{"id":189081,"date":"2023-10-27T23:22:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=189081"},"modified":"2023-10-27T23:22:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:22:24","slug":"letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/","title":{"rendered":"LETTER: Antiguans Are So Backward It’s Frightening"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Antiguans and Barbudans are politically backward in many respects. We are. It is the truth and while you may not want to swallow that truth, it isn’t going anywhere. We do not seem to embrace the full spectrum of ideas associated with liberal democracy – The idea upon which our political system is based.<\/p>

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We don’t like the idea of a vibrant multiparty democracy with high levels of accountability and transparency from the government. We want the same thing we have always had. A choice between two parties who differ very little on political or economic practices and only differ on two issues: (1) How corrupt they are, and (2) How effective they are at implementing policy. Outside of this, the UPP and ABLP are pretty damn similar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They both espouse the same dead end economic policy of clamouring for foreign investment to build mega luxury hotels and condos to create a handful of upper income jobs, slightly more middle income jobs, and a whole lot of lower income jobs.<\/p>

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Neither the UPP nor the ABLP has espoused any serious shift in economic policy for the nation, nor suggested a plan for coordinating the education, labour, and financial sectors toward building up industries other than tourism. Essentially, each administration arrives in office devoid of any real economic growth and development strategy and simply attempts to RAMP UP the decades old FDI tourism charade.<\/p>

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What does that mean? Sell more land. Give more concessions. Raze more coastline. Create more all-inclusives. Over and over and over. They are big onto luxury property development now as well, for whatever boom it brings in terms of construction.<\/p>\n

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The result is that they create economies of wealth that are largely inaccessible to the average Antiguan and Barbudan. They have destroyed much of the coastal vegetation, wildlife, and sea life, and more and more they privatise access to beaches.<\/p>

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There is a silent mantra in Antigua and Barbuda that the best parts of this island should be parcelled out for the exclusive enjoyment of the rich. If the land is pristine, picturesque, and dreamy, the best thing to do, is to give a developer the all clear to build right up on the beach, reduce access to the public to the absolute minimum, and bulldoze all the vegetation that supports biodiversity and related recreational and economic activity.<\/p>\n

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On the political front, no party has engaged in any meaningful reform of the political system of the public sector in over 3 decades.<\/p>

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There’s been virtually zero constitutional reform. That’s an embarrassment for any administration. There’s been no reform to bring in fair and reasonable forms of local government – a system that, if done right, could break the sickening habit of reisdnets having to contact MPs and Ministers directly simply to get basic local community issues addressed.<\/p>

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There has been no reform to ensure that there is always a healthy sized opposition in Parliament, regardless of an election result.<\/p>\n

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There has been absolutely no reform aimed at creating independent authorities to probe allegations of maladministration, wastage, corrupt contracting, corruption, overspending, etc. None. Absolutely none.<\/p>\n

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There has been no reform to better empower and equip independent authorities to handle the issue of boundaries, elections, and electoral reform, and or malpractice. ABEC does its best, but is limited by its mandate and the lack of scope and resource given to it by law.<\/p>\n

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The list is endless.<\/p>\n

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There has been no reform to the public sector despite the fact that it is overstaffed, underresourced, in need of greater expertise, and in need of greater legal protection from politicians.<\/p>\n

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Look no further for an indication that the economy is stagnant than the fact that the economy is NEVER doing well enough that politicians feel confident that they can downsize the civil service.<\/p>\n

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We know the public sector is bloated. We know it needs to be rationalised. But politicians know that they cannot do it because the private sector cannot absorb those people. But hold on, I thought the economy was booming! Is it not booming?<\/p>\n

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Nepotism and clintelism is rife in the non-established sector and in statutory corporations where politicians have more influence. Every major segment of the public service is understaffed and underpaid – police offices, public school teachers, and nurses.<\/p>\n

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Added to that, public servants are as much victims as they are guilty. They are victims of a poorly designed system where politicians have too much power, public servants have too little protection in standing up for what is right, change is slow, pay is low, and mobility is non meritocratic.<\/p>\n

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But many of them are also some of the most useless, lazy and incompetent people you will ever encounter. Many of them should be fired for lateness, poor customer service, insubordination, abuse of leave, abuse of sick days, incompetence and dishonesty.<\/p>\n

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Successive administrations have prioritised retention in the public service as opposed to performance, and have propped up a cancerous culture of mediocrity in the workplace which is pervasive throughout the entire country.<\/p>\n

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Where the hell is a country going when its public service is so unfit for purpose? The public service is supposed to be the tip of the spear, not a repository for the least qualified and most unemployable people in society.<\/p>\n

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The public service is meant to be the state’s primary resource for reshaping the social and economic reality of the country by providing the highest standard of services and intervening in a myriad of ways to correct the problems of the economy and society.<\/p>\n

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Its members need to be efficient, highly qualified, versatile, dedicated and effective at their jobs.<\/p>\n

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Does that sound like Antigua and Barbuda’s public service to you? Our service screams entitlement, laziness and incompetence.<\/p>\n

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Just as bad is the fact that the governments does not to this day, maintain enough real estate to house its own civil servants, and still spends significant sums of\/ taxpayers’ dollars to rent space from a consortium of different landlords. Government buildings are routinely in disrepair.<\/p>\n

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That the government should be a tenant to so many landlords is a disgusting concept which indicates the complete and utter lack of self-awareness of the leaders of this country.<\/p>\n

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Then we have a bizarre and frankly asinine taxation regime in this country which is flouted shamelessly by those with political connections and by those to whom politicians have dolled out free passes and concessions in exchange for things known and unknown.<\/p>\n

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We have zero income tax. Zero. But we have outlandish taxes slapped on much of what comes in at the port. So Gaston Browne pays no income tax on his double digit salary as Prime Minister. And the CEO of a major company pays no income tax in their double digit salary.<\/p>\n

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But the poor man pays more for everything from a lawnmower, to laptop for his child, to a phone, to the furniture he wants for his home. Do you think Gaston Browne or the CEO flinch when they have to buy a lawnmower? Or a laptop? Or a phone? Or some living room chairs?<\/p>\n

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So who exactly does it really benefit, to have no income tax, while at the same time, putting high import taxes on so many of the goods we need, but do not produce here? It only makes life harder for those who earn less, when you try to get most of your tax revenue from consumption. And we have a lot of poor people in this country who earn very little. I guess they can always go to their MP and beg.<\/p>\n

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But hey, Gaston Browne says income tax is a no no. He’s worked in banking, so he must know what he talking about, right? So he and others in a higher income bracket will pay less, while you in a lower income bracket will be told, “sorry, the government doesn’t have the money to fix x, y, or z right now”.<\/p>\n

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And we smile and bend over for it.<\/p>\n

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Antigua and Barbuda has such a massive problem of income inequality that we cannot avoid being classified as a high income country due to the obscene pockets of (untaxed) wealth in the country, which in tern, causes us to be excluded from opportunities for grants and concessional funding from international sources.<\/p>\n

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Who loses? The poorest. Look at the state of the housing stock in this country. Look at the ghottos that nobody wants to call ghettos but which we know are ghettos. Look at the complete absence of any form of national urban renewal plan. They have never even conceived of such a thing. Never.<\/p>\n

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Imagine if 30 years ago, in 1993, the government enacted a housing and urban renewal policy that dictated that every effort be made to incentivize people who wanted to build a new home to do so in a designated, modern community development, and not in the traditional underdeveloped and ghetto areas that we inherited from the colonial period.<\/p>\n

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Imagine if the government used the vast amount of land it came into possession of during the 20th century to execute this policy through offering potential new homeowners land swaps, to exchange the private land they owned in these older communities and would otherwise build on, for a plot they could build on in a new development with good roads, modern utilities, a modern design, and accommodation for things like community complexes, public offices and small businesses.<\/p>\n

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You would slowly decongest the overcrowded, delpidated, aesthetically unappealing communities that many now live in and drive all new home construction to moden new residential developments.<\/p>\n

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You could partner with housing companys, offering contracts to build subsidized homes. You could attract domestic investment to construct apparements for those who want that option.<\/p>\n

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Imagine what our communities would look like today with a modicum of planning and foresight. And after 30 or 40 years of the operation of such a policy, you would have significantly decongested the communities that were never properly designed, serviced, and planned in the first place – and it would become easier to get people out of them, raze what remains, and then build anew.<\/p>\n

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Why can’t Antigua’s residential communities have planned parks for recreation? Proper community and public use centres for after classes, youth clubs, sports, and community administration? Why can’t they have designated zones integrated into the community for small businesses to offer services to the residents? Why are we so content to treat these things as unobtainable?<\/p>\n

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Why do we want to live like rats and dogs without efficient basic services, with rancid gutters outside our homes, and with streets that flood with a few minutes of rain?<\/p>\n

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Our island is so run down, unplanned, dotted with ghettos, and unclean, that anyone who wants to build a hotel here realises that they need to keep the tourists inside and make the property all-inclusive. Because realistically, why would they want visitors to drive down Old Parham Road or Factory Road and be hit with the stench of chicken fat and piss mixing in the gutter outside a fast food shack? Why?<\/p>\n

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The stink and dirt and filth that we have accustomed ourselves to in St. John’s, and on Factory Road, and on Old Parham Road, and in our communities, IS NOT NORMAL. IT IS DISGUSTING.<\/p>\n

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They trim the grass now and then when they feel like it, and we breathe a sigh of relief, as if the place is not still a hot, haphazard, decaying mess.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, politicians are being knighted. For what exactly? Nothing in the place works. They told us the other day that at one point there were only 3 garbage trucks servicing the WHOLE COUNTRY. They told us it was because of technical problems that needed repair, and admitted that the contractors were not maintaining their vehicles, etc.<\/p>\n

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WHO HAS TAKEN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT NONSENSE AND RESIGNED? WHO HAS BEEN FIRED? THREE TRUCKS FOR A NATION OF 100,000 PEOPLE? THAT IS A CRIME! EVERY WEEK THEY ARE LATE!<\/p>\n

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AT THIS VERY MOMENT I HAVE TWO AND HALF WEEKS OF GARBAGE WAITING TO BE PICKED UP. I AM SICK TO MY EARS OF THIS COUNTRY. WASTEMEN IN GOVERNMENT! WASTEMEN IN\u00a0 EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY!<\/p>\n

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Heaven help us. All they do is handout, handout, handout, and payout, payout, payout. But they build and develop next to nothing. And when they do, they stand in line for a knighthood. They have no vision. Our leaders are merely travelling salesmen.<\/p>\n

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The core philosophy of our political parties is patronage – use state resources or the influence of public office to immediately satisfy the wants and desires of your tribe perpetually, thereby diminishing the time, energy and resource of the state spent on investment in policy solutions and infrastructure, in turn ensuring national stagnation.<\/p>\n

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Look at the state of social security – plundered and starved in a collaboration between the ABLP and the UPP to impoverish the most vulnerable in society. Always late or just broke as f. No accountability.<\/p>\n

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Clinics with no staff and no supplies. Wtf is that? Mental hospital where people casually walk in and sell drugs to the patients. What TF IS THAT??? Young men idle left right and centre doing nothing but smoking weed 24\/7, and the only interaction so called leaders have with them is to ask them for a vote.<\/p>\n

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Then we go begging and complaining on the international stage about how unfortunate we are and why we are entitled to the world’s money. Reader, please take heed of what I say. Your country is not underdeveloped in 2023 because of colonialism or because of globalisation.<\/p>\n

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READ IT AGAIN, PLEASE.<\/p>\n

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YOUR COUNTRY IS NOT UNDERDEVELOPED IN 2023 BECAUSE OF COLONIALISM OR BECAUSE OF GLOBALISATION.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your country is underdeveloped in 2023 because\u00a0you keep electing talentless, visionless, incompetent, self-interested, greedy, corrupt, nepotistic people to spend your money (public funds) for you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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You keep electing people who at first, see a position of national leadership primarily as a prestigious personal achievement, and thereafter as an entitlement until death.<\/p>\n

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You keep electing people who genuinely have no coherent vision for where they want to take you. Unsurprisingly, they then lead you in circles. At the end of the journey, you are exhausted and have gained nothing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sit down with your representative and ask them how they wished people in Antigua and Barbuda lived, what kind of jobs they wished people in Antigua and Barbuda had, and what kind of society they want Antigua and Barbuda to be, then ask them how they think we can get there, and in what time frame. Their responses will most likely be ingenuine and disappointing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The truth is that most of the people you elected are out to make their own lives easier, not yours. They are following their own path to self actualization, not setting a path for your children. They are enjoying the personal, professional, and financial benefits OF receiving and dolling out patronage as a member of a party in power. The holistic development of your country is an afterthought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They do not lose sleep over their failure to deliver even the most basic services with consistency, because that is not their primary goal in office. Their primary goal is to\u00a0be<\/em>\u00a0in office and enjoy the status and entitlements associated with it. They are the antithesis of change. They thrive on the status quo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They thrive on being able to throw scraps at the poor and win another election. They thrive in a system with no oversight of their actions and no accountability for their failures. They thrive on being mediocre people with nothing comprehensive to offer you except favours and handouts and their influence.\u00a0 BUT NO REFORM AND NO PLAN.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Ernest J. Farfingbottom<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antiguans and Barbudans are politically backward in many respects. We are. It is the truth and while you may not want to swallow that truth, it isn’t going anywhere. We do not seem to embrace the full spectrum of ideas associated with liberal democracy – The idea upon which our political system is based.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLETTER: Antiguans Are So Backward It's Frightening - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LETTER: Antiguans Are So Backward It's Frightening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Antiguans and Barbudans are politically backward in many respects. 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We are. It is the truth and while you may not want to swallow that truth, it isn’t going anywhere. We do not seem to embrace the full spectrum of ideas associated with liberal democracy – The idea upon which our political system is based.   […]","og_url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/","og_site_name":"Antigua News Room","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom","article_published_time":"2023-10-28T03:22:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/antigua-and-barbuda-pinned-on-the-map-with-flag-picture-id583795352_677b2f4074b5b7129a9199bcf454d51c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_site":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5"},"headline":"LETTER: Antiguans Are So Backward It’s Frightening","datePublished":"2023-10-28T03:22:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-28T03:22:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/"},"wordCount":2694,"commentCount":45,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1024\/h:576\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/antigua-and-barbuda-pinned-on-the-map-with-flag-picture-id583795352_677b2f4074b5b7129a9199bcf454d51c.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/letter-antiguans-are-so-backward-its-frightening\/","name":"LETTER: Antiguans Are So Backward It's Frightening - 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