One answer to why we are in such a pitiable financial condition can be seen, we believe, in the response of some Virgin Islanders to President Clinton's recent grant of debt forgiveness to many Third World countries.
On Radio One's Topp Talk, labor leader Luis "Tito" Morales called to lament the Third World nations getting "such a break," while the poor little Virgin Islands gets nothing, even though we are a U.S. territory.
Several senators and other officials have also whined about the president's nerve in helping those poor countries while ignoring our plight. Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole even went so far as to suggest the president wasn't forgiving our debts because we are a predominantly black territory. Perhaps he didn’t look at the list of countries whose debts are being forgiven.
The fact that we are a U.S. territory is just the point. As such, we have been afforded countless economic opportunities, free falls, technical aid and outright gifts that Third World countries have never imagined in their wildest dreams.
To put us in the same league with Haiti (or many other countries on the debt-forgiveness list) is simply egregious. Poor, beleaguered Haiti is bound in abject and seemingly endless poverty, violence and corruption. That seems to be its permanent state, no matter how many dictators, reforms, insurrections and elections its citizens go through.
If the V.I. populace had been willing to elect competent, courageous, conscientious leaders who truly cared about the island's future, we wouldn't be where we are now.
The U.S. has given these islands innumerable grants, assistance programs and emergency loans, to name just a few sources of federal funding. Yet many millions of dollars of those federal funds never get used because of gross mismanagement and bureaucratic indifference. If we want to lament something, lament that!
Greed, power struggles, nepotism, waste and dishonesty have helped get us where we are now, to say nothing of the arrogance of our elected officials in their imperious thinking and behavior. And the United States, in its well-meaning attempt to help us, has instead helped foster a sense of dependency and entitlement.
We are now bearing the bitter fruits of our past actions. It didn't start with this administration — Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James inherited a stacked deck. So did several administrations before them. Perhaps we have to go back to Cyril E. King to find a governor who had the knowledge, guts and vision needed to lead these islands effectively.
It is time for us to stop scrambling around looking for someone to save us, and to begin the tough, painful process of saving ourselves. We have the wherewithal to do it. Let’s get going.
