Stateside

There is a really good book out called "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo which takes place in Mumbai. The book's author spends years frequenting a slum by the international airport. Without interfering in anyone's lives she is able to develop an intimate feeling for each occupant and writes about them with the intensity of a fictionalized novel.

This morning i was sitting at an apartment , very early in the morning in a big city trying to figure out what birds were calling to each other. They had awakened me at the crack of dawn and i wanted to know who they were. Binoculars in hand i scanned the available trees(three), power lines, and chimney tops. Birds flew in and out of my field of view and i ticked off the ones i knew and looked up the ones i didn't. i drank my tea, watched squirrels, listened for birds and waited for the rest of the house to wake up.

After observing for about 15 minutes i saw an Asian man approach a pile of garbage that had been stacked out on the street for the morning pickup. He was clean, thin, medium height, closely cropped hair, wearing brown trousers and a brown shirt, he looked like he could be anyone from the neighborhood putting out their garbage and was pushing a cart filled with stuff that looked like he was getting rid of.

i watched out of curiosity as he took a large full plastic bag off the cart and walked over to the pile. Instead of throwing it on the pile he placed it on the sidewalk away from the pile and walked across the street to a set of blue garbage cans that were lined up. He opened the lid of the first one and took out a small plastic bag that was maybe 1/3 full. He kept doing this emptying the bags and putting them aside. He emptied the contents back into the bin then kept picking through the can.

I thought he had hit a gold mine. Aluminum cans that had been placed back in their cardboard containers came out in threes, fours and fives. He unloaded the cans into the plastic bags he had emptied and kept picking. Bottles came out too so he walked back across the street and got his cart to move it closer to the bins. He methodically laid the bottles on their sides in the main part of the cart and stuffed the extra plastic bags into a box he had hanging off the side.

He went through every trash can on the street, kicked bags lying on the ground to see if they needed going through and methodically worked his way up the block. He had a spritzer bottle filled with something liquid and a towel that he cleaned his hands with. If i hadn't watched him picking through the garbage i would have thought he was a resident.

Trash picking, politics, caste systems, death and life all are brought to the surface in Boo's amazing piece of work. Reading a book like that about India divorces you from the reality that some of these same types of occupational endeavors are going on daily in our own country. We tend to close our eyes to the realities that many homeless endure on a daily basis and believe ourselves to be better than those countries we read about or visit.

i haven't been in the states 24 hours yet and already i'm seeing the dark side of our nation in an affluent community.

See ya next week.

Legalize same sex marriage on St. Croix

On marriage equality...did you know that divorce rates are highest among evangelical's. i don't know if that's actually true but i picked it up somewhere. The other one i picked up was that divorce rates are higher in conservative states...i wonder if that is true, actually i think that one is. On a personal level here on St. Croix it does seem that most of my liberal friends that are in long marriages have been married a long long time while most of my conservative friends in second long marriages have all been divorced at least once. Another anomaly i suppose and one not based upon reliable data, but it makes for interesting rumination.

Anyway, this past week was historic in ways most of us on the left never expected. President Obama came out in favor of marriage equality and set off a fire storm amongst those for and against.
Before i go on and just to make it perfectly clear i am in favor of marriage equality and see no reason whatsoever to think that two men or two women marrying will ever affect the institution of marriage between a man and a woman in a negative manner. In fact i think it will only strengthen the institution by encouraging more people to make permanent commitments and i applaud the president for openly expressing his views.

In many ways i have always thought that a homosexual man or woman hiding in a straight marriage is grossly unfair to the other partner. They can never love that person the way they should or deserve and live a lie their entire lives making everyone unhappy. Why would anyone condone or encourage these types of relationships? Why not encourage a healthy relationship between two adults that want to love each other without hiding.

People like Pat Robertson say the sexual union of two men or women brings disease and pain... well i hope he knows that it can bring disease and pain between a man and a woman just as easily. Syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and herpes can wreck havoc. Domestic violence, emotional violence, alcoholism, drug abuse and anger can ruin childrens lives in a heterosexual marriage. Divorce, death there are all sorts of instances where marriage falls apart unexpectedly. Just because a man and woman are married is no guarantee that a family is intact or that the children will come out unscathed. And the same will go for man,man and woman, woman marriages also.

When those on the right talk about the institution of marriage they see this unreal vision of family bliss. Take off the rose colored glasses and support marriage equality cause their getting married is never going to affect your marriage in any way shape or form. Marriage equality will probably cut down on sexually transmitted disease and create more stable communities.

The positive part of marriage equality is that two people that love each other can legally tend to each others needs and the needs of their family without having to worry that the rug will be pulled out from underneath them.

i read a story recently of two men who had been together for decades. They had invested in properties, built a business and made a life together. When one got sick as they got older the other was not allowed to make decisions and the hated sister in law came in and wrecked havoc. She had always hated the companion and his relationship with her brother so she denied him access to his lover while in the hospital because she was the next of kin. When his partner died she took him to court and got half of the estate, ruining his business, taking his home and disrupting his life. Had they been allowed to legally marry this never would have happened. They spent a lifetime together and this one vindictive sister came in and made the survivors life a living hell.

But now i get to the real crux of this piece which is that St. Croix should legalize same sex marriage immediately. Can you imagine how this will boost our economy? Everyone wants to get married in a tropical paradise and because marrying legally for gays is limited to a few states we could be at the cutting edge of a booming industry. Just think of all the occupations that would be impacted positively...flowers, transportation, housing, food, clothing, entertainment, lawyers, judges, real estate people and the list goes on.
So tell your friends we should legalize same sex marriage. Spread it around, talk it up, i'll bet it will make us a boom island once again.

See ya next week.

Music Day

After the rain stopped it was gorgeous!

Today is one of those medley days when I'm tired of trying to save the world and just want to have fun and let someone else do it.
So to perk you up and make you think a little listen to Eddy Grant and his Electric Avenue clip on You Tube.

Now you have the rhythm and hopefully have noticed the political commentary flowing through a song that so many love to dance to.

The Neville Brothers out of New Orleans used to be one of my favorite bands to listen to and see. Their song Brother John is a great ode to a fallen warrior.


You probably didn't listen to either one of the above because so many of us are always in a hurry and don't have time to slow down and take a small break. Scroll back up...pick one out...turn up the volume and walk around until its done. You need a break from sitting at the computer anyway so here is your chance.

If you didn't like either of those two above and don't want to get up yet, here are some photos you can look at.
After you finish looking at the photos scroll back up and at least listen to Electric Avenue and get out of your chair. These were taken at Jump Up and around the island. Get out of your chair and listen to the music!!!!

Add caption

This lady was selling hats and that's the moon behind her, isn't she beautiful?

Two white dinghy's looking so peaceful at the dock

Yep that's Lance coming up the Beast!

Shot during a sunset walk on the beach

Scaly-napped Pigeon blurred through binoculars

See ya next week!

Ahhhh factor

It's raining here after a dry spell and although rain usually makes me feel like cuddling up at home with a good book i was out doing my morning swim. When the clouds move in the incredible hues of gray are just as beautiful as a clear day. The understated color ranges from deep dark and ominous looking to white out conditions in a 180 degree visual sweep when out in the water. Sometimes a bit of rainbow appears then disappears just as quickly. Rain pelting down in sheets moving west against the mountains is a fabulous sight to observe. Rain pelting on the top side of the water while you are looking at its impact underwater and the fish going about their business as if its just another day never fails to bring the ahhhhh factor front and center. The water was amazingly clear considering the conditions above.

The ahhhh factor plays a huge role in my daily life. It creeps up when i'm valuing a storm, watching nature, or learning something new. This morning i stumbled upon an article that said that agnostics, atheists and the non-religious, according to a study done by Saslow and Willer at UC Berkeley have been shown to be more compassionate than highly religious people. Having an emotional connection to someone who is less advantaged or even a complete stranger is a strong indicator for generosity.

Rob Willer, the studies co author, said that most religious people, “may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns Overall, his research suggests that although less religious people tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more religious people,”

And so i had another ahhhhhh affect after reading the piece. Having experienced this first hand as a child when my mother approached the church for help i found myself not at all surprised that the highly religious may not view those in need with compassion. The church turned us away at was for us the crisis of a lifetime and the government safety net stepped in to fill the void we found ourselves in.

i always find it difficult to understand when those on the right claim charity is the purview of religious organizations not government. They fail to understand that those organizations can pick and choose who they help while the government as i understand it is not supposed to discriminate.If you have ever been turned away at a time of need by a non government group and then had the government step in and save you it is small wonder that trying to protect the safety net supported by our taxes is a no brainer.

The study done in no way confirms my bias regarding the less than charitable religious organization i experienced as opposed to a government safety net it just re-activated a childhood horror that plays out whenever i read studies like this http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/04/30/religionandgenerosity/ and which is why i'm against privatizing.

What exactly is privatizing better at for the nation?
Imagine Yosemite and Yellowstone with neon signs.
Or think about the residents of Chicago that get to pay more to park their cars at privatized meters isn't that a bonus?
How about toll roads becoming the norm...can you afford them?
Maybe you will be thrown into that private jail because you didn't pay your credit card bill fast enough.
Or there may only be one emergency room a hundred miles away that will take you if all the hospitals are privatized.
And what about that fire department will they let your house burn down because you forgot to pay your dues.
People need to understand that privatized government services are going to cost the tax payers more and will not necessarily be more efficient.  i think its better to support a seemingly ponderous government than an efficient ruthless gang.

Private contractors have to make a profit....any tax dollars that went to PROFIT didn't go to the service you were promised. Government does a lot that doesn't generate a profit, that will never be profitable but does serve the public which it is expected to do.

Public servants own their allegiance to the public. Private workers owe their allegiance to the corporation first.

Think about where you really want your tax dollars going.

See ya next week.

Social Security is strong

Social Security is still strong. The recent Trustee's report that came out this week says there is now $2.7 trillion in the Social Security trust fund, which is $69 billion more than last year, and continues to grow.

To keep Social Security strong it is important to look at where wage growth in the nation goes. Those making above the Social Security cap($110,000) need to be included because that is where the growth is expanding most. A very simple inclusion of those making the most money is all that is needed to continue its historic ability to keep the elderly off the streets. Everyone, not just the poor and middle class should be contributing. Social Security is strong and is the most successful program the government runs. Now you won't read the above in your local media because the powerful want to dismantle the program and privatize it so they can make more money.

i've stated this before but it needs repeating. The philosopher Decartes claimed Cogito ergo sum...I think therefore I am. Descartes made the assumption that he was an individual first and lots of people all over the world buy into this today whole heartedly. It took years but finally other philosophers questioned this idea and asked if so where exactly did you learn the language that you needed to come up with this idea? 

If you spend some time thinking about the above there is only one place where the skills we acquire to help us think could come from. Decartes learned the ability to speak and think from others, without them he would never have been able to articulate I think therefore I am.

This is something that i try to work on constantly. We are in this world with others, we are not alone, we have never been alone. We all work together to improve lives whether we recognize this ability or not. Being in the world with others is fundamental to life on this earth. Martin Buber, another philosopher, observed that we can either be in the world seeing others as people or we can be in the world seeing others as objects. Those who see people as objects want to dismantle Social Security, those that see others as people want to keep it intact. Who are you?

Here's a good one...tax payer money, i'll say that again, tax payer money that directly funds USAID has been used to train disadvantaged workers English in the Philippines so they can man call centers. What this does is use our tax money to train other people in foreign countries to take our jobs. Outsourcing is another word for it but i'll bet you never thought you were paying for it with your tax dollars.

On the hill representatives of both parties Tim Bishop D(NY) and Walter Jones R(NC) wrote a letter to USAID on April 19 expressing dismay and urging its immediate dismantling. You can read the letter here http://timbishop.house.gov/uploads/Letter%20to%20USAID-%20Call%20Centers%20FINAL.pdf

i'm reupholstering the living room furniture and need to get back to my project so this one today is a shorty. i especially like this photo below that i took of the guy and his wares on the corner over by the Barron Spot Mall and if you aren't a swimmer you might not know what the one above is. We swam at Haypenny last week and the pattern on the sea floor was so amazing i had to stop and take a pic. Double click on any of the pics here to get a better look. See ya next week.

Personal Responsibility Wars

Personal responsibility rears its ugly head in almost every conversation i have with conservatives. They seem to think that liberals abhor personal responsibility and strive to have the entire population become dependent upon government. NOT TRUE

The propaganda their party has fed them has been extremely successful in focusing their entire attention upon a very small percentage of poor people that are permanently dependent upon government. Most of the rest are ASSISTED and not completely dependent. The assistance goes to poor, middle class, rich, old and corporations alike. But only the poor get all the negative attention.

DENIAL plays a huge role in the failure to include the powerful, the wealthy and corporations in the demands for personal responsibility. So far the poor are the only ones regarded as not personally responsible. Even though they have no power, they don't make any rules, they live hand to mouth they get all the focus in the bulk e-mails or discussions. It is easier to shift all blame to the poor to keep your eyes off the powerful. The poor are used so you don't witness the looting of the Treasury and the nation by those that can.

DENIAL allows large segments of our population to ignore the mechanisms corporations and the wealthy use to avoid responsibility for crimes against all of us. DENIAL encourages conservatives to continue to close their eyes to their abuses and vote against their best interests. 

A few facts...Social Security belongs to all of us, Medicare belongs to all of us, WE PAY FOR THEM, public schools belong to all of us, the prisons belong to all of us, the beaches, the parks, the airports, roads, railroads, hospitals, and bridges everything this nation has invested in belongs to all of us. WE HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR THEM, Don't give it away. Don't let big money in politics convince you to give away your assets.

ASSISTANCE is what made this country great. The taking away of that assistance is what is contributing to the downward economic spiral in our living standards and our place in the world. The continual demolition of government services is contributing to the stratification of haves and have nots. We are giving away our future to vultures whose only focus is profit and expansion over the entire globe. They could care less what happens to this nation or its citizens but they will use every available government law or subsidy or tax break to expand their power.

Liberals believe in personal responsibility and want conservatives to wake up and start demanding changes in the laws. We need laws that will deny corporations and unions the ability to control our elections through the use of unlimited contributions. We want conservatives to wake up and deny corporations and unions the right to buy politicians to do their bidding in congress. Corporations are artificial, unions are artificial they can't have personal responsibility so it lets them off the hook. The only way to control our democracy is to take it back. Lets return to control of, by and for the people and not by corporations. The Citizens United Case is a Pandora's box, conservatives and liberals need to close it down again.

Stop focusing on the poor, look at the real culprits.

There isn't a family alive that will not at some point in their journey through life help their members. If we as a nation don't start recognizing that we are part of a big American family that needs attention we will loose our democracy and all our assets.

See ya next week.

Unelected Corporate Government

There are few things in this world that we feel we can give away for free unless it is done willingly. Most of us pay taxes because we are members of a nation we want to support. We pay the taxes because we recognize that not everything can be done by the private sector or done as cheaply as the government can do it. We recognize the need to shine in the world and we understand that paying for that privilege involves taxes.

Our history details how we fought for and gained fair wages for labor expended. How we fought hard for the 40 hour week, employee based health insurance, and regulations that scaled back dangerous working conditions. We fought hard for a large middle class. But today, all those things we fought so hard for are being chipped away by Unelected Corporate Government.

Unelected Corporate Government is that entity that lobbies legislators and pays for their campaigns. Unelected Corporate Government is what makes legislators expend all their time in office raising money instead of the hard work necessary to govern this land. Unelected Corporate Government is that entity that expects returns on their monetary investments. Unelected Corporate Government wants to lower wages, eliminate employer health insurance and privatize government services so they can suck every tax payer dollar out of the economy and not be regulated.

Unelected Corporate Government loves wars. Wars let them churn out all the hardware they can imagine and make bundles off it in the process.

Over the past 30 years Unelected Corporate Government has established a bulkhead in Washington DC and it is eroding the middle class we fought so hard to establish. No longer can the man of the family support his tribe on one income. Today it takes two just to make ends meet.

Unelected Corporate Government is responsible for lobbing to eliminate regulations on banks that sent our economy into a tailspin and had taxpayers bail them out. Unelected Corporate Government still argues for relaxed regulations so they can do it again. Any time they can suck the tax payer dollar into their coffers is a win. Anytime they can privatize another part of government is a win and a loss to the middle class.

Our national assets, all those things like beaches, parks, roads, bridges, airports and much much more that are to be enjoyed and used by everyone are being robbed from right under our noses. We have already paid for them but Unelected Corporate Government lobbies to give it to them. In fact some on the conservative side are applauding and supporting the robbery without recognizing they are working against themselves and furthering the evisceration of the middle class.

In order for this nation to retain the balance of income levels there has to be a fair share of the investment needed in this nation to keep us strong. No one group should control the assets. Unelected Corporate Government will build a nation of haves and have nots and we need to wake up and stop them.

Here are some questions to ask and ponder.

If Keystone XL Pipeline will reduce our reliance on oil why does it end at a port?

If trickle down is working why are corporate profits high while the living standards of most

middle class families are going down?

Why do more people die from prescribed opiates than heroin? Who is Big Pharma and why are taxpayers paying for the War on Drugs?

Why should the middle class pay more taxes than the 1%?

Why are 88 million people out of the job force? Is it Obama or is it those jobs that were shipped overseas by the trickle downers(corporations)?

Why does a group(ALEC) financed by Exxon, Wal Mart, the Kochs and other heavy players write laws benefiting their needs all over the country while destroying any power the middle class had to be treated fairly?

Why is the middle class shrinking?

Why are wars today paid for by borrowing but wars in the past were paid for by increased taxes or war bonds?

What are the economic costs of our failed wars?

If you don't question you are complicit in the destruction of the middle class as we know it.

St. Croix Above and Below

i had this whole piece i worked on that maybe i'll publish another day. These past few days have been so outstanding that i thought a photo journal would be more fun and maybe elicit good feelings. The black sea urchins are spawning but i didn't have my camera late yesterday. It is a real treat to watch them perching on top of coral with their spines in the most beautiful positions. Normally you never see them move but yesterday early evening they were beside themselves. They pile up on each other then release this fine white thread of reproductive material that turns into a milky cloud. Its a total orgy out there on the inner reef and then they topple off the coral and go back to their holes. This first picture is looking back at Cane Bay from the water. That smudge is a water spot.

                                      

These century plants all over the island are just so majestic when they bloom. This one at Off The Wall is finally getting its yellow flowers.

 

This is the same file fish trying to hide in the second pic and losing his spots. Isn't his yellow eyelid beautiful?

Black Durgon's are so hard to photograph but i got a few in among the Wrasse.

 Ghost fish, they are so hard to see against the sand even when the water is crystal clear. Actually i think the bigger ones are bone fish but i would like to be corrected if i'm wrong.

 Purple Sea Fan...this ones veins were very distinct yesterday.

More ghost fish...no they are permits.

 This little green was so cooperative yesterday...isn't his shell the most beautiful you have ever seen?
















This was a first for me. In all the years I've been swimming i have never seen two Peacock Flounders together. Double click on it so you can really see how close they are. Spring is here.

You hardly ever see Rust op Twist with no waves. The island has been drying out a bit.

Sunset two nights ago. Very sepia toned.

Sunset half an hour later, same day.

See ya next week.

St. Croix is a healthy place to live

There has been a lot of media coverage concerning the arguments in front of the Supreme Court this week that review the individual mandate to purchase health insurance in the Affordable Care Act.

i've been reading up on the issue and have been struck by comments coming from right wing spokespersons and ordinary citizens speaking their minds in different venues.

One conservative politician seemed to think that American lives would be shorter if the Affordable Care Act remains in place. He claimed that Canadians and English that want to live longer come to the US for care. So i decided to look it up and as it turns out Canada is number 12 for long life and England is 30. All the top ten have some sort of Universal Health Care that is paid for out of taxes while the US languishes at 50^th place.

The idea that the US is the best nation in the world for health care really needs addressing. If being best has to do with longevity then we are far, far, far from being even in the top ten. i looked this up first by Googling and found reference to a study looking at the years 2005-2010 for all the countries of the world. During my examination i was shocked and pleasantly surprised by the statistics but wanted more info. So i went to the CIA's World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html and found the nation had dropped down more slots from the first study i looked at.

Amazingly, and this was completely new to me, i found that the US Virgin Islands are a better place to live for longevity than in the United States. The VI is 39^th and Puerto Rico is 44^th . Wouldn't this be a great marketing asset? Come and live in the Virgin Islands because according to the CIA's world wide analysis you may live longer.

Personally i've always thought life here is healthier than in the states but after reading the list i now have proof.

There were 9 Magnificent Frigates but I missed one

Regarding the court case, i have never been in favor of the Individual Mandate preferring a nation wide single payer system where everyone contributes through taxes. If you look at the top ten on the list they are living years longer than we are with some form of single payer or universal health care. Why we continue to believe we are number one when the evidence goes against it and even our own agency publishes the fact that we aren't just boggles the mind.

The idea of being forced to buy insurance is not what is disagreeable as we already do that here with automobile insurance. Its the fact that health care is different from every other commodity and insurance companies making money off our illness puts an added cost burden on all of us. If you took out the profit motive for insurance companies we would probably be paying less in overall taxes than we do in insurance and taxes combined. Doctors would have less stress filling out one form instead of multiple forms and hospitals could collect the money they need to operate instead of arguing with insurance companies over payouts. We have the highest health costs in the world and rank 50^th. You would think with the highest costs we would be number one. Well we aren't and we continue to slide downward.

Today is the last day of arguments at the Supreme Court and everyone that cares about health care is watching. The Affordable Care Act is just the beginning of trying to get more Americans covered. There are aspects that all of us can love and hate in this bill but i think most of us would agree the insurance companies have a strangle hold over all of us that does not make the nation healthier.

See ya next week.

Bananaquit caught in a Hurricane Lamp (saved by me)

Social Security is not broke

Social Security is not broke. i'll say it again Social Security is not broke. It has never been broke and will be fully funded for another 25 years at which point it faces a gap. If you have a gap at the end of the month but know more revenue will be coming in the next month you don't view yourself as broke unless there is no revenue stream at all. In fact most of us perceiving a gap will try to close it by bringing in more revenue.

Pundits on the other side don't want you to ever consider closing the Social Security gap by requiring an elevation in the amount of income that is subject to Social Security deductions. Today you only have to deduct for any income you make under $108,000 per year. This means all those people making over $108,000 per year don't have to make deductions on the excess.

So while the little guy making $20,000 a year sees 7.5% of his income deducted, the guy making $350,000 per year only sees 2.3% of his income deducted if their employers are paying the other half. Anyone out there think this is “fair”? It is very easy to fix the gap by raising the income level. After the past two stock market blowouts i think most people realize they have one income stream they can always count on and that is Social Security. Lets fix it not destroy it.

On another note i was reading a piece the other day that is a review of a book written by Dave Grossman a Special Forces Colonel at West Point. His book called “On Killing” provides an abundance of evidence to show that most men and women are reluctant to kill a fellow human being. According to his research human beings are not natural warriors and that it is war itself that brings out aggressiveness. He says that even during actual battles many soldiers will not shoot at their enemies and will fire into the air.

Since that massacre last week by one of our own in Afghanistan i have been wondering why we aren't out of there yet, especially since polling shows a majority of Americans want us to leave. We spend 2 billion a week, i'll say that again, 2 billion a week in Afghanistan. Ralph Lopez says spending 2 billion a week to buy hatred is too much. i tend to agree with him.

Imagine what 2 billion a week here at home could do. It could fix those deteriorating roads and bridges, make mass transit more affordable, bring back some of those laid off teachers, firemen and policemen. i'm sure we could think of lots to do with 2 billion a week.

And on a final note. The rise in gasoline prices has nothing to do with President Obama. Demand is down and in fact we have been exporting some of our product overseas. When demand is down Wall Street bets on higher gas prices in the future which is what is causing the price to rise at the pump. Speculators account for 64% of all contracts where as in the past they only accounted for about 30%.

“Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission—the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures, among other commodities—warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market. This allows them to push oil prices higher and higher—not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.

In other words a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil and you are paying.” Robert Reich

Wall Street has gone to court to stop aspects of the Dodd Frank law that would protect consumers against these type of practices, if you want your gas price to continue to rise please don't support repeal of this important legislation.

See ya next week

St. Croix can change

Change will not come from the Virgin Islands government. Our government is too imbeded in its bureaucracy to help the island through this economic crisis. In fact it is creating more hardship by following the austerity programs that seems to be the idea du jour all over the world.

Change will come from within the community. It will come from those citizens that use digital technology, social media and the airwaves to wake up residents, visitors and investors alike to the idea that St. Croix is ripe for a new identity. Only we, those of us that live and work here, can create the vision that new jobs and opportunities are just waiting for us to discover and reap the benefits.

i'm sure there are lots of areas we could look into and last week i talked about legalizing marijuana. Here are 8 sub categories that have already been talked about but need repeating.

1. Energy...the end of June the gasoline market will open up. No longer will we be dependent upon the oil refinery to supply our energy needs. Entrepreneur's that have the backing of wealthy investors have an opportunity right now to corner the importing of gasoline to St. Croix and maybe the other two islands. Something like a cooperative could work where business owners pool their resources and create an entity that would benefit all of them. The government is not going to arrange any importer but will work with anyone that sees a future in that commodity. Lots of talk has revolved around the rack problem but remember Texaco used to bring it in over by the airport. Is there another rack there?
2. Alternative Energy...the island is ripe for becoming a testing laboratory for universities and companies that need to test their products before making them available commercially. Just recently i wrote to Professor Sadoway at MIT who has developed a liquid metal battery. One battery the size of a freight container could power 200 houses from the sun and wind power. If this becomes commercially available our island could solve its energy needs. i had no qualms asking him to use us as a testing ground, maybe others have their own ideas about who to approach. He did respond positively.
3. Retirement communities, nursing homes and assisted living facilities...If we could beef up our hospital St. Croix would be a perfect place for African American boomers to retire. Instead of bleeding residents back to the states to retire because of a lack of medical options we could keep everyone here and bring in more which would create jobs.
4. Sports venues...we don't have to build a stadium to get athletes to the island. All we need is better maintained roads. Local enthusiasts have volunteered to go to conventions and set up booths touting the fact that you can bike, run, and swim every day of the year. Biking races, running races, long distance swims, marathons, triathlons, biathlons all these bring in hundreds of competitors and their families that spend at least three or four days on island filling hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies and taxi cabs. We could spread out these competitions to bring in people every month of the year.
5. Technology... the technology park at the University that is trying to get companies to re-locate here and use the facilities as incubators for new companies that are on the cutting edge of the digital universe. Maybe you know someone that needs a place that will have world wide connectivity. Talk to them, get them excited about the island, put them in touch with the University.
6. Eco-tourism...we are one of the few islands left in the Caribbean that is not over-developed. Because of this we can continue to market St. Croix as a place to come that values and preserves its open spaces. A place that doesn't have high-rises blocking views of the ocean and is not so over-crowded that finding paradise just can't happen. We have beaches, hiking trails, parks for birding and boating opportunities. We could highlight its history and use this to our advantage. Already the National Park Service is renovating the properties in Christiansted and trying to create a museum that will tell more of the sordid history of slavery.
7. Entertainment...we have wonderful musicians right here, we have talented actors and their support crews. Someone could set up sound studios, filming venues, animation terminals etc. Make this into a place that draws in the huge revenues that go into making films. Don't say we can't do any of the above...we can all it takes is vision and a commitment to working together, networking and talking the place up.
8. Food Products...Everyone knows that Tabasco comes from Louisiana and we already have our signature Rums...what we need is a world renowned food product that we could export, maybe that's Ms. Anna's but maybe someone out there can come up with a new idea that puts us on the food map.

Most of us here have great skills that could be put to use re-creating St. Croix. We have so much untapped potential that i look upon this economic crisis as a challenge for all of us.

i have a sign up over my computer that says “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not FAIL? So i ask all of us...What would you do?

See ya next week.

Legalize Marijuana on St. Croix

i was sitting in the Dr. office Monday and almost every other person had lost their jobs or would be loosing their jobs. One woman walked out from her exam and hearing us discussing jobs started railing about the injustice of being the only person working in Mental Health at Charles Harwood and she had been let go. How were her patients needs going to be looked after and why were senators relatives and friends who had just been hired in the summer and had no experience not let go first? She had been there eighteen years and was close to retirement. This place is going to contract economically faster than we can absorb she cried and then who will we blame?

She was a dynamo, capturing the entire room in her travails but leaving undefeated for she was fighting back. She was not going to roll over and accept her job firing. She was going to start discussions with everyone she could and still find space to laugh about her situation.

Most of us there were discussing new ideas to help move the island into a better place for everyone. The mood was not defeatist at all in fact it was very optimistic. All of us recognized the need for an economy built upon demand that could be self sustaining. But the form that was going to take eluded us. We needed someone like her to go out and fight for a new identity.

For too long we have been known as the industrial island not a vacation mecca like St. Thomas or St. John. This has hurt us commercially and financially because we really aren't well known, we are off the vacation radar.

Everyone, i don't care if you are rich, poor or in-between wants to live in a peaceful place. They want to live their lives unencumbered by fear of home invasion, robbery or unintended death. Unfortunately St. Croix has its problems that are brought on by a lack of jobs, lack of education and a thriving drug industry.

Eight indicators reflect a peaceful society according to research that has been done by the Institute for Economics and Peace, you need:

• Well-functioning government
  

• Sound business environment
  

• Equitable distribution of resources
  

• Acceptance of the rights of others
  

• Good relations with neighbors
  

• Free flow of information
  

• High levels of education
  

• Low levels of corruption
  

These are items that we as an island nation could easily work on and market to the world. St. Croix needs an identity and one such identity could be that unlike the tourist islands we are a residential island that seeks residents that want to transform the island into a place that we can all live on peacefully.

Our society is involved in self defeating thinking and behaviors that continue to depress living standards. “Peace is statistically related to better business environments, higher per capita income, higher educational attainment and stronger social cohesion,” says the Institute for Economics and Peace.
In order to create that environment for all of us it means that we as a community have to work at building structures that can contain violence, or get rid of structures that encourage violence.

With the economic turmoil that has wracked the island over the past few months we are looking at the very real potential for increased criminal activity and all its assorted negative impacts upon us.

We as a community can either sit back and let it happen or try to deflect those repercusions.
i think one method of deflection is to legalize marijuana. Make St. Croix, just like we did the casinos, the only island where marijuana can be grown and sold legally. We all know where to buy it even if we don't partake. We have lots of people that are hustling every day making a living off illegal drugs because they have no other options. If we legalize marijuana all these young men and women would have instant jobs. We could create a new economy, generate new taxes and cut down on some of the senseless killing that takes them out. Maybe we could even see our crime rates plummet bringing on that peaceful environment.

i know this may be a rather radical suggestion, others have made it before me and California has tried passing laws that have failed so far. NORML works all over the country trying to legalize it and Hawaii is trying to decriminalize along with over two dozen other states that have various forms of laws they are trying to pass. It is coming, some state will pass a law legalizing it and start gobbling up the money. Why shouldn't we be first, reaping the economic benefits instead of always being last. Think about it.

See ya next week.