Kennedy Hodge has promised a “Representation Revolution” in launching his candidacy for election to the District 1 seat in Anguilla’s upcoming general elections. He stated that the focus of his campaign launch, before a sizeable crowd on Thursday 28th August at the Island Harbour Playing Field, was to present himself to the District and Anguilla, to answer some questions, and briefly outline his plans which he would expand on later.

Mr. Kennedy Hodge

In answering the first of three main questions - why he was entering the race- he stated, “The reason I am running for election is summed up in one word: REPRESENTATION. For decades I have been expressing my concern that in Anguilla, the people who run for office don’t seem to get it: that their job is to represent the people who elected them. When someone runs for election in a district, they are humbly (supposed to be humbly) asking the people in that district to allow him, or her, the privilege of representing them. It is a privilege the candidate is asking for. When a candidate is elected by the people, that candidate is a servant of the people and his or her job is to represent the people effectively, to the best of his or her ability.” He continued, “What the candidates have done, however, is to concentrate on projects, and not the people they are supposed to represent. That is why tonight I am promising a new revolution … of representation, and that revolution starts now, right here in District1, with Kennedy Hodge!”
He then recounted his experience with representation in Barbados, when he, a non-Bajan, complained to a friend’s Parliamentary Representative on her behalf when she was faced with the devastating prospect of a hotel building its sewage treatment plant right next to her house. In a few days his friend called him back to say that the Representative had gotten the hotel to change its plans and instead it would build a tennis court next to her house. “That is representation!” Ken said. “Now compare that to what happened when Flag decided to put their sewage plant, generator and water plant right next to Paradise Cove’s rooms with all the property they could have used. What representation did Paradise Cove, a successful business owned and operated by Anguillians, get, even though they complained to their representatives?”
He continued “I look around District 1, and I see so much where the District has suffered. This very basketball court, if you can call it that, where I am standing, and the cricket ground, if you can call it that, where you are parked listening to me, was developed before our present representative in District 1 was elected. To his credit, the current representative built the basketball court, mostly out of his own money, before he was elected. Once he got in government, not a single thing more was done to this field. But this is not unusual in Anguilla, and it is not just District 1! None of the district representatives, of any party on either side, has done any differently. What we have seen is that all our district representatives, on all sides, have focused on projects and not people!”
He continued, “42 years after the Anguilla revolution, you can search the length and breadth of Anguilla, through every district, and except for a few small areas of the Ronald Webster Park and some schoolyards, you will not find a proper public place where you can play with your child, where grandparents can walk with their grandchildren in safety and comfort, where a parent can relax and read a book in the shade while their little children run about or have fun riding bicycles around. You can search the length and breadth of Anguilla, through every district, and except for the Tennis Academy at Blowing Point which was driven by Mitch Lake, not the elected representatives, and the few tennis facilities around the island that were built by Social security, there is not a single completed quality public sporting facility in Anguilla. Not one, not even the Ronald Webster park cricket field which is the most developed sporting facilities in Anguilla. After 42 years! How long do we have to wait? Another 42 years? You can search the length and breadth of Anguilla, and you will not find a single recreational facility for our retired and senior citizens. Not one! After 42 years! How long do we have to wait? Until all our people who are 50 and over are dead, and those who are young now have themselves become senior citizens? 42 years is long enough to wait. There is no more time left to waste.”
The second question was whether he has entered the race a little too late. “That is not so. Even if the election were to be held next month, all you need to do is to listen to my platform, listen to the other candidates’ platforms, and decide which one you think offers the best representation for your district. You don’t need a year or two years to decide that… Who do you think will represent you best? If Anguilla’s elections are held in February, which is five months away – in five months you can’t figure out that Kennedy Hodge will be the best representative for District 1? Come on – of course you can.” He then referred to the US Presidential Elections where nobody recognized Barak Obama’s chances as serious before the Democratic primaries began in January 2008, yet by November 2008 he was elected President against all odds. “Also, those who think that it is late are overlooking one thing – hard, hard work. I may have to work twice as hard – but I am doing that, and I will continue to do that. And once elected, I will work even harder to represent you my people! The issue is simply this – who will represent you best?”
The third question was whether he recognized that one man couldn’t do anything as an Independent. He stated emphatically, “That is a lie from the pits of hell, and that way of thinking is a big part of what is eating Anguilla out from the inside like a cancer.... We all know that slavery, that most vicious, heinous, evil crime where man enslaves another man, was abolished in Britain and most of the then British Empire in 1833. But it is universally acknowledged that the man who led and drove the fight to abolish slavery was William Wilberforce, the Independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire from 1784 to 1812. Free from financial pressures, Wilberforce sat as an independent, resolving to be "no party man". Criticised at times for inconsistency, he supported both parties in government according to his conscience, and voting on specific measures according to their merits.
He then spoke of another independent thinker, “a highly esteemed man who died just this week, and just coincidentally, his name was Kennedy, Senator Edward Kennedy,” and quoted from what President Obama had to say about him. “For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education's promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me. In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that's one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.”
Kennedy Hodge continued, “If Ted Kennedy had followed the party line, Hilary Clinton would have been the Democratic party’s nominee for the US presidency, and the world, including Anguilla, would not have had the soul-satisfying and inspirational pleasure of seeing Obama achieve what was previously thought to be unattainable – a black president of the United States of America. The Anguilla revolution, which started right here in District 1, was originally conceived by one man, and then one man became the leader of the revolution, then people began to sign onto and support his vision of a separate Anguilla. The end of segregation in the USA came about because one man stood up and made himself available for others to join and support him – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that one man can’t achieve anything. Almost every successful achievement of mankind has come as a result of the dream of one man or woman. Now, the one man or woman needs to get enough people to sign on to their idea to get it implemented, but if you don’t start with that one man or one woman, nothing at all will ever happen.”
“What has been happening in Anguilla is that the dreams of individual Anguillians to do things that would benefit and help all Anguillians, are being crushed underfoot by politicians who see things through blinkers, through very narrow glasses. So Anguilla has been travelling down a blinkered path for too long, and in 42 years we have not been able to get those blinkers off! We will spend tens of millions of dollars every year to send our children to Primary and Secondary School, but it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to get proper funding to send those same children to college when they graduate from High School. It is internationally recognized that primary and secondary school education is an important building lock in developing a human being, but to make that human being truly effective and competitive in the global economy, that human being must also receive tertiary education. Whether that tertiary education is in an academic direction, or training in a practical field, if you don’t get it, you will not get as good a job or be paid as much as someone who has gotten it.
So, how blinkered is it to bring someone half-way, then leave them to their own devices? How blinkered is it, to bring our children to a point where you can see how talented they are, you can see how eager they are to exploit those talents to their fullest potential, and then make no provision at all to get them to the next step, so their talents just wither and waste for the rest of their lives? How blinkered is it, to watch and help parents bring up their sweet little children, and then when those children reach the biological age where their hormones kick in and they become rebellious, want to set their own agendas, which is how God designed them to become their own person, there is hardly a single facility where they can be occupied and their energies and talents channeled in a creative direction that benefits their communities and society as a whole? How blinkered is it, to spend all that effort on our children from pre-school to High School, and then let them get destroyed and send it all down the drain?”
At this point Kennedy stated that he was not prepared to be one of those persons who saw what was wrong but was not prepared to propose solutions, saying that he was always a visionary thinker, and has always put his country and his people above himself. “One of the things I don’t like about politics is, you have to blow your own trumpet, tell people what you have achieved, so that the people can assess whether they can place their lives in your hands. But you know, that is a part of life. You would not fly with a pilot if you didn’t think that the airline he is flying for thinks he is well qualified. You would not get on an Island Harbour fishing boat with a boatman and go out fishing late in the evening unless you had heard someone saying what a good boatman and fisherman he is.”
He then built on the introductory remarks delivered by his sister, Diane Hodge Smith, which had been preceded by prayer by Mrs. Eulet Harrigan (better known as Sister Gladys) and the singing of the National Song by “Lil Roxxi”, Roxanne Webster. Diane introduced him as not just an academic and visionary thinker, but someone who has a record of networking and getting things done, who has a soul that loves God, family and fellowmen, and a compassion for those who are less fortunate, who are in trouble, or who just need to have a good word of advice. Diane went on to say that “the political blood which flows in his veins from both sides of his family (in an obvious reference to Walter Hodge, his father and Ronald Webster, his mother’s brother) does not allow him to do nothing while District 1 and Anguilla spiral downward into economic disaster, unemployment, and lack of vision…. . This young man’s education, his training, his battles, his compassion, and his passion, have prepared him well for this day. He has answered to the call of President Kennedy, the inspirational American President, to ask what he can do for his country. District 1 and Anguilla are crying out for the type of visionary thinking, of demonstrated organizational and business skills, that this individual, this young man, this visionary can and will bring.” She then welcomed him onto the stage with these words, “I have told you about him – his past and his present. Together we hold the future in our hands. His future as representative of District 1 will mean a brighter future for all of us.”
Kennedy spoke of his decision to forgo his plans to study law and became an engineer because, while law was what he desired to do, Anguilla did not necessarily need more lawyers but it definitely needed engineers if it was to develop. He spoke of how he excelled in his studies along that career path because people had faith in him and encouraged him (something which is sadly lacking in Anguilla today), and of his contribution to the development and management of the island’s telephone system with Cable and Wireless for over 20 years. He explained how he was one of the original thinkers of a locally owned bank with shares widely-held across Anguilla, and his role as a promoter and later a director of NBA. He then recounted his legal and other battles concerning Weblinks, when he stood up to Cable & Wireless and the Government of Anguilla to defend the constitutional rights of Anguillians, and has since built Weblinks into the only mobile cellular phone network in a Caribbean island that was built and is owned by one man from the island. “And everybody told me it couldn’t be done. Everybody told me that I could not do it”, he said. “This started out owned by another young man from District 1 and me, and it is my intention to offer all Anguillians a chance to share in its ownership.”
Continuing with his plans in his “Representation Revolution,” Kennedy spoke of how he would ensure that the Island Harbour and Morris Vanterpool Primary Schools receive top-class coaching in sports and would have top class facilities, and how he would ensure that the Island Harbour, Welches, Keys, Pond Ground and Garlin Bottom communities each get recreation parks and sporting facilities for the young and old. He said he would use hydroponics, an agriculture technology that was already being successfully used by Cuisinart and Green Cuisine in Anguilla, to implement community farms in each village in the District so that young people could be productively engaged and could make a living providing food for Anguilla and the elderly could also participate in hydroponic food production without having to be out in the hot sun hoeing ground.
He spoke of the current economic crisis and said that a critical area not being addressed, and which he would address immediately in his “Representation Revolution,” was to protect people from losing their houses and property to those who were standing by to pluck them up if the banks placed them on auction. He also stated that he would address the excessive legal fees which people had to face in addition to their mortgage payments if they fell behind because of the economic situation.
He stated that he was having plans drawn up for the development of Island Harbour similar to that of Grand Case in St. Martin to make it a dining and shopping showpiece providing employment and generating business for its residents. “And I won’t just get the plans, I will get the financing too! The new revolution starts here and now!” he said.
He ended his speech with a large-screen video presentation showing how Anguilla is likely to be affected by rising sea levels by 2050 if global warming is allowed to continue unabated, explaining why it is so important that alternative sources of energy are utilized instead of carbon fuels which contribute to the problem. He stated that he was the first person in Anguilla to actively pursue research in Anguilla on power generation through windpower in 1989, and has plans to build windpower generators for commercial use shortly based on research and new technologies. He also stated that Anguilla as a small vulnerable island must make its voice heard on this matter and that Britain must include these territories in international meetings since its priorities are not the same as Anguilla’s on this subject.
Kennedy Hodge must know that he faces a tough battle as he joins an already packed field of candidates. However, he has said that he isn’t afraid of hard battles as he has faced them all his life. And, he said, he has won them all, because he was focused on his goal and committed to making a difference through his pursuits. This time, he promises a new revolution, a Representation Revolution, in 2010.

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