Part 2

Economic Corruption: Unfair Trading Practices & Neo-colonialism

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

Power is the ability to make things happen for ourselves. We possess the means to enable the transformation of our living conditions by controlling the strategic sectors of the economy.

-Alvette E Jeffers

Part 1 scrutinizes the deterrents of local investments within the economy, unfair trading practices to the disadvantage of black-owned businesses, and the misuse of public office for private gain.

Part 2 continues the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) government's absence of transformation and misuse of public office, bringing about miserable living that culminates in apathy. 

The past accounts for our civilization, struggle, sacrifice, and commitment to transforming the system and overthrowing the systemic bias against local empowerment. People's power must quash politicians driven by economic plunder and insatiable greed, giving away our national patrimony while abusing our human rights and ignoring a sequence of pressing challenges. This oppression points to the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) government's inefficacy with a community living on useless promises and pious platitudes. 

It was evident in the stagnant minimum wage and abuse of workers' human rights, particularly in the public sector in this plantation system economy. At the same time, hoteliers and elite businesses created tremendous wealth compared to workers' grim economic prospects; then-ALP finance minister John St. Luce constantly suppressed minimum wages:

"This is the danger we are facing-that of pricing ourselves out of the market. Even with the tourists, we have to watch it. Antigua is not the only place with lovely beaches and friendly faces; the other islands have the same thing. I don't want to hit our unions, but wages are high, although other factors have helped push up the cost of a stay in Antigua. For less, you can go to Mexico and have a very cheap holiday. America is much cheaper than here." - John St. Luce, then-ALP Minister of Finance (The Courier No. 124 Nov -Dec 1990)

Was it acceptable for the hotels to increase room rates during that era continuously? For example, the 300-acre Jumby Bay Island resort in the St. Peter parish charges per room grew three-fold during that era from US$1700 to US$5500 per night. Currently, the prices range between $2100 and US$10,000 per night. Nonetheless, minimum wages and public servant salaries remained stagnant, eventually leading to wage inequality and rising poverty. Subsequently, the United Progressive Party (UPP) unseated the ALP in the 2004 election.

UPP served two five-year terms and later increased the minimum wage after 27 years by 24.77% from US$2.22 to $2.77 on January 2, 2008, and approved the 9.64% from US$2.77 to $3.037 in May 2014. This $3.037 took effect in November 2014. (Antigua Observer Minimum wage increase takes effect in November - September 16, 2014) 

Do ALP politicians tend to bleed the country of wealth rather than save people from poverty? 

Many hoteliers oppose higher wages and upward economic mobility for local workers; therefore, St. Luce's dissent is nothing new. A contention supported by Rob Barret, the owner of five hotels and four primary food outlets parroting this age-old belligerency: 

"The minimum wage here is about 50 percent higher than that of St Lucia. We have a very high cost within the labor...."

The case is not about high wages; many hotels charge exceedingly high prices per room and receive generous tax and duty-free concessions but give nothing in return except for deprivation. This pauperization exists throughout Antigua's six parishes: St. John. St. Mary, St. Philip, St.Paul, St. George, and St. Peter. The ALP ignored the Poverty, Population & Housing census, which the UPP completed in 2007 and 2011. (Living Conditions in Antigua and Barbuda: Poverty in a Services Economy in Transition August 2007 Report-Table 4.8 Headcount, Poverty Gap and Poverty Severity page 46)

 Four of these parishes are estimated to account for 98% of hotel rooms. St. John and St. Mary, the leading two, represent 74% of the rooms and 69% of the population; the other two, St. Philp and St. Paul, amount to 24% and 13.41, collectively. Moreover, Jumby Bay Island in St. Peter and Mill Reef Club in St. Philip constitute the most expensive real estate accommodation per sq ft. Lastly, St. George amounted to 1.14% of rooms and 9.41% of the population.

Two parishes control the yachting sector; another dominates cruise tourism and a twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container port. Yet poverty and inequality continue unabated, with fewer people employed within these constituencies. Over several decades, ALP wilfully delayed undertaking the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) poverty assessment report, leaving a legacy of poverty for the UPP to handle. 

This ALP tradition of stagnant wages gave rise to spiraling poverty and unchecked inequality as against the advent of online casino gambling in 1994 that benefited government politicians, with the year 2000 being a significant accumulation of wealth amassing US$7 billion in revenue. This wealth boom ultimately provoked U.S. backlash, quickening the industry's ruination. Between 2000 and 2003, online gambling licensee operators dropped from 93 to 38, and 1,469 job losses, signaling the games were over, bringing the politicians' gravy train to a screeching halt. (Antigua Gives U.S. End-of-Year Ultimatum on Online Gambling Dispute -Casino.org by Katie Barlowe -December 3, 2016).

Does the controlling 1% not correlate to a Slave System under a black government?

The white mask of government despotism connects to the yoke of colonial domination, from governance to the economy. That said, radical transformation and self-determination must be a priority. Still, a cliquish group opposed to such change continues the slavish agenda of ALP, spurning and attacking the program of NewsCo-Observer on Afrocentricity and pressing social issues. NewsCo-Observer owed no one an apology!

Browne's followers come with the most specious controversy, such as Eli Fuller's misleading anti-immigrant message mentioning Observer Voice of the People's discussion on Afrocentricity as biased. A falsehood aims to create disharmony to bolster Browne's waning influence by alluding to his son's agitating question: To whom does Antigua belong? Some posit racial bias establishes Fuller's son's rumored question that may be hardwired. That's inexcusable since Fuller is familiar with world politics that publicizes black people being brutalized, murdered, oppressed, and killed every second by white hate groups. These killings are ongoing and constantly circulated. 

Why would Fuller ignore such atrocity without discussing the racist ideology with his son? 

Fuller views the discussion on racism in a black nation as offensive, so he failed to enlighten his son about our society and the wickedness that prevails, the brutal, savage, and murderous episodes of Colonialism, Slavery, Apartheid, and Jim Crow. Surprisingly, the kid asked that question, but the parent echoed the same belief, being an ideologue of Colonialism which strives to justify the indefensible. The ingrained question underscores Fuller's partisanship, weakens his social group's shallow reasoning, and spotlights his enduring ignorance about the unspeakable cruelties of the slave trade carried out by slave-trading nations supported by the white enslavers. 

Fuller, where were you when Dr. Cleon Athill was referred to most disparagingly by a Syrian resident businessman six years ago? It's doubtful you identified as being from Antigua and Barbuda, then. Six years ago, a foreign white Arab merchant racially abused Dr. Athill. The vendor's racist slurs likened Dr. Athill to a monkey. This prejudice quickly evolved in the Color the Town Black protest on Saturday, March 14, 2015. Simultaneously, the growing presence of government soldiers and the police force represented the depravity of politics and dogmatic power! Again, another racial issue was not addressed by Browne. (PM sends stern warning to 'economic terrorist.' - Antigua Observer 2015.)

Once again, four years later, Fuller was silent during the Jolly Beach incident in 2019, prohibiting local people from vending on the beach. After more than 22 years, this trade became the primary concern of Browne and Calvin Ayre. The vendors argue against forfeiture of well-being and beach Apartheid. Ayre's harsh response was to separate vendors from their livelihood by supplying beach chairs for free to visitors, engendering broader implications for black businesses' lack of confidence in the tourism industry's equity. 

Why should black people not discuss the most brutal period of genocide and slavery? Do the Jews not constantly deliberate about the Holocaust? 

The appalling history of the Atlantic Slave Trade that began the enslavement of our people was about appropriating wealth and labor for the development and industrialization of Europe and America. Antigua and Barbuda are predominantly African but are the most pauperized. The working class knows that the government robs the treasury to assist wealthy business interests while the working class is mercilessly taxed.

Before long, people must rebel against the government's cruel structural injustice; the long-awaited uprising is overdue. Also, people must continue to discuss the ills of slavery, reparative justice, and the continuous struggle under the rotten system of the ALP government. ALP approved another unjust Purchase Power Agreement (PPA) partnership with the Hadeed Group of Companies (HGC) to supply Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to APUA is another privatization ripoff. This arrangement is indeed individual gain, exactly when wind and sun are free! The incoming government must cancel all odious deals! (Antigua Power Company wins tender to supply clean-energy power plant -  PointeXpress May 14, 2021, Issue 228)

Where is the contract concealing this awful deal?

We must obliterate the system to effect substantial economic change, local empowerment, and new leadership. By any means necessary, we must transform our living conditions by controlling the strategic sectors of the economy before we end up much the same as the black majority in South Africa: Landless and economically disadvantaged. 

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We demand change! It's time to declare war on the slave system. A plantation system nurtured under black leadership demoralizes black people. 

Stay woke!