Ill Health

Board Resigns. Word came to me today that the entire Board of the Health Authority of Anguilla has resigned. I have got a copy of the letter to the Minister. It is dated 25 June, and is copied to various persons. It is not a confidential document. It paints a very sad picture of a breakdown in communication and trust between the Minister and this Board. And, it raises serious questions about the direction the Minister intends to take the Health Authority. The letter accuses the Minister of:

1. intending to reconfigure and re-constitute the Board outside of the existing legal framework;

2. procrastinating and failing to replace the three directors who had completed their terms since 31 December 2006;

3. demonstrating a reckless lack of commitment to the functioning of the health services;

4. a disregard for the four remaining members who were required to devote extra energy and time to the functioning of the Authority;

5. diverging from Government’s established plan for health without any communication with the Board and other stakeholders;

6. disregarding the legislation which governs the Health Authority of Anguilla;

7. deliberately undermining and sabotaging the effectiveness of the Board;

8. destabilizing the Authority;

9. needlessly putting the achievements of the past three and a half years at risk;

10. negating the hard work and efforts of the Ministry in advancing reform in the health sector in prior years;

11. diverging from the concept of health sector reform, which was, according to the 2000 Manifesto of the Anguilla United Front, the governing political party of which the Minister is a member, “intended to create an autonomous mechanism of health services provision, to ensure that they are as free as possible from political interference”; and

12. regressing to a body which would implement policy under the direction of the Minister and where the independence of the Board is not respected.

This is quite a litany of accusations. Any one of them would be scandalous if true. Taken together, they suggest a Ministry out of balance, losing its focus, if not its mind. And, in something as important as health! No wonder the Board resigned en masse. And, who can blame them for doing so “with immediate effect”?

Dolphin Prison

Betrayed. We now begin to see why Chief Minister Osborne Fleming was able so confidently to announce at the Park on Anguilla Day that the Dolphin Fantaseas facility was not going to be allowed to be constructed on the Mariners property at Sandy Ground. We all mistakenly assumed that he had developed principles. He had, we thought, at last got a social conscience. There had been so many public protests at the planned relocation of the dolphinarium from Barnes Bay to Sandy Ground.

Anguilla Dolphin

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The Planning Department had earlier given permission for the relocation. This had been done in the face of warnings from the Anguilla National Trust. It was already under construction by the Mexicans. Retired Chief Minister, Sir Emile Gumbs, and opposition member the Hon Eddison Baird, had teamed up to oppose the move. They held meetings with Osborne, even as the Mexicans beavered away at Sandy Ground building the proposed new facility.

But, the Chief Minister was not going to allow the dolphin prison to pollute the beach at Sandy Ground.

He had taken a stand. They were going to have to close up shop and move back to Mexico. So we hoped. How wrong we were, we now know.

Word has just reached me that the dolphin people have been given official permission to construct their new dolphin facility at the Sandy Point to the west of Blowing Point village.

Generations of Anguillians accustomed to using the location for family picnics and safe swimming will now find their access blocked. The planned facility will not make a nice adjunct to the million dollar homes that have gone up to the lee of the Sandy Point. It is almost certain that they will be impacted adversely. In any other country, there would be an immediate application to the High Court for an injunction. The grounds? There has been no environmental impact study, as required by planning. There has been no consultation with the public, as would be normal before such a major development was put down in a residential neighbourhood. Besides, this facility would constitute what the lawyers call a nuisance. The neighbours will be concerned that they are going to be harmed in the enjoyment of their premises. That is not allowed. Not even when government gives permission. A rash and impulsive permission, offered as a sort of bribe. A craven and secret permission, given in the dead of night. A promise in exchange for the Mexicans moving quietly and without protest away from their intended development at Sandy Ground. And, all just to shut up Eddie and Emile.

Are you, look a wuk!

Hunger Strike

Day Two. I had planned to tell you today the latest news about the relocation of the new dolphinarium. It is supposedly being moved from Sandy Ground to Blowing Point. But, humans are more important, in some respects, than dolphins. We have a developing humanitarian crisis in Anguilla that needs to be told. It involves the rebellion by the Indian slave labour that our government has permitted the KOR Group and Viceroy Resorts to import into Anguilla.

It was at 3:00 pm yesterday Tuesday 26 June that the police stopped the Indian workers at South Hill. They had been walking into the Valley to complain to the Labour Commissioner. Iwandai and Heartbeat Radio broadcast live for some hours from the scene. Eventually, the Commissioner of Police relented. He permitted their Anguillian sympathisers to drive the Asians to the Labour Commissioner’s office in The Valley. There were then at least fifty of them. The Labour Commissioner met with a few of their representative. There, they told their tale of the unbearable conditions which they were treated to at Barnes Bay. Wages of US$180.00 per month. Meat for dinner just once per week. Work-related injuries that remained untreated. Eleven-hour days, six days per week, in the blazing sun. Eight men bunking in a container in the container village to which they were confined. Anguillians were affected by their plight. Many of them had lost their better paying jobs when these Asians had been brought in to replace them at Viceroy. That did not stop them congregating in an unmistakable demonstration of support outside the Labour Commissioner’s offices.

That is where I found them at 3:00 pm the following day, Wednesday. When I came back from the dentist’s torture chamber in Marigot, I took a pass by the Labour Commissioner's office. I thought I would find them gone, and the problem solved by that time. I was wrong. Their numbers had increased from the original fifty to about one hundred and fifty of them.

They were squatting in and around an incomplete building across the road from the Labour Commissioner’s office. Someone had provided a tent for some shelter. I was told they had been there all day. They had spent the previous night asleep on the bare ground. They had no food, nor toilet facilities. They had a supply of water brought by sympathetic Anguillians. It was squalid and heart wrenching.

I was told the Chief Minister had not yet returned from the meeting in Cayman Islands of Overseas Territories' Chief Ministers. I believe he is still there telling them how he was the highest paid Chief Minister or Prime Minister in the West Indies. The other heads of the OECS, I am told, are not speaking to him any more. Without any provocation, he likes to remind them that his remuneration is double that of most of them. It is certainly immeasurably higher than the wages of the Indian labourers at Viceroy.

Tomorrow, the dolphins.

Slave Labour

Slave Uprising. It was not Spartacus. But, it was an uprising. Today, Tuesday 26 June, in the afternoon, the workers at Viceroy laid down their tools on the hotel building site at Barnes Bay. They had had enough. They left their Spartan quarters and marched towards the Valley. They had heard that workers could complain at the Labour Department. Of the 500 plus slave labourers housed at Viceroy, there were only about 50 on the actual march.

By the time they had reached Lower South Hill, the police were out in force. Their progress to the Valley was blocked. They were told they could not march any further. They sat down under a tree.

They asked for water. Iwandai arrived with a microphone. He began to broadcast. Heartbeat Radio 107.5 FM carried him live as he described the condition of the workers halted under the blazing sun. Radio Anguilla played soothing music. Several of the workers explained that they were only being paid a fraction of what they had been promised when they had been recruited in India. They were forced to live in cramped and squalid conditions. Their rations were not nutritious or sufficient. Then, Lolita Davis-Richardson arrived on the scene.

She demanded they be allowed their freedom to march to the Valley to make their protest at the Labour Department. A crowd of Anguillians gathered. They loudly voiced their support for the Indian workers. They protested the police action in blocking the peaceful march to the Valley. The crowd was beginning to grow. Just in time, word trickled back. The Commissioner of Police had agreed that the Indians could exercise their right to go to the Valley. Concerned Anguillians offered them lifts in pick-ups and cars. The Indians left for the Valley. There was never any violence threatened or suffered. As I departed from the scene, I wondered how the protest would play out once they reached their destination of the Valley.

We must all be relieved that it was the exploited workers who made the demonstration.

We must all have been concerned that it was the Anguillian workers who had been laid off by the arrival of the cheap Indian labour who replaced them that might have become violent. It was appropriate that it was the Indians themselves who protested. It seems to have completely bypassed government ministers that slavery has been abolished in Anguilla since 1834. They have totally ignored the mantra of all previous governments: there will be no development in Anguilla except it is demonstrably for the benefit of the Anguillians themselves. No development, no matter how deserving or desirable, will be permitted except it is principally structured and designed to benefit Anguillians. Importing 500 Indian labourers, who were to be paid slave wages, in order to replace Anguillian workers, was demonstrably not to the benefit of Anguilla or Anguillians. Our government has lost its way. Our people were on the verge of losing their soul. It was the compassion of the ordinary Anguillian that redeemed our government today.

Bermuda

Leadership Qualities in Bermuda. A correspondent recently sent me a remarkable article. It comes from the Royal Gazette of Bermuda. It is a newspaper, not the same thing as our Official Gazette. It contains a scathing indictment of the Premier and the Governor. The story of the investigation of the Premier for being involved in stealing money out of the Housing Corporation is now well known. The police have written a report on his involvement. The Premier has gone to court in an attempt to squash the story. The island’s Auditor General has been arrested for leaking the story to the press. It is very sordid. But, what really caught my interest was this quote from the article:

The Bermudian capacity for self-deception is staggering. So long as affluence provides its anaesthetising padding, why should any of us be impacted by dishonest representatives, when an honest one has become so increasingly rare.

Why worry about integrity or morality? Have these become not just outdated meaningless words, but dispensable qualities? We live in a society with one of the world’s highest per capita incomes, but one of the lowest educational standards.

We accept the continuing rape of our land for its commercial rather than intrinsic value. We are reliant on an industry that wouldn’t have the slightest hesitation in relocating if its profitability were more advantageous elsewhere.

Isn’t it clearly time to clean up our mess? Shouldn’t we dispense with those who are besmirched by their greed and disgraceful intent? Shouldn’t we think about encouraging those who are honest, whose work is genuine and whose aim is to produce long-term benefits for this island and for every individual who lives here?

Just replace “Bermuda” with “Anguilla” in the first paragraph. Do we see some relevance?

Police Warning

Protecting our Smugglers. I have received a report. I am going to investigate it. Even before I do so, I must tell you what I heard. It is too funny to keep it to myself.

A few weeks ago, I posted a story about drug smugglers landing small packages of undeclared cargo at Sandy Hill Bay. They were accustomed to arrive at the beach by fast boat on the darkest nights of the month between 10:00 pm and midnight. It was common gossip among the whole community. I witnessed one landing myself. I was told it had been going on monthly for over 30 years. I wrote that I could not understand why the police had not arrested anyone after all that time. I even asked the Commissioner of Police about it. He told me that I did not know how many uncounted hours his men had lain in wait at beaches all over the island looking out for smugglers.

Well, the problem at Sandy Hill Bay is now solved. There will be no more cargo landed any more. At least, on that beach. Apparently, every evening at about the same time, 7:00-8:00 pm, for a month or so now, someone has been assigned to go down onto the beach at Sandy Hill Bay with a portable searchlight. They switch it on and wave it about. They keep it up for about 15 minutes, and then they go home, to bed presumably. They do not lay in wait, and when the boat arrives at midnight, shine the light on them while making an arrest. They do not lie in wait. They go on the beach in full view of any lookout and shine the light about. God alone knows what the purpose of this useless exercise is.

It is almost as if the authorities are intent on alerting the smugglers, “Don’t come here any more. Go to another beach. This one is not safe for you to use.” Am I alone in wondering if it is only someone in league with the traffickers who could have thought up such a pointless procedure?

Anyway, it is only a report I have. I am going to see for myself. I am taking my camera. I shall lay in wait for the man with the searchlight. Look out for photos.

Ethics

Thursday Workshop. I should have done this several days ago. I am getting slower and slower on the uptake. As the years pass, I do not seem to get off the mark as quickly as before.

I hope I may be excused for using this medium to do a little self promotion. Well, actually, it is promoting the Anguilla Association of Office Professionals. I have been invited to give a workshop on ethics and integrity for office professionals. It will take place on Thursday, 28 June 2007. Venue is to be the Teachers’ Resource Centre. There is a small charge to cover the cost of refreshments. Otherwise, it will be an inexpensive way for businesses and offices on Anguilla to have their office staff immersed in issues of ethics and integrity for an entire day.

I am not sure what I am going to tell them for a whole day. No doubt, something will come to me. You know what they say about lawyers. If you want us to speak for ten minutes, we need a week’s notice. And, a paying client. But, if you want us to talk all day long, we are ready right now! And, for free.

The programme looks like this:

8:30 - 8:55 am: Registration

9:00 - 9:10 am: Prayer: Mrs. Catherine Brooks EXOTY 2006-2007

Welcome: Mrs. Rozell Hennis-Richardson, President AAOP

Introduction of Faciliator: Mrs. Ursil Webster-Brooks

9:10 - 10:30 am: 1^st Session: The case for Ethics and Integrity

10:30 - 10:35 am: B R E A K

10:35- 12.00 noon : 2^nd Session: Discussion of actual problems in Anguilla by participants

12:15 - 1:15 pm: L U N C H

1:20 - 2.30 pm: 3^rd Session: A Code of Ethics for Office Professionals

There is room for late registrants. If you are interested, contact Rozell Hennis-Richardson at the Teachers’ Resource Centre.

Orders in Council

Constitutional Reform in Anguilla. I am not suggesting that what happened to the Chagos Islanders is about to happen to us. But, today is June 23. In one month’s time the British negotiating team arrives on Anguilla. They have already worked out their agenda. They have long practice from negotiating with all the other Overseas Territories. We want to know what steps our elected representatives are taking to ensure that we are ready to stand up for the areas of constitutional reform that are most important to us. We have not heard them holding any planning sessions. The points have mainly been set out in the August 2006 Report of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission. We have not heard our elected representatives debate the Report in the House of Assembly. Are we all reading from the same page? Are some of us going to be following a different agenda? Do we all know where the bottom line is? Are we all in accord as to what is non-negotiable? Are we agreed on what items we can be flexible? Is it clear which items, if any, in the Report we are willing to abandon entirely? Do we have any non-negotiable points? Are we prepared to face down any British negotiator who may be so presumptuous as to tell us that any of our non-negotiable steps towards constitutional advance is not acceptable to the British government? Who is to be our lead negotiator? Who will lead off for our team? Who are to be the advisers in the background? Are we prepared to walk out of the talks if things look bad? What is the signal for us to walk out? Who will give the signal? Or, will we do like Ronald Webster in Barbados in 1967? Will some of us walk out, leaving others to continue the negotiations? How many practice negotiation sessions have we engaged in to prepare ourselves for the obstacles that will be put in our way?

The British will have learned a lesson from the Chagos Islands case. They will not impose anything on us by way of a unilateral Order in Council. They will want Anguilla to have a new Constitution that has been negotiated. They want to throw it in the face of the Committee of 24 as it exhales its dying breath. They will ensure that they can show that whatever they do with our Constitution was with the full agreement and concurrence of the Anguillians. Our negotiators will have to be sure they know what it is that we want. They will have to be steadfast in representing our true interests. We cannot afford to have amateurs go into these negotiations at half-cock.

Is there any need to repeat? If we are not prepared, they will make mincemeat of our representatives. And, then we will have a forty year struggle to put it right. Like the Chagos Islanders did.

Chagos Islands

Orders in Council. We in Anguilla have to learn from the experience of the Chagos Islanders. The story can be shortly told. In the 1960’s, the British Government agreed to give the US military an airbase in Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands. The “special relationship”, and all that. For security reasons, the US military did not want anybody living on any of the islands near to Diego Garcia. Never mind that the nearest of the Chagos Islands was one hundred miles away from Diego Garcia. All of the occupants were evacuated to satisfy the US need for secrecy. All the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands archipelago were declared to be illegally living in their homes. They were by Order in Council summarily deported to Mauritius. There they have remained for the past 40 years, living in slums, exiles from their homeland.

Their representatives brought a lawsuit in the High Court in England in the year 2000 seeking relief. They argued that their deportation from their traditional homeland was in breach of their fundamental human rights. They asked the court to find that the Order in Council was illegal. In 2003 the High Court agreed. The Court made an order declaring their deportation illegal. The British government was ordered to permit them to return to their home. The British government initially complied. The US brought pressure to bear. The Home Secretary announced that he would not obey the order of the Court. A new Order in Council was made in 2004 prohibiting the Chagos Islanders from returning home.

The islanders took the British government back to court. They challenged the validity of this last Order in Council. In the High Court, Government’s counsel argued that the court had no jurisdiction to question the validity of an Order in Council. The argument was that it was the Queen’s prerogative. The Chagos Islanders argued that the court did have the right to look at the validity of an Order in Council. The High Court found in favour of the Islanders. It held that the Order in Council had been illegal. Government then appealed to the Court of Appeal. On 23 May 2007, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court. The court concluded that the Order in Council was illegal because it frustrated the legitimate expectation of the islanders to be allowed to return to the Chagos Islands. The main point made by the Privy Council, for our purposes, was that an Order in Council is not a sacrosanct document. It is amenable to judicial review. British Ministers no longer have an unrestrained power to make an Order in Council.

A country’s Constitution is the contract made between a people and its government as to the way they consent to be governed. It cannot be altered by one party unilaterally. Any Order in Council that amends our Constitution without due consent will be illegal. This decision is very important for us in Anguilla. Not least, because of its constitutional implications. It calls into question the use of the royal prerogative, the alleged basis of Orders in Council amending our constitution.

Tomorrow we look at why we must prepare.

Constitutional Reform

Why Revise our Constitution? Anguilla is in the process of reviewing its Constitution. The British Government has encouraged us to engage in this exercise. It is not only Anguilla. All of the British Overseas Territories are involved. Nor is it only a British Government initiative. The US, Dutch, and French territories are engaged in the same process. Its genesis lies in the fate of the United Nations Committee of 24. The imperial powers of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and France are determined to bring the work of the Decolonization Committee to an end. They have been arguing for years that they have no more colonies. They say that their colonies’ constitutions are so advanced that they cannot be considered to be classical colonies any longer. They are not willing to continue funding to support the existence of this UN committee. They no longer send the required reports to the Committee. In their eyes, it exists only to rain blows of embarrassment on their heads. The present Constitutional revision exercise in the Overseas Territories is not meant for our benefit. It can be viewed as a part of this effort to bring an end to the Committee of 24. Constitutional modernisation is principally intended to show how unnecessary this UN committee is. This is why the imperial powers have all been encouraging their overseas territories to upgrade their constitutional arrangements. That is why the Dutch overseas territories are engaged in the process of revising their arrangements with the Netherlands. The French have just completed the process. St Barths is no longer a part of Guadeloupe. It now has its own constitutional arrangement with France. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are revising their arrangements with the USA. So, Anguilla’s negotiation with the UK is a small part of an international process. That is not to say that we cannot derive some benefits from the exercise.

We have a say in what is to become of us. We are the only ones with the voice that really counts when it comes to our future. We will decide what our fate will be. It is only if we are not sure what we want that others will decide it for us. If we know what we want for ourselves, no one can order us around. Everything depends on us. If we organize and represent our interests in a unified way, there is practically no limit to what we cannot achieve constitutionally. If we keep quiet, there is practically no limit to the abuse that we can be made to undergo.

Tomorrow, we look at the example of the Chagos Islands.

Conflicts of Interest

Duties of Directors. Someone has reported to me an astonishing thing. The two indigenous banks are building branch offices in the West End. A director of one of them has recently allegedly made a large illegal profit. He supposedly purchased a lot of land cheaply. He then sold it to his bank for a large profit. That would be a very wrong thing for a director to do. It reminds me of a story going the rounds a few years ago. A director of one of our public utilities supposedly purchased a lot of land in The Valley. He then sold it on to his utility company at a goodly profit. It is probably, like so many of our scandalous stories, a complete fabrication.

Can such a thing really happen in Anguilla? I would like to think that no board member would behave like that. I would especially like to think that no properly advised Board of Directors would permit such shady practices to happen.

What do you think? Are you in possession of the facts? Would you like to share them? Now is your chance. Make sure to send me evidence that I can check before you get me into trouble. No anonymous gossip please.

Charity

Delinquent Charities. One of the main advantages of registering a charity is that its income is not subject to income tax. People who donate to a charity also get tax relief on their donations. The Attorney-General is usually considered the public trustee and in charge of all charities. For him to know who they are, they have to be registered. They are obliged to prepare and to publish annual accounts. That way, the Attorney-General and any interested member of the public can check to ensure that they are spending their funds properly. Anguilla has no income tax, so charity status has no tax significance. Another consequence of our having no direct taxation on incomes is that generally speaking no business in Anguilla is required to audit its accounts. No one tells local charities that they must have their accounts audited and published. None do, that I know of.

So, I was very interested when a reader pointed me to a recent article in the Royal Gazette of Bermuda about delinquent charities. It turns out they have had a Charities Act since about 1978. Their charities have to be registered. They have to publish their accounts. If they do not, they are struck off the register. They lose their charity status. We have no charity law at all in Anguilla. Any one of us can set up as the “Blowing Point Red Cross” or the “Island Harbour Cancer Society” and persuade people to donate their money to us. We would not be breaking any written law. Not even if we spent the money on ourselves. What is even more interesting is that the article in the Royal Gazette tells us that there are over 400 registered charities in Bermuda. And, 150 of them are in trouble with the Attorney-General. They have not been filing their audited accounts. They have now been named and shamed in a report to the Senator. The Senator who called for the report has a charity of her own. Unfortunately, it is on the list of delinquent charities. No doubt, she will hasten to bring it back into good standing. That is what naming and shaming is all about.

In our case it did not work with NICA. It is a public company in which many Anguillians invested their life savings. It has been struck off the Register of Companies. The directors were named and shamed. They still have not done anything to bring that company back into good standing. When I checked a few days ago, it was still struck off the Register. Government now owns all its assets.

Is it not time the shareholders got together and wound this company up? Or, is it a charitable donation that we are making to our needy government?

Fishy Story

Anguilla’s Longline Fishing Boat. Just a few years ago we used to hear regularly about the long-line fishing boat. There was a young professional fisherman from Trinidad who was on the island for several years demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique. A boat was acquired from some funding source to carry out the procedure. Then, everything went quiet. It has been some years now that we have heard nothing about the project. So, I was curious when I received this email in just a few days ago.

On page 23 of today's Anguillian we see the former "Fishtec" for sale. This is a long story of incompetence, theft, government indecision and the waste of a huge amount of money. Lou Bardfield has a long and interesting story to tell. And according to the guy who ran the venture for two years, this is the world's only long-line fishing boat that didn't catch piles of birds and turtles - which of course is impossible.

The second phone number in the ad is:
Marsha Kotalac (508) 228-9023 Miacomet Ave, Nantucket, MA 02554
I have no idea who she is.

I contacted Dr Louis Bardfield. He has promised to tell me the story. When I hear more, I shall be sure to let you know.

Information

Don’t Talk About It. Anguillian authorities are famous for sweeping embarrassing felonies and misdemeanours under the carpet. This is a culture of “don’t talk about it”. The explanation is often, “What happened to the presumption of innocence?”

Well, let me tell you, when I am walking down the street and I see three scruffy men walking towards me with their eyes pinned on the contents of my pocket, I will change to the other side of the road, instantly. Don’t give me any stupidness about waiting for “proof beyond reasonable doubt”. That is a rule for the court. That is not a survival rule. Let us talk openly about evil wherever we see it. Let us ridicule powerful people with their hands in the cookie jar. Let us not wait for the beauty contest every five years. Keep them all honest! How about this as a powerful example?

Missing Evidence

Police and Crime. From time to time I get an email that stirs my curiosity. If it is about the police, my ears prick up. Our police force in Anguilla is relatively clean. For it to remain so, will require continuous vigilance by all concerned. That means you and me. We have to keep our eyes and ears open. When we learn anything suspicious, we have to open our mouths. No keeping quiet and not getting involved. Not if you want to remain safe. The integrity of the police forces of many of our neighbours, by comparison, has long ago been compromised.

There is nothing more frightening than a corrupt police force. It has been aptly described as an armed gang, backed by the full force of the State. Corrupt elements of the police force of Antigua control all drugs importation and distribution in that country. They own and run the whorehouses of St John’s. They control “security” at the casinos, and run all the illegal ones. They collect “protection money” from every little business on the sidewalk. In Grenada, St Vincent, St Kitts and St Lucia, corrupt police officers control prostitution, gambling and drugs trafficking. Police and Immigration officers openly usher Dominicanan prostitutes through the airports when they arrive. The main use of police cars in those countries is to distribute drugs to the approved outlets. In those islands, the only persons ever accused and charged in court are from the unauthorised competition. The Grenada Coast Guard distinguished itself after Hurricane Ivan by mounting a series of piracy attacks on boats bringing hurricane relief to the island. Typically, these police forces protect themselves by collecting evidence of corruption by politicians and businessmen. There is nothing such police like more than a prosecutor or an attorney general with a penchant for little girls, or better still little boys. They collect the evidence and then use it as blackmail to keep them quiet. The business communities and the professions in those islands know all about this state of affairs. They discuss it in hushed tones among themselves. They put up with this outrageous situation for one of two reasons. A few refuse to believe it is happening all around them. More often, they are too terrified to do more than give you a knowing wink and a nod when the subject of police corruption comes up.

So, it was with some unease that I read an email received recently from a correspondent. It raised fears. It read:

Check the Kristy Richardson thread on anguillatalk. Go to the second page of comments - there's not much of interest on the first page, a lot of whining by Yanchie and others about how young mothers should be exempt from criminal laws, including smuggling large amounts of illegal drugs.

The first entry on page two from Rudeboy alleges that the substantial amount of drugs she was convicted for is missing!

Now drive around in back of the police station and look at how many of them drive cars that are more expensive than the average.

You may ask, why did I not take my concerns to the Commissioner of Police? What in the world would I do such an idiotic thing for? The Commissioner’s job is to defend the members of the force from unwarranted attack. Notice that the correspondent did not offer a single name of an officer who might have stolen the drugs. Nor did the poster on anguillanews.com provide any details that can be checked by an outsider. Only the police know what is missing from the Evidence Room. Any Commissioner would strenuously deny to someone like me that even one ounce of the stuff was missing. There is no regulatory body of any kind that we can take any concern to. Besides, the Commissioner read the post on anguillanews.com just as my correspondent did. I did not hear any loud protest emanating from police headquarters.

The question is this: did the drugs disappear?

Education Standards

The Role of an Education Minister. It is probably very unfair. But, education in Anguilla is a very sensitive subject. People express extreme views when they write me on the topic. An increasing number of parents are taking their children out of the system and sending them overseas. Every time someone sends me anything about our Minister’s performance, it is negative. I do not know why. Whenever I have talked to Neil Rogers he has always come across as a very sincere and committed Minister. He seems to work fulltime and overtime at his Ministry. Why then do I get letters like this?

In the Cayman Islands there is an enlightened education programme. The new Minister of Education has introduced a change of governance model. He has brought in a new national curriculum. He has made interventions with regard to special education needs. He has dealt forcefully with literacy issues. He has introduced improvements in teachers’ conditions of service. Cayman's Legislative Assembly is considering the minister’s proposals to invest $150 million in education in the coming years, and last week approved $35 million for capital projects in the Ministry of Education over the next year. You can read all about it here.

By comparison, what we have in Anguilla is “community effort”. There was in the year 2005 a desperate self-help attempt to improve the appalling standards in the Stoney Ground Primary School. The teachers are underpaid, numbers of them do not turn up to work on time, the buildings are falling apart, the curriculum is out of date, discipline is out of the window, and the Minister appears to have no new ideas. You can read all about the self-help project here.

This project was never finished. The Minister took it over and then seems to have lost all interest in it. As we see in this article, there was a plan to extend this school grounds beautification programme to all the other schools. As far as I'm aware, it is dead, along with any pretence that our Minister of Sports has the slightest interest in the education of anyone other than his own children in America.

If, as I suspect, this story is completely unfair to our Minister, will someone in the know please tell us what we are doing with education in Anguilla?

Timeshares

Timeshare Fraud. I read with interest in the Independent Newspaper that a rise in timeshare frauds is causing the European Union to legislate. The peak of the timeshare scam in the United Kingdom was in the 1980s. Since then, the British have long ago introduced legislation to regulate both the property and the market. The fraudsters have moved to Europe and the West Indies, and now, to Anguilla. Their scams are sometimes camouflaged under names such as “fractional interests” and “holiday clubs”. What is being offered is a sort of timeshare that has the advantage for the property developer that the purchaser does not actually get anything in return for his money. And, because the property is being “sold” at an inflated price to many purchasers, the return to the developer is huge, with little or no downside.

In Anguilla you can legally purchase and own a condominium. There is a law creating condominium interests in Anguilla. There are one or two registered, well-established, condominium properties. If you are offered an interest in a new condominium property, with no established history, retain a lawyer to write you an opinion on the validity of the title. There are condominium frauds out there in Anguilla. Government is constantly throwing off the island salesmen selling non-existent condominiums. You do not want to be one of the victims, I promise you.

If you are offered a timeshare in Anguilla, be warned that such a thing does not exist. No, there are no timeshare properties on Maids Bay, or on Shoal Bay, or on Rendezvous Bay, regardless of what you have been told. Timeshares do exist in many parts of the world, but not in Anguilla. You cannot acquire title to real property in Anguilla by contract. You cannot take title to time in a property in Anguilla. Only a law or statute can give you that right. There is no law in Anguilla creating title to time. No, in spite of what you have been told, you cannot hold a timeshare interest in real property by contract. You will not be able to enforce what you imagine your contractual rights are.

The latest scam is the sale of "fractional interests" and interests in “holiday clubs” or “private residence clubs”. The sale of fractional interests in aircraft and works of art in North America is long established. Aircraft and art works are personal property, something the law treats differently from real estate. In some countries you can get a deed for a fractional interest in real estate. What works in the USA or in Canada is not necessarily legal in Anguilla. There is no law providing for fractional interests in real estate in Anguilla. No, you cannot get a deed in Anguilla to a fractional interest. If anyone offers to sell you a fractional interest in a holiday destination in Anguilla, you are being conned. Especially if you are advised not to retain an attorney to write you a legal opinion on the validity of title before you pay a deposit. That alone provides you with all the evidence you should need to satisfy yourself that you are being conned.

An interest in a private residence club in North America or South Africa is an interest in real estate. Ritz-Carlton has been one of the pioneers in North America. Typically, there you get a deed to your interest, and you can will it with your other real estate. In Anguilla, by contrast, you cannot get a deed to an interest in a private residence club. Only a law could give you a real estate interest in a “holiday club” property, or a “private residence club”. We have no such law in Anguilla. What you are being offered will only be a private contract, like buying a can of sardines. All interests in land are required to be registered in the Land Registry. This type of contract cannot be registered. The paperwork you will receive will be worthless. This type of arrangement will only be as good as its manager. When the club goes on the rocks, so too will your investment. In Anguilla, avoid it like the proverbial plague. Don’t say you have not been warned!

Poverty

Poverty

We are lucky in Anguilla when it comes to poverty. The UNDP says we have none. We know differently.

World leaders agreed on the Millennium Development Goals at the Millennium Summit in 2000. There are now recognised 8 goals, 18 targets, and over 40 indicators. I leave you to look them up and decide for yourselves how many apply to us.

The following UNDP poverty profile shows Anguilla having the second best Gini Co-efficient in the region. The higher the figure for the Gini co-efficient, the greater is the degree between high and lower income households. Only the BVI scores better than us in being more egalitarian.

Poverty Profile in OECS Countries

Country	% Below the Poverty Line	Gini Co-efficient
Anguilla	n/a	0.31
Grenada	32	0.45
St Kitts	31	0.40
St Lucia	19	0.50
St Vincent and the Grenadines	33	0.56
Dominica	33	0.49
Antigua	n/a	0.53
BVI	n/a	0.23

Because we have no statistically significant percentage of households living below the poverty line does not mean that we do not have poor households in Anguilla. There are at least 50 homes that the Welfare Department have certified as deserving free public water because the heads of those households cannot pay the minimum bills. To put this in proportion, there are probably 3,000 households in Anguilla.

We may not have the deaths from starvation we see on Television, and that we may associate with “real” poverty. Our poverty has a different, less obvious face. We have homes with a poor standard of living, homes where the adults suffer from low education and low skills, and are employed in low income jobs. We have old and vulnerable persons without access to social services. There are many homes that have difficulty meeting the weekly grocery and the monthly telephone bills. With our tourism-based industry, when hotel business dries up, as it does periodically, people are let go from their jobs. The result is that loan payments become overdue. Homes are wrecked by the stresses that result. We see the periodic spates of advertisements by banks of sales of distressed properties. Our citizens have weak voices and limited power to influence the forces that affect our lives. We are at the mercy of so many forces that are outside our control. In all these ways many of us in Anguilla can be said to be impoverished.

Environmental Issues

Environmental Issues. I have been checking around among some friends and contacts. I received a long list of what they thought were the saddest and most neglected environmental issues. Some were good ideas, and some were not so bright. Those that concern me the most are the following:

1. The silt that is now running into people’s homes & yards in West End directly related to the change in landscape from the Viceroy Project. You can go and take a look at former teacher Omah Richardson and her neighbours’ yards for evidence.

2. Corito: the removal of the scrap metal (e.g. old cars, stoves, etc) that are piling up and rapidly decreasing the number of years we can use the site. The discontinuation of the recycling programme needs to be investigated.

3. The Cove National Park idea – While government has been pushing this idea, the agency that government has claimed will manage the park (i.e. the Anguilla National Trust) has never been involved in the formulation of the idea or even in determining if that site is the most suitable site for a national park.

4. Septics & Waste Water – The water lab lacks the human and financial resources to do water quality testing on our ponds and even around hotels, resorts and villas located on the coast. The EHU does not conduct checks in this area. Two perfect examples of guilty parties are Cap Juluca dumping its waste in Maunday’s Bay Pond and Arawak Beach Hotel dumping its waste directly into the sea at Island Harbour. How will Eudoxie and Sandra’s guests st Scilly Cay react to that information when it gets to them? Not to mention the fishermen and bathers from Island Harbour!

5. The recent approval by the Land Development Control Committee of the relocation of the dolphinarium to Sandy Ground. This was done in spite of the objections of the experts. The decision was taken without any public discussion with the people of Sandy Ground. They were supposed to wake up one morning and find their beach turned into a dolphin toilet. The Chief Minister has corrected that error. But, it is a symptom of a serious fault in the system that needs to be addressed.

6. The Department of Environment has been in place now for almost 2 years now. Still its role has not been determined. There is no policy, no programmatic plan, nor any oversight. Its human resources for it to be able to function effectively are completely lacking.

7. ExCo in 2005 gave the Anguilla National Trust responsibility for the management of protected areas. A budget and a strategic development plan to fit this new direction of the ANT were both immediately prepared by the Board. They were sent to the Permanent Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office for approval by ExCo and approval of funding. Yet, to this date, nothing has been done. Our biodiversity continues to be under more pressure from developers. Our marine resources are becoming more and more scarce. A recent successful OTEP project proposal, I am informed, had to be altered because the Trust still has not been given marine parks to manage. So, St. Maarten-based tourists continue freely to exploit our cays. No Marine Park Wardens are out on the water patrolling and collecting mooring fees, issuing cruising permits, and enforcing the Marine Parks Act.

8. Anguilla has had the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands extended to us. To this date, we do not have one declared Ramsar site. This is despite the proven biodiversity importance of Dog Island, East End Pond and Sombrero. The question is, when will we meet the obligation of the Convention and name at least one Ramsar Site?

9. Litter Wardens have been talked about and people were asked to volunteer (and many did). Yet litter continue to be a major problem for our island. Litter wardens are non-existent. How can we as a tourist destination be catering for the upscale market when we cannot keep our island clean?

Meanwhile, I have learned that a consultancy team is coming from the UK on Tuesday to find out from our government what we are doing about our environmental commitments. We can only hope that they will not permit themselves to be misled and confused. Hopefully, they will not be persuaded that good intentions are the same thing as good actions. The road to hell is, proverbially, paved with good intentions. We want them to take the lead from the little lady on TV talking about the hamburger and ask, “Where's the beef?”

Scholarships

Are Anguilla’s Children Given Sufficient Information about Scholarship Opportunities? One of my readers of the Blog is always writing me letters complaining about the Education Department's failure to make use of what she describes as free UK education that is now available to our students who need scholarships. She blames the Minister of Education in particular for not ensuring the children get all the available information. She recently wrote:

Please note press release in last week's "Anguillian," page 18, in which Chief Minister Osborne Fleming reports on his attending the Overseas Territories Consultative Council. The dates of this meeting were 21 and 22 November 2006.

Mr. Fleming claims that the tuition issue was raised during the meeting and Lord Triesman promised to consider the matter. The CM's press release leads us to believe that now, seven months later, Lord Triesman has agreed to this proposal. These statements are at variance with the truth.

Having studied yourself in England I need not tell you how important this initiative is, not only to Anguillian students but for the social development of our island that our leaders are always reminding us of with their annoying platitudes.

If we had a Minister Responsible for Education who didn't think he was Minister of Sports, whose obligations to his family in America is greater than those to the people such as myself who stupidly voted for him, he would have been on the radio and in the newspaper seven months ago encouraging Anguillians, especially those overseas, to take advantage of this very important initiative. Mr. Fleming states he will keep the public informed about this matter. Why does he have a Minister for Education and what is this person's function?

The truth about this matter is revealed in the official press release issued by HMG on the first day of the meeting Mr. Fleming attended in November. A considerable amount of additional detail has since been made available, including how to qualify for interest-free loans for all college expenses. While widely available in other OTs, this information is a State Secret in Anguilla.

Our Education Minister has failed us, and our Chief Minister is lying about this vital tuition matter.

Not sure what to make of this, I sent her back the following enquiry:

I'm lost. What makes you think that the education officials have not been assisting hundreds of students to take up the offer? What does a mere politician such as the Minister have to do with the administrative procedures of scholarships? Surely, students do not deal with politicians such as Evans McNeil Rogers. They deal with Rhonda Connor and the Education Department.

I am lost as to what exactly you think has gone wrong. Is there any evidence that Anguillian students have missed out on this initiative?

She responded as follows:

I don't know what education officials have been doing about this initiative with ALHCS students. Things are generally a mess there, but I have no information on this point.

I'm sure they have made no effort to reach former students who have graduated and wish they could afford to go to college. The obvious way to reach them and their families is through the media. If we search anguillian.com for the word "tuition" we get only one hit, having to do with the tennis academy.

I'm even more sure they have made no effort to reach the many young people who are living and working in the UK (I understand there were quite a number of them) to establish their three year residence in order to qualify for UK domestic tuition rates. One of the primary purposes of having "The Anguillian" online is so that it can be read by overseas Anguillians, and I understand that a lot of them read it weekly to keep up with the news from home.

It would surprise me greatly if any young Anguillians struggling away in the USVI or freezing on the East Coast were aware of this initiative. The incremental cost of sending an announcement to "The Anguillian" is zero.

You ask what politicians have to do with administrative procedures of scholarships. In our corrupt society, it’s them that approve them. It's more economically efficient to use public funds to pay for scholarships than private, brown bag cash to pay for refrigerators.

Anyway, there are no scholarships involved here. I discovered that all UK college students are automatically entitled to free college expense loans.

Still not clear what the Education Department had been doing to help our children with overseas scholarships and further education, I decided to send this correspondence to the Chief Education Officer, Rhonda Connor. She responded with the following clarification:

Education/training for students at college and/or university level is not handled by the Department of Education; but rather the Department of Public Administration. They process all Government funding for student scholarships.

I am aware that Department of Public Administration encourages students to study in the UK. Please note also that the information regarding reduced tuition for Anguillian students was forwarded to the secondary school by the Department of Education and students were informed. In fact a number of students (who have left school recently) are presently taking advantage of the reduced tuition cost in British Universities.

I assume that the person is referring to this reduction in tuition cost, as I am not aware of any form of free education for Anguillian students.

This correspondence raises important issues. Have your children who have finished High School been given adequate information about scholarships in the UK that are available to them? Is it correct that for several months after the UK announced that scholarships were available for Anguillian children after only one year's residence instead of the previous three years, no one in government bothered to make an announcement?

What is clear is that tertiary education in the UK is not free to Anguillian students. It is only that it is now cheaper. I understand that it means that annual tuition fees have fallen from ₤12,000.00 to ₤3,000.00 for certain courses. But, that is a significant factor.

It is also now clear that neither the Minister of Education nor the Education Department has anything to do with scholarships for Anguillian children. That is all handled by the Public Administration Department. So, it was not fair to have blamed the Minister for the delay in publicizing the subsidized further education available to Anguillian students.

The correspondence does raise one curious question. The principal responsibility of the Public Administration Department in Anguilla is to hire and fire civil servants. What ever made anyone think that tertiary education for Anguillian students should be handled by the Public Administration Department, instead of by the Education Department? Why would anyone have put further education in the hands of Public Administration in the first place? Was it because originally, years ago when scholarships started being given by government, we were mainly trying to educate a cadre of civil servants? That target has long been achieved. Do we not now want to educate Anguillians to take over the commanding heights of the private sector? Do we not need scholarships for hundreds of technically trained persons who are needed in construction, tourism and financial services? Are not these in desperately short supply in the private sector?

What do you think? If you have an answer, please follow the instructions below.

Corito Dump

Corito Dump. Time to wind up this series of posts on Anguilla's water hazards with a look at the public garbage dump at Corito. It is cutely called Anguilla’s landfill. The word landfill suggests stuff you put into a hole in the ground in order to fill it up and level it out. What the word does not disclose is that in Anguilla we first dug out the hole. We now fill it in with garbage in order to dispose of the garbage. It is only landfill in a very general sense. The word is, in short, a euphemism for waste.

Everything gets buried in Anguilla’s landfill. There are no restrictions. There are no regulations, except what the security people make up on the spot. It is not even compulsory to bring anything to the landfill. There is no law or regulation against dumping all your garbage on your neighbour’s land. Unless, he finds out and sues you. That is the limit of the regulation in Anguilla.

I have never been to the Corito Dump. I would not know what to look for, or where to look. I know only from asking around that until a year ago, the hospital dumped its waste there. Body fluids and amputated limbs are now incinerated. It was not always so. If you see one of the dump dogs running around with a large bone in its mouth, don’t worry. No need to call the police. It is only Uncle Harry’s femur from his amputated leg.

Heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium accumulate over time in the bodies of mammals causing serious illnesses. They enter the human body as a contaminant in soil or as a pollutant in groundwater. These metals are some of the most extreme examples of hazardous waste. Lead and cadmium are used in batteries. We dump our batteries in the public dump in Anguilla. Other producers of hazardous waste include dry cleaners, automobile repair shops, exterminators, and photo processing centres. Hazardous waste includes septic tank sludge, fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, cathode ray tubes, paints and solvents, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, cell phones, computers, and a host of other household goods. In other parts of the world, hazardous waste is not permitted to be disposed of untreated in the public dump as if it were mere domestic waste. We in Anguilla deposit it all untreated in the public dump. Rain falls on it. Some of it dissolves over time in the ground water. It seeps into our aquifer. The Anguilla aquifer consists of a lens of lighter rain water floating on top of the saltier and heavier sea water that soaks into the island from the surrounding sea. The aquifer is where our wells tap into to draw out well water. Many of us drink the stuff. Particularly if we buy water from one of the water suppliers who flourish unregulated and untested around the island.

Can I have a beer, please!

I want to leave water now and touch on an education issue in the next post.

War Zone

The War Zone

We break for a moment from looking at the physical environment to take a glance at the social environment. I received the following description of a confrontation between the Valley Boys Gang (colour red, Valley, South Valley, North side, mainly; more weapons than weed) and the West Side Connection Gang (colour light blue, South Hill, Sandy Ground, West End, (some) Blowing Point, a lot of weed dealings). It was written on Wednesday 6 June, shortly after the events described:

I was in what they call the vicinity of the school from 3:00 to 3.20 pm and saw a dance, Flamenco, Ballet. I am still figuring out how to describe it properly. In words, maybe I'd be able to draw it first.

West Side Connection in front of the clinic, less than 20, close together. Valley Boys across the road in the roundabout corner, over 40, spread out almost in a line. Spectators’ positions in food van area, small groups making up the biggest group, reminding me of people watching tennis, left, right, oei, left, right. Spectators are mostly girls. WSC and Valley Boys, mostly boys.

Valley is expected to move in for revenge for the stabbing yesterday. For quite a while absolutely nothing is happening, they are hardly moving. No talking, a whisper. Valley are staring WSC down. WSC is daring them by moving their chin upward, slightly. None of the WSC core is going on the bus. They'd have to cross the road. A few Valley have sticks, loosely, playing with some bottles, standing still, waiting. WSC all just watching them, nodding. After about 10 minutes of this still part of the dance, a good twenty Valley walk across the roundabout and stall under the sign. Triangle set-up. With spectators moving closer to the road to have a view. All heads right, all heads left. WSC get up, move towards the roundabout on the Environmental Health side, stall too. Spectators move in so as not to miss any action. I don't hear anybody talk, it's eerie. WSC moves again, around the corner, I get in the car and go to the roundabout. All of Valley start to move towards in the direction of the tourist office. WSC moves along toward the market.

'Nothing happend.'

You think?

The crowd had a show. The WSC and Valley core had the victory of admiration or at least attention by the spectators, peers in puberty, girls.

'It was just like the videoclip'. (I gave a girl a ride just to hear). WSC showed they ain't scared. The Valley came out in numbers to show they are intent on revenge.

War! It frightened me, but I could see that for the girls there was beauty in it, the orchestrated-ness of it, the duende of Flamenco, bullfighting. Even the anti-climax, 'for now, for now'.

If the authorities do not immediately do something pretty drastic, I would say there is going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth in the bedrooms of a lot of parents in the coming days. What do I mean by drastic? How about the usual? Bring in the participants in gang fights for questioning. Hold them without bail until Monday morning. Let them sleep in the prison. Call their parents in to the station. Let a couple of big, burly policemen give them a lecture about the need to discipline their boys.

After the parents have well and truly disciplined them, let them be grounded for at least a month.

Call the girls in. Have Linda lecture them on their role in helping the boys to improve their self-esteem in positive ways.

Make it an offence for school children to be on the street unaccompanied by an adult between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am.

Make it an offence for a parent or guardian to permit a school child to break curfew, and impose a minimum $500.00 fine, with a maximum of $2,500.00 for repeat offenders. It won’t solve all the problems, but it will empower the parents and guardians to once again take control of their young charges.

I don’t know. I may have it wrong. I am no pedagogue. Ask the experts!

Water Corporation

Privatising Water. If the water situation is so hazardous, as we have been seeing in the previous posts, why does government not get rid of it and privatise it? This is a solution that has worked in the past for other such difficult and messy departments as electricity and health. Government might even make some money from water, for a change.

It turns out that just that solution was arrived at and agreed on several years ago. The United Front had it in their Political Manifesto during the general elections. Government has even committed to taking just that step. The European Union gave financial aid for improving and developing Anguilla’s water infrastructure. One of the conditions of the grant was that the water supply would be handed over to a corporation, so that it could be run on a more businesslike footing, once the project was completed. Government agreed to that condition and signed on the dotted line, promising to take that step. When they will get around to doing it is another matter. Your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, the project is long completed. Is no one from the European Union paying attention?

My information is that a Water Corporation Act was even drafted by the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It has, apparently, even been published in a Gazette for discussion. This was several years ago. Nothing has happened since. The latest story is that they are in the process of hiring a consultant to advise before the Bill is enacted. That must be the twentieth consultant on Anguilla’s water resources in the past thirty years. What is it they say? If government does not intend to proceed with a recommended and highly desirable measure, they give it to a consultant to study. We do not need to have another report to know that Anguilla’s present arrangements for supplying the public with potable water are a national disgrace and a scandal. It is only the complacency of the people, and our reluctance to put up with further regulation, permits government to get away with such willful neglect.

Can we have a little leadership in this place?

Hotel Water

Hotel Water. We have been considering the essentially unregulated state of Anguilla’s public water supply. We have looked at the fact that the water that is distributed by the Water Department is produced from sea water. As a result, it is unlikely to be polluted by Anguilla’s aquifer. The aquifer we believe is affected by heavy metals, toxic waste product of every kind, and toilet waste that leaches into it from various sources. The most important of these sources of polluted water is the Corito Dump. That is where old batteries, body parts, dead dogs, old refrigerators, oil waste, and garbage of every kind has been placed for many decades. Private water suppliers use water drawn from wells in the interior of the island. This water is likely to be affected by this toxic waste. Only testing the aquifer for toxic waste traces will prove otherwise. This private water and its source is not regularly tested. It is not subject to any kind of regulation or standards set by any water authority in Anguilla. The reason, we have seen, is that government has been reluctant to impose any regulation. Setting standards and regulation probably does not sit comfortably on Anguilla’s culture of being a frontier society.

What about the hotels, you ask? How do they get their water for their guests? They use a similar reverse osmosis to treat water they draw from wells. Their water is not regularly tested either. Are the guests in Anguilla’s hotels at the same risk as those of us private citizens who must occasionally purchase truck loads of water when our cisterns run dry? Enquiries reveal that the hotel guests are said to be safer than we are. Their water, like ours, is still not regulated by any state agency. There are no national water standards that private manufacturers must meet. However, hotel guests can afford to be more complacent than we, the general members of the public. The hotel wells are all close to the sea. Their water is not considered to be drawn from our aquifer. The experts consider it to be sea water. It has not been contaminated by all of our toilets and the Corito Dump.

Of course, that is just speculation. No one conducts regular tests to ensure that is true. No one has published test results for the chemical content of the sea water near to our hotels. So far as I have been able to determine, no one has ever tested for heavy metals and other poisonous chemical waste. Tests are apparently only conducted for e.coli and other bacterial pollutants.

If you know otherwise, please let us know. The tourists need total comfort and reassurance here!

Water Bills

Public Water. While I am on Anguilla’s public water supply, let me get one matter off my chest. That is the payment system for public water, or lack thereof. While I was gone from Anguilla between the years 1999 and 2004, working in neighbouring islands, I diligently paid my Anguillian water bill every month. Even when I was not there to use any water, I paid. I had been told that I had to pay for the meter rental. Whether or not I used any water, I had to pay the monthly minimum. I paid. I considered it my civic duty, indeed a legal obligation. It was only years later that I learned that the mains pipe from the water tank at Old Ta to North Hill village, into which I had a connection, had been abandoned several years previously. I had been paying for water that not only I had not been using, but that had ceased to flow in that mains pipe for several years before. I could not have used it even if I had turned on the tap! The Water Department was considerate enough to cancel my last bill and discontinue the billing.

It turns out that there is no legal obligation to pay for water in Anguilla. Most people who are fortunate enough to receive a supply of piped government water do not pay for it. Only suckers pay. That’s official. I have learned that a consultant’s report several years ago revealed that, even then, at least fifty percent of all the public water supplied in Anguilla was being stolen. I understand there was an effort to prosecute one or two of the biggest offenders, people who took government water and even resold it. Nothing came of the effort. The Attorney General’s Chambers advised the Water Department that no prosecution could succeed. The reason why? Apparently, the law of Anguilla still was that only the secretary of the St Kitts Water Board could prosecute. And, since there was no St Kitts Water Board, nor any secretary of it, in Anguilla, there was no one authorized to prosecute persons who stole Anguilla’s public water. The Water Department tried cutting off the water supply to offenders’ homes. The culprits simply got a plumber to hook up unofficial connections to tap into the public supply. Not one of these offenders, of whom I understand there are several hundred, was ever prosecuted.

So, why did government not just introduce a law in the House of Assembly and create a new Water Board to enforce Anguilla’s water laws? They were advised to do just that. I am told that a draft new law was even Gazetted for discussion several years ago. But, then our brilliant and far-thinking Ministers had second thoughts. They withdrew support for the proposed new law. The reason? They did not want to “criminalize” stealing of water. Why not? Because, it turns out, some of their biggest supporters were the major offenders. The reason why their excuse for inaction is stupid is that everyone knows that they could have announced an amnesty and given every one of the thieves a chance to get their connection recorded and legalized. It would only be the most deliberate and stubborn of offenders who would be “criminalized”.

Meanwhile, I have checked the law. What the Water Department was advised by the Attorney General’s Chambers is no longer true, if it ever was. The Watercourses and Waterworks Act does provide for an Anguilla Water Board. It consists of the Water Engineer and four other members to be appointed by ExCo. All that happened is that ExCo failed to appoint the four members. They seem to have deliberately not put in place the Water Board that the law provided for to enforce Anguilla’s water legislation. If this conjecture is true, it is evidence of absolute negligence on the part of ExCo!

Needless to say, I long ago stopped paying for government water. I rely on my cistern and the water I collect on my roof. I have to do so. There is no functioning water mains anywhere near my home. I still cannot get public water even though I want to pay for it.

This post was an aside. I want to continue considering some health hazards in the next few ones.

Water Testing

Anguilla’s Water Lab. We are looking at the alarming state of Anguilla’s unregulated water supply. The absence of a functioning Water Lab is only understandable when viewed in the context of Anguilla as a frontier society. A frontier society is usually one that is more informal, democratic, self-reliant and egalitarian. By definition, it is also a lawless one. To this day, we Anguillians are not amenable to regulation of any kind. There is no expectation that any internationally recognised standards apply to anything we do in Anguilla. The disposition of the average Anguillian and, increasingly, of everyone who has come to reside in Anguilla, is that Authority in Anguilla can safely be ignored. There is little or no national dialogue on what Anguilla’s future is to be. The print-media and radio call-in programmes oscillate between extremes of complacency and the occasional call for violence and death. The political directorate shows no stomach for planning or principle. Only the squeaky wheel is said to get some oil in Anguilla. There are no squeaks coming out of the Environmental Health Unit. Anguilla’s water supply system is a victim of this lack of vision, absence of planning, and putting aside of principle.

Anguilla has no functioning Water Lab. What that means is that Anguilla’s water supply is not regularly tested. Water lab technicians do, I am assured, take samples of the piped public water supply from time to time. These samples are sent off to a kind and cooperative laboratory in nearby St Maarten for testing. God knows what they test for. Such information is not public and is not accessible, at least to me. No one would dare to suggest that the private suppliers of water for domestic use should be regulated or even tested. When there is a specific complaint made by a member of the public, eg, of seeing lumps of feces in a pond near to a hotel, the Anguilla Water Lab personnel visit to take a sample. They get it tested in St Maarten. The results are not public. There are no consequences for failure to meet standards. The testing does not result in an improvement in the quality of the toilet waste disposal.

Enquiries reveal that none of the hotels in Anguilla has a properly functioning toilet treatment system. Effluent is pumped into nearby ponds, or out to sea, without regulation or even concern. No one in Anguilla remarks on it. Pump trucks clear any overflowing septic tanks, and dispose of the waste. Better not ask where they dump it. I could show you photographs. I could take you to some of the grounds where the waste is dumped near to where children play. There is no regulation on the statute books in Anguilla applying to this waste disposal activity. There is no licensing procedure for the pump trucks. The Environmental Health Unit personnel do not even know who engages in this activity. They have told me so. The Public Health department has no authority over these service providers. I would venture to suggest that, if anyone recommended that such a state of affairs was unacceptable in Anguilla, and should be corrected, there would be a public uproar. This, after all, is a frontier society. Anything goes. Freedom to the people!

Water Standards

Water Authority. In most West Indian countries, the quality of the water supplied to the public is monitored and regulated by a “Water Authority”. Such an Authority has charge of the distribution of the public water supply. It has powers given to it by a law. It can prosecute people who harm the public water supply. It can sue to collect the rates set for the supply of water. Anguilla has no Water Authority. The reason is historical, and not a mystery. Our Authority in the past was the Water Board of St Kitts. When we separated from St Kitts, we kept the water law. But, we never set up our own Water Board.

Anguilla never set up any kind of water authority or water board. We never gave any agency in Anguilla the authority to regulate the quality of the water sold to members of the public. We have a Water Department, but it has no statutory recognition. The reason is again historical. Most homes in Anguilla supplied their own water. After Anguilla began to develop in the 1970s, entrepreneurs began to supply water to homes whose cisterns had run dry. In the beginning, the suppliers begged, borrowed or stole it from the cisterns of homes that were unoccupied. No one complained; everyone was happy. Why regulate something that was working perfectly?

Except, the day came when there were not enough cisterns to supply the demand. Various companies began to import their own water making equipment. Some of them manufactured water and sold it to the public. Others, such as the hotels, manufactured water for their own use, and did not sell to the public. None of these water manufacturers and bottlers is regulated by any government agency. At present, we have no control over the quality of water we drink or bathe in. Anguilla is the Wild West when it comes to water. Why does this matter?

The Crocus Bay Water Treatment Facility produces drinkable water by a process of reverse osmosis from sea water. This sea water is pumped up to the plant from nearly half a mile out to sea. This is “pure” sea water. After treatment, this is the water that is distributed in pipes throughout Anguilla. As an exercise in self-discipline, the Facility ensures that its water contains two parts per million of chlorine when it reaches the end user. Compare that to the private manufacturers and sellers of water. These include Anguilla Water Suppliers Ltd of Water Swamp. They manufacture their water drawn from a well in the Farrington. This is the water that is sold and distributed by Island Transport Ltd and National Trucking. There is Charlie’s Quick Water Delivery Service of Long Road. They manufacture their water drawn from a well in Mount Fortune in East End. There is Vanterpool Water Delivery Services. They manufacture water drawn from a well at Welches. This water is all drawn from Anguilla’s aquifer, or water table. Anguilla’s water table is where all the used batteries, the toxic power station and gas station used oils, the septic tanks, and the cemeteries, drain into. None of this well-water is checked, except occasionally when there is a complaint. Even if a problem is discovered with this water, there is no one who is authorized by law to enforce standards. Not that there is any regulation governing water standards that can be enforced in Anguilla.

And, to think that this is the water that I purchase to put in my cistern to drink, and to cook with, and to wash!

The dysentery outbreak we had on the island last year might be just like a simple cold in comparison to what lurks around the corner!

Are you, look a wuk!

Water Hazard

Water Quality. Basic to a nation’s health is the quality of the water available to its public. When we drink a glass of water we expect that “the authorities” have ensured that it is safe to drink. I have received a number of emails recently that suggest that is not the case in Anguilla. I have gone around asking questions.

How do you know that Anguilla’s water is safe to drink? Because, it is tested at the Water Lab and the tests indicate that it is safe. But, Anguilla has no functioning water lab. We have not been able to test water in Anguilla for some years now. There is a building going up adjacent to the Environmental Health Unit near the NBA roundabout in The Valley. It is designed to be the new Water Lab, but it has not yet been handed over to government. I visited it yesterday, and there were two men working in it. At the rate that two unsupervised men usually proceed with construction, it will be many months if not years before it is ready to be commissioned.

We have a trained and qualified water technician at the EHU. She was not authorized to answer my questions about the quality of Anguilla’s water supply. So, I can only tell you what people who should know have been telling me. I hope you have a strong stomach for some of what I shall be passing on to you in the coming days. My concern is that if something is not done urgently about Anguilla’s present environmental hazards, the gastroenteritis outbreak that we experienced last year is going to be a joke in comparison to what we can expect.

It is not as if our Ministers of government are insensitive to the issues. Perhaps the loudest round of applause that greeted any of the Chief Minister’s announcements on the Park on Wednesday was for his promise that the Dolphinarium would not be permitted to be relocated to Sandy Ground. You must know that an area of the sea outside the old Mariners Hotel was to have been fenced off and turned into a dolphin cage. They would be fed there, and they would use the sea as their toilet. The Anguilla National Trust had written a well-researched and strongly worded plea against this installation. They had pointed out there had been no Environmental Impact Assessment. There had been no consultation with the residents of Sandy Ground. There had been no study of the impact on the animals of the oil, noise and traffic from the nearby cargo jetty. Unbelievably, the Planning Department had gone ahead and given planning permission. Not a soul in Sandy Ground had been consulted. No member of the swimming public knew that their beach was about to be turned into one big dolphin toilet. I have been the recipient of a surprisingly large number of astonished emails enquiring how our government could have allowed such a thing. Osborne and his ministers redeemed themselves in the eyes of many when they took this bold and correct decision to prohibit the relocation. They have some more steps they need to take in the same area of public health and welfare.

Litter Problem

Litter Wardens. Not everyone gives much priority to the environment. James Watt, President Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior, is supposed to have told the US Congress that protecting the natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he allegedly said, “After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.” For what he actually said, if you are interested, see this copy of the Alternative Energy Bulletin. Or, see his entry under Positive Atheism’s Big List of Scary Quotes. It is hard to fight against that type of ignorance coming from a presumably educated man.

I can remember the day when littering was first made an offence in Anguilla. The House of Assembly passed the Litter Abatement Act. That was years ago. Not a single person has ever been prosecuted for an offence under it. To be effective the Act needs Litter Wardens. People were asked to volunteer, and many did. These appointments were essential for enforcing the Act. A Litter Warden could impose a ticket of a $50.00 fine for littering. But, not one Litter Warden has been appointed. I enquired why. My informant tells me the Ministers had a change of heart. They did not want to make criminals of people who only throw bottles and tins out of their car windows. The consequence is that littering is as much of a problem around the island now as it ever was before the Act was introduced. What a joke this law is! What a calamity our Ministers of Government are creating!

How can we as a tourist destination claim to be catering for the upscale market when we cannot keep our island clean? When the tourists start posting pictures of our litter-strewn roadsides on the internet, how will we respond?