Larry Franklin is highly to be commended. Yesterday, the island was agog with excitement. The press were at Blowing Point from early in the morning. Live broadcasts revealed that the early-morning ferries taking passengers to Marigot had been turned back at the port and refused to land. No one knew what the cause was, or how long it would last. Mention was made of Anguilla having arrested a French fisherman for illegal fishing. Was this an official retaliation by the French authorities? When would it come to an end? Was war between Anguilla and French St Martin imminent? Did we have to wait for Britain
Then, at 10:21 pm the same day, Larry Franklin, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, which has responsibility for the ports, posted a press release on the Anguilla News website. This revealed that there had been an unofficial blockade arranged by the French fishermen of Marigot. These had been under the mistaken impression that they were free to fish in Anguilla ’s waters without the necessary licence. One had been arrested and charged, prompting the retaliation. Anguilla’s government ministers and their staff had immediately ventured to St Martin to meet with their French counterparts. The misunderstanding had been resolved before midday, and the ports re-opened. Persons have begun posting copies of the press release on other websites and forums, no doubt to ensure it had the widest possible readership.
What is remarkable, is the prompt, clear, factual, and non-political wording of the press release from Mr Franklin. It is a model for all civil servants and politicians to follow in the future. You may read it by clicking on the link above.
Mr. Franklin is a great young man; like Dr. Aidan Harrigan and Ms.Channelle Petty. Our future augurs well with these young high level Civil Servants.
ReplyDelete"When you have a Government that isn't producing any information,
ReplyDeletethen you have people who listen to propaganda. All this could
have been avoided in the first place if information had been
disseminated." --Prince, KOOL-FM, 28 January 2005
I join you in commending Larry Franklin in helping the people to feel less excluded in the system we, ourselves, have created to be governed by.
Excellent news reporting.
ReplyDeleteWe must remember that the French can close their port to us at anytime so tread carefully and think before acting against our neighbours.
Be careful what laws we pass as it could affect our relationship with our neighbours,
Oh please! Had it not been election time, we would be "waiting till the cows come home" to hear anything from Larry Franklin or anyone else. That is not to say that he is not a fine young man, as are many others, but under this government silence is usually the answer to everything.
ReplyDeleteAnd to anonymous #2, how did " we ourselves" create the system by which we are governed? We did not create any system.
Just to be absolutely clear, every rotten system of official silence, secrecy and bad governance in any colony is created and perpetrated by the colonial administrators.
"Just to be absolutely clear, every rotten system of official silence, secrecy and bad governance in any colony is created and perpetrated by the colonial administrators."
ReplyDeleteAnd the meek silence of nearly everyone else other than a few "nut cases," I think Bunton called them, and egomaniac loudmouths.