I would just like to point out to the Afrikan Studies Klub, and indeed the Beacon editorial writer, that the club cannot possible pay tribute to ancestors who lost their lives to the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Why? Well, if they died they would not have had children, so they cannot be anybody’s ancestor — unless of course they had children who arrived safely before they did, or left behind children who arrived safely after their demise. Just change the name and continue the tributes.

 

Political billboard

If defaced billboards are the only disturbances we get during the election campaign, then we can thank our lucky stars. Mind you, the vitriol and name-calling seem to be increasing, and the promises are getting wilder and wilder, with, still, apparently, no costings.

Let me see if I have got this right. For various reasons, the House of Assembly seemed to be falling apart even aside from the hurricane damage. Then the Virgin Islands Party members voted to replace Julian Fraser with Andrew Fahie as chairman, and thus opposition leader. Mr. Fraser did not like that, but he bided his time.

Then the premier announced that he would be retiring. With that, the National Democratic Party members voted to elect a new chairman and chose Myron Walwyn over Ronnie Skelton. This was apparently not what all the NDP members in the House wanted, and two of them resigned and joined the opposition. Mr. Skelton then announced his plan to form another party, the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement, and the premier promptly fired him from the job of health and social development minister. He then announced (hardly a secret) that he would join the opposition. This meant that three ex-NDP members now outnumbered the two (as it still was) VIP members, so Mr. Skelton became opposition leader.

 

‘The mighty fallen’

Three NDP ministers remained loyal to the premier and chairman of their party. And no sooner had the election been announced than the fawning junior members of the NDP were pleading for the hospital to be renamed in the premier’s honour. Some members were against the motion being brought at the time, but they all voted for it.

Then, in the electioneering since, I don’t think the premier has been mentioned once. It seems that absolutely everything needs rebuilding, as if we were still a medieval village with no modern facilities. How are the mighty fallen. The premier has been consigned to history.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Dr. Kedrick Pickering has kept quiet, and Mr. Fraser launched a new party of his own, Progressives United.

Then a new group, the Reform Action Alliance, rose up, firstly saying that they were not a party but they were going to contest the at-large seats. Later they decided that they would just monitor the actions of the other candidates and support those they approved. Since then they seem to have sunk.

 

Nomination Day

The initial resolution of all this melee will be on Nomination Day today, when we see who actually appears with their deposit and witnesses to officially be accepted as candidates. Some complain that doubling the application fee is unfair, but it is meant to deter frivolous applications, especially knowing that you lose it if you don’t get one-eighth of the votes in a district race or one-32nd of the votes in the at-large race. With so many candidates each vying for a share of approximately 1,500 votes in the districts, it is likely that some will lose their deposit.

Then we have some independent candidates hoping their reputation will see them elected.

You couldn’t make this up, could you? I hope the governor and you, the electorate, are keeping up with this.

 

Punctual candidates

I go back to my previous suggestion. Vote for those who hold their meetings promptly on time. Those who don’t are showing contempt for the electorate, and may well show up late for House of Assembly sittings, a problem the speaker has had to contend with many times in the past.