‘It is not too late to bail the bilge of the ship of state. For while the ship is at water level, she is still, miraculously, afloat although barely seaworthy.’
“Who will weep for our young men whose lives are being snuffed out in what, for BVI, is record numbers? Have we acquired a certain level of immunity to crime because of its frequency and the expectation that these things will be?
Or is it because the Territory has become so impersonal that we no longer know each other and we no longer care?
Could it be that our failure to articulate and enforce a workable immigration policy is complicating the issue? Many of us know people who have brought others into the Territory when there was no job available.
One is fabricated on paper to ‘help out’ and once the individual arrives, the search for work begins in earnest. The wait and the absence of income is punishing. What is such a person to do?
How can this be sustainable when we are adding to the high levels of desperation that already exists here? And it exists!
The cost of living in the Territory is so high that an average individual must earn well beyond the per-capita income ($39,552.00 (2020)) just to make ends meet.
Housing, driven by insurance, is extortionate. Food is expensive. Transportation is costly and entertainment, where many a Friday paycheck is spent in pursuit of happiness, is off the charts.
Then, with no money to pay bills and to sustain his household for the coming week, the empty handed individual becomes a party to domestic violence to ease a frustration of his own making.
And departments, like Social Development and agencies like the Family Support Network, thrive. But a generation is growing up being accustomed to petty violence.
Of course, television, music, social media and the various community social settings play their part as does the desire to acquire chattel and adopt a lifestyle of high living with minimal exertion in education, investment, ingenuity or work ethics.
And the judiciary and law enforcement must play their part. They do not have the luxury of failing in the administration of justice. Otherwise, criminals will have a high expectation of walking free regardless of the infraction.
And while everybody blames somebody except when they show up at the trough on the 15th and 30th, the System rots from within and supports the decadence that exists in the wider world which has engulfed the Territory.
Does the malaise of the Territory extend to the absence of anyone or any group that can review the System so that it can truly work for the people of the BVI instead of leaving them to the mercies of powerful but unconcerned functionaries of government?
Should it matter to anyone that the government is failing to provide the services that the private sector needs to be successful?
It is not too late to bail the bilge of the ship of state. For while the ship is at water level, she is still, miraculously, afloat although barely seaworthy.
And the passengers are anxiously watching the captain and crew and wondering if they are truly committed to the oaths they swore to faithfully serve His majesty, his heirs and successors in the offices they said they were capable of holding.
So far, the record does not read like a success story. But it is still early days…..
…..Early Fridays.
Happy Friday!”