Soon after I left the British Virgin Islands in 1995 I had a call from an island friend begging me to return with the words: Since you left the government think they can get away with anything! She was referring to my efforts to preserve the island's intrinsic identity.
Those efforts came to my mind yesterday when the editor of the island's newspapers sent me a copy of one of my many "Letters to the Editor" that they published over thirty years ago.
My letter was headed "Lamentations" and it read as follows:
On the last day of 1988 it was my miserable task to view the remains of a loved one. Her innocent beauty was the victim of a cruel crime. The features that I had known so well were mangled and mutilated beyond recognition. I speak of the footpath that led from Doty to Windy Hill – the footpath that has recently been blasted and bulldozed into a road.
I was not
told of her impending doom, although I understand it had been premeditated for
years. And after all, I had no legal right to her: she did not belong to me. My
status was simply that of an illicit lover, and on quite afternoons we enjoyed
our secret affair together.
But those
to whom she was vowed did not cherish her. Her charms were lost on them, even
though their very ancestors had labouriously fashioned her beauty. Did they know,
or care, about the unique paved section, about the ruins at Arundel, about her
flora and fauna?
But don’t
mistake my lament. People should have the right to access their land. The
concept of freehold is, to me, as inviolable as the concept of free speech. It
must be so. In our economy, taxis and tourists have to be catered for. I am no
more in favour of turning the whole island into a National Park, than I am bent
on seeing it smothered in concrete. But oh, for some sensitivity and long-term
planning to temper our materialistic short-term gains. Alas, these virtues seem deplorably absent.
Land ripe
for development! What will you bid? Thirty years ago, my (ex)wife’s grandfather
sold his best land at Greenbank for $17.14 an acre. He laughed because he
thought he’d done well on the deal. At today’s price an acre of land, with road
access, above Ballast Bay could well fetch $250.000*. But the deal would be no
better.
Your
grandchildren my inherit the earth and fly to the moon – a miserable place by
all accounts – but if they cannot savour the sweet and simple delights of the
walk from Doty to Windy Hill, they will have profited nothing. They will be
that much impoverished.
Some years
ago, Sheila Hyndman, a young Virgin Islander, eloquently expressed her doubts
for the future of these islands. I quote from her poem:
They will come with tools and
machines.
They will
bring to light your secret places,
They will
demand your mysteries.
They will
destroy, build up.
They will
dilute your treasures,
And rob you
of your chastity.
They will adorn you like ancient Jezebel.
*I have adjusted this figure to indicate the 2022 value.
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