Earl the Exposer

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

They test our faith, our minds, our character, our courage, our preparedness, our wisdom, and our honesty. And they also test our structures and institutions.

And in all of that testing, they expose us for what and who we are.

Hurricane Earl passed just north of the Leeward Islands last Sunday and Monday. When passing through, it packed winds near to its centre of about 120 miles per hour. Thank God our two islands felt winds of only about 45-50 miles per hour, accompanied by about 5 inches of rain.

Not exactly a walk in the park, but it could have been much, much worse. So we ought not to have suffered much damage from such an event.

But we did.

Not with houses being blown away and the country being really battered, as had been the case, say, with Hurricane Georges in 1998.

Instead, Earl exposed our weak infrastructure, as well as a Government which is presently short of:
1. efficiency;
2. ideas; and
3. money to even provide the basic, vital services and protection to the population.

Earl exposed all of that.

You will recall that the dangerous hurricanes between 1995 and 1999 were met by proactive responses from the Government in terms of its resources and its ability to inspire the nation to clean up and fix up.

But over the ensuing years, there’s been a trend in which lesser and lesser challenges have become increasingly difficult to handle, as Government’s energy, dynamism and money levels have declined.

If you ignore the political spin and the personalities, and you look around you with open eyes and an open mind, you’ll see, as plain as day that the Government is not at all on top of things, and it is ‘broke’.

That’s why it couldn’t handle what Earl had to offer, or even a one-hour rain event. That’s why it can’t fix the roads, provide a steady electricity supply, maintain its buildings and other facilities, generate consistent and effective tourism marketing activities, and so on.

That’s why it can’t pay its fuel bill to Sol, and its other many debts, and why, after four years, the CCTV program still is not operational so we beg Taiwan for US$200,000.00 to help us make it happen.

And that’s why the Dieppe Bay Police Station is still lingering, the Tabernacle and Sandy Point Police Stations and the Juvenile Home aren’t built, why other National Security facilities and equipment are so deficient, and why the Minister of National Security, for all of his good intentions, can’t get other Ministries to put lights in trouble spots and clear over-grown and derelict properties in St. Kitts.

The Government is ‘broke’. That’s why it goes out into the world, cap in hand, to beg for things. Begging has become a national industry and major revenue/resource generator, to go along with tourism, financial services, agriculture, manufacturing and construction, and to prop up failed administration of the country’s affairs and finances.

And it is easy to understand how a beggar Government can be a major threat to the integrity and the patrimony of a nation.
 
Among the first signs of trouble was the Government’s loss, in 1999-2000, of 9% of its shares in National Bank.

Then as the tax base was, as a matter of course, never kept abreast of developmental activities and demands, the national debt began its drunken journey into outer space, and our debt-to-GDP ratio soared close to 200%, never falling below 165% since, and being 178% in August 2010.

No country can be in good fiscal shape, carrying so much debt for so long. And that is why a Government which had been able to muster all kinds of resources to deal with big challenges earlier on became progressively and manifestly unable to handle the smaller challenges as time passed.

All the result of leadership which, instead of listening to reason, and planning the development of this country on a scientific, safe, democratic and decent footing, has preferred to engage in dalliances, power games and self aggrandizement.

The people lose when they have a leader whose “lust for power is equaled only by his impotence to exercise it justly”. So said the late Winston Churchill who served as British Prime Minister during World War 2.

And the people of St. Kitts & Nevis are losing.

I recall, in our first term, when it was recommended that we ask the Cuban and Taiwanese Governments to supply a few engineers to assess and advise on watercourse management, drainage, irrigation, sewage, power and infrastructure generally, so that those issues could be embedded in national policy and programs going forward. But nothing happened.

I also recall, about ten years ago, the recommendation being made that we look seriously to shifting our energy supply base to renewable sources such as wind and solar power. But that too was dismissed.

And it’s because of all of this foolishness why we are in fiscal quicksand today; why we are unable to maintain our infrastructure, equipment and institutions; and why we find ourselves virtually impotent against relatively minor weather events.

It is because of this ‘brokesness’, this administrative bankruptcy, and this torpor why Earl, even the lighter side of Earl, was able to expose and embarrass us so badly.

But did Earl really expose us? Let’s see.

1. Compared with hurricanes and other major events of the past, do you think that the relatively small amount of cleanup work is going fast enough? Does that have anything to do with a lack of money and poor administration?

2. How long will it take the Health Department to start treating the gathered bodies of water in an effort to control mosquito-carrying diseases?

3. Have all of the ghauts and other choked up areas been cleared?

4.  How much topsoil have we lost this time?

5. Why has it taken so long to restore electricity service to certain areas? Is this a reflection of obsolete infrastructure, and the lack of money and other resources to upgrade and maintain the electricity infrastructure?

6.  How many areas were without water and for how long?

7.  When will the damage to roads be repaired? (What about the damage to the Warner Park wall on Lozack Road  caused by the heavy shower a few weeks ago?)

8. How come we nearly lost a number of Coast Guard personnel and two vessels? Wasn’t that related to ‘brokesness’ and poor administration?

And this Coast Guard matter is particularly instructive. I thank God for sparing the persons who were on board.

The Prime Minister said that the vessels were headed to Long Point for shelter. Apparently, ‘Stalwart’(the larger vessel) was towing ‘Ardent’. Is that the same Long Point which is located on the exposed, southwestern coast of Nevis?

He said that that was “Plan A”.

But “Plan A”, according to him, became “almost impossible”. Why? Because of failures in the propulsion and control systems of ‘Stalwart’?

What happens when a vessel at sea experiences failures in its propulsion and control systems? It becomes partly or totally powerless and falls to the mercy of the sea. And the situation is worse if the sea conditions are severe.

The Prime Minister said that “Plan B” was to beach the vessels.

The public will want to know how two vessels, with little or no power of their own, in the middle of a raging storm, could be controlled and steered to a particular spot on the coastline and beached that way.

So could beaching the vessels in front of Timothy Beach Hotel at Frigate Bay really have been “Plan B”? Or was it a stroke of luck, thank God?

The bottom line is this. If a small country like ours wants to have a Coast Guard, it has to budget properly for it. And that budget must include, inter alia, proper maintenance and, from time to time, purchasing new vessels.

Above all, no effort must be spared to protect, as best as possible in what is a dangerous job, the lives and to enhance the safety of Coast Guard personnel.

And if the Government has no money to do these things, far less to put provisions on board and fuel in the tanks, then ‘the propulsion and control systems’ of the Government have failed.

So instead of trying to play verbal hide and seek (we call it “hoop” in St. Kitts), the Prime Minister must come clean, have a proper inquiry into the matter done, and report fully to the taxpayers of St. Kitts & Nevis.

And now that Hurricane Earl has exposed the administrative and fiscal weaknesses of the Government, we, the citizens and residents, must also ensure that Earl has exposed our determination not to put up with this charade any longer.

This thing is about principles, not about men. And about efficiency, not about egos.

It’s time for the people of this country to stand up in their own cause and to stop falling for this ‘bull’.

As I was leaving the site of the beached vessels on Monday, I heard a lady say: “See them there, two symbols of our two islands. ‘Stalwart’ is St. Kitts, and ‘Ardent’ is Nevis, and, like our Federation, they’re  beached!” 

Thanks to Earl, the Exposer.