I support Michael Riegel’s complaints in last week’s Beacon about our postal services, updating those expressed by others over many years. I recently voiced my own concern that some of the Virgin Islands’ most embedded failings in its services to consumers might be due to pressure from vested interests (e.g. the use of expensive courier services instead of the taxpayer-supported postal system because of its slowness and unreliability, as well as the delays in passing the Human Rights Commission Act and implementing so many other laws).
Registers of interest
Why has no lawmaker declared their private interests in the register provided by law? It should be compulsory for them to do so, and the register should be open to public inspection.
I must commend the Recovery and Development Agency’s advice to contractors contemplating a bid for its projects that it will not be bowing to political pressure in its choice of bidders, but will expect them all to have a bank account and trade licence and have paid their obligatory fees. Once approved, they will be added to a database from which the RDA will select the most appropriate contractors to be considered for its over 280 future projects — procurement being totally independent and publicly transparent.
Similar processes and benefits should be applied to all of the vital infrastructural projects being contemplated, many with far wider implications than mere recovery in mind. The reinstatement and reequipping of the police and fire stations are matters of national security, as is the delayed accommodation of the Department of Disaster Management.
The civil service
Several online commenters have criticised the civil service for being bloated by public employees more interested in securing their pensions and promoting private projects than being dedicated to delivering the tasks for which they are being paid in customer-friendly ways. Public servants should be required to declare any commercial private interests and given the opportunity to take early retirement (with reduced pension benefits) to pursue them, freeing up posts to younger entrants.
However, the frank statement by the acting deputy fire chief in last week’s “In their Words” feature was both inspirational and challenging. It typifies the constraints under which more dedicated public servants have had to work since the storms, including the police, nurses, teachers and librarians. It would be in all our interests for the Ministry of Communications and Works to reward such dedication with better working conditions and the equipment they need to do their jobs properly.
Tourism barriers
Beacon contributor Ruth Berry’s disappointment at the way we have allowed Main Street, a historic cultural jewel in our crown, to become concealed in the surrounding urban sprawl should galvanise us into prodding the government to firm up its plans to pedestrianise it. Even before the storms, there were many other potential tourist attractions which were more hidden secrets than they should have been (e.g. where along the Sir Francis Drake Highway is a sign to “The Dungeon,” although the most visible part of a large fort may have been allowed to return to the bush.)
Watching cruise ship passengers wandering aimlessly past Old Government House on a Sunday, especially if the weather is inclement, is an example of a lack of business acumen. A far more serious one is the failure to restore the West End ferry terminal in response to a perceived need, in favour of elevating plans for a vastly more expensive expansion of the airport for which the economic justification is debatable.
While recognising the invaluable contributions to our tourist industry our taxi drivers make, we should also cater for our visitors who prefer to explore Road Town under their own steam. We are proud to be known as the bareboat capital of the world, but how friendly are we to tourists who prefer to make their own unguided tours?
‘Spanish spoken here’
We are indeed grateful for the support of the Puerto Rican Navy and should use our bilingual cousins returning from their family’s sojourn in the Dominican Republic to make tourists from Latin America feel particularly welcome by placing notices in shop windows that Spanish is spoken there.
We are joined to Puerto Rico by geological, economic and family ties. While it is common knowledge that many of the Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Dominican Republic are descended from Virgin Islanders who went there to seek work, it is much less well-known that the architect for the tower on St. George’s Episcopal Church in Road Town worked decades later on the construction of the Puerto Rican railway system. We welcome imports of fresh and prepared food from both Hispanic countries.
Pop-up school
Perhaps the completion of the Saira Hospitality pop-up course will lead to the establishment of the much-discussed hospitality school at Prospect Reef, but widened to attract students from elsewhere in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. Its success would depend on the willingness of the pop-up school’s “brand partners” to provide adequate financing.
Although the model is primarily designed to match successful students with local employers, they could later offer corporate management opportunities abroad. It’s imperative that we teach young people the very varied skills required in the hospitality industry and demonstrate the career ladders to which they might aspire. Just looking at the “Help wanted” advertisements in the Beacon demonstrates the range of skills required locally.
Garbage
Ms. Berry’s shock at the widespread prevalence of garbage after her last time here 52 years ago is a tragic indictment of the way in which we have let “progress” blind us to the way in which we have misused our inheritance. A child’s mattress has been dumped against a telephone pole in Lambert: What an example to set our youth!
There have been some somewhat desultory attempts to involve youngsters in clearing trash from public places, from organising cleanups of beaches to sending out squads of them to clear roadsides. However, such ad-hoc drives are really only temporary gestures when one contemplates the debris thrown on undergrowth already concealing trash dumped there before the storms.
The Department of Waste Management might organise a competition for the best long-term solutions to this defiling of Nature’s Little Secrets, with a philanthropist willing to present prizes to the best contributions.
The storms magnified a problem experienced worldwide: how to dispose of redundant electronic equipment, including used batteries, telecoms, computers, monitors and television sets. Most would include valuable recoverable materials, but would be hazardous if burnt or buried in a landfill. The DWM needs to work with local recycling agencies on their safe collection and disposal.