I join in applauding Government for the cleanup campaign around our roadsides. There is a vibrant freshness of which people all across the island are very grateful. But many are not very happy with the cutting down of the two beautiful mahogany trees which once adorned the compounds of the Chief Minister’s Office.

Colville Petty

It was an irate lady who telephoned me about their destruction, complaining that Anguilla is largely without ornamental trees and yet we have destroyed two beautiful ones. All that remain are two ugly stumps – now eye sores. “Thank God, they cannot cut down the clouds!” (Henry Thoreau.)

It is regrettable that those trees were put to death. I understand that it had to do with the extension to the Chief Minister’s Office now under construction, but I believe that the extension could have been so designed to make the trees part of its character. We have to learn to build with minimum disruption to our environment. We have to learn to care our trees because without them the quality of our lives would be severely diminished. Right now the Chief Minister’s Office looks naked – a naked concrete structure without a touch of nature’s beauty.

The nature of our economy, the bedrock of which is tourism, demands that we protect our environment and keep it beautiful. Our natural beauty – tranquility wrapped in blue – is the oxygen which keeps our tourism industry alive. That is the industry which is keeping us alive and which is largely responsible for the economic boom that we are now experiencing. Anguilla has definitely reached far economically. The speed with which we have reached this stage of economic prosperity is certainly phenomenal. Not so long ago, in 1953 to be precise, the St Kitts Government attempted to establish an aloes industry here but later discovered that it held out no promise and abandoned it. As a matter of fact, it had looked earlier into the possibility of introducing plants which could thrive in desert conditions and came up with the idea of planting prickly pear on which to feed our livestock. Attempts at a sisal industry were also made. Actually, the remnants of a sisal plot can still be seen on the main road to West End (just before the turnoff to the Great House at Rendezvous Bay). In the 1950s our economy was stagnant except for peasant farming and fishing.

In the early 1960s things were not much different. Anguilla remained relatively poor and undeveloped. It had a subsistence economy with agriculture (primarily mixed farming) being the largest sector. The 1960 census showed that 57% of the total labour force was unemployed and therefore the economy continued to be heavily dependent on remittances from abroad. Some years later, according to the 1974 census “only 18% of [Anguilla’s] total population was reported to be working during the week before the census . . . 15% of those in employment were working part-time only . . .”

Back then the hotel sector was hardly in existence. Its infrastructure was minimal: “two hotels and a variety of guesthouses, self-catering villas or apartments, all of which [were] small, friendly and informal.” The sector employed (in 1974) a total of 28 persons (9 males and 19 females) of whom 8 were bartenders or waiters.

It was in the mid-1980s with the take off of the tourism industry that Anguilla’s economy began to show signs of growth. Employment figures began to rise. The 1984 census put the rate at 53.8%. Incidentally, certain labour skills were not available locally so some had to be imported and I recall Victor Banks (1984) of the APP cautioning: “The importation of labour is the destruction of society as we have observed in other parts of the Caribbean.” Back then income per capita stood at EC$5,377.

The ANA Government, with good reason, has always claimed credit for the island’s economic take off in the mid-1980s. Eric Reid observed (1994): “When we won the government in 1984 absolutely nothing was happening in Anguilla. Anguilla was at a standstill” under Ronald Webster. Webster hit back in defence: “From 1967 to 1984 I laid the foundation for Anguilla. From 1984 to 1994 Emile [Gumbs, ANA] laid the blocks. The blocks are not straight neither are they plumb.” But whatever the situation was back then, today Anguilla’s economy is plump and its people are enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the region.

During the 1984 elections campaign Dr Cuthwin Lake, who spoke on the ANA platform, gave his vision of the kind of Anguilla he would like to see. Here is his vision: “They say Anguilla is idyllic. We do not want an idyllic country. We want a noisy boisterous country. We want a country where the noise and the furore is the pounding of the hammers – where the noise is the drilling, the thrill drilling of the drill . . . the buzz of the saw. We want to hear the clank of the anvil. We want to hear the chip and scraping of the pick and shovel. That’s the noise we want to hear. We want to hear the teachers loud, confident, insistent and committed to develop the youth of this country for the advancement that we intend to bring here. We want to hear the children’s laughter. That’s the noise. The children playing in the grounds, playing and joyful because they are contented knowing that their home is content and happy because their parents are at work. . . . We want to even hear the men in the rum shops vying with each other as to who should buy the next drink. All ah dem got money. That’s what we want to hear. Isn’t that a good sound? Yes. It sounds like music to me. Yes, a symphony: a symphony of progress. That’s what we call it. The symphony of progress.”

Some twenty years later, Dr Lake’s vision, symphony of progress, has largely been realised. Let the figures speak for themselves. Anguilla’s GDP in 2003 stood at EC$253 million and income per capita at EC$20,770. The economy grew at 5.0%. GDP in 2004 was EC$294 million and income per capita EC$23,479. The growth rate was 16.0%. The latest available unemployment figures (2002) put the rate at 7.8% (Survey of Living Conditions).

We presently have near full employment. On Friday afternoons the commercial banks are filled to capacity with workers changing their cheques. The banks’ parking lots are inundated by motorcars, SUVs and so on. The workers are all abuzz and happy that they are making money to provide for their families. “It sounds like music to me. Yes, a symphony: a symphony of progress.”

Dr Lake also said that, “Unemployment is a scourge. It isolates people. It brings crime and brings that sense of uselessness and hopelessness.” But there is also the widely held view that crime comes with economic development. My question is: why despite the symphony of economic progress, why despite almost full employment, crime is on the increase? My view is that the situation is a result of social development lagging behind economic development. Successive governments, over the years, concentrated most of their efforts, if not all, on economic development with hardly any care about social development – people development.

Thankfully, the Anguilla United Front recognising this major weakness in our development strategy pledged, during this year’s election campaign, that once it was returned to office the focus of its new administration would be social development. Indeed, it is about time we extend the “symphony of progress” to our social infrastructure.

We need to start, as soon as possible, with those aspects of social development which have the capacity to impact meaningfully on the well-being of our youth. According to Harold Ruan (1993), “The greatest assets of we the people are our off-springs.” And we must do all in our power to create the environment which moulds them into good citizens with the potential to contribute to the building of a peaceful society. In this regard, there must be the infrastructure and programmes in place to harness their energies into productive activity. We need to put more effort into the better equipping of our schools. Some of them are in very poor shape and not conducive to learning. At the secondary school level, greater attention must be paid to improving the quality of technical and vocational programmes.
Also arts, craft and music.

A comprehensive sports and recreation programme, inclusive of better playing fields, other recreational and sports facilities for schools, as well as for the various communities, should be a priority. Another priority is the creation of an institution, with properly trained staff, to deal with the problems confronting youths and problems created by youths.

The problem of teenage pregnancies continues to be of concern. These times are not like, say, 1977 when Campbell Fleming told the Anguilla Legislative Council that, “If mothers trained their girls the way they should be trained all the young men in the world could come to Anguilla and there would be no immoral acts.” That aside, teenage pregnancies will always be a problem but we may reduce the numbers through a more robust programme of counseling for teenagers. And we have to ensure that teenage parents get training in good parenting skills so that they can pass on our society’s core values to their children.

We must not forget the elderly. Provisions must be made to enable them to access the health services at a cost which does not place excessive burdens on them. The sooner the widely-talked about National Health Insurance Scheme comes on stream the better for all of us. That would certainly be a vital component of our social infrastructure.

Neither should we forget the mentally and physically challenged and our obligations to provide the services and facilities to help them live as normal a life as possible.

With respect to the needs of the wider Anguillian society, the efforts towards the establishment of a community college must be pursued with vigour. Our people need to be trained to take over the commanding heights of the management of the economy. The better educated and trained our labour force, the more productive it will be.

I think I have said enough about the kinds of social-oriented programmes to which we need to give urgent attention if social development is to keep pace with economic development. In reality, there is an inter-dependent relationship between them. Neither can be sustained without the other. For example, if the social aspect of our overall development keeps lagging behind the economic aspect then the economic prosperity we are now enjoying could be halted. The symphony of economic progress would stop. I say to Chief Minister Fleming and his Government, “Don’t stop the symphony”. Let it play on. But it will only play on if we keep social development in tune with economic development beat by beat. The purpose of economic development is people development.

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