious to oblige.  The machinery of government was deployed in their defence.  Is that so wrong?

All that we asked was for our Anguillian youth to present themselves to any prospective employer in a reasonable light.  The problem is that the youth of Anguilla are unprepared for the job market.  The average Anguillian out-of-school young lady is tattooed from wrist to armpit.  She wears to the job-interview earrings that reach from her ears to her shoulders.  No one has taught either her or her brother how to handle a job interview.  Viewing the combination of her tattoos and earrings is guaranteed to frighten the s++t out of the average middle-aged, north-American guest at her hotel.  This makes her virtually unemployable.  Meanwhile, her brothers have lost the last trace of their parents’ Anguillian culture.  The present-day youth of Anguilla have been educated by BET jail-talk.  They speak a dialect, learned from US TV, that is closer to Folsum Jail prisoner-jargon than anything their Anguillian ancestors ever spoke.  They are generally unmannerly, semi-literate, and unprepared for the job market.  With their pants-waists dropping below their hips to reveal their dirty underpants, no employer, no matter how desperate, would ever imagine employing them.  They are, all of them, just not ready for the job market.  The average Anguillian High-School graduate is barely fit to be employed in the garden of a second-rate hotel, far less the front office of a Viceroy.

The joke of it all is on Viceroy.  As part of the deal for getting all the tax exemptions they were given by our generous, outgoing government, Viceroy had promised to have the necessary staff trained in time for the opening of the hotel.  They utterly failed themselves.  They dropped the training promise.  Such little training of Anguilllian staff as they provided, was perfunctory and last-minute.  The accountants who now run the hotel had decided that the promised training of Anguillian staff would be too expensive.  It would be cheaper to bring in Asians at one tenth the going West Indian rate.  Our government encouraged them to believe this was feasible.

They did not factor in the general elections that come every five years, and the ensuing upsurge in ‘patriotism’.  Sorry, it turns out that at this present time no imports are allowed.  An election has to be won first.

Good luck, Viceroy.

Intolerance

Intolerance can be a virtue.  Reading Move Any Mountain, I was reminded again that intolerance can be a worthwhile virtue.  The Christian mountebanks, who take time off from their child and spousal abuse to lead their gullible congregations in celebrating Christmas, are well aware that the only significant events of the month of December 2009 were the Winter Solstice and the Blue Moon.  May the Christian fundamentalists rot in hell for all eternity!  The Muslim clerics, busy encouraging the young men of the ummah to blow themselves up in defence of their religious wasteland, should be helped to check out the 70 virgins for themselves.  Allah has reserved the hottest part of hell for them.  The Zionist zealots, stealing the ancestral villages of the Palestinians, deserve the death and destruction that they so eagerly await.  Jehovah will surely condemn them to everlasting Gehenna.  The greasy politicians, engorging themselves at the expense of their gullible supporters, will inevitably stand condemned to life at hard labour in the salt mines.

And a Happy New Year to you too!

Golf

The big question in the tourism industry of Anguilla today is how long can Cap Juluca afford to carry the golf course?  Even Adam Aron’s backers will run out of money and patience one day.  You work out the math.  The figures were widely circulated a year ago when Flag Luxury Resorts was threatening to shut down the course.  It was said to cost US$6,000 per day just to water the grass.  That is US$180,000 per month.  There are other costs besides the water.  Another figure widely circulated was that Flag lost US$3.9 million on the course in the last year of operations.  That is US$300,000 per month.  And the story in circulation is that Cap Juluca has promised to keep the course open for up to six months.  Keeping that promise would cost them between US$1 and US$2 million in operating costs.  At US$225 per round, between 44 and 88, say 66, golfers per day will have to be found just to break even.  Given the uncertainties, it is not likely that many golfers are going to visit Anguilla for the purpose of playing golf.  Certainly, few will bear the burden of bringing their clubs with them.  Business will have to depend on the occasional drop-in.  The course will be lucky to attract even 10% of the numbers required to break even. 

It will have become obvious to Cap Juluca before the end of January that good money is only being poured after bad.

I don’t think Cap Juluca is in the charity business.

The well is never bottomless. 

We are reminded that the lunch is never free. 

And, Santa Claus does not exist.

I would not be so pessimistic if I thought this was anything other than a very expensive campaign contribution.

Related posts:

Expect more

Green Light

Anguilla still waits for the green light to increase borrowing.  A collective sigh of relief

went through the civil service today.  Salaries were paid.  At last week's press conference the Hon Chief Minister had mentioned that there was some doubt that government would be able to meet salaries unless the British FCO permitted the Ministry of Finance to increase borrowing.  However, salaries were paid today. 

We will all recall that Anguilla is at the maximum permitted limit of its borrowing.  We need permission from the FCO to borrow more.  Osborne Fleming, speaking in his capacity as Chief Minister, assured us last week that he was certain that the local banks would not have any problem in lending to his government, regardless of whether or not the British approved the borrowing.  Of course, as active, serving Chairman of the Board of Directors of Anguilla’s oldest indigenous bank, the Caribbean Commercial Bank, he should know.

It was back in the month of July when the Chief Minister took a high-powered delegation to London to try to persuade the British to permit him to borrow more than was allowed.  He did not tell us what he put in his presentation to the British.  It was all highly classified.  No one in the public domain in Anguilla has ever seen the application to borrow.  Most importantly, we do not know what proposals he made to assure the British that we would be able to raise the additional revenue to repay the extra borrowing.

In the event, the British refused to permit the borrowing on the basis of the application presented to them.  As Hubert Hughes, senior opposition member of the Anguilla House of Assembly, pointed out, the reason the British refused our application to borrow more was that government had no plan for repayment.  We cannot be sure as neither the local government nor the British have published what it was they responded to the Anguillian government.

The likelihood is that they are not objecting to Anguilla borrowing.  There is not likely to be any suggestion that Anguilla is not entitled to borrow.  The British are probably only asking the reasonable question, “Show us how you propose to pay back the borrowing.”  It is noticeable that the government of Anguilla has singularly failed to show us the application they made to the British to permit the extension in Anguillla’s borrowing powers.  Nor have they shown us the British response asking for more information.  They ask us to believe that the British are being unreasonable.  Sorry, I do not accept such a request for blind allegiance.  I consider it more likely that the British are being very sensible and cautious.  “Show us how you intend to reduce expenditure, and to increase revenue to repay the increased borrowing, and you will have our permission.”  That is all it is likely to be about.

It was only in April of last year that the Anguillian Newspaper warned that we must be careful how we borrow. 

There is however reason for caution. The fact that Britain has responsibility for Anguilla serves as a safeguard for money lenders in addition to the island’s own financial resources, but there is always the danger of over-extending one’s capacity to the extent that difficulties could arise if due care is not taken. Anguilla must avoid ever finding itself in a debt-ridden situation where, although the economy is buoyant, there is still a heavy burden on the national purse to meet the requirements of the Government’s loan commitments with ease.

So, when earlier this month, the Minister of Finance proposed in the House of Assembly a motion to approve the borrowing that had been rejected by the British, all ears were open to hear what his answer to the British was.  Would he announce how he was going to reduce expenditure in this election year?  Was he going to explain how he proposed to increase government revenue by increasing taxation in this pre-election year?  Well, we were all disappointed.  To this date he has not published one word on what the British are asking him to do, nor one syllable of his answer to them on what he will do to ensure that Anguilla is able to repay the increased borrowing.  Government ministers, being a majority of the House of Assembly, easily approved the motion to borrow.  This motion was rushed to London with a renewed application to increase borrowing.  London’s response, if any, has been concealed from us.

We are a short six months maximum from the next general elections.

What is the betting there will be no budget as usual in December of this year?  The explanation will be that it is not appropriate for the outgoing government to tie the hands of the government that will take office in March or April of next year.  As an apparent act of generosity and fairness, it will be left to the new government to decide on their budget. 

The reality is that Victor will not dare to publish to the Anguillian public what it was that the British were demanding of him, nor will he dare to publish what exactly were the new taxes he proposed to collect to pay off the borrowing.

It is a matter of local politics.  It is nothing to do with British incalcitrance and unreasonableness.  It is simply a matter of unwillingness to publish and admit the need for new taxes in the run-up to the general elections.

Two questions arise:

Have the British responded to government's request for an increase in borrowing?

And, if the British have approved the borrowing, how long will it take for Victor to tell us what undertakings he gave the British to secure their approval.  We have a right to know.  After all, it will have been a promise to increase our taxes.

That is the only way he is going to get their approval.    

Marriages

I heard part of the Chief Minister’s weekly press conference on TV last night.  And, my stomach turned with nausea.  I have not witnessed such a sick performance in a long time.  He went on and on about how concerned we must all be about ‘marriages of convenience’.  Listening to him you would you would have got the impression that permanent liaisons between Anguillian women and Indian contract labour at Viceroy is the biggest challenge to Anguilla’s integrity and destiny that we face at this time.  He made it sound like a major crisis was on us.  Worse than an epidemic of swine flu.

The nausea is aggravated by the memory of his shameful speeches in the House of Assembly when he has accused Pam Webster of permitting herself to be the victim of a ‘marriage of convenience’.  Over the past year, with the connivance of an accommodating Speaker, he has shamelessly abused the privilege of the House to smear and denigrate Pam and her husband with this baseless and disgusting allegation.  When she wins the Island Harbour seat in the upcoming general elections, I hope she will have a few remarks to make in the House of Assembly about one or two so-called Christian Anguillian men I can think about and their hypocritical treatment of their long-suffering wives.

Did he think he could issue work permits for several hundred single men, and not one of them would stay?

No one takes him seriously any longer.

And, Jerome Roberts will easily take his seat in East End.

Hopefully we will now get our first genuine Indian Restaurant.  That would be a relief after all these Chinese Restaurants selling chicken and chips.

Related Posts:

Intimidation