MIA > Archive > Tim Hector
Fan the Flame, Outlet, 4 April 1997.
Online here https://web.archive.org/web/20120416011318/http://www.candw.ag/~jardinea/fanflame.htm.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
I promised last time to write of a profitable Marine Protected area, which would be economically viable, and above all National in character, that is, nationally owned and controlled.
It should be pellucid that the area of which I write for this Marine Protected Area is the Guana Island, Bird Island, or North East Coastal area of Antigua.
It should be obvious too, that what I am proposing is in direct opposition to the Lester Bird-Dato Tan Kay Hock, Asian Village for Guana Island.
One of the enduring problems of Antigua and Barbuda these past 30 years, is that this country, small as it is, has not done the obvious.
Namely, it has never developed a national Land Use Plan. That is to say, which areas are to be reserved for residential development; which areas are to be reserved for agricultural development; which areas are to be left for tourist development; which parts are to be preserved as green areas, and what others are to be marine reserves. The society has been planless despite the existence of Planning Units. Not even a physical plan has ever been developed. It speaks of a political backwardness which passes all understanding.
We in Antigua and Barbuda, perhaps because of the influence of the United States, and how we (mis)perceive the United States believe that we have if not infinite, then continental space and so anything can be put anywhere, anytime. And so we have the prevailing anarchy.
A national Land Use Plan, has to be national in scope, and therefore not partisan. It must therefore include in its discussions representatives of all sectors of the society – agricultural, industrial, tourism, church, commercial interests, experts in a variety of disciplines with the Town Planning and District Control Authority effectively represented as the guardians of such a National Plan. So that as governments come and governments go the National Land Use Plan continues, bearing in mind generations present and generations to come.
Otherwise, we can alienate for keeps vast areas of tiny Antigua & Barbuda, leaving indigenous Antiguans & Barbudans, out. Out of their country, out of history, out of their own development. The result would be, and is already a very clear and present danger, an a-social, a-historical population, atavistic in the extreme, who will seek to escape home, having absolutely no reason to be loyal to anything in their so-called home.
If you look behind some of the major crimes committed in Antigua, and in Barbuda as well, you will see elements of this a-social, a-historical personality consumed with self hate, and capable of the most mindless violence. To some, it would seem like the murders or the violence was the result of madness. Some individual trait of the killer or criminal. But if you look deeper behind the murders of say Arah Hector in ’89 or the most recent, that of the British VSO, Ms. Gabrielle Stocker, you will find the same a-social tendencies, regardless of whether the diagnosis is clinically recorded as psychopathic or schizophrenic. I warn you that the danger is clear and present. I invite you to look at the Barbuda murders committed by the young, and the restless or the murder of the late Comptroller of Customs Rolston Samuel. The pattern is escapable. That is, unrooted people makes all socialisation purposeless. As such unrooted and purposeless they become capable of the most mindless and remorseless violence.
My point is very simple. We are already disorienting, dislocating and alienating our own people, especially youth, to the point where many are no longer pacific in their alienation, but capable of the most mindless and grizzly violence. I will say no more on this now. But it is out of this sense of alarm, if you like, that I write.
Now, one of the surprising things in Antigua and Barbuda today is that we are totally oblivious of our own history. By that I do not mean the ancient past – which is a colonially imposed condition – but our recent past. The history made in our own lifetimes. That too, is the product of alienation.
For example, it would surprise most people here over 45, that we have legislation on our books, which provide for Marine Areas Preservation and Enhancement. The law was passed in 1972 by the George Walter administration. It was the brainchild of both Premier George Walter, a pioneering fisherman and Deputy Premier Robert Hall, a pioneering farmer. At least one member of the George Walter administration is today totally oblivious, if not hostile, to the very historic Act his own administration pioneered. Prudence requires that I call no name, and the heedless perpetrator is best left nameless.
At this point I wish to say that there is no more environmentally progressive legislation anywhere in the Caribbean, than this Marine Areas Preservation and Enhancement Act.
This Act, The Marine Areas Preservation and Enhancement Act, empowers the Minister responsible for fisheries to “designate any portion of the marine areas of the state of Antigua as a restricted area where he considers that special steps are necessary for:
”(a) preserving and enhancing the natural beauty of such areas;
”(b) the protection of the flora and fauna and wrecks found in such areas;
”(c) the promotion of the enjoyment of the public of such areas;
”(d) the promotion of scientific study and research in respect of such areas.”
Then comes the startling fact. In the 25 years since this legislation has been passed, not a single area, not one, has been ear-marked as a marine area for preservation and enhancement. Not one. It is a monumental failure. The superb intentions of 1972 were subverted, and so the road to hell is being paved by the subverters of all good intentions.
I am getting to the heart of the matter now. In 1986 a brilliant study of Antigua’s marine resources by Multer et al. reported “that the reefs of Antigua are exceptional in their healthy condition.”
By 1993, a mere seven (7) years mark you, the reverse was the case. Dr Alevizon working on behalf of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation had this to say:
“The opening statement of Multer et al. that ‘the reefs of Antigua are exceptional in their healthy condition’ is highly inaccurate.”
“Certainly some areas” continued Dr Alevizon in his study “of relatively healthy reef remain. Nonetheless, many of Antigua’s reefs have suffered extensive damage, and would be more properly characterised today as in generally poor condition compared to reef systems in many other Caribbean islands.” Clear as sunrise.
To any half-sensitive, half literate government of Antigua & Barbuda this would have been cause for concern. Not so the very literate and wordy Lester Bird regime. It saw no evil, heard no evil, as is continued to do evil.
Let me continue, without diverting myself with the obstacle of Lester Bird, with whom I have enjoyed one of he closest human relationship of my life, and therefore have an abiding personal regard, but for whom I have no regard for his political perspectives, or his extreme lack thereof. He is to me, in political terms, the plaything of foreigners and foreign schemes. He is a particular social and political type for whom it is an axiom, that nothing good can come out of Nazareth. All good is outside of us, especially so in matters of economics and development. Such cannot change. Therefore my political opposition is unrelenting. At any rate, it has been so since 1991 when the above conclusion was inescapable.
But let us continue this examination of our marine ecosystem. Dr Alevizon determined that “Severe damage of reefs is evident along the North-east coast particularly in exposed locations from Guana Island to Indian Town Point. Here vast forests of elkhorn coral [Acropora palmata] in depths of 15–30 ft have been killed and in many cases degraded into rubble mounds.”
It is immediately obvious, pellucidly so, that this area should have been declared a Marine protected area since at least 1993. Nothing of the kind happened.
I am not done yet with this need, dire need, for Marine protection on the North-east coast inclusive of Guana Island. Look at this from an expert:
“Some of the best remaining mangrove occurs in sporadic patches within the proposed Northeast Coast, particularly along the shoreline from Parham Harbour to Pelican Island. Mangroves have been destroyed in many areas of Antigua in conjunction with coastal development [Read: hotel and condominium development]. With relatively few stands of intact mangroves remaining, high priority should be placed on protecting these.”
So, it is a matter of “high priority” to protect these “relatively few remaining stands of mangrove” from “coastal development”, that is, hotel and condominium development. Yet, the Lester Bird regime, in spite of this cogent expert advice, proposes to do the very opposite, in flagrant violation of the life-support system of the country. In a reversal of scientific logic, Lester Bird says that coastal development – condominium and Hotel development the sworn enemy of fragile marine environments, will protect the fragile and already endangered area. The line and allure of $8 million, equivalent to less than 30 pieces of silver, 2000 years ago, makes some compromise a whole island, for personal gain. It is a most frightening reality. The truth is, Lester Bird has repealed logic of any kind.
And now perforce, I must give one last environmental threat already existing in the area.
Wrote Dr Alevizon “There are currently reports of frequent noxious discharges from the desalination plant at Crabbs Peninsula into Parham Harbour. Such effects are not compatible with the health of marine reserves, and commitment to effective regulation of this problem will be essential to the success of the proposed marine reserve”. The danger, I repeat, is clear and present.
Already, the endangered area in the Northeast coast is under severe environmental threat, and successive Bird regimes go on their merry way, giving not a damn! In fact, they propose the ultimate threat to the area, fooling people with the promise of ’jobs’ which have already been reserved, by agreement, for Asians, in the proposed Asian Village. Logic has not only been repealed here. It has been abandoned.
It is one of the new facets of tourism, the increasing attraction of post ’90’s tourism, namely, the opportunity to see first hand the beauty of reefs and their inhabitants. It attracted 27 per cent of the world’s tourists in 1995!
Therefore the establishment of a Marine Park, in the Guana Island area substantially increases the appeal of Antigua and Barbuda, and opens the real possibility of halting the decline, the terminal decline in stay-over visitors – while it can increase spending by cruise passengers.
Writes Dr Alevizon “Well planned and managed Caribbean Marine packs are quite capable of financial self sufficiency. As an example John Pennekamp Marine Park in the Florida Keys has consistently released a substantial budget surplus, enabling the park to improve and expand the extent and quality of its services.”
One of the key pursuits in this Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in the Guana Island – Bird Island area, is the establishment of safe high-quality snorkelling opportunities. This plus the addition of self-guided or staff-guarded under-water tours “would further enhance the appeal of this opportunity and gain international recognition for the Marine Reserve and Wild Life Sanctuary,” concluded Dr Alevizon.
I want to insist, and make the reader aware, that these ideas are not original to me. Indeed a survey has already been done. And tourists were asked the following question in the survey:
“If a Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary were created with enforced regulations, managed resource use, and provision for tourist access to quality beaches, snorkelling and scuba-diving would you pay a nominal fee of EC$10–20 to visit the reserve.”
Every one interviewed was enthused about the idea and everyone expressed a willingness to pay a EC$15 fee and some tourists said “it seemed a low figure.”
Key to the whole Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary would be a reserve-owned gift shop selling unique marine life Specialty items, locally produced, plus glass-bottom boat tours, scuba-diving and snorkelling ventures, submarine rides, all locally owned.
Now the final point, for now. The start up costs for the Marine Reserve would be under $1 million, with operational costs of under $150,000 per annum.
To be sure, such figures, such investment costs do not interest Lester Bird. He thinks in hundreds of millions, which produce white elephants, cost over-runs and largesse for a foreign claque and their local toadies, who pass normally as rulers.
The difference of course, is profound. One, the Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary, is local, preserving a local habitat and local enterprise. Besides we would have taken a giant stride to giving Antiguans a sense – a most necessary sense, of identification with something internationally recognised. Small countries, such as Antigua & Barbuda have few such opportunities, be it noted.
The other way, the Lester Bird way is foreign, destroying a local habitat for the benefit of Asians in an Asian Village. Antigua and Barbuda is more than at a cross-roads. It must make the crucial choice of its history so far. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must make the right choice or be overwhelmed again by aliens in pursuit of purposes alien to us.
Last updated on 30 May 2022