Antigua Minister of Tourism Lovell reacted to the murder and assault on two British tourists by immediately saying the country needs to crack down on Immigrants, by making immigration policies stricter and adding more bureaucracy to the process for visitors from other Caribbean Nations.
While the police admitted no clue as the identity of the perpetrators, Mr. Lovell was busy covering the goverment’s deriliction of duty by convicting outsiders of the crime, on day one!
Lovell’s comments on yesterday’s TV broadcast exemplified the truth about a pervasive refusal to take responsibility on the part of the Antiguan government, for conditions which exist today in Antigua.
Outsiders are to blame for every ill the nation faces. Antiguan xenophobia shows its ugly head again and again when there is a public crisis, such as the current lack of crime prevention, and the complete breakdown of a nearly non-existent criminal justice system.
Lovell’s attempt to shift the blame for the Antiguan condition, includes the idea of requiring a police record for entry and exit by other Caribbean Nationals. And yet all Foreign Nationals requesting the Antiguan police report, using the Antiguan drivers license for positive ID are refused! Antiguans using the same form of ID are granted their police check form. What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander!
Antigua has neither complied with, nor acted in the cooperative spirit of recent Cari-com agreements they have signed, such as free movement of Cari- com Nationals between islands. Instead they continue their refusal to accept responsibility for what their nation has become, the total dysfunction of their customs and justice systems , both of which are riddled with corruption, mismanagement, and a general lack of regard for the conditions they have created for the public at large.
Instead of accepting responsibility for the conditions which allowed this heinous murder to take place at Coco Beach Resort, Mr Lovell now threatens the public by saying anyone who “overreacts” to this muder is “guilty of doing the nation grievous financial harm”. Newsflash Mr. Lovell; any grievous financial harm is a direct result of Antigua’s refusal to accept responsibility, and failure of the government to provide anything remotely resembling a working Criminal Justice system! Reporting the truth about fear, intimidation, corruption and incompetency, does not create it!
I suggest Antiguan government leaders such as Mr. Lovell will not have to modify immigration policy if they continue to be derelict in providing basic services to the people of Antigua they are elected to provide, such as a working Criminal Justice System, roads, electricity, water, and such other basic services the people cannot provide for themselves. There will be no need to worry about immigration because no one will come to an island where fear, supression of free speech, intimidation, and xenophobia rule.
“The Truth Shall Set You Free”
Mokenman
August 4, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Leading from the front
Mr. Lovell hit the nail squarely on the head. Anyone who cares to can read any edition of the Antigua Sun and find it replete with one type of foreigner after another arrested or convicted of some crime from armed robbery to murder, facts are facts. Within the last week a band of Jamaican “security guards” were arrested for robbing the hotel that employed them. Another Jamaican was convicted of fraudulently obtaining an Antiguan passport and attempting to enter the UK with the help of an opposition MP, and a Dominican who is a police officer in Antigua was convicted of trying to import drugs into the country. Although the identities of the culprits of this double murder are not known, the reason for the overall increase in crime is indisputable. I only hope that this unconscionable act of barbarism will force the current administration to correct the treasonous policies of the ALP.
August 21, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I wonder how PLM and Mr. Lovell are going to set up new immigration policy to stop the Antiguans living in Gray’s Farm or Golden Grove, from selling drugs and committing murders?
Just plain stupidity is all you can call it.
Go on blaming the Jamaicans!
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, in spite of the knowledge it is hurting you!
Mokenman
August 25, 2008 at 7:14 am
Deporting the foreign underclass will reduce the crime rate by 60%. After we have stopped the flow of foreign criminals into the country, then we can address the local vermin.