When I returned to the U.K in 1994 after spending almost three years as Principal of ALHCS, I began after a few weeks to work for Watford Borough Council as a Development Worker with special responsibility for developments targeting the African and Caribbean communities. After a few years literally burying myself in my new job, I felt I had the confidence to revisit Anguilla, the land of my birth. I was genuinely touched by the loving welcome I received wherever I went around the island. I remember the first time I visited ALHCS.

As I walked up the driveway I saw Mr Rey. His face lit up when we met and we embraced each other with genuine warmth. He took me to meet some of his staff who were in the staff room. Those who remembered me shouted ‘Mr Lake, welcome back.’ I was touched and wondered why I had not dredged up the courage to come home sooner. Before I left I asked Rodney whether I could have a walk around. His reply was something like ‘Do you need to ask? This is your domain’. I left feeling extremely humble. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the years I spent as Principal. When I left ALHCS I had tremendous faith in my first Deputy Mr Rey who was to succeed me and in the senior staff I had tried my best to develop towards their full potential.

Some of the questions I constantly had to field as I went around - ‘Will you be staying?’ ‘Will you be going into politics?’ to mention but a few. My reply was that I had a job to return to in the U.K. In 1995 I had started a Supplementary School to support mainly African and Caribbean young people and an Elderly Project to provide a meeting place for African and Caribbean people of retirement age and for those who were, for physical and other reasons, in need of friendship and support. The Supplementary School supported our young people in their school work in an effort to ensure that significant progress was made in their examinations. At this time there was grave concern over the continued underachievement of African and Caribbean pupils in British schools.

When I ventured into politics in 1994, I was motivated not because I desired to pursue a career in politics, but because I wanted to continue to make a positive contribution to the course of education in Anguilla and at the same time engage with like minded Anguillians in the provision of youth facilities for our young people. I realised that the only way I could do this was to attach myself to the then ruling party.

On countless occasions, in conversations with fellow Anguillians, comments were made about the poor level of achievement of most pupils leaving ALHCS. To say that this annoyed me would be an understatement. What they failed to appreciate was the literacy and numeracy level of the intake of pupils coming into ALHCS from many of the primary schools. Although there were very qualified teachers at ALHCS, who concentrated on trying to bring most of these youngsters to the position where they could properly access the official academic curriculum on offer, many teachers found it very difficult to provide the extra support these pupils needed.

My answer to this, with the support of the Education Department, was to place a greater emphasis on developing a more pupil centred curriculum where non-academic courses were on offer to all pupils and which were geared to the employment needs of the island. However, this was not the full answer. The academic level of our intake was, to say the very least, generally very poor. That is not to say that there were not exceptionally able pupils coming out of the Primary Schools. My daughter, who attended Stoney Ground school and has since achieved a first class honours degree and a merit in her Masters Degree, looks back with nostalgia on the couple of years she spent at Stoney Ground and acknowledges the debt she owes to her teachers there and at ALHCS where she spent a year. Neither would it be true to say that there were not spectacular examination successes. There were, but too few for my liking.

Some of these successful pupils either received scholarships or Government grants to go away to study or, if they were lucky, financial support from their parents towards the same end. Although I was pleased to see these positive initiatives, I was also concerned that there was beginning to be an influx of people from overseas into various government and commercial jobs. I remember raising these concerns with members of the Government. I was keen to know if there was planning for the professional and other job needs which would come on stream in the future. It was my fear that we would become totally dependent on overseas talent.

I raised these fears again with my party when I declared my intention of standing in the forthcoming election. Winning the election was their main focus. In the ensuing political campaign I knew in my heart that I faced a very daunting task. I had to build upon the ANA vote and the ensuing results showed I had been successful but not to the extent that I could defeat my opponent. I did not have the financial resources or the organised overseas networks to support me. It is now in the records of history that ANA lost that election. This was a shock to many, to myself more so than most. I have no intention to resurrect the political tradings that took place. Eventually a Government was formed and the Honourable Hubert Hughes was chosen as Chief Minister. After a few weeks hanging around in Anguilla I returned to my family in the UK.

When it was learned that I had returned I was visited by a number of people who invited me to apply for a job which was being advertised by the local council to be a Development Officer with responsibility for the African and Caribbean Community. I did apply, was interviewed and was offered the job. I gave it some thought because I realised that perhaps what I wanted to do in Anguilla I could have a go at doing here in a corner of the UK. I asked for a few weeks’ grace before I gave my answer, quoting unfinished business in Anguilla. Suffice it to say that I did return to Anguilla and went to see Mr Hughes offering my services in the development of Education on the island. The response I got from him was not encouraging. I could understand his reluctance. A few weeks ago I was a political opponent. I returned to the UK and buried myself in my new challenge. I am now retired, but it gives me immense satisfaction to realise that once again my African and Caribbean brothers and sisters felt I did make a positive difference. The two projects I started are still going strongly and when I visit them I am made to feel extremely welcome.

I retired in 2003. It was the year my mother died. I went to St Maarten for the funeral and came and spent some time in Anguilla. Since then I have returned to my birthplace at least twice a year. A question I still had to field -politics. As I travelled around Anguilla I saw anger and a sense of hopelessness on the faces of most Anguillians. When I asked what was the matter I received guarded and oftentimes muted phrases such as ‘the Government’ or ‘the foreigners’. Some would be so brave as to refer me to the prison which they said was full of young people without focus and nothing to do but steal and sell drugs. I tried to say that this was not unique to Anguilla. But these were proud Anguillians - what happened elsewhere was not their immediate concern. They would say of ‘the foreigners’, ‘why don’t they go back to their own country?’. It made me very sad to hear those words, because I and a large number of Anguillians had to go overseas in search of work and have had to listen to similar comments. I wondered what was really behind what they were saying.

It was only when I began to listen to the talk shows on the radio that the full impact of what was being said to me began to make sense. On these shows I would listen to fellow Anguillians giving reign to their frustrations with the present Government. There was the occasional apologia from some people with particular vested interests in the course of events, or from members of the Government, who, in my opinion either did not understand what was behind the heartfelt outpourings or who had ‘completely lost the plot’. The more I listened I began to ask myself ‘Is this what Mr Ronald Webster and his band of true Anguillians placed their lives on the line for? Was this the better Anguilla they envisaged?’

Yet I would be rather churlish if I failed to say that I recognised positive developments in Anguilla since I left in 1994. The Anguilla I left in 1962 to the one I see today is almost unrecognisable. But at what social and cultural costs? In the early 90’s, when I was Principal of ALHCS, I was dumbfounded by the lack of manners and the lack of respect for their elders on the part of a significant number of young people. I remember raising similar concerns on a LIAT flight with a prominent Anguillian flying from Antigua on one of my visits in 2007 or 2008. The person was in agreement and went on to say that in the manifesto of the present Government due prominence was placed on the nature of present day society and on other social issues. He said that the housing needs and educational challenges that an influx of non Anguillians would pose for a booming economy was part of the manifesto. I asked why nothing is being done about these extremely important issues. I was made to understand that the Chief Minister was more concerned with the provision of establishments catering for thousands of guests than providing these vital pre-requisites - the cart before the horse mentality.
Most of the tourist establishments in Anguilla are owned by absentee landlords which, to me, is a throwback to the plantation society of bygone days. I wonder how many people were ENCOURAGED to turn a blind eye to enable this deplorable situation to take place. I happened to be at home when the Flags Project stopped operating due to the economic problems that engulfed most of the Western world. I was also there when the Asian and Chinese workers imported by the Viceroy project staged a march and held a vigil outside the Government offices. A few nights after this event I listened to one of the talk shows and heard expressed there the grievances they, the workers, had against Viceroy and ‘indirectly’ the Government. I will not reiterate here what those were. I am sure you are all aware of them. But what is of major concern to me is the question ‘Were there not Anguillians and people from the Caribbean with the necessary qualifications or brawn to do the work that these people from half-way around the world were brought here legally, I hope, to do?’. If they were brought to Anguilla legally I am tempted to say, in the same vein of what was said during President Obama’s campaign by his then pastor, ‘God.........Anguilla’. How is it that Anguilla should come to the sorry state where workers from faraway countries, with cultural and other social needs foreign to us, are allowed to work without proper safeguards being put in place?

When a halt was called to the Flag Project it was - and is - a severe blow to many Anguillians. When support for the Flag Project was discussed in the Council Chambers I happened to be present. I found the discussion extremely enlightening and at the same time very disappointing; enlightening because it highlighted an unhealthy dependence on the vagaries of foreign capital projects. Some of the speeches I felt had a good awareness of the ‘behind the scene’ machinations that had taken place. Mr Hubert Hughes and Mr Eddie Beard touched on issues that had a resonance with most of the audience in the chamber.

- Merritt Lake
UK

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