British helping or taking advantage of Turks and Caicos?

The culture clash in Turks and Caicos has grown to a frenzy. I dare not comment in public about my political views because there will undoubtedly be someone, somewhere who will angrily disagree. It will cause arguments and finger pointing of allegiances.

It has been a fairly grim atmosphere these last few months since the British took our constitution and took direct rule.

I am of the large but silent population who believes in Michael Misick [former Premier of Turks and Caicos who was accused of corruption]. I do not say this in public anymore because of the consistent efforts to undermine my opinion. I am not sure if people here are brain washed that Michael Misick is corrupt or if they are politically motivated to say so. There is also the unfortunate problem that we all like our gossip here and exaggerations are common.

I know that this opinion will get hate mail. I do not work for Michael Misick and I do not know him and I am not getting paid by him, etc.

My opinion is that Michael Misick was a BIG thinker. When I say BIG I don't mean deep, I mean BIG time. I think that he saw TCI's [Turks and Caicos] top commodity as tourism, which he took very seriously. He then realised that he had limited physical property to promote tourism to its full potential. He had the mind to think that he needed top quality and top dollar tourism developments for uber high-end clientele to make the most of the tourism industry. That was his vision. That was his personal contribution to TCI.

Now I am not saying that Michael Misick was doing it for TCI Belonger jobs or Belonger betterment. In fact, I will concede that he probably did it for his own image mostly and desire for success. However, that does not negate the fact that most everything that Michael Misick did was to promote a luxury destination.

Michael Misick had to look and act the part in order to gain credibility to bring in the extremely fancy 5 star resorts such as Nikki Beach and many others that he brought. In fact, Michael Misick was in the middle of an extremely large deal with the royalty of United Arab Emirates wherein his wheeling and dealing cache was a private plane and other appearances of success.

Do I believe that he took it too far and received added benefits for this vision? Sure. However, it is clear that Michael Misick was trying to create the hottest destination for celebrities and uber wealthy. He is quoted as saying that he wanted to create the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean with all of the bling.

And, whether you like Michael Misick or not, he did turn a little scuba enthusiast destination into a high-end luxury holiday destination creating a frenzy among the Hollywood elite and billion dollar CEOs. For better or worse, Turks and Caicos became a posh and luxe destination.

The atmosphere in Turks and Caicos now has turned to gray. With many of the developments closed and Belongers out of work, there is a cloud. I recently read a story about a man and his family trying to save his home from bulldozers that had come to tear down his home based on claims by the British that he was on Crown land and should not have built it. The family is now homeless despite their physical efforts to stop the bulldozers. The father is an out of work electrician.

This is the kind of stuff that is going on in Turks and Caicos now. Taxes are being raised by the British, they are imposing fees everywhere, taking away benefits historically afforded to us for the high cost of living. People are unhappy about the British take over and then its failure to properly represent us. In fact, I am not certain where that revenue from tourism is going whilst they tax us for the deficit.

The problem here is that those certain people of Turks and Caicos that welcomed the British to take our self government, they failed to realise that governance was taken from someone who was not that bad and given to someone who is not that good.

This was a deep mistake by our people, those who thought the British would bail us out. Nobody thought this through. It was a coup to bring down Michael Misick and it was completely unnecessary in my opinion.

If anyone believed that Michael Misick was mismanaging something or doing something wrong, there were far better remedies available than what we face now. We could have worked this out as a nation. Instead we look like little children and now sovereignty is not right around the corner as it once was. We took a giant step backwards.

** By: LW, a Belonger of Turks and Caicos. He is an educated professional in Provodenciales.

http://TCIwatch.com