In the early days when Anguilla was told by the British Government that it had been taken off the list of grant-aided territories, Franklin Connor, then Financial Secretary, told the House of Assembly that the people of the island must learn to live by their wits. Actually, it wasn’t anything new to them because, historically, being an enterprising and resilient people, in the face of hardship and economic deprivation, they had long been accustomed to eke out a living by doing just that.

All it meant, with the withdrawal of British grant-in-aid at the time, was for the island’s Government to draw the strings of the public purse tighter and, correspondingly, for the people to pull their belts tighter.

With the current so-called global economic and financial meltdown impacting Anguilla, our own situation is, by far, a great deal better than those days referred to above. The prosperity we have had, just before now, has still left us with some remnants although, admittedly, we have not been as thrifty as the ant to stock up for the lean times that are now upon us. We have already begun in many ways to feel the pinch of the crunching situation at various work places where there have been lay-offs, reduction of hours of work and consequently loss of income. The disquieting circumstance is that the economic and financial prophets of gloom are still predicting much distress as the year progresses especially in small island states like Anguilla with not many sources of employment and revenue outside tourism and the construction industry.

All eyes, the world over, appear to be focused on the USA and the supposed magic of President Obama to get back that nation’s economy on track, and the glimmer of hope it could have for other parts of the globe. Yet, in reality, each nation and each man and woman, must do their part, with all the diligence it takes, towards economic and financial recovery and sustainability. Surely, in Government, the business community and in the home, the days of careless or lavish spending, and attention to glamour, are over. It is not strange that everybody is talking about “a stimulus plan” or, at the restaurants and homes, “a stimulus menu” to stave off the difficult times that are now besetting us and reducing our spending power and income levels.

The Government of Anguilla has already begun its cost-cutting initiatives and, in addition, has come up with a “Fiscal Stabilisation Recovery Plan” for discussion with the British Government. History sometimes has a strange, and perhaps embarrassing, way of repeating itself and in this case it seems that Anguilla may not mind, in the current situation, to extend a begging hand to its Mother Country. The general feeling, however, is that there is no shame in this since it should be the accepted responsibility and readiness of the United Kingdom and other Mother Countries to look at the interest of their territories and to give to them bail out packages to tide them over this difficult period. Anguilla has certainly shown in the past a concerted ability to lift up itself by its own bootstrap without financial or economic assistance from Britain and, until recently, had been a prosperous Caribbean gem with a double digit GDP growth rate. If the United States could pump millions of dollars in budgetary assistance to the US Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom could attempt to match that in its Overseas Territories in the Caribbean which may suffer most from the recession.

The inhabitants of Anguilla have been characterised as a strong, creative and fiercely-independent people. As history shows we are survivors but the will, pride and ambition we showed forth unflinchingly in the extremely difficult past, must now bear us up and, whether we get assistance are not from any quarter, let us do what we have always done with admiration: live and succeed by our wits.

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