Veteran broadcaster Chester Connell says Hairouna (St Vincent) is at a critical juncture, and it has been so for almost 25 years.
Connell, speaking on Boom FM 106.9 on Tuesday, said this instability, this critical juncture to which the nation has come, began on December 8th, 1999, or at least took a deep dive.
“Our institutions in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are now in their imploding dysfunction, inimical to our daily development and antithetical to the eternal evolution of our progressing emancipation. In other words, everything that matters—every institution that matters in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—is in dysfunction, and we are regressing. We are going backwards, not towards the mental emancipation, the emancipation from mental slavery that Bob Marley talked about.”
Connell stated that it is crucial to understand the terms “critical juncture” and “institution” in their respective contexts.
“We may want to also keep in mind that the term, the name, the designation Hairouna is an endonym, a name that people give to themselves. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a name that comes from outside. We did not give ourselves that name. Someone from outside gave us that name. It is not of our making. This is also very important to understand: What you call yourself or what you are named has a direct effect on you and what you do.”
“When I say that Hairouna is at a critical juncture, I am specifically referring to the term critical juncture as it is used by academics to describe particular situations and moments that are uncertain and in which individuals, usually political persons, or it could be a section of a population, make decisions that put others, usually the rest of the nation, usually an entire nation, on a trajectory that one has inconceivably colossal consequences, either negative or positive, and it’s usually negative if it’s made by a political person, and to a trajectory that is very difficult to change.”
Connell said that the decision made in the Grand Beach Accord in April 2000 by then Prime Minister James Mitchell and the current Prime Minister placed the nation on a path dependence.
“Another decision to invite an ex-convict by the highest office in the land in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has put us in another critical juncture,” Connell said.
“The horrendous issue of a certain character, a gangster, being facilitated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines recently via the office, the highest office in the land of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Prime Minister’s Office, an office which is given to one person by the citizens of a particular country, in this case in St Vincent and the Grenadines, is not a plaything. It is supposedly a country, supposedly a nation, supposedly constituted. It seems that many do not understand the very simple, complex, but simple fact that the Constitution is not a piece of paper. The Constitution is, for all intents and purposes, the wishes of the polity, of the people, of the nation, the people. That is what everything is about in a country. It is not about the Prime Minister, the government, or the opposition.”
Connell said the constitution in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is not well. It is diseased. And in this context, the disease began some 25 years ago, so it is no mistake.
“It is no surprise that what is happening is that a gangster accused of horrendous crimes by his very own authority in his country has been allowed to enter Saint Vincent and the Grenadines like a Trojan horse? If you don’t know the story, look it up. It is a story of utter deception, of bringing a city down by trickery. And this is exactly what is happening in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. All the institutions in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines that are supposed to constitute the country that are supposed to build the nation are being broken down because Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was put into a position and was put on a path of dependence like a ship that was set on autopilot. The person who did it, knowing that the direction that ship was in wood, landed on the rocks.”
Connell went on to say that the nation’s institutions are completely in disarray.
“When I say institutions, I’m referring here to those facilities, physical or intangible, in our community that we inherit, that we create, or that we reshape to serve us.”
“These institutions include our judiciary, government, hospitals, parliament, the schools, our courts of law, the family, marriage, the media, and many others. These are all institutions. Some of them are tangible. Some of them are not. It is the existence or absence of these institutions, their stability or lack thereof. The strength or weakness of these institutions, and our respect or disrespect for their foundation building and essential roles in the maintenance of a fully functional society that determines whether a group can be identified or defined as a people or not, as a successful, prosperous nation, or alternatively, one that is extractive, broken, or poverty-stricken. And that is exactly where Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is at the moment. It is not a prosperous nation; it is not successful, and it is in fact broken and broke,” Connell stated.
