Things will be changing in Nevis soon. Since everything has become political, all the donkeys decided to join the game. Recently, the St. James’ Donkeys’ Association has become very concerned. Donkeys are being bussed into St. James’s Parish without consultation and against their will. There has to be a plan to retaliate. Who determined that donkeys cannot roam and feed where they like on Nevis any more? Agriculture died on the island. Few crops are grown anywhere. Look at all the people in
Charlestown Market waiting for boats from Dominica every Tuesday.
Nowadays there are some fences. But the fenced cattle at Maddens are falling down. Monkeys, sheep and goats live in every village. So why pick on donkeys? Further, the neglected roads St James’s have become too dangerous with personal trainers exercise, parade or date at nights.
All the old timers in St. James’s are counting the new donkeys as they move in. The politicians, also, count and court Guyanese and Dominicanoes, who move into St. John’s, St. Paul’s, St.
George’s and St. Thomas’s. As that donkey count in St. James’s grows, the Donkeys’ Association, also known as Donkeys’ Care Managers (DCM), is more set on becoming political. Now it wants secession.
Since far back in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s St. James’s people have been neglected — the last to get paved roads; the last to get electricity and the last to have access to secondary education. They hated Robert Bradshaw’s government with passion. However, when Sim Daniel and the NRP came along not much really changed for St. James’s. As for the people, ask Nurse Jean; they are fast asleep. They believed the politicians.
It is now the 21” Century. The CCM and Vance Amory run things. They renovated the airport then politicked over naming it. However, beyond the airport, St. James’s Parish is still a neglected area. Everyone knows where it is but few go there. The deteriorating roads signal: “Visit at your own risk.”
All the donkeys in St. James’s agree they are on to a good political issue. So now that more donkeys are being bussed into the Parish, they will have a referendum. They will write a new constitution. They will secede from Nevis. After so many years of political neglect, if any secession move has merit in Nevis, it is that for St. James’s to secede from the rest of the island.
No one should protest. Forgotten roads in Brick Kiln, Butlers, Liburd Hill, Camps and Zion keep St. James’s parish apart from the rest of Nevis. It does not
matter that the medical school at Pot Works is in St. James’s and that it brings recognition to Nevis. The parish of St. James’s remains second class. Campaign promises of change and progress are never met. Now, it is dump the donkeys in St. James and leave them there unattended, no inclusion, bad roads and all.
It does not matter any more that donkey brothers, aunts, uncles, wives or cousins in St. Paul’s, St. John’s, St. George’s or St. Thomas’s think or say. This is donkey politics. All those other donkeys born in St. James’s Parish but living in other parishes cannot vote. They can vote if they live far away from these Parishes, as in New York. Toronto. Miami and the Virgin Islands.
The leader of the DCM thinks it is time for St. James’s area to have a king, emperor, chief or maybe its own Prime Minister. And in matters of power and control the leader of the DCM will not compromise his donkey politics, or his donkey ideas. So he surrounds himself with glad, doting and fearful donkeys.
Let everyone note this. Once the donkeys in St. James’s Parish vote to cut themselves away from Nevis, the donkey Prime Minister will have complete power and control. It will be donkey laws, donkey justice and donkey politics all the way. All former ties with St. Paul’s, St. John’s, St. George’s and St. Thomas’s will be cut immediately — future relationships to be negotiated later.
Island tours through St. James will require a visa. The airport will be reworked and then named for the Prime Minister. This time it will be truly international — this donkey leader has a big ego. However, all the donkeys will insist that their leader have one eye. He must have a limited view of the world and of the possible future for St. James’s Parish.
Every donkey in St. James with a big belly from overeating will be charged a belly tax to help the innovative road building programs. The new St. James’s Hospital will be there to serve all, pauper to Prime Minister. No donkey, especially the politicians, should use a hospital other than that in St. James for routing medical attention. Anyone who breaks this rule will not be paid travel allowance or subsistence. The secondary school in St. James’s will have a library. Pictures of El Primo Donkey accompanied by glowing salutations must be placed along the roads of St. James’s. A bust at the airport will be in good taste, too. No donkey who writes should criticize the Prime Ministe;or the DCM’s policies. When that rule is ignored such donkeys may have to appear in court and face a donkey lawyer desperate for fame, fortune and to please. Belatedly he is an obsessed secessionist.
Admittedly, the donkey population in St. James’s will be limited. This will affect the economy, where little goes on except the manufacture of hammond, sarsaparilla and monkeys. Money must be borrowed to do all that should be done to dazzle the donkey citizenry before the next election.
There is a need for a road over the mountains from Fountain to Butlers. Another road is needed through the pasture from Zion to Mannings. And some donkeys think a road from Brick Kiln through Hicks’ to Mt. Lily can make sense. Every donkey may not like the idea for all these roads. However, in Nevis, donkeys, too, can learn to worship roads. Roads can grow on anyone at election time. Even donkey politicians realize that. They, too, can live in the now — not for the future.
Should donkey politicians really be concerned about long term costs, or sincerity in elections, while profiling their avarice and arrogance? Who really cares that the financial burden for today’s elections will fall on the unborn donkeys in the parish? One can almost hear the donkey politicians bray in unison: “Ask the people politicians those hard questions. We are donkeys. We do what they call jackass/ politics.”
