Sovereignty vs. Mendicancy

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

Mendicancy, on the other hand, means seeking charity, or begging. It suggests dependence and weakness.

Now, while it is true that we are interdependent creatures, it is equally true that all of us who are self-respecting and of sound mind or body want to earn our way through life and to be as independent as possible.

That gives us a better chance of fulfilling our God-given talents, of making a greater contribution to ourselves, our families and our communities, and of avoiding being compromised, manipulated or disrespected.

And the same applies to nations.

Now for St. Kitts & Nevis, which is so limited in land space, population and other resources, and, at the same time, so vulnerable to shocks from natural or man-made disasters, it is always going to be a real challenge to function as a truly sovereign and independent nation.

And this would be so even if tomorrow morning, bright and early, an incredible oil deposit is discovered off the coast of Dieppe Bay, or gold is ‘knocking dog’ in Gingerland.

Because we are short on technological, entrepreneurial, financial, commercial and human resources, on political vision, will and maturity, on values, on national and cultural pride and confidence, and on discipline, all of which are needed for our transformation to being a robust, independent society, democracy and nation; and the fact that today, nearly 27 years after pulling down the Union Jack and hoisting our own flag, we are short on these things means that our leaders have failed us and we have failed ourselves.

So, we are far from being ‘sovereign’.
 
We tax our citizens and residents, but those taxes are not sufficient to keep the Government going. So we beg from the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, France, Austria, Libya, Mexico, Venezuela and the rest.

Most of all, we beg Taiwan for educational, medical, agricultural and ICT equipment, for technology transfer, for scholarships, for vehicles, for musical instruments, for CCTV cameras, for stadiums, for other community facilities, and for money. We beg Taiwan for everything!

It seems that we beg in order to subsidize our own inefficiency.

And instead of all that begging, Government could improve its image, and in the process save tens, maybe scores, of millions of dollars annually if it chose, inter alia:
- to cut waste and improve transparency, accountability, productivity and cost efficiency in the public service from high levels to low;
- to introduce the long-overdue contributory public service pension scheme;
- from Prime Minister down, to reduce travel, and first-class or business class travel (who wants to sit there can pay for their own upgrade or ‘beg’ the airline for it), ensure (and I want to thank Mr. Jackie Cramer for this suggestion) that all mileage benefits that accrue through travel by public servants on Government business do so accrue to the Government and not to the officer, have officers stay in more modest hotels, and cut the overseas travel per diems in half;
- to stop renting so much office space in and around Basseterre and the premises that have housed the Sandy Point Police Station for 25 years, more or less; and
- to consolidate office space and personnel for overseas missions with other OECS nations.

How can we claim to be sovereign and boast of our successful and efficient governance of the financial and other affairs of our nation when such a significant amount of the capital and other resources injected into our economy and our society come from begging, and when so much slackness continues?

Don’t we know that when we approach people like beggars, they treat us like beggars?

And when a Government begs so much, how can we expect the people to be any different? This thing is destroying our integrity and our credibility, and making nonsense of our so-called independence.
 
If half of the creativity and energy spent on begging were to be dedicated to developing knowledge and skills, and to improving productivity and efficiency, our GDP might rise by 10-20% in two years.

What a miraculous transformation this redirection of energy and change in attitude would bring to our nation!

We would able to bring down and keep down our debt and to become a model little society, economy and nation.

Meanwhile, however, the begging continues.

But smallness is no excuse for mendicancy, you know. Indeed, no matter how small the nation and no matter how difficult the challenges of the past, present or future, a path to sustainable success and stability can be found. Once you have the right attitude and the right formula.

Look at these small territories which have been highly successful over the years:

1. Taiwan is less than 1/3rd the size of Cuba and less than 1/6th the size of Guyana. But it has the 5th largest foreign reserves, and is the 25th largest economy in the entire world.

2. Hong Kong is smaller than Guadeloupe. Its dollar is the 9th most traded currency and its economy is the 38th largest in the entire world.

3. Singapore is smaller than Dominica and a bit larger than St. Lucia. Yet it is the 4th leading financial centre; its port is the 5th busiest, it has the 9th largest foreign currency reserves and it is the 42nd largest economy on the entire planet.

6. Then there is Macau, which, like Hong Kong, is a territory of China, and wisely allowed to do its thing. Macau is under 12 square miles in area, which is 1/3 rd the size of Nevis or 1/6th the size of St. Kitts.

A strong destination for gambling tourists, Macau was expected to receive 24-25 million tourists in 2007, which is probably more than all of the islands of the Caribbean combined. It ranks 21st in number of tourists and 24th in terms of tourism receipts in the entire world.

Besides, being small, these places share some critical common characteristics.

They do not see themselves as victims, or as being handicapped by their smallness. Their people are settled and confident in their own cultural identities. Values, industriousness and discipline are important, as are education, training and technology. They provide empowerment opportunity for their people, regardless of politics. They encourage entrepreneurship and they are all ranked among the easiest places in the world to do business.

So, despite their smallness, they are important players and strongly integrated into the global economy; so they have the attention, the interest and the respect of the entire world.

It is where they are that we also need to be. But our leadership over the past 27 years has not demonstrated sufficient integrity, vision, will and the discipline to get us there. Nor have our people shown the determination and maturity required to get themselves there.

As a result, this nation has ended up well short of true sovereignty and more on the side of mendicancy.

How utterly disgraceful and insulting!

But do the people deserve better? I believe so, but it will be for them to decide that. Not for me, and definitely not for their leader, who, after all, is the one who has led the begging, who has led the nation to this staggering debt, and who is now leading the nation to these heavy austerity measures.

Folks, in case you didn’t know, the wolf is at the door and he has one foot inside already.