Columns

These days I am feeling as fit as a fiddle. I am now into cycling during the early morning hours. Fritz Smith, my cousin, used to ride with me but he stopped because of the many late hours he spends working on the Wallblake Airport Development Project. Riding with him caused me to realise how well I am doing for a man of my age compared with youngsters like him. I find that he has nothing over me when it comes to cycling. In fact we are about equal. He beats me when we are riding uphill, but he can’t touch me when it comes to riding downhill, especially Sall Hill. No way!

After thirty- seven years of the Anguilla Revolution of May 30th, 1967, the Annual Celebrations continue to be more and more impressive with the Royal Anguilla Police Force and other uniformed Organisations at these parades. Special mention must be made of the various drill performances of the Police Force during these years as they consistently improve these drills year after year. Mention must also be made of the other uniformed Organisations which involve most fittingly the youth of Anguilla.

I join my compatriots in welcoming Governor Alan Huckle and his charming wife, Helen, to Anguilla and wish them both a rewarding stay among us. I am heartened by the Governor’s watchwords with respect to his tenure here: consultation and transparency.

It is no secret that Anguilla has relied heavily upon external assistance and overseas cooperation for just about every aspect of our civil, social, and infrastructural development. Due to the nature of our constitution and the UN charter, much of this reliance has been upon the British, without whose influences, directly or indirectly, we could have been that much more deprived of any kind of development, even since the 1967 revolutionary era.

The 1967 Revolution transformed Anguilla from a Caribbean backwater to a Caribbean paradise. And as we celebrate the thirty-seventh anniversary of that turning point in our history let us give thanks to our revolutionary leaders and freedom fighters for the personal sacrifices they made so that we could live in peace and prosperity.

Every school-day morning, she’d religiously do it again and again. She would gingerly trot up the hill, briskly dressed in high-school garb, pushing her little lady-frame Raleigh by hand until she’d reach the level ground, not far from our front door. Naturally, I’d always admire her elegance and the style of her exquisite poise. Besides, I respected her cautious riding measures, for I knew through experience that to climb that long incline, even in first gear, presented a tiring task. It would be quite an exhausting challenge, especially for this young, slender, delicate teenager named Phyllis.

We are now in that period in our political calendar when Anguillians talk, eat, drink, smell, sleep and feel politics. Even smoke politics. Nowadays Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming’s pipe is constantly on fire. No! On smoke!

Over the past weeks we have looked at a number of areas which were intended to give an introduction to the most basic legal concepts. This will be the last such introductory article before I move on to consider various specific legal topics.

By the time this weekly journal reaches its outlets the National Day of Prayer 2004 would just have been history, having taken place on Thursday May 6th. This, being the 4th annual observance of its kind, puts Anguilla in a privileged position among other states like Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Tortola and the United States, which participate in the event each year.

The caption seeks to stir convincing debate on the cause of remote incidents of crime which have taken place in our small community, here of late. While some folks defend the idea that a lean spell in the economy has contributed significantly to these incidents, it is my opinion that the kind of economy whichkeeps Anguilla going is modestly favorable for the support of those who would diligently seek to be served by it. Further, criminal acts, like those that crop up from time to time, result primarily when the will to do good is overpowered by the will to evil.

To the general public, lawyers may sometimes appear to be a mysterious and cloistered group, shrouded in mystique and governed by a set of rules which the layman finds puzzling and difficult to understand. It might also seem that lawyers converse in a secret language which only they can comprehend, using antiquated words like “notwithstanding”, “hitherto”, and “aforementioned”. Why, you may ask, are laws not written in plain English which everyone can easily grasp? And why do lawyers dress in black gowns and white bands, and address each other as “my learned friend”?

When I heard the harsh exchanges between Hubert Hughes (Leader of Opposition) and another caller on the Talk Your Mind programme, on Wednesday night 7th July, I said to myself that the upcoming elections goin be bitter. Hubert struck the caller a few low punches and it sounded as though they landed where they could hurt most. If that is happening now, before the campaigning starts, one could imagine what will happen when it does start.

There was something about the late Jeremiah Gumbs that on learning of his recent passing tempted me to think that the last Anguillian patriot had fallen. However, I knew that was not true so I tried to put my finger on the quality that had given rise to that sentiment and concluded that it was more than the singular role that remarkable Anguillian had played in our island’s history. Was it his distinctive appearance? That may have had something to do with it because we know what a sensitive issue hair still is to black people and if Cousin Jerry did not possess the qualities of a statesman he was sure to have been suspect on many an occasion. On a black man in the sixties, that beard would have signaled Black Power or some other revolutionary image, and it would have fit too when one considers his role in the Anguilla Revolution. That full beard was a strong part of the image that many Caribbean children have had of the white God we were told lives in the sky. But Jerry Gumbs was not white, did not live in the sky and was no God even though he earned a chapter in the book on Anguilla’s salvation. That was the image of Moses as he descended from Mt. Sinai with the 10 Commandments and in our infrequent conversations during Mr. Gumbs’ later years, I sometimes discerned the sadness and sometimes the anger that caused Moses to break those stone tablets when he found that Anguillians had begun to worship the golden calf. But Jerry Gumbs was no Moses even though he came from humble beginnings to become Anguilla’s Ambassador Plenipotentiary using his own resources to plead Anguilla’s cause for freedom, just when we needed him most.

 

As more and more women of childbearing age continue to use illegal drugs there is concern over the effects of illegal drug use during pregnancy. Consumption of illegal drugs is not safe for the unborn baby or for the mother.

Every society around the globe has its affairs controlled or dictated by the measure of its resources. Whether these affairs involve jobs for the populace, investments for further economic development, the regulation of immigration, political climate, criminal activity, violence, or whatever, in general the quality of a national economy invariably has some effect upon the issues that affect the population at large.

A fundamental principle of our judicial system is that every citizen should have access to the courts in order to have his wrongs redressed and his complaints heard. Very often, however, the man in the street is deterred by the perceived complexities of the court system. He views it as a piece of worn machinery which creaks along slowly and is hindered by red tape and delays. He cannot understand why his case cannot be heard and concluded in a matter of weeks rather than months. In some cases, for these reasons he may even decide not to pursue his legal remedies.

The time has come once again to act in response to three primary factors. One is the need for Anguillians to know more about the rock itself as a tiny little space that is the centre of the universe. Two is the need for us all to know more about the history of the rock before the Anguilla Revolution and three is the need to find ways and means of promoting and fostering self-knowledge in ways that are creative and attractive to children and youth in particular. Another factor comprises all those residents of the Lower Valley who year after year want to know when I’m going to do something at The Yard again. Some of you may remember those famous Yard Concerts of the 1980’s; others may remember the radio programmes and the special exhibitions. I even remember sometime in the eighties when people like Marcel Fahie and Clement Ghold joined me in an all too soon abandoned attempt at African Studies sessions at the ALHCS Library on Sunday afternoons. Just last month I even got a special request for the one day Bob Marley exposition that was mounted sometime during the 1990’s. This time, in response to repeated requests by persons in the Lower Valley community to continue cultural activity in the neighbourhood, I am pulling together a team of interested persons who can form the Management Committee for the proposed Athlyi Rogers Study Centre (ARSC) at Triple Crown Culture Yard in The Valley.
 

The large number of road traffic injuries in many Caribbean countries, including Anguilla, has become a major public health problem. April 7th is World Health day and the theme this year focuses on road safety.

While the season of Easter is upon us, and the crucifixion is being now commemorated, it is fitting that our attention be directed towards the sufferings of one man whose solitary life of austerity, love and sacrifice has forever changed the course of human history.

In most modern societies, including Anguilla, there exists an identifiable document or group of documents known as the constitution, embodying the most important and fundamental rules which regulate the country’s system of government. The constitution is regarded as the supreme law of the land. The authority to make all other laws is derived from it, and it also confers on the various branches of the government the power to carry out their various functions. In less than a handful of countries, including Britain, the constitution does not exist as an actual written document, but instead is comprised of a collection of well established rules and conventions.