In
1975, while sailing north through the Caribbean, stormy weather caused me to
take shelter in the British Virgin Islands. The anchorage off Road Town was exposed
and uncomfortable and I was told of a sheltered cove a few miles along the
coast. Its entrance was narrow but once inside the surrounding reef offered perfect
protection. My intention was to continue on my way as soon as the weather
improved.
The
weather did improve but I stayed on, and that idyllic cove became my home port
for the next twenty years.
In
the BVI much is made about Belonger Status. However, Somerset Maugham in his
book “The Moon and Sixpence” speaks about a deeper sense of belonging:
Sometimes a man hits upon a place to
which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he
will settle amid scenes he has never seen before, among men he has never known,
as though they were familiar to him from his birth.
I
collected the material for my book “Virgin Island Sketches” during the early
years of my stay. It celebrates the way of life of the islanders and my
sketches now serve as a reminder of those halcyon times past.
While
I was busy preserving scenes from the past, Virgin Island poet Sheila Hyndman (1958-1991) was prophesizing the future.
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.
‘Till
all that’s left of your true self
Will
be an old and forgotten poem
Like mine.
I
shared Sheila’s love of her homeland and in the years that followed I
contributed my own work to that end.
But
as the 1980’s progressed I found it increasingly difficult to relate the past
to the future. The maxim “Yes, We’re Different” was being cast aside in favour
of being the same as everywhere else. I began to realize that much of the development
taking place was for the benefit of foreign entities. It had begun with the Wickams
Cay reclamation project in the 1960’s and more recently, financial services and
mass tourism. Although the islands are undoubtedly financially better off than
when I first knew them, in the process of acquiring that transient wealth, Virgin
Islanders have lost more than they gained.
My disillusionment of what was perceived as progress became all the more acute in the year that I travelled the region in search of material for my book “Caribbean Sketches”. As with my earlier book, I was working against the clock in attempting to capture each island before it degenerated into being the same as everywhere else. Cruise ship passengers step ashore to the same spurious scene as at every other port of call. We tend to forget that the individuality of places reflects the individuality of ourselves.
As
my journey through the region progressed, I found that the fundamental problem
faced by Caribbean small island states was not one of self-governance, but one of
self-sufficiency. Even on islands that have claimed independence and that are rich
in natural resources, the islanders themselves have not benefitted. Rather than
farming the land, the present generation prefer to sit at a desk or serve
tourists. To finance an alien lifestyle, their governments sell passports to
foreigners and become deeply beholden to the People’s Republic of China. In real terms, these islands are less independent now than
they were a hundred years ago.
Self-sufficiency
for small island states relates to lifestyle expectations. Three generations
ago hard work was the order of the day and the islanders lived within their
means. Since then, there has been a hankering for a westernized lifestyle and a
reliance of wealth generated by foreign economies.
The
fundamental challenge at this point in time is to seriously question the
direction that the Virgin Islands and the region in general has taken. We need
to re-evaluate the past in order to determine if what was originally perceived
as "development" has in fact been in the best long-term interest of the
islanders.
To
correct the mistakes of the past and to start all over again verges on the
impossible. In more ways than one, the past is set in concrete - and concrete
is a difficult material to break down. Nevertheless, a re-assessment of values is
a necessary first step towards rediscovering a paradise lost.
For
otherwise, as Sheila wrote: “…all that’s left of your true self will be an
old and forgotten poem like mine.”
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