CHARLESTOWN, Nevis, Friday 25th February 2011 - Well! Well! The article by simple Hastings set the political cat among the pigeons. The response from the users and pretenders of the political opposition to some serious detective work by me regarding their plans and preparations for the next election has thrown them into a racist banter. The responses on SKN Vibes to a serious analysis are that Hastings is a Hitler and hater of white people. In fact one such person who signs his name as a white man says he will take Nevis off his list of places to visit. Though we welcome all and sundry here on Nevis using that catch phrase in the Trinidad and Tobago National Anthem:”here every creed and race find an equal place”, I personally would hope that this moon man and his lackeys do not come back to Nevis. He can stay where he is. This racist chant by CCM and their obsequious followers are a monkey wrench designed to sweep under the carpet the serious allegations and analyses made in the article. The questions we must ask are numerous. What does the group (NAACP) Nevis Association for the Advancement of Caucasian People think of the leadership of the CCM? Who do we think that they prefer and why? Does the TEA Party members represent the NAACP? In the public interest I welcome and celebrate the NAACP. I also welcome the NAAGP, NAARP and the NAADP. Nevis has many associations for the advancement of the Guyanese, Dominican Republic and Retired peoples. We are all here in a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. We do not fight, we do not fuss, we only discuss and debate. I welcome these associations and have done more than any other Nevisians to bolster their cause and help them settle in. If a number of us were in a foreign land we should form an association to look after our interest. They do that all over the world. The Irish and Haitian Associations in Boston; the Cuban Association in Miami; Nevcan and Hands across the Sea. In every climate in every clime men have been in association to advance their cause. The British and American have a beautiful word for it. They call it fraternity.
To accuse a person of racism if he analyses the work of blacks in America or of East Indians in England or of Chinese in Africa is to go down in the pits. Let us then examine racism in Nevis and Hastings R. Daniel. In 1998 CCM took away in broad daylight 14 acres of land from a white man in Nevis. I alone in Nevis among black and white stood with him in writing articles, going to Court with him and generally being his friend without reward. Today I stand tall having represented him in person, in print and in politics. In fact those days I was Secretary of The NRP. Where were the same people who rant and rave about racism now in those days where one of their own was hounded down in Nevis? He was even accused of wilfully paying his taxes in Nevis by this self-same Rantley and Ravely. When I went and extracted the file and proved that his transfer taxes were paid in the Nevis, the heavy weights on the radio had a dose of hush. No racist then Hastings. In time I was accused along with the NRP of blocking the development at Pinneys by supporting this true Nevisian citizen. Time will fail me to speak of the number of NAACP people I have helped to settle in Nevis be it business or pure residence.
The big one came when all the cabinet set upon James Gaskell to frighten him and run him out of Nevis. Here in Nevis the CCM took up two bull dozers and three back hoes with a coterie of men and supporters and went up Montpelier at 6.45p.m on a Sunday night and proceeded to rum amok of the lands owned by James Gaskell and Montpelier. The charade continued the next morning with ministers of government ministers, their wives and supporters. When Mr. Gaskell and I decided to stand on the land the back hoe driver were instructed to run over us. Rantley went on the radio and said that Hastings Daniel stood up in front of a backhoe and bulldozer for a white man and cried shame on me. He ranted ad raved with the government behind him. He did not know that he was going to need the white people then. He sought to embarrass and humiliate. People should read his article in the Observer in 2006 entitled “An Interview with King James”. He went on in that article to heap so many racist slurs on this gentleman that I felt obliged to respond and to warn him that if Mr. Gaskell were to have any harm come to him I would old him personally responsible. In time a caller to his warped programme said the people of Nevis should put Gaskell and my good friend Yearwood in a drum and send them out to sea. If the drum by some miracle comes back to Nevis those two good gentlemen should be shot. Rantley did not immediately condemn that caller and his murderous comments. What is more I did not see anything in the press and on the internet about racism. Nobody said they were not coming to Nevis or were leaving. What sort of hypocrites we student have in Nevis and on the net. Where have all these people come from all of a sudden to cry shame on me for asking certain questions? Which one the Hastings? I am neither a crook nor a gangster. Racist! Fools errand.
We have to be careful that we do not shoot the messenger and leave the message standing. A fellow did hit a fellow a box and I saw the box. He then turn to me and said that I should have closed my eyes and I must pretend that I did not see it. I retorted that if he had closed his hand and kept it by his side I would have had nothing to report. In the instant case let the CCM say that the meeting on the Sunday at the seaside resort with approximately 300 hundred white, half white, brown, half-brown and blacks wannabee whites did not happen. Let them say that the cocktail never happened. Let them say that money was not pledged. Let them say what the quid pro quo was. Because the Greeks do not bear gifts. The members of the TEA Party know that local people like to take their money and turn their backs on them. The CCM they should know did it to the Guyanese among us. When they had secured their vote they deported them by the busloads. Already I have heard the CCM hierarchy say that when they saw some white people coming to their meeting they burst out in song.” I see money coming. Money coming for me”. Who gave the undertaking that certain concerns were going to be met. The only reason why the other party has not been held is because the leadership change has not happened and the Rose that fancies herself from the Bank wants to accompany the White Horse rider and not the Rose safe at home at Ariel. The TEA Party say they have seen the airport project and wonder how 16 million dollars can ever be accounted for building that waste and to add insult to injury the wastage of funds resulted in Napoleon putting his name on the Airport crying crocodile tears. The TEA Party people drive mostly on the road from the airport to Cotton Ground. When they discover that the road was billed at $10M they hold their heads and ask in wonderment which road. Further discovery they learn that the road actually had cost overruns and was paid for at $19.5M. When they asked further and found out that the Minister of Finance and the Minister stated that the entire payment and project was an honest mistake. They hold their heads and their bottom bellies and bawl. There were honest mistakes with the US $300,000.00 that left for Jamaica. They know the dealings with the 80 acres. It was a member of the NAACP that had his hand literally broken to sign the transfer to the Hamilton brothers in direct conflict with the people of Nevis. One of those same people is due to testify at the Commission. The TEA Party people are right when they say they being the major tax payers in Nevis cannot dare not afford Vance Amory again.
This is Rantley hour and he is going all out to seize the moment. The NAACP was specifically targeted on advice from the senior partner in the law firm. The condemnation of Nevisians in St. Kitts and the berating of the Federal Government is all their strategy. Notice that if I write something about the Tea party in Nevis I am racist. But for some strange reason if Rantley rant and rave against Nevisians living in St. Kitts and Kittitians on a whole he is somehow not racist. Have it your way.
I say than in closing that I welcome and salute all classes and creed of people on Nevis especially the richer ones who have by their investment made Nevis the paradise that it is becoming. They know that they have accumulated their wealth by hard work and performance. They should join the winning team because they are the very epitome of PERFORMANCE MATTERS.
