‘Thedolphinshave beentreatedbetter thanthepoorhere’
NOT FAR from the marinas on Tortola, where wealthy sailors have made the British Virgin Islands one of the biggest bases for yachting in the Caribbean, is a place where few tourists venture.
Known as Long Look — African slaves shipped here to work on sugar plantations were said to look out and wistfully face the continent of their home — this district is a world away from the brochures extolling the beauties of these islands, which are a territory of the Crown.
While British politicians have spoken about their efforts to help these islands after Hurricane Irma struck with such devastating force more than three weeks ago, the people of Long Look are growing angry. There is little food or shelter, and the situation is getting worse by the day.
At the stoop, a communal seating area in Long Look, groups of young men and women were sitting around drinking rum from a bar they had set up on a wall.
‘We don’t want it to come to violence,’ said Ricky, a well-known local character. ‘But if we don’t get food one way, we will get it another way.’
As I walked through Long Look, an irate elderly woman shouted at me from to come over to her house.
A neatly dressed grandmother, her name was Yasmine Hilton and she was not happy. ‘ We haven’t got anything,’ she told me. ‘There is food being brought in, but we are not seeing anything. No water — no nothing. We don’t have stuff to eat.’
Sitting on their porch in this impoverished area, Bobby and Seeme, a cheerful couple who’ve lived here for years, told me they had seen no outside help nor deliveries of water since the hurricane hit and damaged or destroyed the majority of the houses and boats on the island.
‘There’s no water, we have got no food, there is no electricity,’ Bobby told me. ‘ The British Army is doing their best to fix things. But where’s the food? The rich people are doing well and we are not even eating.’
At Rudy’s rum bar, another haunt popular with locals, a man called Grady told me his house was ‘ gone’ and that he had been forced to sleep in his car since Irma swept through.
Another local, named Pet Trim, and her 11-year-old daughter Megan, told me they were forced to run from one house, which had its roof ripped off in the high winds, to another, only to see its roof fly off into the sky as well. It was, they said, utterly terrifying. In the end, they were forced to shelter in an abandoned car. They have lived in the vehicle ever since.
‘We are not looking for steak,’ Pet told me. ‘We need dried food, water, toilet paper, garbage bags and disinfectant — that’s all.’
While Hurricane Irma may have passed, along with Hurricane Maria which followed it a few days later, there are other troubles brewing on these shattered islands.
For some, gratitude that their lives have been spared is turning to anger over the uneven distribution of aid. All this is fuelling a toxic — and possibly incendiary — mood among some sectors of the population.
In turn, the shortage of aid — and people to distribute it — has led to the cynical practice of ‘gouging’, with shops trebling prices for some essentials such as water and rice.
Even the dolphins at one local sealife resort were treated better than the poorest here. The animals were flown to Jamaica by private charter three days after the hurricane. While they were being airlifted to safety, British passport holders were left to fend for themselves. One local man, born on the island to English parents, told me how it took more than two weeks to get his mother and father off Tortola, and how they — like many other Britons — were forced to club together to charter private aircraft for huge sums to get the elderly, ill and children to safety.
Indeed, whatever the politicians claim for the success of operations in the British Virgin Islands, many poor local people here do not share that enthusiasm, with some even warning of looming social unrest if more help does not come soon. ONE
problem is that, scandalously, these desperate people cannot be helped using cash from Britain’s vast foreign aid budget of £13 billion.
Why? Because the islands are, apparently, too rich to qualify for foreign aid. This is according to criteria for overseas development assistance, enshrined in UK law, which are set internationally by the Paris- based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
This does not mean Britain has abandoned the islands, where the Queen is the head of state. But aid funds have had to be found from the hard-pressed coffers of the Treasury, instead of bloated overseas aid funds.
So far, £57m has been pledged to help islands including the British Overseas Territories of BVI, Anguilla, and Turks & Caicos. Nearby Dominica is getting £5million.
The fact is, though, that the gross domestic product of the BVI — the benchmark which says they are too well off for foreign aid — is falsely boosted by the presence of billionaires such as Larry Page, the founder of Google, and Richard Branson, not to mention the billions hidden in special offshore accounts with low tax rates that have made these islands a hub of global finance.
For all the rich and famous residents — film star Morgan Freeman is among those whose boat is normally moored here — there is an underclass of almost one in four who live on not much more than 100 dollars a month.
And it is these people who are paying the price for the lack of food and water, despite the heroic efforts of British soldiers, who have been welcomed as saviours by local people.
At one local bar, Elrick Collinswood, a fisherman, told me: ‘The whole island is gone — and my boat and my house have gone. We need more help — when is everyone going to come?’
At a shelter for those made homeless, young and old were sleeping side by side in an old sports hall, living off food donated by local people and businesses.
One sad old soul — a gnarled fisherman called Elweed — started weeping when I asked him about his losses. ‘My boat is gone and my house doesn’t exist any more,’ he said. ‘Will you build me a home if I can find some land?’ Others are openly angry. A young man called Christian came over and laughed bitterly