The End

Three times unlucky.  That is what they said in the trenches during World War I.  If you were a soldier taking cover in a trench and lit one cigarette at night, the sniper might miss.  By the time you lit the second one, he had you spotted.  If that shot did not get you, the third one was bound to splatter your head.  Hence, third time unlucky. 

I have now received my third “letter before action”.  A subject of several posts on my blog has sent me a letter threatening a law suit if I do not apologise to him for what he claims are defamatory articles I have posted of him going back to 2007.  I have sought legal advice, and am awaiting word from my attorney on how I should respond. 

It may be worth remembering the recent history of this blog.  It started in December 2006.  By 2006, the lone Anguillian radio call-in programme, Talk Your Mind, had degenerated into social chatter about carnival and culture.  There were no other radio stations engaging the public in any kind of serious discourse.  By 2010 that has all changed.  Each of the several radio stations in Anguilla now hosts one or more radio call-in programmes per week.  At each of them the citizen is invited to express his opinion and to criticise government action and inaction.  Even Talk Your Mind now once again occasionally deals with controversial issues. 

When the blog started, our two local newspapers The Anguillian and The Light published only press releases and society stuff.  No more.  Since the blog started, they have begun to print critical and analytical stuff about the goings on in government.  Last week’s Anguillian alone boasted over 6 pages of serious social and political commentary.

Back in December 2006 gang violence had never been as pervasive as it was in that year.  There were more murders in Anguilla in that year than in a normal decade.  The Royal Anguilla Police Force was secretive and defensive about its actions.  Its members were held in very low public esteem.  They complained that the public was not cooperating with their investigations.  They had not yet started holding their weekly press conferences.  They do so now.  They now keep us up to date with what is going on in the criminal court, and on the criminal front.  This welcome public relations effort began immediately after I met with the Commissioner of Police and his senior officials and pointed out how useful and necessary such an activity would be.  Police relations with the public of Anguilla has since gone through a ground sea swell.

Back in 2006, the then Chief Minister Osborne Fleming had long stopped the tradition of weekly press conferences that Hubert Hughes had engaged in when he was in office.  This blog complained frequently about the negative impact that this secrecy and lack of information had on the society.  You will recall that many of us were then suspicious of government.  There was a sullen acceptance that things were going on that none of us was being told about.  The blog posted several pieces pointing out the need for more openness in government, particularly for press conferences after the weekly Executive Council meeting, so that we could be informed what government was doing for us.  Shortly after the blog began to make these complaints, the Chief Minister started his weekly press conferences.  It is true that they were not informative, about government, but mainly political propaganda, about the Chief Minister’s take on his enemies and their motives.  There is still to this day no weekly press conference on the activities and decisions of ExCo, and that is a shame.  Hubert Hughes has continued the tradition of political press conferences.  Never mind, at least it is something.  For what little it is worth, this blog can claim some credit. 

There are plenty of other forums out there performing the function for which this blog was started.  There is axareality.com.  That forum does occasionally tend to be juvenile and bad tempered, but it posts interesting documents.  There is some political discussion on Anguilla Talk though lately it has mainly died down, reportedly in response to threats of legal action.

I no longer feel like a lone voice crying in the wilderness for some openness, transparency and accountability.  Closing this blog down will not be a serious loss.  Several others have taken up the mantle and are carrying on demanding the high standards of public life that we all expect.

The bottom line is that whether the gentleman who is threatening action against me is right or wrong, I am not prepared to expose Maggie Mitchell’s retirement fund to more risk of depletion.  Since I evidently lack the necessary skills of dissimulation, it would seem that the only way to ensure this objective is to cease publishing.  This will therefore probably be my last post on this blog. 

A pity, really, as the site was nearly at the 250,000 visitor mark.

Wikileaks

A correspondent has sent me the following interesting story on Wikileaks, Julian Assange, IMMI and The TCI Journal:

A real free press for the first time in history

July 12th, 2010 Posted by Joel Gunter

Julian Assange, editor of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, has criticised mainstream media for not making proper use of “primary resources” and claimed that the site has created “a real free press (…) for the first time in history”.

Speaking at the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer School at City University London on Friday, Assange accused the media of failing to consult important evidence in its reporting of a 2007 US Air Force strike that killed two Reuters news service employees and several Iraqi civilians

Julian Assange

The attack became infamous after a video of the event was leaked through Wikileaks, entitled Collateral Murder. The footage was recorded by one of two Apache helicopters involved in the attack.

Showing an alleged copy of the US Military’s 2007 rules of engagement hosted on Wikileaks, Assange said: “We had the raw ingredients you needed to decide right there. Why didn’t they use them?

“No one can be bothered to look up the term ‘positive identification’ to see what it actually is.”

Assange argues that it is clear from the document that the Apache pilot broke the rules of engagement. He said journalism needed to work towards making more primary source material such as this available online, arguing that this was the standard process for scientific investigations and that it should be the same for journalism.

You can’t publish a paper on physics without the full experimental data and results, that should be the standard in journalism.

You can’t do it in newspapers because there isn’t enough space, but now with the internet there is.

Last week, Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking the video along with tens of thousands of classified State Department cables, was charged by the U.S. Army with mishandling and transferring classified information. Assange will not attempt to enter the US for fear he might be subject to a subpoena.

Citing another of the site’s leaks, concerning Carribean tax haven the Turks and Caicos islands, Assange praised the anti-corruption reporting of online-only, local news outlet the Turks and Caicos Journal, which he said was hounded out of several countries after law firms threatened its internet service providers (ISPs).

Warning of a new “privatised censorship”, he said that the Journal’s Googlemail account had been subpoened under US law and that Google agreed to surrender details of the news outlet’s account, at which point Wikileaks stepped in to provide a defence attorney.

He heavily criticised the search engine company for its behaviour in the TCI Journal case, and challenged the actions of ISPs in India, Japan and the US for allegedly agreeing to cut the Journal’s internet access rather than risk incurring legal costs. According to Assange, Googlemail is a completely insecure way of storing information. He claimed that the Guardian had recently transferred all of its internal email over to the Google service.

Alongside the TCI Journal there was praise reserved for Time magazine for publishing an extensive investigation into the Church of Scientology and defending its investigation at a cost of millions dollars, but with potential costs so high, Assange asked, “what are the incentives for publishers?” Wikileaks were themselves threatened with legal action by the Church after publishing secret documents relating to its “Operating Thetan Level” practices. The whistleblowing site responded by saying “in response to the attempted suppression, Wikileaks will release several thousand additional pages of Scientology material next week.”

Asked about Wikileaks’ funding, he said the site has so far raised $1 million dollars in donations but revealed it had had an application for a $650,000 grant rejected by the 2009 Knight News Foundation, despite being “the highest-rated applicant out of 3,000″, and heavily implied it was a politically-motivated decision.

Earlier this year, Wikileaks put forward a proposal in conjunction with Icelandic MPs to create a safe-haven for publishers – and their servers – in the country. Last month the proposal, known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), was passed by parliament and will change Icelandic law, aiming to increase the protection afforded journalists, sources and leakers.

Related posts:

IMMI 

Tragedies

IMMI

Sorry, I have been busy. But, someone sent me this video I had to share with you.



With some of the stories that I have been hearing about, but lack the resources to research, or to defend myself from the inevitable libel suit if I publish, I am thinking of moving to Iceland.

Administration

Scotty asked a good question.  Am I so comfortable with the new administration in Anguilla that I have converted this blog into a constitutional tutorial?  That deserves an answer.  Well, here goes my attempt to be clear on what I am doing with this blog.

Yes, the new administration does deserve a short period to become familiar with the issues and to develop policy in relation to them without being sniped at by me from the sidelines.  The election campaign was quite passionate.  Temperatures became very high.  Things must be allowed to cool down.  The new government has not been in place for two full months.  There is no healthy purpose in digging at minor scratches and bumps when the body politic needs to heal.  I am sure I shall feel quite differently in a year or two.

Then, I am not aware of anything terribly wrong that the new Hubert Hughes administration is doing that needs to be highlighted.  I am not aware of any scandals or maladministration that need to be exposed to the light of day. 

If anything, my very minor complaint has to do with the lack of information coming out of the administration.  Hubert has not done what we have all been asking and introducing more transparency into the system.  He has allowed himself to go along with the traditional British system of secrecy in Anguilla’s administration.  What do I mean by this?

One, he should insist that the press be invited to Executive Council meetings.  Except for matters of national security, which will be dealt with in private, the public ought to be informed weekly by the mainstream press what matters have been discussed and what decisions have been reached by our cabinet.

Two, if the Governor does not permit this, he should go on national radio and TV every week and give a summary report to the public on what matters were discussed and what decisions were reached.  If the Governor tries to stop him, let him point out that in other British Overseas Territories this is a routine matter.  There is nothing wrong with it in principle or in practice.  On the contrary, it is very bad for his reputation and that of his government if he continues to let everything done by his administration remain shrouded in secrecy and subject to baseless rumour.

Three, the most important reform that we need in Anguilla, as a matter of urgency, is constitutional reform that will entrench measures designed to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in government in the future.  We all know what these measures are, as I have dealt with them extensively before.  They range from the enlargement of the House of Assembly to improve debate and to enlarge the catchment area for appointing ministers, to the ombudsman, to the integrity commissioner, to the public service, teachers and police commissions, to the tenders board, to the freedom of information Act, and the many others.  These reforms all need to be embedded in the Constitution and given real teeth, not cosmetic ones.  Most of them cannot be achieved by common statute, far less by administrative reform.

In light of this last, I think it is worth harping on about weaknesses in the Constitution for the next year or two if necessary.

Of course, if there are any real errors in administration that need exposing please let me know about them so that I can write my views on them.

Apology

Apology

I have now discovered the quarrel that Stanley has with my last post.  It seems that I have several factual errors in it.  I also drew some unfair inferences in relation to him and the public service.

It appears that the Immigration Officer who, I wrote, had had his case quietly dropped has in fact been committed to trial in the next sitting of the Assizes.  The case has not been “swept under the carpet”.

The old lady whose case, I wrote, had been nolle prossed, had in fact been tried by the Magistrate who had dismissed the charges when the old lady was unable to identify her assailant.

And, the suggestion that Stanley had been quietly made PS Administration in order to get him out of the Magistracy was quite misconceived.  Stanley had in fact continued to serve as acting Magistrate from time to time for some nine years while serving in the Attorney-General’s Chambers until he was appointed PS Administration. 

For these and any other factual errors in my post I apologise unreservedly to Stanley.  I had received and relied on incorrect information about these incidents.  I therefore had no valid reason to have drawn the inferences I did, that Stanley owed a favour to Keithly. 

Stanley has also pointed out, and I accept, that in the circumstances, it was quite unjustified for me to have said that the one sure way to get a promotion in the Anguilla Public Service is to be caught engaged in serious criminal activity.

Anniversaries

Three is a good age. At three, we were talking quite well. We were even making sense to other people. At three, we were well into cutting our teeth. We were potty trained. We were into board books, and we loved the pictures. At that age, we could even put on our own clothes without help.

All in all, a third birthday is a triumph of sorts.

Return

Most of the past 14 days I have spent out of Anguilla.

I am out of touch with the latest developments in the realms of integrity, transparency and accountability in the public life of Anguilla.

So, tell me, is anything happening with the Bar's reaction to the proposal to appoint the retiring Commissioner of Police to fill the vacant post of Magistrate?

Has the Minister of Finance yet announced how much money and land was given to the persons in George Hill who were compensated for the airport extension affecting their properties, as he has long promised to do?

Has government borrowed the $20 million the British said we could do on certain conditions?

Have the local banks continued their moratorium on selling properties that had been put up as securities for loans that have now gone into default as a result of the massive lay offs that have occurred?

I return tomorrow morning, LIAT cooperating.

Email me your updates and inquiries at idmitch@anguillanet.com

 

I love it

I am sorry if this blog seems to have gone quiet.  I have not thought it through.  There could be two reasons.  One, there is absolutely nothing I am upset about right now.  Two, there are so many people now publishing controversial views on political and social issues that the original motivation for this blog has been subsumed.  I suppose there is a third.  I am completely written out, so that even if I was mad at some incident, like learning that Keithley has had the lack of good sense to apply for the vacant post of Magistrate, I would not have the words to write about it.  For the past couple of weeks, I have been kept busy revising law lectures, writing magazine articles, and researching and writing scripts for the upcoming TV programmes on “The Law and You” on channel 3 TV.  Six scripts written so far, all on elections law.  So, you may need to look elsewhere for up-to-date comments on wrong-doing in Anguilla until I can find more time.

Have you become friends yet with Anguillian Transparency?  If not I highly recommend it.  There is some good writing there. 

The most exciting forum right now is probably AXA Politics.  On that site you can always find passionate writing about Anguilla’s future, and the upcoming general elections. 

The public political meetings that are going on nearly every day in one part of the island or another, sometimes as many as three different ones each night, are the only live theatre in Anguilla.  Not everybody wants to be seen in public at one or the other of these political meetings.  Not to worry, they are all broadcast live on radio, with live streaming so that Anguillians in the USA or the UK can keep up-to-date.

The radio talk-shows are obligatory listening for those concerned about Anguilla.  They are all accessible over the internet.  The ones I know about are:

1. On Kool FM:  Yanchie Richardson’s The Mayor’s Show on Saturday mornings, Elkin Richardson’s To the Point on Monday evenings, and John Benjamin’s classic Talk your Mind on Wednesdays evenings.

2. On Klass FM:  Haydn Hughes’ call in show on Thursday evenings.

3. On Radio Anguilla:  Pastor Phillip Gumbs’ Social Solutions on Saturday mornings.

            Faced with all that commendable competition, it seems almost pointless for me to add my two cents worth.

I am making enquiries about Keithley’s alleged application to join the Magistracy straight from his seat behind the Commissioner of Police’s desk.  I am still waiting for a response from the Hon Deputy Governor.  One way or the other I shall let you know what I find out.

Statistics

The Statistics Department of Anguilla is on a media blitz.  They have just launched a statistical booklet titled “Anguilla Facts and Figures 2009”.  All this in celebration of Caribbean Statistics Day.  The story being touted to the press is that the Deputy Governor, the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General attended a “small gathering” at the Teachers’ Resource Centre to launch the booklet.  Now, I ask you to read this and understand.  Allegedly, the goal was “creating the environment for sustainable standards of living for the people demands proper policy making and macroeconomic management informed by sound statistical information”.

What the heck does that mean?  I submit the following translation:  “Fill out those forms we send you every year so we can decide how much to tax your backsides the following year!”  That, I suggest, is all that these exercises are about.

Anyway, apropos of nothing, a few days ago I happened to be wasting time trolling though the Anguilla blogs when I came upon this one produced by the Statistics Department.  Just in case you are not sufficiently interested to click on the link provided in the last sentence, let me explain.  It is a Blog published by the Statistics Department promoting the upcoming 2011 Population Census.  Other than the fact that they stole my template, there was nothing offensive about it. 

Just that it appears to have died the death of abandonment.  The only entry the Statistics Department has chosen to make on the Blog about the importance of the 2011 Population Census was that one announcement of 24 June 2009. 

There is absolutely no other press release or announcement on the Blog. 

There has been no follow-through since this first June posting.  There is not a single comment, other than some idiot spammer from Greece. 

There has not, so far as I know, been any encouragement to the public to use the Blog.  Maybe it was just a failed experiment?

So, I contacted them using the comment feature online.  I wanted to know if this was it.  Was there no plan to use the Blog effectively?  Would there be no follow-through to the initial article?

That was two days ago.  Response:  Nil.

Typical of government?  No, just of statistics.  Statistics are for government to use or misuse as they want:  “We are here to serve the purposes of government.  The interests and enquiries of the public are nothing that we intend to waste time on dealing with or answering.”

Judicious

Random thoughts on writers’ block. I have nothing of interest to post on the blog. It has been over a week now since the last one. A house-full of guests is part of the problem. The devil has no chance to get at my hands now . . .

Another reason is that the political season has begun. The campaigning is going to bring the issues out into the daylight. The discussion will be much more effective and relevant to the needs of Anguilla than anything I can write on the blog. I am content to let the politicians, old and aspiring, debate the topics that interest us all. My contribution will not be worth two cents by comparison.

I have never in my life attended an Anguillian political meeting. They are real drama, I am told. But, I am not inclined to start attending now. Too old and cynical. The result is that I shall be unaware of many of the subjects of discussion. Unless someone is kind enough to drop me a line now and then to let me know :-)

Another reason for my writer’s block is that I am hearing that there are some major developments going on in the court. Both the Magistrates Court and the High Court have been producing some very important orders and decisions. Major events are playing out in that forum. The public knows nothing about them save for rumour. The court’s contribution to social development might as well be a play performed on a blacked-out stage. The singer’s mouth is moving, but the microphone has gone dead. There is no reporter who has the time to attend court and write up the happenings. No press-officer is employed to publicise what it is doing. There is a tradition that lawyers do not prepare press releases boasting about their forensic conquests. Most lawyers do not even receive the orders and judgments of the High Court in cases that do not concern them. Even though court decisions are public documents, they are dealt with as if they are private to the parties. Very few final judgments are posted on the Court’s website. Those few that are posted are out of date. I am reluctant to lean on any of my legal friends to beg them to scan and email me copies as they come to hand. What a waste of judicial time and effort. Such a pity, really.

Fathers' Day

I owe 243 of you per day an apology. No one has sent me any troubling or worrying news all week. I am not mad at anyone or anything. The result is that I have not made a single post for seven days. The statistics report I receive every Sunday now tells me that, on average, 243 persons per day visited this site last week. You would have been disappointed that I had nothing new to complain about. I am sorry. I apologise. I can only hope someone or something will upset me soon.

Meanwhile, it is fathers' day. My latest grandchildren are growing healthy and strong. Their mother is teaching them well. Here are a couple of photos of the entire family. The father is the pretty one.

Was it not Sir Francis Bacon who said, “He that marryeth and hath children giveth hostages to fortune”?

Sued

It cost me a lot of money. The first thing I teach my pupils when we are studying the tort of defamation is, “Don’t repeat gossip that a person is suspected of being corrupt unless you have the evidence”. The way the law is written at present, it does not matter how many people suspect that the gossip you repeated is true. It does not matter what Percy is saying, or what the calypsonians are singing. If you are sued, and if you do not have credible and convincing and admissible evidence, you will lose. That is what happened to me.

A few days ago, I was informed that the matter brought against me by the four ministers for the item I published on 4 July 2007 has been settled.

A pity I did not first read my own lecture notes before I pressed the “send” button.

Blogging

Some readers are reporting problems with leaving comments on this blog. I am reading all the help pages I can find on ensuring that commenting is as user friendly as possible. The literature is extensive, but much of it is written in totally incomprehensible gobbly gook. When I figure it out, I will try to do what I can to make it easier.

The only reason for this that I can think of is that I put a couple of widgets on my page yesterday that may have caused the problem. I have deleted them in dismay and disgust.

Meanwhile, if you are having difficulty, please send me your comment at the above email address, and ask me to publish it for you on the relevant post, either anonymously or with your name, and I shall happily do so.

Milestones

Passing the 100,000 visit mark. I nearly missed it. While I was in St Kitts attending the 90^th birthday of my aunt, this blog celebrated its 100,000^th visit. That is worth some sort of celebration. Join me in raising a glass to Corruption-free Anguilla.

I have configured the site meter so that it does not include my visits in the statistics. If I visit the blog four or five times a day, eg, to post comments, then my four or five visits are not counted in the statistics.

How it counts other persons I have never bothered to find out. It is very likely that if you visit once and then “refresh” five times, that will count as six separate visitors. I do not know if the figures are misleading in that way. It is possible that if you post a comment, then visit five or six times to see if anyone has responded to your comment, that will count as five or six separate visits. I do not know.

Even so, I am honoured that several of you have seen it fit to spend a few minutes each week visiting.

I am especially indebted to those of you who have posted explanations, elaborations, and even criticisms. They have all added to the interest. And, I have learned a thing or two.

My thanks to all of you.

PS: I stopped just in time spelling it “millstones”.

Pontificate

A classical education is much to be missed. There was a time when all students lucky enough to go to secondary school received a classical education. Not, perhaps, classical in the sense of the Academy of Plato. Classical in the sense that twentieth century teachers understood it. Now, with students leaving secondary school barely able to read or write a grammatical sentence, it is unlikely that there are many persons under fifty years of age today who even know what a classical education was all about.

So, when a friend rang me with a statement that she had overheard, I was not surprised by what she related. The conversation had been between two of the ladies who hang out at the entrance to the post office in The Valley. One of them had said, “Don is just a pontifier. All he does is talk. If he really wants to help, why does he not do something about it. He could form a trade union and help the poor workers of Anguilla to get organised.” My friend asked me, “What do you make of that?”

There was only one answer that anyone of my generation could give, “The correct word is ‘pontificate’.

There is, as every West Indian school boy of the 1950s knows, no such word as ‘pontifier’”. The word ‘pontiff’ comes from the Latin word ‘pontifex’. That word ‘pontifex’ is itself a portmanteau word. It is made up from the two Latin words, ‘puntis’ or propitiatory offering, and ‘facere’ meaning ‘to make’. Literally the word ‘pontifex’ means ‘maker of offerings to the gods’. In Roman antiquity, the title was given to the principal college of the priests of Rome. Its head was the ‘Pontiff Maximus’.

By 1580, the word ‘pontiff’ enters the English language as a title conferred on the Bishop of Rome. He carries this title to this day. More to the point of this little post, by the year 1820 we see the verb ‘pontificate’ being used in its modern sense. It means to act the pontiff, to assume the airs of a pontiff, to issue dogmatic decrees.

'Res ipsa loquitur', as the lawyers of today would say.