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NO POSITIVE LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENT

By: Dr. Charles Warner

The Unity government is embarking on a number of major projects and the general public is keenly interested and expectant.  Already the new pier is on its way and ground has been broken for the new modern Basseterre High School.  The Old Road Bay project is imminent and the road – island wide – is being resurfaced.

Considering all of this it raises the comparison of what was achieved under Douglasism.  The leaders who spent more than three (3) years at the helm have been Mr. Bradshaw, Dr Simmonds, Dr Douglas and now Dr Harris

It is thus interesting to look at the work of improvement of these gentlemen.  Many persons who today visit the R. L. B International Airport and see major airlines landing at the airport do not know how it all came about.

At the Conaree end of the runaway existed a big hill.  As Mark De First, said Mr. Bradshaw took dynamite and blow down a hill.  A major feat!  As a result the runaway was extended to take major jet planes.

In the case of our neighbour Antigua, there was already a US Base and Antigua is basically flat.  It thus shows a leader, facing a tremendous impediment but yet bent on achieving or succeeding  – proverbially, moving mountains!

No one can disagree, all consistent with the tourism thrust.  Come Dr Simmonds, we see another major feat.  Also against Mother Nature.  Dr Simmonds actually grew St. Kitts and Nevis by 25-30 acres of land.  While Mr. Bradshaw took on the mountain, Dr Simmonds took on the mighty sea.

Thus today we have Port Zante.  One cannot think of anywhere in the region where there is a spectacle like Port Zante.  Port Zante is like a modern, exotic town, an impressive front piece to Basseterre, to St. Kitts. 

Again to really grasp his feet or accomplishment it is good to compare Antigua.  Over there, there are protected inlets and bays, all sheltered.  Dr Simmonds, like Mr. Bradshaw, actually took in the forces of nature to make Port Zante a reality.  A remarkable and visionary achievement.

Bradshaw, Simmonds, then there came Denzil Douglas.  It must be noted that the two former leaders were able to tame and control the all-consuming beast of the sugar industry.  Denzil Douglas brought its collapse, over his dead body.

What were Dr Douglas’s major achievements for his 20 years of leading St. Kitts and Nevis?   Or what is/was that one major accomplishment?

Instead, we have a trail or litany of failures and wastage.  For sure he could not deliver the new pier as he promised.

The record of Dr Douglas will show that White Gate took millions, never materialised, and remains one of St. Kitts and Nevis most expensive fables.  Atlantis, known as the lost city, implies that it once existed.  Even recreated in New Providence in the Bahamas.  The White Gate of Dr Douglas never came to be.

In fact its conception, planning had evil intent; to counter and destroy the vision of Port Zante, the brain child of Dr Simmonds.  Small wonder it still birth.

La Vallee is also another of Douglas’s major failures, some 350 million dollars, one round of golf that Dr Douglas said he played, a generator, desalination plant and a fence.  Today grass, bush, shrub;a stain on the landmark. 

Dr Douglas then comes with Christophe Harbour and Buddy Darby.  Into which, along with the Kittitian Hill, he pumped millions of SIDF money.  By the time the country was relieved of his failures and incompetence there was nothing for St. Kitts and Nevis people to materially hold on to, despite the millions of public money.

The present Unity government now has to recalibrate and reorganise Christophe Harbour and the SIDF.  Dr Douglas failed at many major projects and/or left others.

The whole matter of the Dominican passport, an issue now in court, is really a betrayal of the State, the likes of which never took place with any other leader.  Frankly, this is an act of treason.  It distinguished Dr Douglas as similar to a traitor.

Among the other persons who have led St. Kitts and Nevis for at least 5 years, Dr Douglas pales.  He comes out as resembling a traitor, betraying St. Kitts and Nevis for the benefit of another State.