25 December, 2008

News


The Chinese and the Dolphins. I had been hoping to hear something on the radio. Perhaps, something in the papers. But, there has been no news published about the only two important events in Anguilla during this Christmas week worth reporting on.


I am told that on Tuesday, some fifty or sixty Chinese were seen off with their packed suitcases.


We do not know several important pieces of information. Did the Chinese workers get their pay for the last months they worked for Ashtrom? Or, were they sent packing with empty pockets. Does anyone know how many there are actually still marooned on Anguilla? How many have actually left our shores? Not the number of seventy announced last week in the House of Assembly, the real numbers? Did Ashtrom pay for their trip back to China, or did the Anguillian taxpayer take up the tab? Did anyone take a photograph of them leaving?


The other piece of news is that the dolphins have been sent off to work in the Cayman Islands. They were seen off earlier this month in a large cargo plane en route to Tortola. Around the same time, a plane load of dolphins showed up in Cayman for work in their newly authorised dolphin abusement industry. I am told they are the same dolphins. Does this mean we in Anguilla have seen the last of them? One can only hope so.


And, another thing, did the export shipment from Anguilla and the import shipments into the BVI and the Cayman Islands comply with the CITES requirements? Was proper documentation produced? Did our Agriculture Department and the Government Vet sign off on the export? Or, did our agricultural, environmental and public health authorities conspire to permit an illegal shipment? Does anyone know the microchip numbers on the animals?


Is this our new line of transhipment, or just a case of dolphin laundering?


And with that exciting thought, may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


3 comments:

  1. I am sick about this situation...terrible to abduct lovely mammals from their natural habitat for the pleasure of man..HORRID.

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  2. I agree with Ann, but this tacky circus attracts thousands of cruise ship tourists who come for the day from St. Maarten. We can't deny that it creates a few jobs, and some of the former employees were actually Anguillians, so our leaders have supported it.

    By this same reasoning they should also support gambling casinos and whore houses.

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  3. Efforts to educate the gushing American teenage girls whose parents' dollars support dolphin abusement shows were set back ten years yesterday when Barack Obama took his daughters to Sea Life Park in Hawaii yesterday. “It is unclear whether the Obamas swam with dolphins, and Obama’s clothing did not appear wet," reported the Washington Post.

    ReplyDelete

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