We hear politicians, ministers of religion, business owners and many others refer to this territory as a Christian community. Those of us who read the Bible have read the conversation between Jesus and his disciples when he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” After they answered him, he asked, “Who do you say I am?”
This territory is now at a junction in its history (and has been for some time) where many people are asking, “Who are we?”
Because of the fact that our history was not taught in school for many years (and very little is being taught now) many people were born, educated, lived, contributed to this territory and died never even knowing the name of their homeland. This is also true for many who are still alive, including some expatriates and some of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit us yearly. How many of you reading this article honestly and sincerely believe that our people are being respected by those who knowingly, wilfully and intentionally refuse to take action to have this corrected?
I can remember when I was going to school and after school not only growing up but being raised by parents and others who cared about you and the community in which everyone lived. You were told, “When you know better, you do better.” Virgin Islanders were a respected and respectful, hardworking, honest, reliable, dependable people — a people of integrity and pride; a united people and a strong “Christian” community. Today, with so many people from so many countries who are Christians, non-Christians and non-believers, the question of who we are is now relevant.
Respect, hard work
As children, we were taught to greet others politely and with respect by saying good morning, good afternoon and good night. We were taught to address the older folks as Mr., Mrs. or Miss. While many still use these terms today, it is now more a formality than respect.
Virgin Islanders were also a hardworking people — those before me and those I grew up with and knew, whether in town or from out of town. Some of us remember market days, export days and the building of homes. It was hard work farming as we had no machinery; it was hard work fishing as we only had sailing boats or rowing boats. It was hard work in export and import, especially in the loading and unloading of cargo, as most of this was done by manpower. Employers worked hard to give their customers good merchandise and good service. Employees worked hard to do their job to the best of their ability.
No banks
In the early days of my life, we had no commercial banks in this territory and there were two of many issues that we had to deal with: importation and exportation. These required the sending of thousands of dollars each week to St. Thomas. I say this because while we imported a large quantity of products from some of the islands, most of the imports came from St. Thomas and the mainland United States. Because we had no banks here, the business owners here were required to make payments by bank draft at the time. Having to do this required the merchants giving cash money to the captain of whatever boat was going to St. Thomas to pick up their shipment to make payment at the bank, collect the documents, and then proceed to the West Indian company dock to collect all shipments. In regards to Antigua and St. Kitts, in many instances the captains would be given cash to purchase the items for the business owners and I never one day heard anyone say they were ever cheated or robbed.
Dependable and moral
Virgin Islanders were dependable. If they told you they were going to do something, they did — unlike today where we have all kinds of communication and people make all kinds of promises, yet you never ever hear from them in many instances.
Integrity and morals are closely related, and I find that a large percentage of people, especially many politicians and other influential individuals, have no idea of the importance of these. I suggest they read the book Against the Tide by Noel Brown, an Irish politician.
While pride can be either positive or negative, we had pride in the way we loved one another; the way we kept the territory, our homes, our town and our villages; the way we interacted with each other; and the way we worked together. For these reasons, expatriates and visitors admired and respected us.
We were a united people, and two examples of that were when Theodolph Faulkner, Glanville Fonseca and Carlton de Castro were able to organise the 1949 march and Walter de Castro, Noel Lloyd and others organised the Positive Action Movement in the 1960s. Today, because of the modern-day politicians and political parties, we now have a very divisive people. Today, it is all about “What’s in it for me?” It’s “I and me” — no longer “we and us.”
The VI’s real name
What’s worse is that many of us don’t know the name of the territory and many of those who do know don’t give a damn. Yet all of those who do not care about our name went to great lengths in many instances to find some unique names for their own children and businesses. Until the United Kingdom changes our name, it’s the Virgin Islands and we are Virgin Islanders.