BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WHILE addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday (Sept. 21), Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, the Hon. Gaston Browne painstakingly outlining the challenges being faced by islands in the Caribbean region following the catastrophic passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and used the opportunity to seek a better deal for small island developing states from international financial agencies.
“On September 6, my small, two-island State, Antigua and Barbuda, was the victim of the ferocity of Hurricane Irma, the largest storm ever endured in the Atlantic in human history. The island of Barbuda was decimated; its entire population left homeless; and its buildings reduced to empty shells.
“Fortunately, Antigua and Barbuda was spared the full blast of Hurricane Maria just nine days later. Although sustained winds of up to 60 miles per hour gave us a troubling awareness of the agony visited on the nearby islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda continue to remain resilient.”
Browne told members of the Assembly that after witnessing the devastation of Barbuda and the desolation of its inhabitants after the ravages of Hurricane Irma, his heart bled for the people of the countries that were brutalized by it.
Directing his statement to the UN President, Browne said he went to the Assembly because he considered it importance to speak to the world’s leaders and to do so collectively with the view of share the experience of his country as well as the huge challenges faced by the Caribbean islands.
He pointed out that Barbuda is 62 square miles and when Hurricane Irma thundered over that island, it was 375 miles wide with gale force winds of 220 miles per hour.
“Barbuda did not stand the faintest chance against such size, such ferocity and such intensity,” he added. “The island was completely destroyed, and my government was compelled to evacuate all of the inhabitants to Antigua.”
PM Browne informed the Assembly that for the first time in over 300 years there is now no permanent resident on Barbuda, noting that the footprints of an entire civilization have been emasculated by the brutality and magnitude of the hurricane.
“Everything that meant anything to the inhabitants had to be left behind – their homes, their possessions, their history - indeed, everything that defines them as a society and as a people. Mercifully, Antigua, the larger of the two islands, suffered no major damage and it could begin to function normally within 48 hours. Had that not been the case, Mr. President, how we would have coped is simply beyond imagination...overnight, Antigua’s population increased by almost three percent.”
The Political Leader stated that in addition to providing shelter, accommodation and basic necessities to the evacuated residents of Barbuda, the social services on Antigua are now under great strain to provide school placement for an additional 600 children, medical services for the elderly and a means of income for the able-bodied.
He also stated that the residents of Barbuda are anxious to return to their homeland, but the island remains unfit for human habitation, pointing out that there is no electricity, no potable water, and 95 percent of the buildings were destroyed or severely damaged.
“Preliminary estimates have placed the cost of rebuilding Barbuda at about US$250 million. That figure, Mr President, represents 15 percent or more, of my country’s Gross Domestic Product of approximately $1.5 billion. It is simply, a stretch beyond our reach,” Browne told the Assembly.
In a passionate entreaty to the Assembly, PM Browne said Antigua and Barbuda urgently requires the assistance of the international community, including the international development and finance institutions, to accomplish this vital task of rebuilding Barbuda.
He stressed that like many other small island states, his developing country is categorised as “high-income”, thus denying it access to concessional financing and grant funding from international financial institutions and donor governments.
“It is patently obvious that the per capita income criterion is a skewed and flawed determinant. It should be eliminated and eliminated immediately,” PM Browne said, to which there was a thunderous applause.
PM Browne explained that residents of Barbuda on Antigua are being cared for by his government as best as it could with very limited resources. “But, as the period of care lengthens, not only do the conditions worsen, but the cost increases, causing my government to borrow money on commercial terms at high-interest rates, swelling our already burdensome national debt.”
He stressed that the present international financial architecture is leaving small states such as his behind and whatever position on Climate Change any nation takes, the evidence of global warming is now irrefutably stronger.
Pointing to the two Category 5 Hurricanes within a 12-day span that unrelentingly pounded so many countries, Browne is of the view that they could no longer be dismissed as “the vagaries of the weather” or could “be explained as nature’s doing”.
“Hurricanes,” he said, “are stronger and bigger because they are absorbing moisture from increasingly warmer seas, caused by global warming. And, that is a man-made phenomenon, whose manufacture is attributable to those nations that consume 80 percent or more of the world’s primary energy, emitting dangerous levels of pollution into the atmosphere.”
Browne intoned that all 14 Caribbean Community countries together produce less than 0.1 percent of global emissions.
“We are the least of the polluters, but the largest of the casualties. The unfairness, injustice and inequality are painfully obvious. If these frequent and brutal storms are to be withstood, Caribbean islands and certain parts of the United States need to construct more resilient buildings and infrastructure than now exists.
“This means, Mr. President, that the international developmental and financial institutions need to provide financing at concessionary rates without artificial impediments.”
He posited that if that does not become a reality, the subsequent cost in lives and property would be too frightening to contemplate.
Speaking to the system used in measuring economic and financial assistance, PM Browne said: “Mr. President, increasingly, States such as mine are victims of an international economic and financial system that regards us merely as a numerical statistic or mere nuisance. We are measured by the level of our income, even though it is an insufficient and unreasonable criterion for establishing vulnerability, poverty and need.”
Browne explained that because the Caribbean islands are small economies with inadequate domestic capital formation, they open their doors to foreign investment, granting significant tax concessions to attract investments and to help provide jobs and curb poverty.
He however noted the consequence is that a small percentage of persons in the Caribbean community, mostly expatriates, at the top end of businesses, earn the largest percentage of high incomes and the mass of the population earns considerably less.
“In addition, government tax revenues are significantly reduced from the investment concessions granted,” PM Browne stressed. “It is time that those who control the levers of power in the economic and financial international community acknowledge that the per capita system of measurement is discriminatory, and resolve to change it.
“It is time that this particular swamp be drained and now is the time for action.”
