Colonialism is raising its head again not because of the built-in British racism but thanks to the locals who bow their heads and obey the whipping
Premier Andrew Fahie is the man personally responsible for the initiative to strip the Virgin Islanders of their freedom, independence and democracy. His helplessness to lead the resistance against any type of collaboration with the illegitimate circus known as COI sets the island back by two hundred years.
What is the legal and moral authority of a racist colonialist in the twentieth century, to land in a state other than his own, against the local democratically elected government, and to force a government other than his own, to stop everything it is engaged in and provide him with Avery and any evidence and documents all the actions of the current as well as all past governments?
Since when does external or even internal body have the authority to conduct an investigation not on the basis of a specific suspicion but simply out of a desire to fish in hundreds of thousands of actions, just to “maybe” find "if" things have been done wrong or illegal in the past?
Certainly done! Only a stupid judge will assume they were not done. The way to fix problems in a democracy is not through an external force that itself comes from a regime drowning in corruption, racism and double standards, but through an internal and democratic system of checks and balances. Such a bad thing is the democratic system:
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” (Winston Churchill).
In the current episode of the absurd tragi-comedy known as COI, a one-man Colonial Commissioner had the audacity to ask the 15 grown adult members of the democratically-elected Legislature to write him an essay on "What is good governance?". And, like good sheep, they agreed to do so, instead of sending this unwelcome Bogeyman back home, with the message to first clean up the endless corruption in which his own government continues to wallow.
“The one-man Commissioner had the audacity to ask the 15 grown adult members of the legislature to write him an essay on what is good governance,” House Speaker Julian Willock said in his speech.
“Even more insulting and disrespectful was for him to tell professional men and women that we are to use numbered paragraph with no less than 1.5 line spacing and a font size that is no less than 12 and that footnotes should be avoided,” the Speaker added.
He further complained that Sir Gary was high-handed in suggesting that any statement that does not comply, will be sent back for amendments.
“Students nowadays in high schools and colleges are not even given such insulting instructions for a term paper,” the Speaker said.
Mr. Gary Hickinbottom has been sent to BVI by a UK prime minister who, against the law, misappropriated a large amount of taxpayers' money to secretly renovate his private apartment, and by a corrupt ministers who helped a corrupt health minister to sign a multi-million pound contract to purchase overpriced face masks, from a company in which the health minister himself owns shares, in the same time that an independent panel has accused the UK Met Police of "forms of institutional corruption", and right after UK government wasted billions of pounds to purchase thousands of useless tanks (we all know how arms deals done, right?), in a times that wars are done remotely by click of a button, billions taking out from the budget that is missing to fix the broken health and education system in UK.
But Hickinbottom‘s criminals were not tried for the offenses they committed. They have an automatic immunity from the rule of law of the kind the English Law reserved for the white elite, in contrast to the legal practice of English Law, in which the black man is first and foremost guilty as long as he fails to prove his innocence.
This is the racism and corruption on which English Law is based on: not in the charming and correct language in which it is written, but in the ugly discrimination in which it is applied differently -or not at all- according to class, race, wealth, bribe and corrupted interests. “It's always the ones with the dirty hands pointing the fingers”...
So, why was the uninvited Bogeyman Hickinbottom sent to a remote island to which he has no affinity, and about which he has no authority?
Well, the excuse is to see “if” (!) he can find any wrongdoing in a far, far away territory that has its own democratically-elected government, institutions and system of checks and balance - just the same as any other modern government. And yes, we can all be sure without any investigation that also BVI government has Failures, waste of money, misuse of public funds, omissions, and here and there also corruption. Although not corruption on a huge scale and as a norm like those common in the government whose representative is Mr. Hickinbottom, but corruption and irregularities as in any modern democracy. Breakdowns that correct themselves by themselves and not through a racist commissars with double standards, conflicts of interest and a very dubious history.
The Commission of Inquiry (“the COI”) was set up on 19 January 2021 to look into whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty "MAY" have taken place amongst public, elected and statutory officials in recent years; and to make appropriate recommendations as to governance and the operation of the law enforcement and justice systems in the BVI.
Does our fly-in Bogeyman have any experience, knowledge and expertise in leadership and management of a country, government, country-budget and public affairs? Or even just in managing a little restaurant or a grocery store? No. This un-elected Bogeyman has never done anything practical and productive in his life other than pointing fingers and preach morality to others. Nothing. The guy is simply a lawyer, not a doer.
The biggest mistake of the BVI's democratically-elected government was not to challenge the legitimacy of the COI in the first place. The lawmakers should have collectively refused to participate in this illegitimate charade. To put it as rudely as possible, it looks like a one-man circus featuring a ring full of monkeys who perform tricks in return for bananas. They should instead have stood up for their human and democratic rights, and peacefully refused to cooperate with a procedure that violates those same rights.
It would be simplistic to attribute the blame for the controversial COI to outgoing Governor Augustus Jaspert's desire for revenge for the hard time BVI has given him. In fact, that is a red herring, as it misses the two key objections to the COI. First, the government should have insisted on the presumption of innocence as the baseline for the COI, as there was no evidence or specific complaint to suggest otherwise. Second, they should have questioned the legitimacy and authority of a foreign one-man band, with an inherent conflict of interest, being flown in to conduct a sensitive high-level inquiry in a domain in which he has no experience, no expertise, and, actually, no standing.
Governor Augustus Jaspert did nothing wrong when, for his own country's benefit and for his personal satisfaction, he took advantage of the powers and authority that elected officials stupidly allowed him to assume. A hungry wolf does not ignore the opportunities presented by a herd of blind sheep.
Premier Andrew Fahie and his entire government failed to protect the independence, freedom and self-respect of all the BVislanders who elected them.
All that was required of them to protect the law, justice and freedom of the Islanders was just to keep on doing nothing, instead of cooperating with this illegitimate COI against the people of BVI.
Since when does external or even internal body have the authority to conduct an investigation not on the basis of a specific suspicion but simply out of a desire to fish in hundreds of thousands of actions, just to “maybe” find "if" things have been done wrong or illegal in the past?
Certainly done! Only a stupid judge will assume they were not done. The way to fix problems in a democracy is not through an external force that itself comes from a regime drowning in corruption, racism and double standards, but through an internal and democratic system of checks and balances. Such a bad thing is the democratic system:
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” (Winston Churchill).
In the current episode of the absurd tragi-comedy known as COI, a one-man Colonial Commissioner had the audacity to ask the 15 grown adult members of the democratically-elected Legislature to write him an essay on "What is good governance?". And, like good sheep, they agreed to do so, instead of sending this unwelcome Bogeyman back home, with the message to first clean up the endless corruption in which his own government continues to wallow.
“The one-man Commissioner had the audacity to ask the 15 grown adult members of the legislature to write him an essay on what is good governance,” House Speaker Julian Willock said in his speech.
“Even more insulting and disrespectful was for him to tell professional men and women that we are to use numbered paragraph with no less than 1.5 line spacing and a font size that is no less than 12 and that footnotes should be avoided,” the Speaker added.
He further complained that Sir Gary was high-handed in suggesting that any statement that does not comply, will be sent back for amendments.
“Students nowadays in high schools and colleges are not even given such insulting instructions for a term paper,” the Speaker said.
Mr. Gary Hickinbottom has been sent to BVI by a UK prime minister who, against the law, misappropriated a large amount of taxpayers' money to secretly renovate his private apartment, and by a corrupt ministers who helped a corrupt health minister to sign a multi-million pound contract to purchase overpriced face masks, from a company in which the health minister himself owns shares, in the same time that an independent panel has accused the UK Met Police of "forms of institutional corruption", and right after UK government wasted billions of pounds to purchase thousands of useless tanks (we all know how arms deals done, right?), in a times that wars are done remotely by click of a button, billions taking out from the budget that is missing to fix the broken health and education system in UK.
But Hickinbottom‘s criminals were not tried for the offenses they committed. They have an automatic immunity from the rule of law of the kind the English Law reserved for the white elite, in contrast to the legal practice of English Law, in which the black man is first and foremost guilty as long as he fails to prove his innocence.
This is the racism and corruption on which English Law is based on: not in the charming and correct language in which it is written, but in the ugly discrimination in which it is applied differently -or not at all- according to class, race, wealth, bribe and corrupted interests. “It's always the ones with the dirty hands pointing the fingers”...
So, why was the uninvited Bogeyman Hickinbottom sent to a remote island to which he has no affinity, and about which he has no authority?
Well, the excuse is to see “if” (!) he can find any wrongdoing in a far, far away territory that has its own democratically-elected government, institutions and system of checks and balance - just the same as any other modern government. And yes, we can all be sure without any investigation that also BVI government has Failures, waste of money, misuse of public funds, omissions, and here and there also corruption. Although not corruption on a huge scale and as a norm like those common in the government whose representative is Mr. Hickinbottom, but corruption and irregularities as in any modern democracy. Breakdowns that correct themselves by themselves and not through a racist commissars with double standards, conflicts of interest and a very dubious history.
The Commission of Inquiry (“the COI”) was set up on 19 January 2021 to look into whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty "MAY" have taken place amongst public, elected and statutory officials in recent years; and to make appropriate recommendations as to governance and the operation of the law enforcement and justice systems in the BVI.
Does our fly-in Bogeyman have any experience, knowledge and expertise in leadership and management of a country, government, country-budget and public affairs? Or even just in managing a little restaurant or a grocery store? No. This un-elected Bogeyman has never done anything practical and productive in his life other than pointing fingers and preach morality to others. Nothing. The guy is simply a lawyer, not a doer.
The biggest mistake of the BVI's democratically-elected government was not to challenge the legitimacy of the COI in the first place. The lawmakers should have collectively refused to participate in this illegitimate charade. To put it as rudely as possible, it looks like a one-man circus featuring a ring full of monkeys who perform tricks in return for bananas. They should instead have stood up for their human and democratic rights, and peacefully refused to cooperate with a procedure that violates those same rights.
It would be simplistic to attribute the blame for the controversial COI to outgoing Governor Augustus Jaspert's desire for revenge for the hard time BVI has given him. In fact, that is a red herring, as it misses the two key objections to the COI. First, the government should have insisted on the presumption of innocence as the baseline for the COI, as there was no evidence or specific complaint to suggest otherwise. Second, they should have questioned the legitimacy and authority of a foreign one-man band, with an inherent conflict of interest, being flown in to conduct a sensitive high-level inquiry in a domain in which he has no experience, no expertise, and, actually, no standing.
Governor Augustus Jaspert did nothing wrong when, for his own country's benefit and for his personal satisfaction, he took advantage of the powers and authority that elected officials stupidly allowed him to assume. A hungry wolf does not ignore the opportunities presented by a herd of blind sheep.
Premier Andrew Fahie and his entire government failed to protect the independence, freedom and self-respect of all the BVislanders who elected them.
All that was required of them to protect the law, justice and freedom of the Islanders was just to keep on doing nothing, instead of cooperating with this illegitimate COI against the people of BVI.
