BVI ‘still on its heels’ after Fahie’s arrest and conviction
Social commentator and pastor Claude Skelton Cline has argued that the arrest and conviction of former Premier Andrew Fahie left the Virgin Islands struggling to recover, more than four years after the sordid tale first came to light.
Appearing on his Honestly Speaking programme this week, Skelton Cline said the territory had avoided fully confronting the impact of Fahie’s downfall and the fallout that followed.
“I think it was Dr Rowe who said that you cannot heal what you refuse to acknowledge,” Skelton Cline stated, while discussing the territory’s political and social challenges.
He added: “What happened to us as a result of that has set this country back. We’ve been on our heels since then.”
We’ve been afraid to speak about it
Skelton Cline said the territory had struggled to openly discuss the consequences of the case, including the effect on governance and constitutional relations with the UK.
“We’ve been afraid to speak on the subject. We’ve been unable or unwilling to find the words within our vocabulary in which to articulate the pain, the disappointment, the havoc that it has wreaked,” he stated.
The commentator also argued that the United Kingdom used the matter as justification for tighter scrutiny of the territory. “We have been unable to discuss the resulting effect of the United Kingdom using that as a pretext,” he said.
We love Fahie but hate what he did
However, Skelton Cline expressed support for Fahie personally while condemning the events that led to the territory’s difficulties.
“Andrew Fahie is one of us. He is a Virgin Islander. He is family, he is a friend, and we love him, but what transpired is not something that we love,” he stated.
“As a matter of fact, it is something that we hate. We hate what happened because of what it has done to this country,” Skelton Cline added.
He further urged Virgin Islanders to strengthen local accountability systems rather than rely on external intervention. “Ensure… on our own — not the United Kingdom, on our own — that the guardrails, the accountability amongst ourselves, in our systems, in our structures, are fortified,” he stated.
Fahie was arrested in Miami in April 2022 during a United States Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation. Prosecutors alleged he agreed to facilitate cocaine shipments through the Virgin Islands in exchange for money. The former premier was later convicted in a US federal court on drug trafficking and money laundering-related charges. His arrest triggered a major political crisis in the territory and coincided with the release of the Commission of Inquiry report, which recommended sweeping governance reforms in the Virgin Islands.
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We love Fahie? WTF he sold out the country.
He is a criminal and should be treated as a criminal..
he also needs to be charged and jailed on his arrival back in the BVI
Removing his photo from the HOA is an easy start and is long long overdue.
Rescinding Fahie’s rejection of the UK offer of efficient modern and current nautical Oversight of our waters would be an easy all be it attempt at sincerity of stopping the drug tade in our location..along with the waters of the USVI and US mainland.
All in all ,Stop the mamaguying obvious BS.
Portraits are attached to the office, not to personal perfection. They commemorate the fact of leadership, not an assertion of sainthood. Ronald Reagan remains on the wall despite the Iran-Contra affair, where his administration facilitated the sale of arms to Iran at inflated prices, with portions of those proceeds covertly redirected to support the Contras in Nicaragua, some of whose networks were later linked to cocaine trafficking. Richard Nixon is still represented despite Watergate and the abuses of power that nearly consumed his presidency. History is not curated on the basis of moral purity, because if that were the standard, very few portraits would remain anywhere.
Remember that you Claude Cline was a big supporter of Fahie. The two of you did a lot of damage together that affected this country
Also what CSC did in Detroit with Kwame. Strawberry RIP
Absolutely!
Skelton Cline was in Fahie’s pocket, and benefited as the recipient of employment contracts at a hundred thousand or more each, over several years, to be a “political advisor” to the Head Coach. All on the taxpayers’ dime. Remind me again please… What did the taxpayers get for this service?
No challenge to what the good reverend is saying here.
It seems obvious that as a territory we’ve not dealt with Fahie’s betrayal, given that there has yet to be any publicly debate regarding the very clear local criminal charges applicable to the former Premier (nor for his Maynard accomplices for that matter).
So is you csc a criminal and should be in a maximum security cell also wolfe in sheep clothing..
These Clines have no shame. They make me sick to my stomach! This slimy Claude was involved in all sort of wrong with the sane Andrew Fahie to get money from the BVI treasury. Mehson nice yuh dutty self from here. You make me want to puke.
hey, the other internationally recognized grifter and fraud. C.razy S.cummy C.rook . go defend a rapist now, not just he who tried to rape the country. this boy part of the biggest criminal mayorship in modern usa. kwame detroit.
trashman, close that trash shoot under your nose.
Fahie’s rejection of UK offer of nautical oversight was the trigger for this ploy. Fahie’s crime was falling for it. The Barnyard defending the slave masters narrative bunch of sick idiots.Connect the dots that lead to Venezuela and Iran. Nature’s Little Secrets are still secrets. Ignorance is our enemy.
Big racebaiter.Did the same in Detroit.Was given public funds for”community programs”and allegedly spent it on strippers and other noble things.When they finally caught up with the Hiphop mayor,Kwame and his co conspirators,one of them slipped out and brought his ratchet behavior home for all to endure.