allsaintswestcommunity

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Those of us who are familiar with the Bible can recall the story where the disciples went fishing for a whole night and caught nothing. Morning came Jesus arrived and enquired about the nights events. They told him they had not met with any success. He then told them to cast their net on the “other side.” At first they protested that if they had caught nothing all nigh it was not likely that they would catch anything in the day, especially when they were so close to shore. anyhow they did as they were told, and caught more fish than they could handle. Now let us look at our situation in Antigua and Barbuda today, for years and years we have looked outside of Antigua and Barbuda for that “big investor”, who is going to take our land and in return develop the country. Yet twenty-six years after “independence” much of our land has been lost and “we have caught nothing.” We are still looking for some “Big Investor” to “develop” us. I think we need to “cast our net on the other side.” We should start to look within Antigua and Barbuda for our development. I believe that it is time for us, who are disrespectfully referred to as “The ordinary man in the street” to be given a chance to “develop” ourselves. As a start I suggest the government could give the tiny sum of one million dollars to the All Saints West Constituency. With which we could start a constituency bank. This could then be used to purchase and import one thousand computers which the community could in turn sell to the residents at a reasonable price of Fifteen Hundred Dollars. I suggest that at the beginning the bank should only finance computers, because I believe all the residents of the community should be given the opportunity to help decide how the bank should be managed and the internet is the best and most efficient way for us to communicate with each other. If the government is willing to “cast their net on the other side”, and do as I suggest I can assure them that by the end of 2008 everyone in the community who so desires would have a computer, and by January 2010 we could take over all our solid waste management. All for an investment of, not one hundred million dollars, just one million which would be just about .1% of next years budget. As I envision it the constituency would appoint a five person committee to oversee the bank. The Government would then place the million dollars in a commercial bank, if possible in an interest bearing account. Once the money is in place the computers would be ordered, perhaps two hundred in the first instance. This committee would interview persons and approve or reject applications for loans. Once a loan is approved the person would be given their computer in the constituency, but payment would be made at the commercial bank where the real cash would be located and because every transaction would be done on line we would have full transparency . One result of this policy would be that unlike the central government which conducts the peoples business locked away somewhere In some cabinet, the community bank would conduct all it’s business online for all to see. Another advantage that the bank would have is the residents of the community, the shareholders would receive no cash payments from the bank. What they would receive would be benefits. This would begin with a cleaner environment, but according to the success of the bank could expand to include even our roads. The shareholders could also decide what percentage of the profit should be reinvested, and how much should be used for social transformation                                                            

                                                                                                Rupert E. Henry     

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