The State Ceremony at the House of Assembly, on Friday 2nd March, honouring the life of the late Watkin Hodge MBE (Watko) was indeed fitting in light of his great contribution to Anguillian people. Even though his tenure as a member of our Legislature was a short one, it was highlighted by honesty, humility and caring. He was a remarkably honest man in a profession widely regarded as being the most dishonest. Perhaps that was one of the reasons for him not liking politics.

By the way, Teacher Maro who was at Watko’s only campaign meeting during the 1980 elections telephoned me saying that I did not give the full story about that memorable night. I asked: “Were you there?” She replied in the affirmative and told me that as the crowd gathered for the meeting Melly, Watko’s wife, became distressed and that Florence, his eldest daughter, wept bitterly. They did not want him to get involved in politics. Teacher Maro also remembered the late venerable Jeremiah Gumbs introducing Watko, to the excited crowd of people, with the words of an old poem:

A wise old owl sat under an oak
The more he saw, the less he spoke
The less he spoke, the more he heard
Why can’t we all be like that wise old [Watko] bird?

Watko did not disappoint Uncle Jerry because the more he saw, the less he spoke.

The large gathering at his thanksgiving service at St Mary’s Anglican Church on Saturday afternoon 3rd March was testament to the high regard in which he was held by all Anguillian people. He was a kind man who never once lost the common touch. He has gone from our presence but not from our hearts.

Watko will be remembered for the part he played in Anguilla’s socio-economic and political life. He lived to see it move from a Caribbean backwater to one of the Caribbean’s fastest growing economies. Most certainly, Anguilla is experiencing a period of unprecedented economic growth – experiencing a positive change in the level of production of goods and services. The evidence is everywhere: full employment, rising incomes and plenty money in circulation. Almost every school child has a cell phone. There is hardly any youngster without a digital camera. And our roads are filled with brand new SUVs.

In truth, we are experiencing unprecedented economic growth but we are yet to experience economic development. There is a difference between the two. While economic growth is a positive change in the level of production of goods and services – an increase in total goods and services available in a country – economic development is the sustainable increase in living standards including better health, education and working conditions. It is about human development and the elimination of poverty and inequality.

Actually, there are many definitions of economic development. A most widely used one is that economic development is the sustainable development of a country’s wealth by its people as owners of its factors of production. It was for that reason that Bob Rogers had cautioned long ago (1989) against ‘development’ through land alienation: “The land that our forefathers left for us, they are giving it away and saying that we are developing.” But that was not development, he stressed.

The boom in economic growth, rather than economic development, which Anguilla is presently experiencing, is externally propelled. There is a large influx of foreign capital and labour. The island’s wealth is not generated by its people so there will always be the question as to whether the growth we are now experiencing is sustainable in the long run. After all, foreign capital is always on the hunt – on the look out – for opportunities for making the greatest profits. How long Anguilla will hold its attraction is uncertain, thus the danger of our almost complete dependence on it.

Having said that, there is no doubt that Anguilla has been struck by an economic tsunami. It came without warning. Not even our economic meteorologists saw it coming, so it caught all of us, including our ministers of government and their economic advisers, completely off guard. It is only in recent times that we have realised what really hit us and now there is the mad scramble for solutions to cope with it. To quote a friend of mine, the “current economic windfall is like a tsunami with Anguilla running hard to keep ahead of it. And in that context, the harder you run, the behinder you get.” A very apt description of the situation in which we find ourselves. But it is true that we are running hard to keep ahead of the tsunami.

In order to keep ahead, and avoid being inundated by it, we have to find ways of slowing it down and, in the process, re-examine our development strategies to ensure that Anguillian people are the prime beneficiaries of the wealth it has brought about. We must ensure that they retain ownership, or substantial ownership, of the means of producing that wealth. Thankfully, Government is gradually coming to such realisation: that we are over growing and must slow the pace of our growth to make certain that our people survive the tsunami and not left landless and thus powerless. It is that realisation which has led Government to place a moratorium on further development projects by non-Anguillians.

I am of the view that with the phenomenal increase in our economic growth we have reached a stage where we can begin to lessen significantly our dependence on foreign capital. Also, if we are going to stay ahead of the tsunami, and not consumed by it, then the best way forward is the pooling of our own resources and expertise.

This is precisely what ANTIL is trying to do: to increase Anguillians’ ownership of their country’s resources; to pool local resources to enable our people to have a greater stake in the ownership and management of the island’s resources and wealth. The pooling of such resources is critical to realising economic development and thus critical to the survival and sustainability of Anguillians as a distinct people. In this regard, the words of Victor Banks (1984) are most instructive: “If we ever believe that the development of Anguilla can only come from outside we are making a sorry mistake and we are heading for doom and failure.”

It is because ANTIL recognises the importance of Anguillian ownership of the island’s resources that it plans to enter into a partnership venture for the purchase of Cap Juluca. Its vision and plans are commendable. If anybody is to reap the fruits of the resources of this island it must be the Anguillian people themselves.

Also commendable is Government insistence that the purchase of Cap Juluca must involve 20% Anguillian ownership. There can be no economic development without our people having ownership of the island’s economic resources.

Further, it would make good economic sense if Government carves in stone a policy which states that any new development project financed by foreign investors should include meaningful local participation. That is one way of preventing the wholesale loss of our island.

If Government goes that route we may well see the formation of several local companies, in addition to ANTIL, all aiming at having a stake in the island’s growth through partnership with foreign companies. In other words, we may see Anguillians regaining ownership of their island’s resources and reaping greater benefits from them. According to Dr Cuthwin Lake (1989), Anguillians “must not just be simply hewers of wood and carriers of water. We must train our people to occupy the golden heights of development.” The golden heights of development are ownership and control.

Incidentally, ANTIL has come in for much unfair criticism from some quarters, but for those who do not like ANTIL my advice is: leave nothing stand in your way of forming your own company because the more local companies we have controlling the resources of this country the better it is for all of us. The wealth they create will stay here and create further wealth.

Quincy Gumbs was thinking along those said lines when he was a guest on To The Point radio programme on Monday night last. He reminded us that during the revolutionary days we sang we are about to build a new Anguilla, and then he went on to advise that we should spare no effort in building a new Anguilla for Anguillians. Towards that objective he called on the Anguillian people to be owners rather than tenants. And to invest, own and control. (His Royal Caribbean Resort is proof of his commitment to that vision.) He opined that failure to do so could turn them, in the long run, into a landless and homeless people. Sound advice from one of this island’s leading developers.

Quincy was on the ball. Economic development is about people’s ownership and control of their country’s resources. If we fail to heed that kind of advice, and fail to support local initiative and local companies like ANTIL, then, most certainly, the more we run the behinder we get in the realisation of sustainable development, and of being masters of our own country and destiny.

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