The World Watches… Antigua Watches… Silently!

By Marcus M. Mottley, Ph.D.

I have had it. I have been silent too long. I have watched too long… silently. Enough is enough.

The world watches… silently as Israel destroys Palestine. The world watches silently as Israel kills children, mothers, grandmothers and great grandfathers. The world watches silently. Antigua watches… silently!

World leaders – all of them – are afraid to raise a voice against Israel. World leaders – cowardly – all of them – afraid to confront the genocidal Israeli aggression against the people of Palestine. Antiguan leaders… cowardly… silent…

And why? Hamas, they say, started the current situation by firing a few missiles against Israel… killing a handful of Israelis. And for that, Israel, in return kills almost a thousand Palestinian men, women and children and wounds thousands more. Israel destroys schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and Palestinian infrastructure.

And why? Because Israel senses a change in the air. A new administration is entering Washington, and Israel is uncertain of how the new president will really respond to the one-sided power play in the mid-east. And so, using Hamas stupid and folly attack they respond with all their might.

Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, receiving billions of U.S. dollars of military aid every year, receiving the best of America’s military weaponry – uses it against poor people who can scarcely afford food.

Over the years, I have noticed that the world seems to put more value on a few Israeli lives than hundreds of Palestinian lives. A Palestinian suicide bomber creates havoc in an Israeli town and kills ten Israelis. Israel responds by unleashing its military might and kills five hundred Palestinian. One Israeli child dies… world leaders respond with outrage. Fifteen Palestinian children die… those same leaders are silent.

They say… like Bush and Rice said recently… that Israel has a right to defend itself. OK. So what about the Palestinians? I guess they have no rights at all. No rights to defend their lands stolen first by the British and given to Israel. And then perpetually being stolen and carved up by Israel for the Jewish immigrants they import from around the world. I don’t care how old this issue is… these are modern times. You cannot steal my land and say it belonged to your ancestors ten thousand years ago. All people everywhere have a right to defend their land.

And the world watches and is silent as Israel steals the land and kills the owners… and the children of the owners. As a matter of fact the world does not only watch… they help Israel to perpetrate these heinous acts… not only with their silence… but with the moneys and weapons that they give Israel every year.

I cannot perceive anything more terrifying than hearing the monstrous road of 20 of the world’s most sophisticated and technologically capable warplanes rolling through the skies dropping bombs at will without my people having any chance to defend ourselves.

I cannot perceive anything more terrible than having tanks roll across the soccer fields of my schools and down the alleys of my communities belching exploding rockets into our schools, mosques and hospitals.

I cannot perceive anything more terrorist-like than seeing our babies being blown up in their cribs, seeing our young children with their legs blown off, and seeing our elderly dying at the sides of our streets.

I cannot perceive a feeling of being so very helpless knowing that I cannot respond… that I have no war planes to fight back with… that I have no tanks to roll around in and confront the enemy…

I cannot perceive how it feels to know… that no one cares… that all the other nations… even my Muslim brother and sister nations… silent…

Israel… a country… a people who ought to know better because of what they endured fifty years ago. Israel… now… they are the perpetrators of murder and worse... trying to wipe out the Palestinian leadership… and the world is as silent now as it was when something similar was perpetrated against them.

Israel… and why is the world afraid of Israel? That answer is for another day. Today… Israel, here is one person who is not afraid of you. But the rest of the world is.

And, our leaders in Antigua are like those others. Cowardly. Afraid to raise their voices publicly.

I have had it. I have been silent too long. I have watched too long… silently. Enough is enough. I will no longer be silent.

Mount Barack Obama: Why Not

By Marcus M. Mottley, Ph.D.

When the Honourable Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda indicated that he would start the process of renaming Boggy Peak to Mount Barack Obama many Antiguans vociferously objected.

I found none of their arguments against the renaming persuasive. Some said that Barack Obama had done nothing for Antigua and Barbuda and we should wait and see if he does anything during his forthcoming tenure as President of the United States. Others said that the fact that President Elect Obama was going to be the first African American U.S. President was no reason for Antiguans to be celebrative to the degree that we would elevate his name to such ‘heights’. Others contended that though this might be a signal moment for African Americans, it was not an important moment for Antiguans.

Many of those opposed to the renaming of Boggy Peak pointed to our own heroes who we should first give that level of prominence to. Others proposed that we first consider elevating regional historic greats like Bob Marley… rather than raise up a virtually unknown and new to the world stage American politician.

Others argued that to elevate Barack Obama on the basis that he is to be the first U.S. President of African origin, is tantamount to racism and does a disservice to our nation’s diverse population. (I have heard this argument before from those who are objecting to the development of heritage tourism in Antigua. They argue that we already have ‘heritage tourism’ in the form of the Dockyard and the old Betty’s Hope sugar mill. These naysayers to heritage tourism contend that to focus on Antigua’s slave history and to develop monuments and shrines to ‘our’ great great grandparents – the former slaves who suffered so greatly at the hands of the monsterous slave owners and their almost sociopathic, lackey overseers – would open wounds that we should leave closed.)

Well… many of those who make those arguments are the grandsons and granddaughters of those slave owners and/or their overseers. This is an argument not worth responding to… at least not in this article… although I am very tempted to!

Of course the foregoing are only some of the arguments presented against the idea of a ‘Mount Obama’.

In this article, I only want to draw attention to some of the current names of places in Antigua and ask if the origin of those names mean anything to any Antiguan. Most of them certainly don’t mean anything to me. And many of the others are names of individuals I would prefer to not have known or have to reference each time I think of, or speak of a specific location in my country.

I don’t know and don’t care who Bolans, Urlings, Bendals, Briggins, Jennings, Swetes, or Ottos were named for. As a matter of discourse, I can guess though. Just as I can guess that Gunthoppes, Burkes Estate, Herberts Estate, Montepelier and Sandersons were probably named after plantation owners – all of whom in some way or the other - used, abused, raped, violated, murdered and/or committed genocide on their slave populations. Not once… but as a matter of course… and over a long period of time. And they committed the same vile offences on the offspring of the slaves... Not all of those persons committing these heinous crimes on slaves would have been slave owners or overseers. A significant number would have been the government administrators, merchants and officials (even of the church) who provided the glue that held the whole system of slavery together.

All of them – slave owners, overseers, merchants, and government and other officials profited and benefitted socially, physically, sexually, financially… and emotionally… from their exploitation of the slaves they claimed to own and the system they represented… A system that was the lifeblood of the British Empire… from St. John’s to Bombay and from Perth to Kingston.

As I write this article I realize how annoyed a small few of you – the readers are. Well… it is interesting for you to be annoyed if you see nothing wrong in perpetuating the names of those murderous plantation owners, their vile overseers and the colonial administrators and officials. John Hughes, Gilbert, Willock, Belmont and Glanville who all guilty… and we must decry them – the only way we can – posthumously.

Let’s not forget some other names that we know not whence they are from: Clarks (Hill), Gray’s (Hill), Willikies, Pares, Seatons, Parham, Yepton, Cades, Barnes (Hill), Fitch(es) (Creek), Cobbs (Cross), Carlisle (Bay), Patterson, Claremont, Wapping (Lane), and Redcliffe (Street). We know what they stood for… what they perpetuated and what they benefitted from.

Now I know that Pappy Sammy has helped us tremendously in digging in and examining the history of Africans in Antigua and Barbuda. So, with some research, we can probably pin down who most of these “men” were. But, those historical names do not give me any sense of ownership or pride. Quite the opposite, they highlight a sordid chapter in world history as having taken part in or contributed in no small measure to the genocide of Africans in the Caribbean.

Every time that you call one of these names you are giving credence to, showing appreciation for, testifying to, or highlighting the odious significance of these slave owners and their overseers. Each time we call their names we memorialize them. Each time they are mentioned as our addresses, we are unknowingly… and uncaringly… are commemorating their dastardly and sordid crimes against the spirits of our ancestors.

Should we say their names in the same breath as Pappy Sammy, Ernest Williams, Nellie Robinson, V.C. Bird, George Walter, or Tim Hector? I suggest that it is sacrilege to do so. But we have not given that any thought.

Every chance we get we honor the one-armed, one eyed British naval rogue after whom we name the dockyard. There are many in Antigua who speak that name with deep pride (mostly the great great grandchildren of overseers and British, Scottish and Irish indentured servants). But I do not… As I understand it, many of those celebrated buildings in Dockyard and certainly the walls around it were built with the sweat and blood forced and beaten out of slaves.

Dockyard… does not and never has been – for me – a place to for tribute. In defending the island form that site… the British celebrated naval rogue was defending a colony of Britain, the plantations of the slave holders and a fountain of income for the royalty in England. He was not defending the slave population – the only consequence to whom would have been to have new slave masters who spoke French.

Then of course there was Drake and Hawkins Streets named after two British privateers. These men were nothing less than state sponsored pirates… terrorists in today’s terminology… wreaking havoc on both French and Spanish ships and on the populations of coastal towns in the French Caribbean Islands and coastal Spanish cities in Central and South America. These are not men who we, or anyone, (except for the afore-mentioned descendants of slave owners, overseers and merchants) should celebrate or elevate. We rightly replaced their names with the names of our local heroes.

There is a case to be made that we should have started the process of renaming many of our villages and other sites with names of people who have inspired so many of us: Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey, Mahatma Gandhi, Hannibal, Shaka, Pele, Sojourner Truth, Fidel Castro – names that raise a different level of consciousness and give us a unique national flavor.

We already have St. Johns, St. Mary’s, St. Paul’s, St. Phillip’s, St. Luke’s, and St. Peter’s parishes. Therefore, I am not opposed to recognizing a few other names related to spiritual or religious identities like Buddha and Mohammed whose life and words are and have been an inspiration to so many… here, in this region and around the world. I know that this idea will probably trigger apoplectic type seizures in many of you. But, let’s take at least a balanced stance at who we memorialize. We did not have any input in naming our parishes… so why not make some changes there also?

And so here we are at the point of the renaming of the highest point on the island: Mount Barack Obama. And based on the foregoing discussion… it is a good thing.

The Rising Violence

By Marcus Mottley

The Rising Violence: Let's Take Action - Now!

There is a growing sense of helplessness among Antiguans as we hear and read about the increasing acts of violence - particularly gun violence - that seems to be spinning out of control.

There might have been a time when some people felt that they were safe from the robberies and hold ups that were once the primary acts of violence. Now, everyone realizes that he or she is at risk. We realize that our children are at risk. And we realize that our elderly are at risk.

This is serious.

What is even more serious... and frightening, is the apparent inability of our law enforcement to catch the perpetrators of these violent acts. I am not even talking about preventing the violence... I am referencing 'catching the criminals'. The fact that our law enforcement... who has been agitating for higher salaries... can't catch these criminals means that we are all at risk for the criminals to continue their rampage of violence, thefts, break-ins and other acts of lawlessness.

As an aside... or maybe this is central to the whole issue... is the fact that our law enforcement officers don't seem to understand that there is a correlation between performance, productivity, results... ---- and pay raise!

The Government needs to take immediate and strong action. Now. There is no bigger crisis existing in our nation today than the threat that the violence poses to all of us. It threatens our economy. It threatens our daily lives. It threatens us while we sleep. It threatens our feelings of being safe. It threatens us as we go to work. It threatens us as we go home from work. It threatens us on the bus and in our cars. It threatens us in our homes... our supposedly safe havens. It threatens our children at school and at play.

The Government needs to demand action from the police... and if we don't get results - we need to replace the police leadership with highly trained, highly skilled, results oriented, proven law enforcement leaders from where-ever we can get them. Now for me that is a stretch - since I am adamantly opposed to bringing foreign nationals to our shores and putting them in leadership positions. But we are in a crisis... and so we need to contract the kind of police leadership that presents a modern, sophisticated, technological approach to getting the results that we need. And then we need to give our own young and upcoming police world class training. When we get that new leadership we then need to make available to them the sophisticated forensic and investigative instruments and technology that they need to get the job done.

The Government also needs to begin a comprehensive multi-dimensional violence prevention campaign. This campaign should have several facets:

1. Violence prevention targeted to adults and involve public education in conflict resolution & negotiation and anger management.
   
2. Mechanisms available to the public that include mediation services and conflict resolution services. Some of these should be availed through the courts whereby individuals might be 'sentenced' to attend anger management or conflict resolutions classes.
3. Violence prevention targeted to young adults and teenagers who are out of school. This would involve education in some of the above subjects. However, two key areas of focus would be job skills training and drug prevention education.
4. Violence prevention and drug education activities at all schools and at all grade levels. The focal points of these school-based trainings would be: Life skills (effective communication, conflict resolution, self-esteem building, study skills for academic success, how to deal with negative peer pressure and bullying, etc.), values education and character building educational programming.
   
5. An integrated and comprehensive island-wide network of after-school activities involving academics (home-work help, remedial work, etc), guided sports activities (with a values education component), performing arts (plays, dance, etc), computer & technology, and art.
6. Treatment programs for drug addiction and alcoholism. The Government needs to contract with qualified counseling professionals to provide confidential and ongoing treatment services to addicts and alcoholics. Such services should be provided at every clinic.
   
7. Rehabilitation Services for Juvenile Offenders. This is seen by well placed officials as a critical need. Such services would include some of those mentioned above.
   
8. A Probation and Parole Office should be developed to monitor and track the activities of criminal offenders. This office should also oversee the provision of re-entry programs for offenders who are re-entering society. These services would entail job training, mental health services and substance abuse services.
   

I could go on. But I think that you get the picture. The Government has to develop and implement NOW a comprehensive and integrated program to deal with this menace to society. Failure to adequately address the crisis of violence in our society will lead to such deterioration that it will negatively impact the bright future of our twin island state.

They Chased Us Away

By Marcus M. Mottley, Ph.D.

What has happened in Antigua and the rest of the Caribbean during the current Cricket World Cup showcase has a huge significance for us.

The most critical issue of course is the draconian, colonialistic restrictions that CWC organizers placed on the islands hosting the matches.

The very nature of the restrictions placed on us by CWC organizers reminds me of what I have read of our colonial history. CWC came to our shores… used our facilities… had us spend millions of dollars of infrastructural development and then restricted us from putting our stamp on the games. They restricted us from marketing our local products. They restricted our local companies from marketing their services. They restricted our people from behaving and acting like Antiguans, Barbudans, Guyanese, Trinidadians, Barbadians, Jamaicans, Kittians, Grenadians, St. Lucians… They restricted us from being who we are.

And we allowed them. We kowtowed to them. We said, “Yes Masah!” “Anything you say, Masah!” “You get anything you want, Masah.” "You want anything else, Sah?"

Veteran cricket writer Tony Becca says it is the International Cricket Council (ICC) that is responsible for the poor involvement of the local people in the showpiece event. “They (the ICC and organizers) want tourists from other parts of the World to come but ignored the local populations” Becca said. He also said, “I have covered many World Cups and what I saw (in the past) was that the majority of the crowd has been local.” He continued, “The ICC thought the World Cup as a golden goose and chased the local people out assuming that large numbers would come from abroad and they would not need local support.”

And so, they chased us away.

One hundred US dollars for a ticket! That is $270 Eastern Caribbean Dollars. In a region where many people don’t even earn that in a week… the CWC organizers were really catering to the rich, the elite business class and to the so-called tourists.

So, they chased us away.

And the seats which were available to the local populations were limited. Very limited. At least… they were limited until the last moment when CWC realized that their thousands and thousands of tourists just weren’t coming.

And they lied about the numbers.

At first we heard that 50,000 ‘tourists’ were coming to Antigua. We were going to have to get cruise ships to accommodate all those tourists since we did not have enough rooms and beds here. Entrepreneurs were encouraged to invest in bed and breakfast accommodations and build motels. Ordinary citizens were encouraged to spruce up empty rooms in their houses to accommodate the thousands of CWC ‘tourists’ who would need a room for a few nights! Then the figures were downgraded… to 30,000… to 20,000… to 15,000… to... well... who knows what the final figures will be?

Now we weren't talking about Barbadians, Jamaicans, Guyanese and Trinidadians coming here. And they certainly weren't talking about Antiguans and Barbudans returning home for the matches… nope. ICC/CWC didn’t care about them… and didn’t factor them in.

And of course, they didn’t care about us either.

So they didn't factor us in. Instead, they chased us away.

Why did they do that? They certainly didn’t expect the Caribbean masses to buy those US$100 tickets! They expected the seats to be filled with Australians, New Zealanders, British… and with a scattering of Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan supporters.

Racism?

Or were they making sure that the West Indies Team would not have the massive numbers of supporters who would form a powerful 12^th man?

Now there are other ways they made sure that even those of us who were foolish enough to want to buy those costly tickets could not get them. I stood in a line of 60 persons at their one purchasing site in St. Johns for one hour. In that one hour, they processed five persons!!! I left my son in the line, went home, got online, purchased the tickets, went back to the purchasing office, waved my receipt in the face of the security guard, walked inside and picked up my tickets. My son was still in line – facing a four to five hour wait!

They chased us away and I should have stayed away. But… I wanted the exposure for my sons… That’s a limp argument… because…

They chased us away.

Of course, I guess ICC/CWC had a colonial view of us. They probably didn’t expect locals to be 'sophisticated' enough to purchase their tickets online. Almost all the people who were in the expedited line with online receipts were Aussies or Brits!

Yep, they intended to chase us away. It worked… because we have stayed away.

Why? Because we clearly understand… this is not our ‘ting’. This is their thing. So they can have it…

There are other issues of course. Like the wimpish, spineless negotiators who represented us. Like the spinning that is being done by our local officials about how we will benefit in the future as a result of spending over $300 million. Like the financial impact on tourism during this period that stems from those stupid visa requirements… Like the fact that it took the advent of CWC to push our government to fix sidewalks and some roads...

But those issues are for another day.

Today, they chased us away.

So, tomorrow and the next day… and the next day... we will stay away.

New Sidewalks!

By Marcus M. Mottley, Ph.D.

My 92 year-old mother is singing the praises of the UPP government. Why? Because when she goes to shop in St. Johns, she can walk along the sidewalks without fear of being hit by a car. She likes the wider, flatter and lower sidewalks. The only things she says that she has to look out for are those red painted, poorly designed grates. She says that the bars should be placed closer together. But, she is not really complaining.

So… she is thankful and surprised.

Why surprised? Well… the sidewalks and the road improvements were not there the last time she walked through the city. She is amazed at the speed with which the project is being completed. She is further amazed, because in Antigua, it is highly unusual for projects… particularly public projects… especially public projects conducted by Public Works… to be done quickly. And when you add… efficiently, effectively and attractively… well that is historically unheard of.

Now she knows that Public Works had help. She knows that the Cubans seemed to have put us to shame and that that might have provided the necessary prick on our pride to spur our Public Works’ staff to respond positively to the challenge. And respond they have… and well… so far… so good.

But the stronger prick and push came not from the Cubans but from the imminent arrival of Cricket World Cup. For months… maybe longer… just about everyone in the country has been fussing about the need to fix the roads… all roads. Even some Ministers of the current Government seemed to have been discontented with the situation. There were charges from some elected officials that the Ministry of Finance was not releasing the money for public projects. There were counter charges that Public Works was not providing the proper documentation to request the necessary funds.

But all of the squabbling dissipated when everyone realized that the opening date for CWC was just around the corner! There was a deadline. There was no getting around it. There was no getting away from it. The date was set in stone. So the stones had to be worked. And so, what needed to be done was done – quickly. And the city is being transformed.

So it took the imminent arrival of CWC to drive our Government to implement this project of upgrading the city. According to local DJ and radio personality Serpent, it seems as though we need to bring CWC here to Antigua every month in order for Government to complete all of the projects that it has promised.

Sad… but true.

So… what other events might we the people highlight that would get a similar response from the Government? How can we get the Government to fix all the roads and alleys? How can we influence them, or push them to really make significant adjustments to the airport? What can we do to get them to implement serious programming to address the apparently high levels of crime and violence? What kind of pricking is needed to have them foster deep and lasting improvements to our education system?

And what do we have to do to get any Government… UPP or whoever… to continuously deliver on the projects that they promise?

Elections? Maybe we should have some kind of election every two years. I think that we need to change from an appointed Senate to an elected one. Then we need to change elections for the Lower House from every five years to every four years. The Senate would also be elected every four years. Both elections would be held two years apart. So, for example, the next election for the Lower House would be held in 2008 (and every four years thereafter), and the elections for our new Senate would be held in 2010 (and every four years thereafter.

That would keep politicians hopping. That would keep them delivering. And, we the people would see a never ending stream of projects – creatively, efficiently, effectively and attractively done – just like the sidewalks in St. Johns.

By the way… why were the grates painted red?