Editorial

News reports out of Germany indicate that the 25 senior football players, Anguilla’s Rainbow Warriors, and the officials accompanying them, are having a whale of a time, delighting the Germans and gathering experience as they watch and participate in the World Cup matches.

It has taken many years for an Anguillian to be formally appointed to the post of Deputy Governor, and it has come long after the neighbouring Overseas Territories of BVI and Montserrat have had their own Deputy Governors in office, much to the envy of Anguilla.

It has not been said so specifically, but there is the possibility that the new Secondary Education Programme to be introduced in Anguilla, and in other regional islands, by the Caribbean Examinations Council next year may be somewhat of an antidote for school violence.

In the Anguilla House of Assembly on Monday, May 8, the Chief Minister and Minister of Lands spoke about the alienation of land with respect to property owned by the Government. According to him, the Crown land alienated for development projects, residences, etc., added up so far to 4.6 % of the total amount of land in Anguilla. This represents a very small fraction of all the land when compared with the huge tracks either held in private ownership still or already in foreign hands.

Last week, The Anguillian devoted its editorial to commend the golfers and the promoters of rugby football on the island for their initiatives towards the introduction of new sporting activities for the social and educational development of our young people. The point was made that in the case of golf, the sport was being taken to the children of Anguilla, thus seemingly relieving the discriminatory notion that it was only for the rich and famous and for persons in the echelons of society to the exclusion of the ordinary island folk.

Ever so often people on the island lament how Anguilla has changed so much and drifted away from the good old days when there was a spirit of love, togetherness and Godly-living weaved like a thread through the fabric of the impoverished but proud island.

The spate of power outages in Anguilla about a month ago had nothing to do with a lack of electricity as some persons may have thought. On the contrary, ANGLEC’s General Manager, Neil McConnie, said that in fact the company was wiring the new generating system and integrating it with the old one thus causing interruptions when the connections were not right.

Recently, the Chief Minister of Anguilla publicly released a long list of nationals from various islands in the Caribbean and from countries outside the region who were in Anguilla with criminal records against their names.

Much seemed to have been made about Government’s involvement in the clean-up of a bush area at Rey Hill which in its original state was not only an unsightly scene, but probably one of foreboding given the deviant behaviour of idle and misguided youngsters these days.

February has been one of the most expressive months of Anguillian hostility against internal rule by the St. Kitts-Nevis Government of yester-year, but it is going out without a drum beat to that effect or to the freedom the island has won.

The robbery and shooting death of the Mexican circus operator in St. Maarten this week, has nothing to do with Anguilla, but because of the close proximity of the two islands, such incidents are cause for concern. This is especially so as cross-border crime has affected Anguilla already and it is something we must guard against.

These are exciting and crucial times in Anguilla in one way or another and more and more our people are being called upon to play an important and decisive role in the affairs of their island home.

The tripartite talks on security cooperation and other issues at operational and policy levels, involving officials from Anguilla and St. Martin/St. Maarten, have been a regular feature for a long time. Although there is an enduring traditional friendship between the indigenous people of the two islands, we in Anguilla have seen, in no uncertain terms, that on the formal level there are certain sovereign and international requirements we must follow with respect to our relations with the half French half Dutch territory.

The cry in Anguilla today is over the island’s young people. There are increasing numbers of them in school and in the community who have badly let down the trust and support of seniors and their contemporary young friends as well.

It is a burning shame and disgrace that with all the promises of a good 2006, that barely into the second week of the year the spectre of crime and violence should raise its ugly head, spreading consternation and perhaps fear across the island. One understands the truth that good and evil strive together in our world, that the “wheat and the thistles” grow together, but unless there is a weeding out of the bad elements in our society, gun crime will destroy our economy and the precious name of Anguilla.

It was much heart-warming and comforting to hear Governor Alan Huckle and Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming speak about the importance of youth leadership and development issues in their Christmas Messages.

In the coming days 2005 will be history, taking with it a number of eventful times in Anguilla, and the New Year will be ushered in with all of its latent and known challenges before us. Each year has its particular set of occurrences and circumstances which we must always prepare to deal with and surmount.

It will be 25 years since Anguilla was formally separated from St. Kitts-Nevis by a Bill passed in the British Parliament and which took effect on the Appointed Day, December 19, 1980. That occasion, next week, will be observed with an official holiday. It crowns the Anguilla Revolution of May 30, 1967 and gave riddance to the island of an anomalous and limbo situation in which there was confusion and uncertainty about its constitutional future.

This week young people in Anguilla featured in two separate events: the first was a Youth Justice Seminar at the Teachers’ Resource Centre and the second was a meeting of the House of Assembly at which the Caribbean Examinations Council Bill, 2005 was debated. Both were matters of concern affecting the wellbeing of the young people themselves and that of the Anguillian society.

We in Anguilla and the Eastern Caribbean have much to be thankful for when we consider that we have fortunately escaped the deadly hurricanes that descended on parts of the United States in particular. There was a record number of them this season and we are all the more lucky that none of them came our way.