Dear Editor,
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” ~ Proverb.
With that being said, I find the news coming out of my country of Anguilla very distressing. It appears that this government thinks so little of us that on Anguilla Day, this year, a day when we celebrate our liberation from the claws of one Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, our government has seen it fit to show us how far we’ve come, by distributing food baskets.
On the surface it may look all well and good, but my good people, don’t for a second think that this government cares one iota about us. While this may look like the right thing to do, it does not pass the smell test and from where I stand, it stinks to high heaven. This sort of thing is totally unacceptable to have us lined up waiting for a food basket and on the very day that our forefathers fought to insure that something like this would never happen.
Where does this government get off treating the people of Anguilla like paupers? It is inconceivable that those in power would even contemplate something as low as this. Food baskets being handed out in Anguilla, are you serious? Is there nothing that is sacred to this government?
When our chief minister talks about “it’s all about you” who is he really referring to? Is it the “you” whom he thinks deserve to live as second class citizens? Who is he really referring to?
The fact that he chooses Anguilla Day, the 50th one, to do this goes to punch up the fact that his government has been an abject failure. Had he kept his promises to get Anguilla back on its feet, none of this food line stuff would be necessary. People don’t want to lower themselves standing in bread lines waiting for government hand-outs, they’d rather be working at a full time job earning a decent salary from which they can pay their mortgages and still have something left.
The fact that this government is willing to give out cash prizes on the nameless Ronald Webster Park, on our most reverent of holidays, is an embarrassment and this government ought to be ashamed of themselves to even contemplate such an idea. That is not who we are. Our people are a proud people who would rather earn a pay check than accept a handout from a government who clearly has ulterior motives for their actions.
At a time when our island is falling apart because of incompetent and weak leadership, our priorities are totally out of whack. This government seems to have taken a page out of the Donald Trump playbook in that every time a firestorm breaks out, you start a new fire. We have moved from one catastrophe to the next. We started out with the banks, then we quickly moved on to the stabilization Levy, and then we quickly moved on to something else. There are so many things happening concurrently that one needs a scorecard to keep track.
I ask again for the hundredth time, how did we get to this place and how do we get out?
I am angry when I see what has and continues to happen, for this is not what Atlin Harrigan, Walter Hodge, John Webster, Elliot Webster, Ronald Webster, Collins Hodge, Bob Rogers, Peter Adams, Jeremiah Gumbs, Mildred Vanterpool, Olive Hodge, Bevan, Cardie and a host of others too numerous to mention, fought for.
That on this day when we look back and remember those no longer with us for what they did, that almost 50 years to the day, that we are having to line up for a lousy $250 food basket is a damn disgrace and those whose brilliant idea that was ought to be flogged with many stripes.
I honestly believe that this gesture on the part of this government is nothing more than an attempt to curry favour with the people leading up to the next election. What this government should have done instead was to not pay out over $250,000 to every Tom, Dick and Harry, for services rendered during the celebration. The actions of this government, I say once again, do not pass the smell test. For example, why is one church getting $15,000
for putting on a programme? Isn’t that what churches do? The disbursement of those funds is highly questionable.
At a time when people can’t pay their bills and are losing their homes because of an ill-advised banking bill signed into law by this government, they are spending an exorbitant amount of cash to celebrate what? What are you celebrating? Who are you celebrating? It appears that this government is so illiterate when it comes to Anguilla and its history, that they would even attempt to celebrate Anguilla Day, astounds me.
None of this makes sense. Cash prizes given away at the park, seriously. What will this be an Easter-type cash hunt? Will they hide the envelopes around the park in the bushes and then have an all-out race to find the cash? Again, this does not pass the smell test. I would like to tell my fellow Anguillians not to stoop so low as to stand in line waiting for a food basket. We are better than that. This is not who we are. We have always had hard times and we’re still here, so what does that tell you about our resilience?
My brothers and sisters, I was raised by a very proud woman named Millicent Harrigan, and the one thing that she taught me was to always keep my head held high. She always did and though she’s getting on in years, not one day goes by that I don’t remember something that she told me. We are taking a beating from all sides right now, but we can’t give in to this ploy that our government has come up with.
Had they collected the money that is owed to us from the Cap Jaluca debacle, we would have money to put people to work. Had they not spent millions on an airport that is still unfinished, there would be money for infrastructure. Had they invested in our schools we would not be stuck with a system that fails most of our kids. Had they not been interested in giving themselves a 25 per cent pay raise in an attempt to get an exorbitant gratuity bonus upon retirement, there would have been money to build our college.
This government, and the one before it, has done a magnificent job of deconstructing Anguilla; 50 years later and we’re worse off than when we started. When we started, we had our own airlines; we had several schooners and one or two steel hulls which plied the waters of the Caribbean. We built our own banks and did extremely well until management got in over its head.
So, as we get ready to put on our Sunday best to hear Victor extol the virtues of patriotism, let us take every word he says with a grain of rock salt. Let us remember those whom I’ve alluded to, all of them, named and un-named. Let us ask ourselves, is this what they fought for, is this what we fought for? If it is, then let us do what the young calypsonians from the BVI admonished us to do last year, “Take your licks and shut up.” , by chance if that is not the case, then we’ve got work to do.
So until next time, take my aunt’s advice and keep your head up high. May God bless us all and may He continue to bless Anguilla despite of ourselves.
Tyrone Hodge
