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by pltm
(PLTM) - The BVI is slipping into a form of slavery orchestrated by its mother country, the United Kingdom (UK), which wants the Overseas Territory to operate as prostitutes during this time of need, as it struggles to recovery from Hurricane Irma. This is according to Health Minister, Hon. Ronnie Skelton.
Hon. Skelton, who is no stranger to expressing strong views about the relationship between the BVI and the UK, said that what the UK needs to do is to build schools, police stations and roads.
He pointed out that the BVI does not want to hold their money, but want to see them do something meaningful which the people can touch and feel.
“…Here it is before they come in and say lets build schools and hand the keys over to the minister of education. But they have no interest in doing these stuff and this is what bothers me…We got secondary high schools from the Canadians,” he said in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, December 20.
Hon. Skelton is against the reportedly stringent measures attached to millions in loan guarantees which the UK government has offered the BVI for its rebuilding efforts.
“And no one wants to give us money because we supposed to be under the British and they are supposed to assist us. It is becoming a problem and it is making us look like we are prostituting ourselves because we (are) in a bad way and we need funding and we need to help build our country. This is sad. To get a few dollars we have to agree with every single thing…,” the Minister bemoaned.
He added, “This cannot continue. It’s making you feel that they are taking over our country; that we are going backward. Instead of physical slavery we are going back into economic slavery.”
The At Large Representative said while he understands the need for collective responsibility, the UK should operate differently, and offer the BVI proper help.
“…But they have not given us something that the people can feel. Fix the schools, build a police station, build something that we can touch but all they are saying is that we are a rich country and the British tax payers (money) cannot go to our country,” the Minister reemphasized.
He continued, “I think this is disgraceful and everybody all about giving people hundreds of million dollars to do nothing, and we have a need. I don’t want to deal with your money, just go and do the things to help us fix the schools…You use the money and build the roads so that you know that we did not take any of it to do anything else.”
Hon. Skelton noted that the irony of the situation is that the monies borrowed will have to be paid back by the people of the BVI, yet the UK wants to control it.
The Health Minister reminded residents that the BVI took close to 50 years to build and it was not done with any assistance from the UK.
“We had nothing, today we have built this country not with the help of the British. As far as I am aware the British was a stumbling block for us. Now we were hit by hurricanes, it is true that we made some mistakes. All countries make mistakes…,” he asserted.
