Peter_NJ
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 970
Loc: The Beach
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well,its not just the thugs shooting the thugs over turf wars and drugs anymore...americans are now getting hit..two elderly americans were the targets of armed masked men in a home invasion robbery..they both were shot in the chest..they will survive,thank god.. they were on vacation over the hoidays,in a villa on rondy bay...this happened two days ago...i saw this coming 7 years ago,when i got rid of my cottage in sandy ground...also,a night earlier,a local was shot dead,in a gunfight...all those 5 mill villas are gonna get empty pretty quick
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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But that is impossible. I just read an article that said "poseurs go to St Barth while REAL money goes to Anguilla".
Are these locals or gastarbeiters (foreign workers brought in to serve the construction boom) causing all the mischief?
I think the old day of expecting the youth to lay about the beach as Boat Boys serving the sailing crowd or fetching drinks all the while being cheerful and Awe Shucks Charming are over. These "natives" (actually, transplants from Africa, but let us not quibble) now live in a global world. They can watch footsball, bassetball and MTV just like the rest of us.
The Good Old (semi-colonial) Days of Happy Little Barefoot Natives appear to be coming to an end. EVERY island better either embrace the fact that you really do have to deal with 21st century issues of education, guns, drugs, poverty, illegitimacy and what have you, or expect all these places to become not the Next St Barts, but The Next Haiti.
People have laffed when I have written this but I shall write it again: I think those Less Than Desirable Islands who have ALREADY read the handwriting on the wall and are trying to DO SOMETHING about it (read: St Croix here) have a philosophical leg up on the rest.
Education, jobs, skills training and more vigorous police forces. Yes, it may ruin the quaint Awe Shucks Caribbean we colonialists have long enjoyed. But this is the 21st century.
Thank goodness we in this site dont visit the caribbean. We visit France, slightly detached from the metropole.
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Peter_NJ
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 970
Loc: The Beach
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IV,i cant believe whats happened to tranquility rapped in blue(axa)..i remember along time ago,a local friend of mine said,the day cable tv came on island,was the beginning of the end...harsh yes,but not that far off...the young boy who was just killed,was anguillian..they havent caught the shooter yet...as for the home invasion robbery,they too are still on the loose..i do know for a fact,that all the young gangsters are from local villages...its a real old fashioned turf war going on..kids from the valley,are shooting kds from east end,ect....its out of control.. all over turf,and drugs..they all wanna be fitty cent and snoop dog..i hope the rap community is proud...of course bad parenting and proper education is also at fault..
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andynap
Reged: 10/24/02
Posts: 12130
Loc: Philadelphia
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They need some talking to from Bill Cosby- after he comes on to some of the local lovelies first.
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Andy -
St. Barts- where no day is ever the same and one day is not enough
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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This is the type of stuff that chased andynap and miker from St Croix, for good reason. Since then, STX has begun to try to do something about it.
Alas, this is becoming pervasive. Even St John has had several "issues" of late.
We can bury our heads in the sand and blame cruise ships or condos. But the real culprit is that folks now see things over the horizon and realize that it is a big world out there and they are part of it.
Back In The Day, a fellow could mill about the beach all day long, perhaps catch some fish, maybe sell some limes or coconuts to boaters or just sort of subsist off the island and its bounty. That is detached from reality now. The youth of the islands are looking for SOMETHING. And here is where I will get tarred and feathered as being "polyanna" but I have to say it. Education and opportunity and all those "awful things that ruin these friendly little colonies" are absolute musts now. A future filled with milling about the beach, catching fish and retrieving coconuts for boaters just doesn't cut it now that MTV and The Movie Channel have invaded the caribbean.
I think a place like St Croix which was bloodily ripped out of its naive slumber a generation before some of these "better" islands actually has a head start in working some of these problems because they have identified them as problems.
Would I love to drift ashore in some friendly little watering hole where locals pulled my boat up to the palm tree and laffed and danced while they served me coconut rhum? Sure. But those days are over. Cruise ships didn't end them. Rap did not even end them, not by itself. What ended them was when a group of folks woke up one day and decided they didn't want to be Quaint Little Tourist Amusements anymore.
Wow. Go figure.
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andynap
Reged: 10/24/02
Posts: 12130
Loc: Philadelphia
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I'll tell you my view of Anguilla- stark poverty in the interior- and untold riches on the coast. Just the right mix for a revolution. When we go to Anguilla we go to Scilly Cay which is on the northeast coast thereby taking us thru the interior of the island to get there. Many goats, run-down shacks and little kids with dirty clothes. Sounds familiar- like a lot of places but those kids have nowhere to go on such a small island. Have them build another Robert Trent Jones golf course and rub it in the faces of those looking in from the outside and see how much anger it generates.
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Andy -
St. Barts- where no day is ever the same and one day is not enough
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Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15725
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
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Quote:
This is the type of stuff that chased andynap and miker from St Croix, for good reason. Since then, STX has begun to try to do something about it.
Alas, this is becoming pervasive. Even St John has had several "issues" of late.
We can bury our heads in the sand and blame cruise ships or condos. But the real culprit is that folks now see things over the horizon and realize that it is a big world out there and they are part of it.
Back In The Day, a fellow could mill about the beach all day long, perhaps catch some fish, maybe sell some limes or coconuts to boaters or just sort of subsist off the island and its bounty. That is detached from reality now. The youth of the islands are looking for SOMETHING. And here is where I will get tarred and feathered as being "polyanna" but I have to say it. Education and opportunity and all those "awful things that ruin these friendly little colonies" are absolute musts now. A future filled with milling about the beach, catching fish and retrieving coconuts for boaters just doesn't cut it now that MTV and The Movie Channel have invaded the caribbean.
I think a place like St Croix which was bloodily ripped out of its naive slumber a generation before some of these "better" islands actually has a head start in working some of these problems because they have identified them as problems.
Would I love to drift ashore in some friendly little watering hole where locals pulled my boat up to the palm tree and laffed and danced while they served me coconut rhum? Sure. But those days are over. Cruise ships didn't end them. Rap did not even end them, not by itself. What ended them was when a group of folks woke up one day and decided they didn't want to be Quaint Little Tourist Amusements anymore.
Wow. Go figure.
it didn't "chase" me at all..my work project was over and among many things I discovered while living in St Croix.....was a beautiful and unspoiled St Barts....so off I went
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karma is a beautiful thing at times
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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Miker: Thanks for the correction.
Andynap: I grew up in a third world country. If you folks never saw rural south carolina in the sixties, then you folks dont know what I mean. Remarkably enough, with education and opportunities, even Po Folks clean up good sometimes.
Of course, we could do nothing and just let things pursue their own course. Education and opportunity are the great innoculums against poverty and crime. The fact that not everyone will respond to the medicine does not negate the power of the medicine itself.
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Petri
Reged: 01/19/04
Posts: 1297
Loc: Helsinki, Finland
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We have been to Anguilla four times over the last five years. I don't know if we will go again because of the influence of money and americans.
The beaches are still great, better than e.g. St Barth, but
- we currently have an excellent favourite for accomodation over christmas and new year (Paradise Cove) but if all hotels are overpriced Cap Juluca's and overpriced villas, there's little left for the rest. I think every island should have a decent mix of accomodation options.
- the food is getting overpriced, a typical three course meal with wine for two will set for $200-$250. For excellent meal that would be fine but if the price is the same everywhere and you'll get always the same grilled fish, coleslaw and some other stuff, it's no good. Funny though, that's exaclty what a good meal in the US costs as well. We have a few top restaurants left to try but right now I can only list one restaurant in Anguilla worth visiting: Trattoria Tramonto.
- we ate out most of the days for 1.5 weeks and only a few times we actually felt that the restaurant staff was doing a job they want to do. Sometimes it was fine as a service but totally soulless, "we just work here".
- a good indication where the country is going is on the road. Now you can see tuned japanese cars, driving ridiculous fast on the only road on the island. You can see huge pickup trucks. I feel one is more likely to have an accident driving in Anguilla than e.g. in Saba, St. Martin or St. Barth.
- a majority of the tourists are from the US. This will influence how the locals behave and how services are offered, how much of the friendliness is real and so on. If we want to go to the US, we'll go there. We would rather see Anguilla as Anguilla, not as an US island. A good mix of tourists is better to keep the local culture alive and less influenced.
St. Regis, the new golf course, all the 5+ bedroom super expensive villas, the huge resort being built around Barnes Bay and Med's bay -- all these may work for christmas, new year and other peaks of the high season but will that be enough business? Are all the supporting services and businesses, that are supposed to keep the local economy up and running, fine with such a short time business season?
If majority of the accomodation is for the rich or super rich, you will also see increased crime as the gap between the locals and the tourists is so huge. When you have a decent mix of tourists, or the tourist industry has gradually developed and supported the local economy as well, the gap is much smaller.
Of the smaller things, Anguilla has now moved to a charging scheme where there's an automatic 15% service charge included. I'm not very comfortable with these mandatory tips. You tip for extra-ordinary service, otherwise just include it in the price. After Anguilla, St. Barth felt less expensive and much more value for the money.
It's a pity as we have met a lot of nice, charming people during our stays.
Petri
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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This actually does me a great service. I have the (mis)fortune of having discovered St Barts early in my Caribbean Pirating Days. As such, I am trying to limit the number of Other Islands that I explore, given that any excess marauding I do cuts into St Barts time.
Anguilla WAS a Must Visit Island - a few years ago. But if it is quickly becoming The Next St Barts on its way to The Next Bermuda or The Next Nassau, then I can skip it.
So one more is clicked off the list leaving St John, Martinique, Mustique, Les Saintes and perhaps a couple more.
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andynap
Reged: 10/24/02
Posts: 12130
Loc: Philadelphia
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You and I are getting killed on the Anguilla website. Threats and all. They don't like my perception.
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Andy -
St. Barts- where no day is ever the same and one day is not enough
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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I actually came about a phonecall away from buying property on AXA and would have done so were it not for The Dreaded Development Clause that is in place on a lot of British islands (such as Nevis and the BVI). This clause says that if you buy unimproved land, you must develop it in short order (start in a couple of years or so) or pay a hefty fine. Were it not for that clause, I would probably own a piece of Anguilla land today.
I think AXA has a LOT of appeal. I am a little concerned about the magnitude of some of the plans they have announced given the small population of the island. But I imagine that people have studied these issues and are making good choices.
Glad to see such passion about AXA because it is clearly an island with a lot going for it. I am not a big detractor of AXA. I prefer SBH for a variety of reasons having to do with SBH. But none of that is a dismissal of AXA which can stand on its own merits.
Geez. Did not intend to cause an international incident here. LOL.
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