By Kenicia Francis
Peter Kelsick, owner of Sneaky Pete’s, a beach establishment that once stood on Dickenson Bay, before it was demolished, yesterday was part of a protest on the beach.
The protest was in opposition to Royalton Chic, because they reportedly made a deal with Kelsick to demolish his establishment, then reduced the compensation by half because he went to the media for help with their negotiations. The establishment was prematurely torn down without Kelsick seeing a dime.
The four police officers who were present, insisted they were simply conducting a beach patrol to safeguard against pick pocketers and other wrongdoing.
However, they never left the site of the new facility being built that Chic claimed Sneaky Pete’s was blocking their view.
The turnout, while greatly appreciated by Kelsick, was admittedly small, therefore ostensibly not requiring a police presence.
A few of the protesters shared their view on why they chose to let their voices be heard.
Former chief of the DCA, current marketing consultant, Sylvester Brown stated, “I expected to see crowds this morning. [But then] I knew that there wouldn’t be because I’m a marketing specialist. I understand what the government has done to people over the years, bringing people to the sense of fear. Fear of expressing how they feel, systematically trying to disempower us by making us scared. Scared to come out and say ‘no you can’t do this Mr. Prime Minister’.”
A carpenter, who goes by the name KB, told Observer he joined the protest because, “I just want to be able to say I fought for something in this lifetime to preserve something for our younger generation.”
“Today I expected to see the numbers, people going to support. Everybody talks but nobody really stands up. There’s power in unity when enough people are hurt by something and give their voice. But if it just goes unchallenged, we get run over.” he continued.
There was also a rising concern about the hotel attempting to privatise the beach, despite the passing of the 2004 Beach Control Act ensuring all beaches in Antigua and Barbuda remain accessible to the public.
It should guarantee that no one can restrict or deny public access to the beaches, however Brown shared his concerns, “When you start pinching the beach from us, you’re telling us we can’t bathe here, and that becomes a problem,”.
He also stated, “This particular beach is a really public area, it’s very close to St John’s, and it’s one of the better and easily accessible bathing areas for a lot of people. A lot of the swimming clubs have classes here, so a lot of people come here to learn how to swim, to exercise, elderly people come down in the morning to take a sea bath.”
“I used to walk this beach many years ago and go right down to the end and come back. Now you can’t even pass because they built those bungalows over the coast,” he continued.
He suggested that someone should have instructed the hotel to speak to the owners of Sandals to get a better sense of how to properly integrate with Antiguan society.
“Investments and hotels are integral to us. All the people that come here to invest, in the past there was always a reasoning. In terms of how can we come to your beautiful island and put a hotel. How can we correlate and live together?” he said.
“This is our home; this is where we live. Can anybody just come into your home and tell ‘you I want my breakfast on the table. You not cleaning the place properly, I need those things moved from here.’ You don’t do that, that’s offensive and not even permissible,” he continued.
KB agreed that while tourism is a big industry in the Caribbean as a whole, it’s also doing a lot of harm.
He stated, “It’s time for us to diversify and have industries, giving our people the power. There’s so much craziness going on in these hotels, over the years I’ve heard some horror stories about how people are cheated by tourists. The island is so small, at what rate are they giving away this country.”
In closing, fellow protester, Amarilla Henry, a former evening news anchor for ABS, told Observer, “If you look on the beach, you see all these seats where we usually have our tents, our picnic baskets. Where should we put our baskets if we want to bring our family here? In the sea water? Everybody is taking up everything.”
She described feeling angry and betrayed because a hotel, run by a foreign entity, could convince the government to sanction the demolition of a local business that she frequented since her youth.
She hopes the protest will result in the acknowledgement that the beach belongs to all of us, open and free. They [the beaches] are for us to come anytime we want, not to be monitored.”
“What will it take for us Antiguans, and people who are living in Antigua to open our eyes and see what’s taking place in our country. The scripture says ‘who hath bewitched you oh ye Galatians’, who has bewitched us Antiguans?” she asked sadly.