Human Trafficking: A Day of Reckoning and the Beginning of Resistance!

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

"We must practice democracy faithfully even when it hurts." 

Asot Michael 

Imagine these are the talking points about Democracy "even when it hurts" coming from the venal agent of disempowerment: economic plunder and vote fraud.

Our DEMOCRACY is an executioner; continuing to blindfold the masses with trickey, proclaiming better days are coming, but failing to arrive, as they continue to. miskead many to their political abattoir to kill their income of starvation wages and muzzle their cry of murder is the well-known hypocrisy of our dilemma!

It is an Antigua Labor Party (ALP) tradition that dangerously prevails over the nation's political future! Its significant meaning is a local term called bobol!

Michael's words were useless and were likened to those of former US President Richard Nixon, who famously said, "I am not a crook," and everyone is aware of Nixon's fall from power!

In the same instance ALP's undemocratic practices prompted prime minister Gaston Browne to point out ALP's insurrectionist tendencies while ignoring ALP MPs' silence from 1999 to 2003. 

For example, Browne is knowledgeable about destroying local businesses and livelihoods and cited Michael as the enforcer of that agenda during the ALP's tenure as Minister of State in 1999 and later as Minister from 2001 to 2003

In the same way, Browne alleges that following the UPP's consecutive five-term victory 2004 -2014, a planned destabilizing agenda of the UPP was given priority by wicked upholders within the then ALP opposition to assure the destruction of the nation's independent Wadadli Power Plant. 

After ALP's election losses to the UPP beginning on March 23, 2004, ALP regained power under prime minister Gaston Browne's leadership on June 12, 2014, and continued on January 18, 2023, winning a third term. 

This win is the most by a twin-island state prime minister, a success clouded by mystery and deception that nullifies the ethos of democratic governance. 

Some people may have been indifferent to the January 18 election dates only to learn of the shocking reality.

 

A nefarious feature rearing its head in the Antigua and Barbuda election was the number 666 that flashed across the Antigua Broadcasting Station (ABS) Television screen during the counting of the St. John's City West Constituency (SJWC) candidate ALP Gaston Alfonso Browne. 

These numbers in Revelation 13:18 relate mutually with "completeness of sinful incompleteness." (Why is the Number of the Beast 666? February 11, 2015, by Gregory Beale)

Today, there is a starvation of growth, surging poverty, unresolved socioeconomic issues, and restrictions on human rights, so the public must be vigilant about the severe ramifications on the horizon, such as banking derisking, the termination of Antigua and Barbuda's CIP, and more denials of visa-free access!

A dire warning of visa-free travel to the UK and Schengen countries is now a controversial issue due to Human Trafficking (HT), and our worthless national passport is now at the bottom of the rubbish heap.

Can the masses endure another five years of ALP leadership?

During ALP's 60 years of governance, there has been nothing much to show but escalating poverty, local disempowerment, crumbling infrastructure, and enrichment of the few. 

Also, under ALP governance, the Jersey mob controlled the twin-island state economy and was prevalent from the 1960s to the 1990s.

In Antigua and Barbuda, the Mafia was the government; now,  the Padrone is the BOSS of the ALP!

Much has stayed the same since the ALP era of unfairness and disempowering local people. 

There was no competition during the era of the New York-based Genovese crime family-run Mamora Beach Hotel and Casino, operated by Charles Tourine and Angelo Chieppa. Chieppa worked for Genovese capo Ruggerio Boiardo. 

The future of Antigua and Barbuda is still on the gambling table, ready to be given away! Everyone should read My Life in the Mafia by Vincent Charles Teresa, which identifies the twin-island nation as the most crooked place on earth.

Another book by an infamous mobster in the lower ranks of the Genovese crime family was Joe Valachi, a reputed mobster who eventually snitched on the Cosa Nostra. 

The book The Valachi Papers was adapted into a feature film, although many people question its accuracy, calling it a work of fiction.

The genesis of poverty in Antigua and Barbuda began with the Antigua Labor Party (ALP). 

Today, the lack of statistics is even more glaring. No censuses have been conducted since the Poverty Assessment in 2007, the Agriculture Census in 2007, yet there is talk about the Next Level; one such example is increasing the Minimum Wage by 0.80 cents to $9.00 per hour. 

The next level is far worse and frightening, with fewer jobs, lousy infrastructure, escalating inflation, and unbearable poverty.

Isn't it time we understand the ALP election and governing strategy?

If knowledge is power, ignorance is weakness. Today's focus is on Human Trafficking. 

The mumbling remark and artful deception of ALP spokesperson Melford Nicholas expose the common knowledge about the Machiavellian money-grabbing investors and the devious ALP government guarantors of Antigua Airways charter, which is associated with Human Trafficking (HT). 

Nicholas's strategic lying to sidestep the HT controversies was upsetting and disingenuous to the citizenry who discerns the truth. 

There is a call to action for the mass of protestors to bring their visible protest into the open on January 6, 2022, and end other flights from Nigeria.

Sources close to the ALP government confirmed diplomatic notes documented powerful countries' disgust with the international breach of regulation to open the door for human Trafficking. 

The resident British High Commissioner to Antigua and Barbuda, Lindsy Thompson, disagreed with Nicholas's misrepresentation by categorically publicizing the UK's concerns about Human Trafficking:

"I can't promise that we won't apply visa regimes to countries with concerns."

Similarly, the European Union (EU) Commission outlined its solution in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum in September 2020, pressuring countries to address the ongoing Human Trafficking by "providing a comprehensive approach, bringing together policy in the areas of migration, asylum, integration, and border management." 

In addition to threatening these countries with Visa restrictions to the Schengen Area.

(The EU MIGRATION PACT; QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS picum.org )

Why did Nicholas not point out the dishonorable ALP gobbler?

In contrast, social advocates' conclusive exposure of Human Trafficking (HT) links the initiatory plan and subsequent charters to the ALP government dating back to 2019, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs EP Chet Greene.

According to IOM data: "..over the last ten years show that nearly 80% of international human trafficking journeys cross through official border control points, including airports."

The ALP's regard for democracy is demonstrated by lawlessness, non-accountability, and transparency; ballot rigging and self-enrichment. 

In about five hours and fifteen minutes, the polling station will be open, and it's the duty of every Antiguans and Barbudans registered on the island to VOTE!