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‘We don’t want to be a Singapore or a Hong Kong’- Doug Wheatley
He added that from 1950 to 1960 legislators seemed to care a great deal about the people of the VI and they were easily accessible. “…and they seemed to be genuinely interested in the affairs of the people.
“There was no attempt by the elected officials at the time to try and transform the BVI. The BVI was a unique Territory and the people were also unique,” Mr Wheatley recalled on his show, BVI Have Your Say, aired on CBN 90.9 FM Radio on January 31, 2018.
But, according to the veteran commentator, the Virgin Islands has reached a stage where persons have said “the fact that you are a born British Virgin Islander does not give you any special rights and when jobs are available you have to compete with the world, and if other people from the world are better than you are at that time then they will get the job.”
It was in January 2016 that Minister for Education and Culture Hon Myron V. Walwyn (AL) had said that Government can no longer write laws to “fully protect locals.”
"In today’s society, our Governments cannot write laws and implement policies to completely protect our local population like we did years ago. There are many occasions where we wish we could do more to protect opportunities for our people, but the world doesn’t work that way anymore," Hon Walwyn had told senior staff of his Ministry.
Put Virgin Islanders first
Mr Wheatley said this needs to be fixed and the opportunity to do so presents itself now with the recovery and development plan being put together by Government.
He opined that the recovery and development plan should once again put the people from the Virgin Islands at the centre of activities, “that they will become paramount, their interest will become paramount in the country, and that is what we have to be working towards and we need a development plan that will deliver that sort of thing to us.
“We don’t want to be a Singapore, we don’t want to be a Hong Kong, we just want to be, and some people would prefer me say the Virgin Islands, but I will say we will be the British Virgin Islands as we used to be, living in harmony with each other, looking out for each other all the way along.”
Back to prayers & hymns
Mr Wheatley; however, added that the VI should consider bringing back some of the things that helped the people in the early days.
“For example, when I went to school we sang hymns and opened with prayers, and no one can tell me that was a bad thing. It was a good thing and it helped a lot of us.
“But trying to make your country into something else isn’t what we want and it would be unfair of us to burden the next generation and the generation after that with a different kind of BVI,” Mr Wheatley stated.
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13 Responses to “‘We don’t want to be a Singapore or a Hong Kong’- Doug Wheatley”
Days gone by Virgin Islanders survived by the “Village” structure and mantra——it takes a village to raise a child. In the Village, each one teach one ( learning a trade back in the day) and everyone looked out for each other. They had no choice, for the UK bolted away labeling the Islands as a poverty stricken and desolate place that was only good as a bird sanctuary. The people eeked out a living through subsistence agriculture and communal farming. The shift to a service-based economy started in the mid 60s. Tourism green shots started in the 60s; financial services, 80s. These two industries are the twin pilars of the economy. They position the territory to having one of the highest quality of life and standard of living in the region; its capita per income is $34K.
The service-based economy inflated our egos and blew up the Village. Now, it is each man or woman for his or herself, harming our way of life. It seems as if the Village has to be burn down to the ground for the VI to find its way back. Another issue that is ruining the BVI is political patronage. We are totally dependent on government for everything; the politicians are not totally to blame; they are doing what the electorate wants. Finally, we may not want to be either Singapore or Hong Kong but we can benchmark/emulate their economic success. Both are Asian tigers; they are small yet economic power houses. They are not a BRIC(Brazil, Russia, India and China) but are on the move.
Labour? housing? healthcare and infrastructure? It is a drain.
You can't equate Trump' s "Make America Great Again" with BVI. He meant make it white again, a time when Blacks were treated less than human and were lynched,raped and murdered by respectable Christian white men.