24 Hours in Antigua

For a tourist (with a lot of money), Antigua might be the perfect spot. White, long beaches, ridicolously expensive resorts with background-checked staff and no exposure to local issues. A traveler would have a different time though. Antigua is crowded, has quite a lot of crime, boatloads of tourists, and according to a local Rasta in Dominica, there’s lots of people with evil intent. I arrived there on March 31, and departed the next day. I won’t be going back if I can help it.

However, 24 hours in Antigua gave me some insight in the local political process. That part of the story started something like this:

“Sun beatin’ on ya”, Mr Josiah said. “Get in the car”. I was walking from my guest house to the city along the local roads, and it was anything but cold. Mr Josiah and his wife drove by on the way to St. John’s, my destination, and wouldn’t be the ones to leave the pale-looking traveler out on the streets to fry. They set me off at a local bar so I could get a beer and some food.

“Good choice for you to come here”, Mr Josiah uttered as I left the car. “It’s interesting here today”. I didn’t understand what he meant until I spoke to Sid.

Every local bar has this guy. He’s the one coming buy almost every day, courting the women, playing with the kids, drinking the beer and having the time of his life. In this place, on this street, that man was Sid. He talked about the recent day’s events as if I’d been born and raised on Antigua, until he understood I didn’t know anything. It helped a little, but the media coverage gave the greatest insight of the facts – whereas Sid gave the greatest insight of the people’s thoughts and feelings.

What had happened was that the Court of First Instance had invalidated the 2009 election in three parliamentary districts. These three districts opened one hour late, which was aberration enough to bring on a new election. Media described this as the worst possible time for the UPP, the ruling party, to have a new election, while UPP representatives were certain they would win the seats again. One seat lost would lose them the majority rule. Big deal? Probably not. But in a society with trying economic times, as Sid described it (which resulted in less partying, he said), anything that might bring on some change was seen as a big deal. Also, there were allegations of bribery that could not be proven in court.

Many locals, almost certainly people who voted for the opposition, treated the ruling as an implication of corruption rather than incompetence. Many were celebrating in the streets. Word on the street was that the island was one bad bottle of tequila away from outright revolution, and would most certainly had been the result if police had intervened in celebrations. They didn’t.

Antigua’s Attorney General, along with most media and other officials, said the events were unprecented, but not critical. On April 8th, there will be public demonstrations in Antigua. I wonder if that statement holds after that. Sid will be there. I will not.

—

Postscript: The one great thing about Antigua was Susie’s Hot Sauce. I’ll never forget it. It might even have been better than Dave’s.

Read the full story