A week off certainly produces some ammunition for a pundit like me.
One thing in William Walker’s interesting commentary last week on the dire situation regarding the ferries was not quite correct. A representative of Native Son tells me that the company does still run to Charlotte Amalie. See the advertisement on page five of the Beacon last week — though admittedly, as I pointed out before, the BVI Welcome magazine has stopped printing all the international ferry schedules.
However, one reason for the poor scheduling is that Native Son and the other operators are running trips for cruise ship passengers to our Dolphin Discovery facility and The Baths. This puts extra loading on the boats concerning schedules and maintenance.
Also, a representative of Speedy’s, who I think everyone agrees runs the best service, tells me that the company applied for a licence to run between Road Town and Charlotte Amalie (in addition to those already run), but was refused. Why? Not to put too fine a point on it, the owners of the blue ferries need to be hauled in and read the riot act, family or not.
The new culinary school seems a big facility for just eight students. Hardly economic to run. And wasn’t it supposed to be at Prospect Reef? A small contained fire three months ago put it out of action. The case is still being investigated. Why? A standby generator is needed. Why? That won’t repair the damage. The cost is $45,000. For what? The generator? Don’t they have $45,000? This is a disgrace. It should have been repaired in a week or two.
Police dogs
A minister introduces a bill in the House of Assembly to allow the police to have dogs and handlers. Members of the HOA are all for it, though their definitions of a police dog vary significantly: attack dogs (for apprehending suspects or criminals); drug dogs (for sniffing out different substances); search-and-rescue dogs (for searching collapsed buildings, vessels, aircraft and jungles); and cadaver dogs (for finding dead bodies). So which is it? One or all of them? Don’t members realise that these are all differently trained dogs?
So the next day I am driving along when I am overtaken by a white SUV marked “Police K9 Unit.” So do they already have dogs? If so, have they been illegal up to now without the legislation? Maybe they’re like the CCTV cameras, which can’t be used legally until legislation is passed into law.
Cruise ad
A friend sees a list of things to see and do in the VI, provided by a cruise ship passenger. One is “Fort Burt.” Why? Do they think it is a fort? No offence to the staff there, but it is a hotel and restaurant. There is absolutely no mention of the Old Government House museum. Yet all visitors who eventually find it (not many) say how impressed they are, and that it is a little gem. So why doesn’t the BVI Tourist Board meet with the ships and their agents to ensure that our attractions (meagre as they are) are covered? Why don’t they properly staff the folk museum in the former administration building, at least so that it is open on cruise ship days? Why is the 1780 Lower Estate Sugar Works Museum often not open and, when it is, often left unattended?
What happened to the idea of a tourist information office in the former administration building, with a big sign at the ferry terminal? Of course, after the long wait for customs and immigration, most tourists just want to get in their taxis and go to their hotels and boats as soon as possible. Oh yes, and the suggestion came from our expatriate acting chief planner, so that’s out then!
Cruise ship tourists resting recently in the J.R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens did not know of the Sugar Works museum just down the road. I pointed out that it was on their way back to the ship. Just what is the BVI Tourist Board being paid for?
I may be naïve, but there is something odd about the leaked 200 gigabytes of financial information in The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. The whole United States military information leak was contained in only two gigabytes. Reading carefully, the leaks are not all about the Virgin Islands, but about many tax havens, so the source of the leak might not be here.
Overseas media, and some governments, are paranoid about tax havens, and lap up all bad news emanating from them. I personally am not too worried about our situation and the way the government ensures the integrity of the system. That’s not to say some very suspicious transactions don’t go on, but they are small compared to the totality of the business. There is nothing inherently wrong in people managing their own money to their best advantage, and it is not necessarily to avoid paying tax in their home country.
Where would someone be able to collect, collate and pass on such a huge amount of information? I believe all trust companies and banks operate strict security procedures. I suppose a disgruntled employee or employees might be able to get the information, but so much, from so many sources, and so many countries? It seems unlikely. Mind you, it may frighten some people into moving their money or accounts from here, and possibly cause us a dip in business.
We do hear that the US is developing a huge machine to record all of our online information, e-mails, website visits and so on! Forever! Good luck to them, I say.
Is a fairly recent high-class development on a sister island financially viable? One hears that a number of bills remain unpaid.
Almost finally, government public relations. What a disaster! Can they expect the public to take them seriously? In the House of Assembly, minimal answers to Biwater questions from the member for the Third District, and removal of questions from the Order Paper concerning the pier project. Although not my favourite politician, Julian Fraser (R-D3) is right to attempt to get the questions and answers into the public domain, though he undoubtedly already knows the answers. And it’s a pity he was just as unforthcoming when his party was in power.
And finally, can someone stop that ice cream van that is still playing Christmas music very loudly on Sunday afternoons?