COMMENTARY: Snap election will make things worse for BVI

By Alred Frett, Contributor

There is a strange feeling in the air as persons ask if we are ready to vote or ready to run and when asked whether we have already entered 2019 their response is that we should be getting ready for another snap election.

That makes me wonder if we have learnt nothing from the last snap election or if we have gone mad and see this behaviour as being the new normal.

There is no doubt that BVIslanders have been suffering as a result of the last snap election and reports project us as being broke throughout the next five years with no prospect as to where monies will come from to pay government \workers and carry out capital projects.

Another snap election will only ensure that what we now see as being bad will get much, much worse.

Just a year ago the God of nature and laws of balance sent floods to cancel our emancipation celebrations and when we seemed unimpressed by the cry for change, hurricanes Irma and Maria were delivered to push us back 30-40 years.

Mercifully, the same God of nature and laws of balance saw it fit to give us the ways and means to bounce back in less than a year.

Some may claim this as being a blessing but we should beware lest it proves to be a curse that would have us believe we are so invincible that our memories are shortened and we fail to respect the basic values of mankind.
Already our wickedness has doubled and our selfishness tripled to a point where we consider the loss of a dime as a perfect excuse to demand a dollar.

We cannot afford to also lose our memory

We have forgotten that feeling of desperation; that period without food, shelter or employment.

Perhaps this is what it felt like for emancipated slaves who had built everything and were suddenly left with nothing; having lost that which they had grown to perceive as security.

Maybe we survived because they survived and passed on their gene for the ability to survive.

Unfortunately, this inherent strength does not stop us from being socially positioned at the bottom of the ladder as we join in fighting amongst ourselves for crumbs from the master’s table.

We refuse to trust each other or believe our own eyes so we become professors of denial and robotically celebrate an emancipation that appears to long for the pageantry of slavery.

Racism is not new. Our parents lived it, we lived it and our children are living it but we are not supposed to say it so generation after generation we tell ourselves that if we stay quiet and not complain about it, then the injustice of racism will cease to exist.

That never happened – our parents tried and failed and we tried and failed as the effects of racism increase around the world.

As the wicked grow stronger, they grow angrier, regard emancipation as mere talk and see no reason to do better. So, while we live in denial, the rest of the world no longer pretend to care.

They created Trump and accept that a major reason why I and others are victimized is because we speak out against racism and wrongs done to our fellow man by those in positions of power.

Trump as President in the highest position of power has set about erasing all the social progress and human rights that had been achieved over the past decades.

Then, even as we dance and prance in nudity to the game of emancipation, the laws of the rich and powerful, quietly keep us in bondage as prisons and graveyards become over-populated with our young sons and daughters.

Is this how we treat our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters?

Instead of providing schools and hospitals, many leaders take greater pride in the police force and prisons.

As they empty schools and fill jails so no one seems to care that prisons act as revolving doors and universities of crime for the young and innocent who may have been put there through government-sponsored racism or the lack of fair and adequate legal representation.

It no longer matters if victimizer and victim share the same slave ancestry because we are well conditioned to debase, demoralize and degrade our own brothers and sisters.

Furthermore, knowingly or unknowingly we still use Slavery’s two most effective weapons of control, devised and developed for usage by original slave masters. These are ignorance and free labour.

Bearing in mind that our ancestors could only will to us that which they possess so, if all they possessed were the lack of knowledge and a legal obligation to work without compensation then that is all they could hand down to us.

Somehow a little more trickled through the cracks and we who benefited should make every effort to lift up rather than pushing down the less fortunate.

We could have been in there and none of us will ever gain self-respect or respect from others by demeaning one another, denying our inherent values and going along with what we know to be wrong.

In fact, no matter how meek and mild we pretend to be, no one will care for us unless we care about ourselves and this starts by refusing to be willing participants in our own destruction.

No emancipation without participation and no liberation without education

Those of us in authority must realize that any policy or action that deprives slave descendants of knowledge is an agenda of oppression set against emancipation and, any policy or action that hinders slave descendants from opportunities and processes to support themselves and family through lawful labour and investment, support an agenda of oppression set against emancipation.

Unfortunately, these conditions are not only foreign but exist here at home and my message has always been focused on uplifting our brothers and sisters to the realization that they deserve the same opportunities, fairness and justice as all human being.

As individuals, we have the right to our own opinions and may not agree or disagree on everything but emancipation is important.

True emancipation has several meaning including a mental and physical liberation but we should also understand that simple freedom is not emancipation.

We may set a person free in the heart of a desert or middle of an ocean but if they are not allowed the tools, conditions and opportunities that would ensure their survival they will just as easily perish; here or there.

True emancipation must reflect the freedom for full participation in all aspects of society, under the umbrellas of equality, fairness and justice which make it impossible to exist shackled to the policies and principles of colonialism.

Emancipation is not a right but a moral responsibility to carry on the struggle of those before us in order to safeguard the wellbeing of those behind us.

Most importantly, emancipation is not a free ride but a sacred trust and those dragging us back to slavery cannot also lead us forward to freedom.

Unfortunately, deceptive leaders often cling to colonial discrimination as their claim for national security when this is no more than legalize racism and even when it is proven wrong they persist with excuses to justify their actions.

Rejecting the same old folly that Might makes right

Some regard correcting wrongs is a sign of weakness and we have seen this demonstrated by Mr Trump who is credited with a record-breaking number of such wrongs to the point where he is regarded by human rights organisations as a pathological liar with criminal behaviour.

This worsens when Congress fails to condemn his behaviour thereby making themselves complicit.  Sadly, our own leaders appear to have their own persistent wrongs and their own determination not to correct these even if it means destroying our country.

High among these are continuous unfair and unjust practices by Labour and Immigration in dealing with work permits and a ministerial habit of enforcing foreign regulations that bring more harm than help to our people.

Again, they know these things are wrong because I have spoken and written of them constantly and they are already seeing the warned of effects coming pass.

As record numbers of local businesses fail, tax revenue diminishes in the public purse and we find NHI is now reissuing patient cards in order to remove a major blunder that could and should have been avoided.

All these things place a strain on the budget and as the territory becomes broker our leaders’ addiction to money will not generate realistic solutions but create more confusion as they seek to extract blood from stone through taxes, fines and fees.
Meanwhile, our country grows deeper in debt simply because we refuse to stop digging when we are already deep in the hole.

Yes, we have come farther than we expected but too many are still suffering and trying to recover from the flood, hurricanes Irma, Maria, and landlords.

We are still in dire need of more social healing and less political misleading and it would be another disaster if we allow their hate and ambition to hijack our own needs and vision.

Now is the time for work; not for political gambles.