The joy of politics

It is getting hot here, the rains are due sometime this month which will be a huge relief as finally the dust will die down somewhat and the leaves on the parched trees will start sprouting. Yesterday hit 33 degrees by midday which is something of a scorcher, although mercifully once the sun has gone down (about 7.30) the temperature drops to something more manageable.



It add some heat and spice to life here, politics got rather interesting recently. First, the Chief Minister (or the Premier as he likes to be known) was accused of rape and assault by an American citizen which means that the FBI are now involved in investigating the accusation. Provo being what it is, we first heard about this when a friend of ours called us from the supermarket because he'd heard from someone else. Before we knew it the entire island was buzzing with the gossip despite the fact that it wasn't officially 'news'. At 7pm that night, the news channel (only the one) broadcast an official statement from himself (The Hon. Dr Michael Misick...although his inability to speak coherently kinda indicates that the 'Dr' bit is from one of those on-line universities that gives you a PhD for reading 40 books, but I digress and am probably not doing my application for Permanent Residency any favours here either). Where was I? Oh, so he's accused on rape and appears on the TV that very night that the rumours emerge to refute them entirely. What is rather surprising about this is that, had it been a British Prime Minister he'd have actively denied the allegations but probably not in such a staged manner on TV. I guess it just shows the power of gossip on such a small island. Although it appears that he's about to wriggle out of going to court on the charge http://tcijournal.com/index.php?idsub=61&id=8



Just the week before he'd been on TV giving a 'eulogy' to the ex Speaker of the House who had just died. And the difference? For the 'eulogy' (to man on the opposition who reportedly he couldn't abide) he was unshaven, with an open shirt and stumbled and mumbled his way through the autocue. If I'd been her widow, I'd've been very insulted that the Chief Minister couldn't even shave and borrow a tie! Of course when he was defending himself he was looking very smart indeed and didn't fluff his lines once. In retrospect, it was probably not a eulogy, but can't think now what the correct term might be.



To add to the mess, last week also saw the meeting of LegCo (Legislative Council - the equiv. to the House of Commons). This only happens 4 times a year so you can imagine the pomp and attention the event receives. At this meeting of LegCo (not Legs and Co, although maybe that's where some of the erstwhile 'dancers' ended up....oops there goes another nail in my PR status!) the budget was at the forefront of the agenda. The government is seriously in debt ($38 million deficit and $6 million overdrawn...shared between 35,000 of us (of which only 11,000 are citizens)) and is desperately scrabbling around to raise money to get themselves out of a mess. They've upped business licence tax to the sort of levels that see off very small businesses (like the tiny eateries along the road side; the barber shops etc) and they've also slapped a high tax on wire transfers. And guess who uses wire transfers most? Yup, the legions of foreigners. At the moment we are hoping that this doesn't include wire transfers through Western Union which will clobber the thousands of Haitians, Dominicans, Colombians, Romanians, Filipinos etc that send their valuable dollars home.

So where does the debt come from in a country soooo small? Well, the Premier's spending habits were severely criticised (why on earth did he need to spend $1.2 million on jets when it only takes 30 mins to fly from Provo to Grand Turk - the seat of government? How on earth does shaving 15 mins off the flying time improve government?!?), it was acknowledged that the government is spending more and more on health care - particularly sending Turks Islanders overseas (Miami, Nassau, Kingston mostly) for health care not available on island. I haven't had chance to investigate the level of government debt, but I'd wager that with such a small population that's a fairly hefty burden each!

My status (as noted above) is still in the balance. As of yesterday I'm technically an alien (and an illegal one at that!), but having spoken to the head of immigration on Friday who said I didn't need to renew my tourist visa in advance of getting my permanent residency, I've done just that. Right now, I'm waiting for an interview, then they put my application before the board and then I get a PR stamp. And then in 5 years time I can apply to be a 'belonger' (ie a citizen).

Osh is doing well at school - although he and his other buddy (the only other white kid in the class) and far rowdier than their class mates and cause the teacher endless bother. Clearly, we are not beating Osh enough at home (which is how Turks Island parents control their children, apparently). He has just read 'Five go off to camp' from the front of his bed time story book which, despite it being a good while since he should have been asleep, makes me happy!

For further dirt (sorry, information) on government on these islands check out: http://tcijournal.com/index.php?idsub=62&id=8

Adventures with the Bennett family

Osh had only been back at school 2 days when his grandparents came to visit. Their first time here and their first time any where quite so foreign or tropical. We took them to Grand Turk for their first weekend, and then to North and Middle Caicos last Sunday. Grand Turk involved a 30 mins flight in a small plane, but for North and Middle we took the boat (45 mins) and then drove the new causeway between North and Middle.

Grand Turk is the capital and has a wealth of historic buildings, an excellent museum and other things to explore, population about 6,000. North and Middle Caicos are a whole other kettle of fish: North has a population of a couple of 1,000 whilst Middle has a population of about 600. Both are very unspoilt, isolated and seemingly lacking in any sort of employment, although clearly there are means of making a living to support the population. A new road has been tarmaced across both islands and the causeway built (until about a year ago the only means of getting between the two was on a boat) which kinda suggests that there are plans afoot for all that unspoilt real estate...watch this space.

Here are the Bennetts on the verandah of the museum (osh as the official photographer!)

And Nicky and Mum at the lighthouse on Grand Turk where we were greeted by a lovely Tanzanian woman who is employed as a caretaker there! And Osh on his big brother's crutches on North (Daniel did something unspeakable to his ankle about 2 weeks ago).

Here are the Bennetts and Turners in one of the caves on Middle Caicos. There are many caves on the island and this one has provided evidence of Lucayan occupation some 600+ years ago (30 years after Colombus arrived in the Turks he'd managed to wipe out the small, vulnerable Lucayan indians).

To cap Sunday's adventure off, we went out for dinner at the Tiki Hut on Provo and then I managed to just about write off the Prado on the way home....someone going considerably faster than I'd estimated appeared out of nowhere on the roundabout tearing the front off the Prado (Toyota Landcruiser) and bending the chassis and rendering his mustang undrivable. The Prado is now with Claudel who is the local Haitian miracle worker, so we've had the joy of driving to the beach in the poop trucks all week! It was my second car accident in a week, so I'm feeling pretty nervous about stepping out onto the highways where no one has indicators, rear view mirrors, no idea of what to do at a roundabout, no concept of speed limits and, with no means of testing, a de facto carte blanche on driving whilst under the influence.

oopsie!

No news in an age due to a stream of visitors, inertia on my part and erm, lots of other things going on too.

So, what have we been up to.

I baked hot cross buns on Good Friday - made the dough in the bread maker and then baked them in the oven. I couldn't find the stuff to make the crosses, so I did the X in red icing.














After Nicky got back from Miami he and Osh built a shutter for one of the side windows - mainly to keep out the sun but will also serve as a hurricane shutter in a few months time. Then, in order to make it easy to make shutters for the other two windows, we decided to extend the deck to under those windows too. Of course, now we have a lovely huge deck but haven't got around to making the other shutters yet!














We did a spot of gardening, but still haven't got around to getting some soil from the farm to put in my planters. The rainy season hasn't started yet, and I think it's best to wait for the rains before I plant anything. That said, my pineapple is growing (at least it hasn't died yet!). And here are some photos of the garden.


The pineapple is top left, then an air plant (one of many) top right, a path up the left hand side of the garden is bottom left and the magnificent cactus (about 6-7 feet tall) is bottom right.