I read with dismay the preposterous statement made by Donald De Castro, who has been described as a social commentator in the territory, calling on the chairman of the Festivals and Fairs Committee to ban expatriates from participating in this year’s August Monday Parade.
I wonder if Mr. De Castro is aware of the significance of the celebrations. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire on Aug. 1, 1834 following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, and as far as I know the first Monday in the month is a public holiday throughout the Commonwealth, including the Virgin Islands and all the Caribbean islands.
The August Emancipation Festival in the VI, which started six decades ago, is organised to coincide with the anniversary of the abolishing of slavery. The event is a celebration for everyone.
Certainly, it is a celebration for the descendants of ex-African slaves. Most of the expatriates referred to by Mr. De Castro fall into this category: Their forbears were chained to work in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and all the Eastern Caribbean islands, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, and Grenada. The controversial talk show host apparently wants to exclude these VI residents. What a shame.
The Festival celebration is also for Brits, because the slaves were sent to former British colonies. Likewise, it is for Europeans, Americans, and residents of the Dominican Republic, who have a strong connection with the VI since the days when many VIslanders worked in the DR. Moreover, Filipinos are now here in large numbers, and they too make up the population in this melting pot, which includes off-white, brown, reddish, white, black and other populations. In fact, most of the population here is not from the territory.
Mr. De Castro reportedly said, “We have enough schools, enough villages, in this territory that, if you would get serious, we can put on a festival by us/for us, and to entertain visitors when they come into this territory.” I wonder if he knows that the parents of most of these schoolchildren are expatriates.
Does he know that the economy of the VI is not derived solely from VI citizens, but from expatriates in the financial services, marine industry, tourism, insurance, and other businesses that keep the territory in a sound economic state. Digicel is an Irish company, LIME is a British corporation, and there are dozens of other foreign sponsors that make the celebrations a success. Does he know that it is largely the expatriates — mainly Guyanese, Jamaican, and down-island men — who are spending at the Festival Village?
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