WHY IS ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA THE WORST IN THE REGION
………..by Yves Ephraim
In a regional conference hosted in St. Kitts, the Caribbean Telecom Union (CTU) which is an institution created by regional governments, published the results of a study, ranking each member state’s cybersecurity maturity.
Antigua and Barbuda was ranked last. I am not at all surprised.
If you live in Antigua and Barbuda you are no stranger to extended periods of deprivation of pipe-borne water, even in a record breaking year of rainfall; As a resident of Antigua and Barbuda, you are accustomed to paying high prices for air through your water pipes;
You are accustomed to frequent power outages. In fact, no business can afford to operate without a standby generator.
It is even ironic that most state-owned entities, themselves must have their own generators.
Having to maintain your own generator is just part of the cost of doing business in Antigua and Barbuda.
I was very surprised to learn that our St. Kitts neighbour seldom have power outages. This I discovered when discussing with an IT colleague his decision to migrate to St. Kitts and setup his IT business there.
Most people are not aware of how high and unreliable electricity and communications cost contribute to our high cost of living.
Antiguans and Barbudans are accustomed to paying the highest prices with the lowest reliability for basic Internet Services.
The one common denominator that is contributing to all this is our government’s policy and its state-owned monopolies of utilities
and telecom.
For too long have the people of this country been gaslighted into thinking that Antigua and Barbuda was a trailblazer in telecoms and utilities, but now the evidence lays bare for all the world to see.
Now, even Antigua and Barbuda’s regional peers are saying that our internet, cybersecurity, utilities and telecom infrastructure are crappy.
Successive political administrations have made a mess of our telecom environment and utility services while our OECS neighbours have moved ahead in leaps and bounds. You know we like to compare!
You have to ask, why is internet services in the other OECS territories so superior to Antigua and Barbuda when they all have the same Flow and Digicel service providers that we have? The answer is clear!
Antigua and Barbuda attempted to take advantage of an opportunity to take a share in the Internet Nomads market during
Covid but there again, we failed miserably. We failed on all metrics including, unreliable electricity and exorbitant internet service prices.
Our government’s wanton and hostile protectionist stance has been eliminating service choices for the residents of Antigua and Barbuda.
We are all forced to put up or shut-up with the poor service that the state-owned telecom and utility services provide.
Even more egregious, is our government’s surreptitious plot to force the other telecom competitors out of business by denying them the licence to offer internet fiber to their own customers.
What our government has been doing can be compared to limiting
the car dealerships to sell only 1990 models of cars, while the state-owned car dealership is free to sell 2024 models at the same price.
No normal thinking Antiguan and Barbudan would pay for the 1990 models particularly for the same price as the 2024 models.
Therefore, as a consequence, the government has effectively being putting these other companies out of business because normal thinking people will dissert the other companies for the government’s car dealership’s 2024 models. This is what our government is doing deliberately to the other telecom service providers.
Whatever your opinion of Flow, Digicel or ACT, allowing these entities to compete freely renders choice to the consumer and keeps a check on high prices. For a very long time, the telecom market has not been allowed by government to be truly competitive.
Our government tries to convince us that being the only provider would be better for us, but what has been our experience? We pay the highest electricity rates and have the most unreliable water service.
Many Antiguans and Barbudans have been fooled to think that owning our own telecom company is beneficial. The reality is, that as a taxpayer you wind up paying high prices for unreliable services while also being saddled with a national debt that was incurred to run these mostly unprofitable state-owned telecom and utility
companies. A double whammy, if you will.
Can you believe, that our government would rather incur debt than to allow willing private companies to invest and then collect taxes from these private companies? Does that make sense to you?
As if that was not enough, our government is now aiming to destroy cellphone services by threatening the other telecom service providers to accept a one-sided deal to offer mobile number portability.
Expect to see your phone number disappear into thin air when you try to move your number from one carrier to the other. Our government has a track record for messing things up.
Do you really want your cellphone and internet services to be run like your water and electricity services?
You can usually gauge someone’s future performance by their previous behaviour.
Do you really trust our government to get this right?
It is high time for us to push back.
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The headline needs to be adjusted to provide the correct CONTEXT!!
Well said. We have become accustomed to less than the best, so it has become our new normal. After what APUA did to is with those unexplained high bills. I was hoping we could all turn off our lights, unplug our appliances and show them, who pays the salaries, but No, the cowards we are, we call observer radio and vent. We need to take our power back.
Wow. With the billions collected in the last 10 years,this is our status? Last? This economic powerhouse? Bet our roads and infrastructure are 30 years behind.
What a shock to my eyes when I returned home in 2004. Interesting stuff indeed
This useless ALP government is the worst.
If that were true, why do so many people from around the region keep relocating to Antigua 🇦🇬?? They never have anything negative to say about thier country.
The writer ask why is Antigua and Barbuda the worse in the world? I do not know this writer but he is asking a valid question.
My answer to that includes but not limited to being threatened with serious harm and death by ABLP high up on this medium for simply saying experts with an advance degree of knowledge should be hired and placed in appropriate positions. That was all I said that time.
Now, I am saying that most Antuguans are dunces, with low self esteem, do not believe they deserve better, and they do not know what better is. Also, they fear the government, fear losing jobs and being financially and economically bullied by politicians. Basically a version of what is happening to me, except pertaining to a license I need to conduct business there from ABLP headed agency.
My other answers includes
I wish the state had shares in some of the hotels. Locals will be rich.
Imagine if the state makes it mandatory to buy at least 25% of goods locally.
What if we start to broadcast our local sports and sell rights to air these games to overseas channels? No matter how low, for now, the offers are in comparison to the $0 we make for them now
Imagine how better off it would be if the government borrowed money from locals with the same interest rate or lower but close to the rate they borrow overseas and truly guarantee and, in fact, payback locals timely
Imagine if governments encouraged and supported endeavors by Antiguans who are able to tap into billions, sorry, trillions of US dollars, lawfully, from crime and terrorism funds to assist victims and protect against victimization
Imagine if agencies/ministries like finance, national security, tourism, utilities, etcetera are headed by those with an advanced degree of knowledge in that field and connected fields
Imagine if some of the high positions in the government were filled by locals (getting those pay to stay and circulate more on island, etcetera)
Imagine if the government invests more into shipping goods/produce overseas
Imagine if you have an independent law enforcement agency that scrutinize and investigate how politicians are making millions in office, using government information to do so, taking governments money, abusing their positioned, giving their children substantial money and assets unlawfully acquired, etcetera.
Imagine if Antigua and Barbuda work more with the US to weed out corruption
Imagine if one politician is investigated, charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison time for abuse of power, misappropriation, bribery, and corruption. It is a guarantee that this is happening in a small and unmonitored setting like Antigua and Barbuda since it happens in the best country with the best agencies implemented to stop these things.
https://antiguanewsroom.com/755-million-in-revenues-have-been-collected-for-the-first-nine-months-of-the-year/?unapproved=407347&moderation-hash=01f19d60654734d39ee911536303c347#comment-407347
Seeing the huge amount of revenue that this country makes in tourism, and the hardworking tax paying public, it is hard to see when you look around the country and witness why on earth thing are not a lot better.
The holes in the roads; the eye sore that is St John’s; the abandoned vehicles strewn all over the island; and the constant water shortages and power cuts still in 2024 beggars belief!
I could go on, but as the writer of this piece has correctly highlighted, that maybe the problem is with Antiguans always settling for second – or even third – best.
OUR PUSH-BACK IS LONG OVERDUE …
@Brixtonian October 4, 2024 At 12:08 pm
https://ab.gov.ag/pdf/budget/2024_Budget_Statement.pdf
Brix I have once again provide you with the link of the Budget. If you have problem reading and understanding it do not hesitate to call on me. I will gladly explain things to you. Just know one thing. The government operate on a budget deficit. So it may look good that we have increase revenue, but we also have increase expenses. Remember everyone wants to have pay increase and new roads and what not. All these things cause money. Just like Barbuda is getting now new roads and airport will have to be further expanded.
By the questions you ask I can see that you are either trying to mislead or you simply do not understand reading the budget and how government works. Just know their is also a large public debt to be paid off. Local debt and Foreign debt. Of which the Chinese debt are one of the huge ones. Not to mention the decades old PARIS CLUB debt burden that never seems to go away.
“push back?” Antiguans? “Push back?” Antiguans should be thankful, that foreigners are teaching them how to push back.
Antiguans saff lakkah carnmeal pap and ONLY have Trang fu each oddah and wuk Obeah!
Don’t know how gov’t get a monopoly on power. They don’t produce power lol. Hadeed produce all the power and sell to them! My colleagues in St Lucia don’t even bother with battery backups for their computers. At one time St Lucia had a whole backup power station. It’s time we really start demanding answers on why our Internet service is so behind
@ Less We Forget [You],
you can keep spouting your myopic diatribes to the unwise and the easily lead populous; but like the author of this amazing and truthful piece, many of us are using our OWN eyes to witness the underdevelopment in the country by the ABLP – Gaston Browne in particular – is proof that the tax-payers money has been wasted; misused and “financially” abused.
LOOK AROUND AND OPEN YOUR EYES …
… OVER TO YOU FOOL!
@Brixtonian
Are you excited about the new Barbuda International Airport?
Everyone is seeking relevance in this small space.
Of course there must be progress made in any developing country, but not to the detriment of the indigenous population @ Dave Ray.
Over the years, I’ve noticed what the Barbudan’s have written and said about the “mission creep” towards making Barbuda a rich man’s playground, and they understand that if this happens they’ll not only be priced out in all matters of extreme finance, but also treated as second class citizens in their own backyard.
The big mistake that Browne made was not to make an announcement of other working sectors (rather than more hospitality 🥱) to increase the wealth and worth for them.
He ponders too much to the rich and infamous.
HE’S NEVER BEEN ONE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX …
Again, my adversarial friend have a great day.
🤜🏽🤛🏽
*panders too much …
What is this guy talking about? While I am not bemoaning our inadequacies, I was in St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Grenada this year and there was no water for the most part of the day. As we all know the south is experiencing drought conditions.
I was in Montserrat two years ago and again quite recently there were rolling blackouts because they were down to one generator that was to provide electricity for the whole island.
I have to do conference calls to Jamaica for work and my counterparts are always bemoaning that their internet signals are dropping.
Again while I agree that we need more reliable services, I don’t agree with him that it’s only us.