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Sowande Uhuru: “Who is a Virgin Islander”
On the talk show Umoja, aired September 6, 2012 on a local radio station, Mr. Wheatley, in stating who is a Virgin islander under the constitution and the legal aspect of who is a Virgin Islander, said that “when we talk about indigenous Virgin Islanders, we are mainly talking about an identity.”
He went on to say, that there are people who get passports for the VI and they don’t see themselves as Virgin Islanders “so for us to move forward and make the Virgin Islands a better place, there are people who we give the passports or status to, they have to see themselves as Virgin Islanders.
Wheatley felt that this rarely happens. The people who are granted with status rarely see themselves as Virgin Islanders, he added “I do not blame the people who come for it at all, I blame the government. They are the clear reason, because for anything like that to take place, you have to put a process in place.”
Mr. Wheatley indicated that it is dangerous to be giving out status without making sure that the person shares a common identity with Virgin Islanders, because “you can have people getting status and open a business, for example, someone from the Middle East who gets status in the BVI, they open a business and say to themselves that they will only help other people in the area who are from the Middle East, that is destructive. Even though many people have status, they are only working in the interest of their particular group.
He said, “we have to work in the best interest of the Virgin Islands.”
In regards to something Hon. Andrew A. Fahie said while in House of Assembly, Mr. Wheatley stated that while Mr. Fahie was commenting on the fact that there were people here in the VI for over 20 years, who still did not have their status regularized, and added that they should be given the status or be sent home, Umoja’s co-Host said “Hon. Andre Fahie is one of my favorite representatives/legislators, I like him a lot, and while I agree with some things he said, he left out key bits of information.
“It may have been out of his place to make this statement without acknowledging that government, the government that he was a part of and the VIP Government for decades had neglected to put a process in place, to correct the problem we have today, a proper immigration process.”
Mr. Wheatley added “who else’s fault could it be for the situation we have today.”
“You should never get to a situation where people are here that long and you get to a situation where they can’t have proper status. The persons have to be properly assimilated, they have to be a part of the VI, show evidence that you love this place.”
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31 Responses to “Sowande Uhuru: “Who is a Virgin Islander””
OH! but no...they still wont get to see because they will be the first ones out on American Airlines to their children that born in the states and can apply for them to have status over there. So i guess it will be non-indigenous people like me who born here but had to apply to become a citizen of here that will be left to suffer...such a shame really.
By the way, not ALL vislanders want to rush to the US!
The Europeans conquered the islands and enslaved them until they died of disease or escaped.
Then the African slave trade began and the African slaves arrived and were worked until the Europeans ended slavery a few hundred years ago.
it is akin to the pervasive logic of racist evangelical tea-baggers in the US, that obama is a kenyan muslim. u cannot legislate nor make provision for how people feel. government, as you've mentioned, has a role in changing this sentiment.
i am dismayed by the faux patriotism exhibited by a lot of our leaders and the FACT that the nationalism some of us, including yourself, are as quick to display (as a schizophrenic flasher reveals his genitals) is nothing but another face of discrimination.
And by the way, if we take the word "indigenous" in its literal sense, the only indigenous people are from Africa. There are those who were here before. Based on the fact that many of the people who were here before were murdered (this group is actually from Africa by way of South America), the group that has the most legitimate right to claim the title of "indigenous" is the Virgin Islander who can trace their ancestry back to slavery. If we do not like the word indigenous, we do not have to use it, but don't act like people who use it are complete lunatics.
But the debate over the word is neither here nor there. The true debate concerns identity. any successful (of course this has to be defined) society requires cooperation, and history shows us that we tend to cooperate with those we identify with. It is more than possible for a Virgin Islands identity to develop over time and to be more diverse and inclusive, but there must be a process to shape this. The race or the origin are not important but the values! For a government to encourage and promote certain fundamental values is not Orwellian my friend; it is responsible. Have a nice day! Thanks for teaching me some new words!
1. the denial of citizenship to children born here is wrong.
2. assimilation cannot be imposed, (the congolese knew more about the river Seine than the Congo itself)
3. good morning etc. has more to do with courtesy than anyone's culture ( i do miss those days though)
4. teach history and culture(that is fine)
5. i can qualify as a vilander and assume any identity i want. am i not free?
6. we together even if we disagree
The definition of a Virgin Islander(B) BEGINS with knowing who is indigenous or not!
Double talking going on, das all!!
Just like in the US where only a person born in the US can run for President, there must be certain things set aside for a group of persons called Virgin Islanders. Mr. Doug Wheatley was right when he said that before the question of independance comes up, we need to have the issue of who is a Virgin Islander settled.
Every single week you log on to VINO you have to read some nutcase talking fart about Virgin Islander this or that. EVERY WEEK! It's sickening! Why don't we have a "Mr. Noel Lloyd" Pageant and let Sowande, Edu Enka, Doug , Lorrie , Edmund and Donald vie for the title. This thing needs a public debate not these "know it alls" trying to act bright and force things on people. People don't just 'get status', they reach their milestone then they APPLY for it. Why apply for it if they don't intend to consider themselves 'one of us' to an extent since it comes with certain rights etc.? Sometimes I wonder if people just love to hear themselves talk. Enough already. BVI is no different to the US where many flock to get status just for the benefits. You will have some that care about the country and contribute and some that only care about the dollar. At the end, many of the so called indigineous fled this place and looked down on it. Its a lot of the so called island people that stayed here from 60s and 70s along with other locals and build the place. A lot of the so called local last names are from right there Antigua, St Kitts etc.
Now see, I would agree with you, but then again, only two weeks ago on Tuesday the 4th of September I was told by a 'born and bred' VIslander that I am 'not from here', being born in Trinidad and that although my mother was born right here and her parents were born here and her grandparents are from here, yet despite all that lineage apparently my 'home is not here and [I] will never have a home here'. The person then told me not to be so 'thin-skinned' when I got upset.
Tackle THAT ignorant, ill-informed and bigoted attitude among 'born and breds' and then perhaps we can BEGIN to talk about indigenous. As long as those undercurrents of bigotry are running rampant, there is NO hope.
Without the Caribbean expat Tortola in bails of trouble!! I am glad we breed with the expats too because we as a people are very ugly! When Tortolians where the only people here we breed one another, we were all some kind of family so that is why we turn out looking so ugly and act crazy!
When people ask me where I am from and I said Tortola, they say no way you to handsome to be a Tortolian. When they ask where my parents are from and I tell them, then they say that's why.
I ask my step-grandmother and she explained it to me. Tortolian mix with another Caribbean person bring pretty people but Tortolian with Tortolian, most are not pretty.
This us vs them agenda is taking the BVI around in circles, or backwards at best.
Instead of all of us debating how we want our future to look, we've fallen into a toilet bowl of hatred and superiority, all hung up on 'indigenous' and 'real local' nonsense.
OK is right - plenty BVIslanders done gone and left the place long time ago and even now look down on it. And most BVIslanders make sure they have kids in St. Thomas or USA because they don't have confidence in our little tiny islands being able to give their kids a future.
And those of us who can't trace our ancestry back to a BVI slave owner - what should we do? Live our entire lives being held hostage by the small group of people who can? What about those who arrived here as free people liberated from other countries that still had slavery in the 1840s? What about those that came just a few years later, or all those who came from Antigua, Anguilla, St. Kitts in the almost 200 years since slavery end? Are all those people lesser people than those with slave names? And don't even start on the damn people with white skin who we all love to hate so much. Are the only legitimate people here in the BVI the slave name people?
Strupes. It's pure codswallop. You just trying to hijack everybody future and big yourselves up for financial and political advantage, and you know it.
If we be fair, be thoughtful and be respectful then maybe we ALL can have some islands to be proud of. Maybe we can create a positive future for ourselves and our offspring, where ever the heck their ancestors came from.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Save_Trellis_Bay/?coJIedb