Grenada: Recent Turmoil - by Gary

The historical trajectory of this tiny island nation is for the most part pretty familiar turf; it goes something like this:

• The indigenous locals (Caribs) are wiped out early.
• A colonial power (France) sets up highly profitable plantations using African slave labour.
• Another colonial power (England) contests ownership of the island and eventually wins.
• Slavery is abolished – and replaced with indentured Indian workers (same system – different name).
• The bottom drops out of the price of many plantation products while the price of labour continues to increase – the plantation era draws to a close and white elites gradually abandon ship.
• Independence is granted (England is too broke to prop the country up any more).
• The country lacks political maturity and early attempts to implement a constitutional democracy are met with only moderate success.

So it was that with the granting of full independence in 1974 Grenada’s first home grown prime minister, Eric Gairy was elected to office.  Initially joyfully embraced by the general population, unfortunately he gradually transmogrified in to an eccentric allegedly vote rigging bully boy, surrounding himself with a thuggish police force.

It is around this point in its history that the island nation of Grenada takes a very interesting turn. Like many emerging third world nations it was a fertile field for the germination of the seeds of socialism and the ideals of the Black Power movement.  So it was that in 1979 Gairy’s elected government was toppled in a bloodless coup by the Peoples Revolutionary Government under the leadership of moderate Maurice Bishop.

With Cuban and some limited Russian support Bishop achieved amazing results for his country.  He dramatically improved education standards, improved the productivity of agriculture, reduced unemployment, introduced a universal health care system and dramatically improved economic performance.  Meanwhile the staunchly anti-communist West, and the US in particular, looked on with unabashed disapproval.

However by 1983 Bishop’s socialist government started to unravel, torn by internal dissent.  A coup, lead by the deputy prime minister, toppled Bishop placing him under house arrest.  But Bishop enjoyed popular support, and demonstrations around the island culminated in a protesting mob releasing him.  The regime struck back; soldiers recaptured Bishop and he, along with at least 7 other key supporters, was executed.  Meanwhile soldiers opened fire on street protestors - nobody really knows how many were killed.  A total curfew was instituted; anybody leaving their house without authorization was liable to be shot on sight.

The US administration, long concerned about the rise of socialism in the Caribbean, and particularly concerned about the communist hardliners now assuming control in Granada, took advantage of the situation to act quickly and decisively.  Thus in one of the more astonishing displays of US foreign policy President Ronald Reagan ordered a military invasion of Grenada to restore democracy.  On October 25 1983, just six days after the coup, operation Urgent Fury was unleashed upon the unsuspecting islanders with the arrival of thousands of US troops.  The UN General Assembly, in a vote of 108 to 9 with 27 abstentions, declared it “a flagrant violation of international law”.  Wow!

Post invasion, with the resumption of a somewhat corrupt but US acceptable parliamentary democracy, island life returned to something like normal.  Then in September 2004, after almost 50 hurricane free years Hurricane Ivan struck the island damaging/destroying around 90% of homes, many churches and many public buildings including parliament house, along with a similar percentage of the island’s nutmeg trees.  Hurricane Emily came ashore just 10 months later causing more severe damage.  The combined impact of these storms has been a body-blow to the nation’s economy.

Notwithstanding all this recent turmoil, the capital of St George is a friendly, vibrant town, 

still retaining colonial influences.

Many colonial buildings survive in the small towns of Grenada.

One of the most successful Grenadian plantation products is nutmeg, introduced from Indonesia in 1847.

The processing sheds look little different today.  Nutmeg, pre-hurricane, accounted for 40% of the value of all exports – it is steadily recovering again. Tourism and a US medical campus are the other major industries.

Fishing is an important industry in the coastal towns.

Perhaps all these troubles explains the strength of community still prevalent in the small towns.

Locals love ‘liming’, hanging out with friends relaxing and chatting.  It’s so popular a local mobile phone network provider has adopted the term as their brand name.

Playing the steel pan is part of the national school curriculum.

In short the national identity is still strong and vibrant.

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Trinidad – by Gary

Well it’s taken me a while to get an approach to this blog, coz all we did in Trinidad was work on the boat – how boring is that?

Sure in Trinidad there were some sights to see, some places to go, but fresh back from Europe, all the kids wanted to do after school (an intensive 5hrs per day – gotta catch up, groan, moan) was hang out with Emily, curl up and read a book or watch a video.  Couldn’t blame them really.  Besides which there was so much to do on the boat – so many jobs to keep Vicki and me busy!  And Trinidad is a fabulous place for getting those jobs done, it has everything a yachtee could need (or they’ll get it in for you).

Why is Trinidad so good for working on the boat you ask?  Well many Americans and European retiree sailors have developed a rather neat life style; they spend the northern hemisphere winter sailing the balmy waters of the Caribbean, then during the summer season they store their boats ashore and head home.  Summers are not good for sailing here; it’s hot, humid and wet while the weather back home is perfect and besides... its dangerous! It’s the time of year when hurricanes spawn out in the equatorial Atlantic and sweep across the Caribbean Sea.  But Trinidad is just far south enough to be out of the hurricane belt, so it has become the storage location of choice.  And to service the needs of all these yachtees (coz once the boat is out of the water you might as well catch up on some maintenance right?) there is an amazing suite of shops, supplies and expertise.

So there we were, working on the boat... and come to think of it, just about everybody else we knew was doing the same thing.

Just a few of the hundreds of stored boats.

Sandy and Max seemed to work from sun-up to sun-down on their pride and joy Volo – she is a corka boat which they built in Queensland.

Anne and Barry lavishing maximum effort on Cat’s Paw IV.  We have been bumping in to these guys ever since Fiji, almost 3.5 years ago.  Sadly Trinidad is a parting of the ways for us – they are headed north, while we go west.

Jasmin doing some finishing touches to Le Mistral.  At the time Tolly was off at the yachtee shop attending the other ever popular Trinidad yachtee past-time – spending money.

Emily, Kim and Tom working on their ‘trawler’ Emily Grace.  We have known these guys since Madagascar, another sad farewell.

Brian and Dorothy were maybe the exception – they got some balance, worked on their boat Tagish...

... and got out and did some exploring of the island.  Well done guys.  We first met Brian and Dorothy in Tana, Vanuatu (we went to the volcano together) and have been bumping in to them ever since.  We are both headed through Panama in the new year – so we will get to hang out with them for quite a bit longer.  YEAH.

Mojombo, finally on her way back into the water (where we did some more jobs).

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