Dear Editor,
We are at a point and time, where we have to seize the momentum and exercise our right to demand of our government that they do the right thing and if they chose not to, and if they choose not to, then it’s also our right to remove them from office. Maybe it’s time for a Henry the second moment here in which he says of Becket, “Will no one remove this meddlesome priest?” And I say to you my fellow Anguillians, will no one remove this incompetent government?
In the coming months we are faced with several possibilities, many of which will determine where we go from here. It is obvious that we are mired in a downward spiral from which we can’t seem to emerge. Those tasked with looking out for our well-being have been standing on the sidelines while the ship continues to flounder on the rocks. We are contemplating a new constitution and electoral reform, and from the looks of things probably won’t get anything accomplished. We have a government that continues to function in a way that’s not conducive to our well-being.
We have a press whose coverage is at best very spotty, with the advantage going to the government. It is the job of the press to keep the government honest, and when you see major events happening as was the case during the Anguilla Day week, with hardly any mention, then one has to ask the question, were these events not newsworthy? Is it not the job of the news media to shape public opinion and not follow it? It is the job of the newspaper editor to not suppress the news because it might upset some people or the government in power, but that it might force the government to reconsider its policies. That there were several notable events occurring without any mention by the local press, speaks volumes. Shame on you!!
There are many things going on right now which ought to raise all kinds of red flags. Our country is being sold out to the highest bidder. We have lost our moral compass, and as one citizen said on the radio that: “we are selling out our right to existence.” There are those who are fronting for foreign entities, a practice that former Chief Minister Sir Emile Gumbs admonished us about exactly ten years ago in the Anguilla 40th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine. He said: “The wholesale importation of foreign labour, the “fronting” by our people for foreign business, coupled with the impression that all of Anguilla is for sale, does not bode well for our future. If these trends are not arrested, we may soon become an endangered species in our own home.”
We surely didn’t listen then and for all intents and purposes we are not listening now, and as the old saying goes that he or she who doesn’t listen surely will feel.
So the question to all stakeholders is this, do you really care what happens to Anguilla?
Will the efforts of people like my father, Walter Hodge, Atlin Harrigan, Jeremiah Gumbs, Ronald Webster, Ruby Gumbs, Bevan and Cardigan Hodge, John Webster, Etienne Gumbs, Peter Adams, Bob Rogers and a host of others be for naught. Can we tell them if they ‘don’t like it they can lump it?’
Folks the whole world is in turmoil right now and it can’t be business as usual. A change has got to come sooner rather than later. Mr. Banks keeps talking about his mandate and the margin of his victory and he’s right this is about his victory, a victory that he was able to achieve under false pretenses.
We the people are not sore losers, we are angry as hell sore losers, because sir you won under false pretenses, and not only did you win under false pretenses, you proceeded to destroy our homeland and we will not forget or forgive you for that. You have probably won your last campaign and you probably won’t have to face an electorate again, so you could care less, but let me remind you sir, this is still supposed to be a democracy and as such we the people still have the ultimate last say in what happens to your government, and as we said in our letter to the Governor General of the West Indies back in 1958 and I quote that: “a people cannot live without hope for long without erupting socially.”
So here it is, that in the fiftieth year of our existence, despite the rosy pictures that have been painted by some, we seem to be headed in the opposite direction. Our people are starving; many households can’t afford to pay for the modern conveniences of simple everyday existence while our government spends money like drunken sailors at liberty on shore leave. We have work to do and the sooner we get down to it, the better off we’ll be, so again, if we don’t step up to the plate, no one else will and Anguilla as we once knew it will cease to exist and our homeland will be nothing more than a mirage. It’s up to each and every one of us. Don’t follow the party line. God gave each of us a brain to think, let us do that and make our own choices.
The bible tells us that we are our brother’s keepers and as such we ought to care for each other. We used to be that way at one time or another, but we are badly misguided right now. When I think of the effort that was put forth back in ’67, the hard times that we had to endure as young people growing up with no future on the horizon, that a lot of us, under the age of twenty were fortunate enough to find a host country that willingly opened its arms to take us in, it pains me to see that our leaders have brought our pigs to fine market, and yet we continue to allow this unfettered abuse of power to continue.
Folks in the words of the calypso by The Mighty Gossip, “the revolution ain’t done.”
Tyrone Hodge
