HEARTICALLY YOURS

Last August when the Government of Anguilla declared Thursday 16 August a day of mourning repentance and prayer and organized a rally against violence in Anguilla, I wanted more than a public relations exercise that would make everyone feel good. I wanted action on recommendations long made in a number of reports. I wanted outreach programmes to get right to the young people who are not attracted to meetings in cold concrete rooms.

An exciting and necessary venture is taking place in Anguilla to revive the spirit of community throughout Anguilla. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Social Development being spearheaded by the Department of Youth and Culture that began in Blowing Point and has now turned it attention to Anguilla’s capital, The Valley.

The long vacation period is almost here. We’ve been preparing for a whole year and yet the month of June seems to have sneaked up on us surprising us into the realization that 2008 is half done. Last week we bade farewell to one of our best volunteers, Joanna Burt-Kinderman and her family, who were pillars of support.

Even though I go along obediently because they are such worthy causes, there is still a twinge of resentment when I reflect on the fact that the United Nations effectively dictates what we pay attention to with every declaration of a day, year or decade set aside for special observances to highlight specific issues.

Anguilla Day is celebrated annually only five days following African Liberation Day (ALD) and this year as I celebrated ALD with the Pan-African community in St. Croix, it was impossible not to think about the destiny of these two countries, caught as it were in the time warp of colonialism in the 21st Century. I’m not sure why it took me so long to return to St. Croix after my first visit twenty-five years ago but after last week-end’s experience, it will not be so long before I visit again.

On Wednesday 21 May, World Day for Cultural Diversity passed quietly enough. Heartically Yours today shares the principles of the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted in November 2001.

There are a couple of experiences that I would not have chosen if there had been options. One of these is the experience of having my home gutted by fire in 1996. So as I empathize with Brother Dread Ites whose house was completely destroyed by fire a few weeks ago, all these feelings that I thought had been put to rest, rushed to the fore.

“Everyone knows that Laws bring the greatest benefits to mankind and that the honour and interest of everyone depend on the wisdom of the Laws, while humiliation, shame, iniquity and the loss of rights arise from the absence or insufficiency…The Law, whether it rewards or punishes, must be applied to everyone without exception.”
Qedamawi Haile Selassie

... when my turn comes into the air, I will raise up a cry so violent
that I will spatter the sky utterly, and by my shredded branches
and by the insolent jet of my solemn wounded bole
I shall command the islands to exist
- from “Lost Body”, by Aimé Césaire, trans. E. Anthony Hurley

Whew! Finally! I had begun to think that Anguilla was content to remain a colony all the days of my life. While I breathe a sigh of relief that we are finally going to be exploring all the options and exercising new options enveloped in the term “self-determination”, I still cannot explain why it took so long for us to recognize the inevitability of this moment. At last we are about to begin talking the talk of full internal self-government and independence and I hope we will emerge with an agenda in which we at least plan the walk.

This week I am en route home spending endless hours in various airports trying not to feel like a victim but instead, like a beneficiary of hundreds of flights grounded in the name of safety. The delays have provided much time for reflection on the theme of development as experienced by life in Anguilla and from a visitor’s perspective of New York and the tiny portion of Ghana that I have enjoyed immensely for the past fortnight.

Ghana is the 8th African country I have visited but to say that is only to show off as in each instance I have experienced but a small slice of life in tiny corners of vast countries that comprise the African continent. However, I am very much at home here for this fortnight of return to my vine and fig tree, as I am struck by the similarities that I have now come to associate with being in West Africa.

I am not a city person and I hope that Anguilla’s town planners find a way to preserve the agricultural lands in the Valley that contribute so richly to the unique blurring of the urban and the rural that makes Anguilla special. However, right now I am in the Big Apple, well not in the heart of it, but being reminded of a few things that I enjoy during such visits. I have a childhood fascination for the trains and still marvel at the engineering feat of the subway.

The following poetic fragments reflect the scrambled brain feelings that have resulted from too many weeks of following the US presidential campaign. I wanted to call it a Media Spun President.

There are so many lessons that old fogies like us can learn from our youth. As the recently revived, restored, revitalized Anguilla National Youth Council (ANYC) arms itself with the knowledge and skills required for representing the youth of this country, they deserve the strongest assistance and support from the various sectors of Anguillian society.

But why are they always talking about Ethiopia and what does some obscure historical battle in a place I’ve never heard of have to do with me? First, Ethiopia is not just about you. It is about the cradle of human civilization and learning and if you do not wish to be associated with that then I sincerely apologize.

It has taken several days to recover from the Victory Vegetarian Banquet and once again I am saying never me again as events in the Yard are just too taxing. While the cleaning up continues, borrowed items are being returned and unsold tickets are being turned in, it is time to say thank you to all those who contributed to the banquet whether directly or indirectly.

That Black History Month, the brainchild of Carter G. Woodson, began as Negro History Week in 1926 and was intended to highlight a serious imbalance in the education system of the United States of America? http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…” Matthew 6:26

The lady is an artist. I knew that ever since I wrote a piece on her hardanger a long time ago and took some of her work to CARIFESTA V in Trinidad and Tobago in 1992. However, if I or anyone else thought that hardanger would be her only claim to fame, her Flights of Thread exhibition at Wallblake House next week will prove us wrong.

Warmest congratulations to Mr. Carlton Pickering and all those who comprise the largely volunteer team of Kreative Communications Network (KCN). For the past eleven years KCN, with the support of private sector sponsorship, has consistently brought us local and regional television programming that permits us to see ourselves and how we live in the Caribbean without the packaging that makes us nothing more than a tourism destination.