"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
Earlier this year, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar experienced the horrors the Virgin Islands is presently experiencing with the pandemic. Gibraltar — whose population of about 34,000 is similar …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Gibraltar vaccine rate seen as example for VI”
The Virgin Islands — like the British overseas territory of Gibraltar — should have been approaching herd immunity and getting back to normal. Instead, conspiracy theories and anti-vaccinators have held …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Residents urged to vaccinate”
The Virgin Islands has arrived at a proverbial crossroad in the Covid-19 pandemic. The territory will have to decide on two choices in the midst of a Commission of Inquiry …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — VI seen to have a ‘stark choice’”
After hurricanes Irma and Maria, the talk was all about what the Virgin Islands would look like as it recovered. Today, it appears the territory has learned very little from …
The Virgin Islands economy sits on a platform supported by international companies and investors. Financial services have kept this territory alive through the many months of pandemic and the collapse …
The challenge with inflation is that it increases the cost of living. When uncontrolled, inflation can be very damaging. And if economics is primarily about human behaviour, then uncontrolled inflation …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Likely inflation causes concern”
Social democracy means a bottom-up economy, with public spending directed at alleviating the burdens of the poor; public policy that drives greater social equality; and public investment in infrastructure that …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Call made for greater social equality”
For positive change in the era of Covid-19, a Commission of Inquiry that is throwing a fog over the future, and a terrifying new culture of crime, social democracy is …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Case made for social democracy”
Politicians who ignore specific sections of the population to focus on channelling public resources to a select group are usually in for a rude awakening. Politics and economics are joined …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Politicians warned of rising anger”
Supply-side trickle-down economics has not taken the world to Eldorado. And if the Virgin Islands is to fulfil its potential as a hive of social and economic prosperity, then it …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Social democracy seen as ideal for VI”
On a Facebook thread recently, there were very interesting assertions on Virgin Islands politics. First, there was a call to move away from two-party system which has been a feature …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Two-party politics under microscope”
Rising drug, gun and gang crime threatens to destroy the Virgin Islands community. At the root of crime, whether here or elsewhere, is neither poor policing nor poor social leadership. …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Inequality seen to foster crime”
Only a strong social democracy, not a trickledown capitalist model, will deliver for the Virgin Islands. It was small business and the working man that kept the VI economy alive …
Strong and wholesome community is a great tool against adversity: That has been a lesson from the pandemic. The social, economic and physical health of the Virgin Islands community is …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Division seen as threat to VI”
For the Virgin Islands and other British overseas territories, the weapons of diplomacy, tact and negotiation are better options in moving towards self-determination than banging an anticolonial drum. Indeed, tact …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — VI urged to use diplomacy with UK”
The most powerful institution on earth is the United States Federal Reserve. Here is why. Global financial stability from 2008 is owed to the power of central banks intervening at …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Central banks’ role analysed”
The ability to change in a changing world is a great human asset — and a mark of resilience and intelligence. However, change gets harder as we grow older. Assumptions …
What was the common denominator for countries and territories that kept the pandemic to a minimum? Unlike in the United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom, draconian action and effective …
A second critical travel document — a vaccine passport — is looking inevitable. But issues are mounting on the why, what, where, how and when of such a passport. Will …
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An entitled minority must never again be allowed to control Virgin Islands governance, politics and society without full citizen and resident participation. Had full citizen participation been the governing culture …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Probe called ‘a very good thing’”
There will be no greater autonomy or independence in United Kingdom overseas territories until their residents trust local government. Recent crises in OT governance in the Turks and Caicos Islands …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Better governance seen as key to independence”
The biggest failure of the modern evangelical church — especially in the United States — is the failure to preach truth to power. Modern evangelicals have bought in to the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Evangelicals called cowardly”
Massive global debt is a serious concern for banking and finance. One would have thought that after the banking crash of 2008, banks would have learned the bitter lessons of …
The 2008 financial crisis showed the Milton Friedman economic model of a laissez faire, production-oriented, trickledown, austere and financially driven economy to be a paper tiger. The idea that the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Need seen for ‘big government’”
The 2008 financial crisis showed the Milton Friedman economic model of a laissez faire, production-oriented, trickledown, austere and financially driven economy to be a paper tiger. The idea that the …
Continue reading “COMMENTARY — Need seen for ‘big government’”