Conscious Reggae, Native Peoples as well as World Music. For those of us in the struggle for self determination individually as well as collectively we need positive motivation and not one of hate.
In response to celtic
Niggas talk about change and working within the system to achieve that. The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you. There is usually nothing wrong with compromise in a situation, but compromising yourself in a situation is another story completely, and I have seen this happen long enough in the few years that I've been alive to know that it's a serious problem. Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions of their natural resources.
Your words have struck a chord in my soul, because in the Virgin Islands we are unwittingly following the STS formula that has created terrible dependence on external forces. Wwe have forgotten how to do for ourselves. Below is my submission to the UN Committee on Decolonisation.
First, let me be clear, I mean no offense or disrespect to anyone who has come to the Virgin Islands seeking a better way of life. My statement is to say, as a Native Virgin Islander, we deserve the right to speak to our sovereignty, no matter how long it takes. I do not consider myself an American but someone whose home has been seized by cunning piracy.
It is assumed that Virgin Islanders do not care about status, the right to self determination or self government. This is farthest from the truth. As a person considered “Native” under whatever definition the body is using today, I am of African ancestry as well as Carib and Taino.
Today however, I am speaking with regard to my African ancestors who never had a say in the political discussion as to the status of the only home they knew. I stand here as a representative of their silent voices whose blood, sweat, tears and lives were shed to build the Virgin Islands which created and enriched wealthy nations. All this with no thoughts or concerns of the people who directly had a hand and no say in creating wealth for others in the Virgin Islands and more so, abroad. Yet, the Africans and their descendants never freely had a say as to what political future they wanted.
In the Virgin Islands those of us of native descent are in the minority. Our non governing status has left us without the ability to hold the U.S. accountable for the violations of treaties held between itself and our former colonial master, Denmark as well as The United Nations and its Resolutions.
Our government system has been manipulated to act in the best interest of the United States, while neglecting the basic right to self determination of Virgin Islanders. We have been and continue to be overrun and infiltrated by persons who come from places whose status has already been established and are not interested in the self determination for/of people of the Virgin Islands.
Since the opening of our doors to Tourism, with the increase of other Caribbean People and their offspring, the Virgin Islands Community has had to shoulder the cost of education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. forced upon us by the United States. Today, the influx continues even though the ethnicities and nationalities are different. Since we have no control of our borders, have we ever been reimbursed for such allowances? These finite resources continue to be spent on people (legal as well as illegal) freely moving in and out of this US Territory. Please refer to UN Resolution 35/118 (Sections 2, 3 and 8 in particular are relevant and are placed below.) In this case, the member state is the United States of America.
2. Member States shall render all necessary moral and material assistance to the peoples under colonial domination in their struggle to exercise their right to self-determination and independence.
3. Member States shall intensify their efforts to promote the implementation of the resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Security Council relating to Territories and countries under colonial domination.
8. Member States shall adopt the necessary measures to discourage or prevent the systematic influx of outside immigrants and settlers into Territories under colonial domination, which disrupts the demographic composition of those Territories and may constitute a major obstacle to the genuine exercise of the right to self-determination and independence by the people of those Territories.
Our political process has/is constantly being undermined externally/internally long before we were allowed to vote for our own governor, and he was appointed to the position before we selected him. Political status and our right to self determination has never been truly part of any administration's goal locally or federally except that of Independent Citizens Movement Governor Cyril E. King.
Whenever the topic of Status or the Right to Self Determination is discussed, everyone from every other corner of the globe living in the Virgin Islands, tells us we are discriminating against non natives. However, in the same breath "we" are told, "This sort of thing would never happen back home wherever. How is this allowed when we have never been given the opportunity to have open discussion of our unresolved issues stemming from the beginning of our colonization!
Virgin Islanders (wherever you may be) need to be included in the discussion and resolution of our self determination, or, we will forever be defined by the ideas/ideals/standards of others. We are being exterminated on many levels, brick by brick and if we do not take control of ourselves and our communities through the love, respect, integrity, honesty, respectful dialogue and all the other good things we are known for, we as a people will disappear as the grains of sand are washed away/absorbed by the ocean. Much of what we are experiencing negatively have been perpetuated long before "we" were in control of things.
Until we “Virgin Islanders” are allowed freely without intervention, objection and interjection from “others”, discuss and determine who and where we stand in the world at large, this issue will continue to fester and further divide Virgin Islanders from Caribbean Peoples. As I write this, I begin to wonder if all (decisions) that have taken place up until this point, is intentionally the very process that circumvents our right to decide politically what is best for this finite land mass called the Virgin Islands of the United States.
We as a group of concerned persons are going to have to make our own opportunity and stop waiting for everyone else to grant us what is ours already.
