It Could Happen Here - The Triumph of the Commons in Barbuda

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

Andrew sits down with the gang to explain the history of resilience and community that helped Barbuda overcome centuries of colonial incompetence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy

Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or whenever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take phone calls from anonymous strangers as a fake gecko therapist and try to learn a little bit about their lives.

I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's very interesting. Check it out for yourself by searching for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking.

It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hey, welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast about things falling apart and putting them back together. And this is another Andrew episode. So... Hello, hello.

Yes, greetings. And this is another Andrew episode. So hello. Hello. Yes. Greetings. We have, we have, we have Chris, we have James, we have myself and we have Andrew, obviously, who I'm going to hand the reins off to. Awesome. So hello again to another episode of me talking about different stuff. And quite fittingly, considering today is the day that Queen Elizabeth has passed into the pits of hell. We are deeply, as a citizen under the Commonwealth, we are deeply saddened by the loss of Queen Elizabeth.

Former colleagues have reached out to me today, and I am okay, guys. Oh, wow. That is so funny. Today, we will be discussing a current member of the Commonwealth, one of quite a few twin island nations in the caribbean that being antigua and barbuda and more specifically barbuda barbuda is an example of african resilience it's an example of a society in touch with this environment it's an example of the capability of the commons as an institution.

And it's an example of sticking it to the crown, to be quite honest with you. Nice. I mean, I'm excited to learn more about that. How have... Yes. So I don't think many people know about barbuda and its history i doubt most people could place it on a map but it's it it represents quite the interesting story

so to begin i should probably explain explain what is a Barbuda. Barbuda is an island located in the eastern Caribbean, forming part of the sovereign state of Antigua and Barbuda. It's located north of the island of Antigua and is part of the Leeward Islands of the West Indies. It comprises of about 62 square miles. So it is about 62 square miles, which is 160 kilometers, and it's one of the flattest islands in the Caribbean. Its soils are very shallow and infertile. It is a very arid island with very little rainfall and very frequent droughts. Its scrub wilderness is roamed by deer and pigs and descendants of the animals

that early European traders and settlers would have imported. It also has a pre-settlement evergreen woodland that consists of white cedar, turpentine, and whitewood, alongside columnar cactus and thorny shrubs and grassy glades and soils that have been and other species that have grown up in soils that have been degraded by the clearance of charcoal burning and grazing and just general human activity most barbudans i would say engage in shifting cultivation but none of them are full-time farmers the countryside is mostly uninhabited because the law required that all barbudans

lived in or near the island's one village which is codrington and there according to the 2011 census there were roughly 1634 people on the island. Of course, that has changed in recent times, and we'll get into that shortly. Barbuda is yet another example of a distinctive community emerging out of the colonial era that swept through the Caribbean. I've mentioned the Maroons before, the different maroon communities that have existed on the different Caribbean islands and in Guyana and Suriname but I think Pabuda and their story represents really the diversity of how colonialism manifested the diversity of how colonialism manifested in the region.

Babiura's people have a sense of identity and attachment to locality that is, I think, very distinctive and very unique among people of the Caribbean. Not to say that the rest of us don't have a sense of identity or an attachment to locality, but their story and their tradition reaches back over two centuries of near independence and quite significant levels of autonomy, which was unheard of in most of the Caribbean

due to the legacy of slavery. Representing a very close-knit and traditional community, Pabudan's approach to using and stewarding the resources reflects that long legacy of isolation, of ecological constraint being on such a small island, of familial closeness having such a small population, and of social interdependence, considering the series of administrators that they had dealt with and how each of those administrators neglected or ignored them.

Barbudans, both home and abroad, are still very much attached to their island because they have long held it in common. So, we'll be diving into a brief history of exactly how they reached this point, what institutions they've developed for common ownership and communal land use, common ownership and communal land use, how emigration has played a role in that, and unfortunately, how the combination of Hurricane Irma and the doctrine and the shock doctrine have contributed to their current situation.

current situation. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror

stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted latin america since the beginning of time listen to nocturnal tales from the shadows as part of my cultura podcast network available on the iheart radio app apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again,

the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, música, películas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love.

Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God,

things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere.

Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.

His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network,

available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So for more than 200 years from the late 17th century, Barbuda was leased by the crown to one family, the Codringtons, hence the name of the village being Codrington. The original leasee was a guy named Christopher Codrington. The original Lisey was a guy named Christopher Codrington. He was the governor of the Leeward Islands and his heirs lived in England so they pretty much neglected it after he had died. Barbuda would have supplemented the lucrative sugar estates that Codrington had in Antigua with timber and ground provisions and fish and livestock and draft animals. Barbuda being surrounded by coral reefs often had ships wreck near the island and so they also salvaged resources from those ships.

And so as late as the 1850s, the Codringtons were getting £4,000 a year from Barbudan stock and £300 a year from salvaging operations on the island. That's just over £643,000 today per year. And it just demonstrates, of course, that even though they were more independent than most other enslaved people, because the island wasn't as profitable they were still being exploited initially the island was only worked by a few indentured whites but then when enslaved people were brought in from africa the enslaved population began to rise and they began to establish that sort of culture and community that we see to this day because they were neglected because the island was

very little inhabited they housed and they fed themselves through their own efforts and were basically spared of the rigors of the plantation regiment because of how unprofitable the island was because its soils were so sandy and arid and unfertile so between 1800 and 1832 being free in many respects babira's population was able to rise from 300 to 500. And they built a cohesive Creole community whose solidarity was able to thwart the efforts of local overseers and absentee proprietors to try to get them to labor on Antiguan estates or to get them to be more quote-unquote productive for their overseers. Because they had such a several hundred strong community on that island that had established itself for generations, no overseer, no manager could just pull up in there and just say,

try and coerce them into doing what he wanted them to do. This is in stark contrast to a lot of the other Caribbean islands where managers and overseers had a lot more presence and a lot more power to destroy families, to split up communities, to ferment divisions. Because the island just, they basically neglected it. And in that neglect, they took advantage of that neglect of the material conditions that created that neglect to strengthen their community bonds and to strengthen their autonomy as emancipation came around Codrington himself even was like wow good for them pretty much because almost all of them were like, to quote him directly, one united family so attached to Barbuda

that force alone or extreme drought can alone take them from that island. In other words, as a displaced indigenous African people, they reforged a connection to the new land that they inhabited and rooted themselves in that land one particular tradition they have is the burial of one's umbilical cord on the island itself and so that's been going on for generations where a new child is born and the umbilical cord is buried on the island and so even when buddhans move abroad they still have that strong tie to the island itself so after emancipation rolled around in 1834 babudan life didn't change that much the transition from slavery to being free

was not as abrupt or as consequential as it was in other parts of the caribbean they didn't become landowners they didn't necessarily get any political power automatically because popular was still being assigned to crown leases which had certain um agreements and contracts in place with the crown that kind of thing but they were i mean they were still being exploited but things were a bit easier for them to transition compared to other places an 1835 agreement had secured Bob Uden's employment on Codrington Enterprises at specific rates of pay but after the contract had lapsed it really reverted to a sort of a relationship of of coercion they wouldn't pay them they wouldn't pay them their wages they would take quote-unquote recalcitrant barbudans and transport them to

antiguan jails or plantations and they would continue to just siphon off of the island one of the only exports really on the island at the time was cattle mostly for codrington's estates in antigua cattle sheep and firewood and the people themselves were engaged in cultivating provisions yams potatoes corn and supplying their own farm industry, their own clothing, their necessities. So Barbudans would continue with their different occupations, their hunting and their fishing, their provision, tending, their cutting wood and burning charcoal and salvaging wrecks. Sometimes they would be employed by proprietors or governments,

but most times they either disregarded these authorities or acted in open defiance and so agents of the state would often complain about probudens and their disregard for the crown's property and the estate's property they would often be accused of poaching Codrington's cattle and so they will there was one attempt in particular to seize all their guns and send them off of the island and so when the government did step in and condemned the Barbudans for you know taking cattle when they wanted to take cattle Barbudans basically pulled an uno reverse card and demanded redress against interference with their livelihoods. They basically were like, I'll quote one petition that was written by Barbudans in 1869.

We are deprived of the use of our firearms, whereby most of us live in shooting any large fish, turtle, or wild birds. live in shooting any large fish, turtle, or wild birds. We are told to take out licenses, yet if we are seen with a gun, not even shooting, we are taken before the magistrate of Antigua and severely punished for it. Our little gardens are gone to waste, and if

such as are still in a little cultivation was to be injured by weather, and we by sickness are not able to have the fences repaired directly, it is taken and burned saying our intention is only to catch the wild beasts of mr codrington's eventually i guess the codrington's got tired of having to not profit as well as they could have of having to deal with these independent people

they relinquished on their lease in 1870. They took all their horses and cattle off the island, leaving only the deer and sheep because you can't really round up deer and sheep as effectively at that point. And they basically, they left. And I always find it interesting when Europeans bring like a bunch of European animals

wherever they go. It's like, let me just go and set up an estate here in the a little nowhere and introduce a bunch of deer and sheep and rabbits and stuff i mean i think it happened in australia as well they just let a bunch of rabbits just go loose just for hunting it's like oh let me like get a hobby that's not shooting animals but anyway Shooting animals. But anyway. So because Barbuda was seen as unprofitable, each leasee that got their lease from the Crown gutted its resources as much as they could and neglected its inhabitants. William and Robert Dugal

of William and Robert Dugal's Barbuda Island Company never invested the annual £1,500 required by their lease. Only £700 rather than their promised £6,000 worth of stock were introduced, with barely a score of Barbudans employed as cruziers. And even though they allegedly attempted to plant certain coffee, cola, cocoa, and other fruits, they neglected that too. And eventually in 1898, a derelict Barbuda was forfeited to the crown for a non-payment of rent. When a government official visited the island, he found the deer were almost exterminated the satinwood and logwood were depleted the cattle were famished the fences were in disrepair they had four men to round up

about 100 horses 80 cattle and a bunch of cows and the two paddocks that existed on the island had long since become filthy and variously overgrown not only with bush but dense thickets. Dr. Dugall's gunners also apparently had a really bad sense of aim because a lot of the fences were just riddled with bullets. And so because the island and the people were starved and degraded by the Dugalls, the colonial office had, you know, revoked their lease and basically excused the few villagers who had taken some of the cattle for themselves. Barbudans had also protested the fact that whenever these leases would pull up on their island,

they would always be taking their stock, closing their provision grounds, threatening to evict them them basically doing everything they could to be hostile towards people on the island and so only their own traditional hunting and farming and and stuff enabled parbutans to survive of course government being the government didn't really care about the people that much so even though the leaseholders were gone they didn't really get much out of it the people that is so then after the termination of the lease the colonial government uh leeward islands colonial government in antigua basically took over the island and they established a government

stock farm in 1901 some cotton plots in 1903 um they gave some grants to pay for fencing and cutting wood and cotton experiments and cattle purchases and mule breeding and the Barbadians took the government grazing lands for their own purposes and basically enclosed a portion of that land and left it for the government stock and left the rest of the pasture, the richest parts of the pasture, for their own horses and cattle and donkeys. So while the government had to deal with this small portion of land with some very weak, insufficient meadow, the rest of the community was able to flourish with a nice rich pasture for their cattle. And still, despite that, the government stock farm still flourished with 161 horses, 108 cattle, and 5 mules by 1905.

And then cotton, surprisingly, also became profitable on the island. A crop that really didn't flourish there at all during slavery was now starting to pick up in the beginning of the early 20th century. They began shipping cotton out and employing a bunch of Barbudans and now Barbuda was being seen as a super profitable place. However, because of that cotton boom, Barbudans were able to buy passage overseas, they were able to raise their standard of living. And it ended up causing a labor shortage that led to conflict. After a shipwreck off the island in 1915, the island manager went to check out what was going on with the salvaging and he caught a bunch of barbudans

salvaging but salvaging for their own profit instead of his profits and so in retaliation for him trying to stop them from salvaging for themselves the barbudans burnt his boat and his wagon and so in retaliation for that the governor of Antigua started to impose these previously unenforced rents on cultivated plots so like he wanted to charge like five shillings per acre per year and he also doubled animal head taxes so doubled animal head taxes. And so by introducing these taxes, introducing these rents, the government was basically trying to get,

not just to punish the people for, you know, daring to be free, but also trying to force them to work on their cotton plantation. Of course, Barbudans, having lived so freely for so long, didn't want to work on these cotton plantations, especially not after slavery. And so,

the people petitioned the crown against this kind of semi-intentioned servitude that the governor was trying to introduce. And, it seems that Mother Nature was on their side because they won their case due to drought. All the crops were basically ruined by drought, cutting on cotton profits, cutting on cattle profits,

cutting on cattle profits, cutting on crop, on corn profits. And all this happened in 1916. And then in 1922, Barbuda was hit by a hurricane more severe than they'd ever seen before. And so that brief period where Barbuda was seen as striking gold for the government came to an end. And Barbudans continued to cling on to their customary modes of subsistence, of self-reliance, of survival, of their plots and their livestock and their fishing grounds, of continuing to be their own masters because 250 years of experience had taught them how unreliable and exploitative

all these other alternatives that bosses, non-natives that government was trying to introduce were to them. And they learned that only ownership in common would guarantee their access and guarantee the protection of their island from environmental exploitation. And so that's where we get to the interesting part.

Because they'd already long thought of themselves as owners of the island, as possessing the island for themselves, even though on paper, it wasn't the case. Even though on paper, they were being handled between the crown and different leaseholders that the crown would introduce.

Barbuda, two Barbudans, being so small, being so homogenous, having such meager soils, having such strong and tight connections and bonds, they saw it as all of theirs, collectively. It wasn't like... And when I say strong connections, family bonds, I don't mean it in the sense that

some of the other lands in the Caribbean were sort of parceled out. Because in the Caribbean, there are lands that are held by certain families and it passes down the family and it's going on for generations. But it wasn't this idea that all these particular families owned the land.

It was that all of particular families owned the land. It was that all of them together owned the land. Serious, real, communal land ownership. They'd use the land for generations to raise ground provisions, to hunt deer and wild pigs, to keep goats and sheep, to keep cattle, to cut firewood, to fish, and so on. They had no documents that said that they had these collective rights on the island, and yet they all insisted with one voice that Barbuda was theirs alone. No outsiders could tell them otherwise. was theirs alone. No outsiders could tell them otherwise.

And furthermore, they had proven again and again and again that outside proprietors were powerless in the face of their attempts to run the island for themselves. Because they would continue to graze their cattle wherever they wanted to graze their cattle. They wouldze their cattle wherever they wanted to graze their cattle they would continue to fish wherever they wanted to fish salvage whatever they wanted to salvage cultivate wherever they wanted to cultivate who's gonna stop them you know clearly nobody they couldn't even get outsiders couldn't even get like a rent out of Barbudans

so by 1920 Barbudans had gotten legal entitlement to roughly half of the island and by 1983 they controlled virtually all of its resources basically de facto

unfortunately against their will, honestly, Antigua and Barbuda were joined together by colonial administrators. So Antigua and Barbuda is the country that exists today. But one of the primary concerns of Barbudans were that they'd be able to maintain sole ownership, sole control, sole communal control over the lands of Barbuda.

Land ownership has been an issue that Barbudans have had with Antigua for a very, very long time now, for decades now. And really all Barbudans want. Is to maintain their common ownership. For themselves alone. And so they have maintained that. Through the Barbudan council.

Defending the land. And declaring that. No land in Barbuda can be sold or developed. Without the permission of the Barbudan Council. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again,

the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes.

You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech

from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though.

I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999,

a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So now to explain basically how common land use works in Barbuda. There are two distinctive and useful modes of land use. Shifting cultivation for provision grounds and open range prostitute for livestock because the soil is so weak shifting cultivation is a

necessity and so after one or two years of planting exhaust the soil they move their fencing they move their grounds of between half an acre to two or three acres and plant their sweet potatoes, yams, maize, beans, pigeon peas, squash, peanuts, etc. elsewhere. So the old land could, you know, regenerate. But this constant cultivation is something that grants really no permanent rights to any one individual. You do have use rights, it's the principle of use of fruct, over the area you're cultivating. But you don't have permanent ownership over that piece of land that you're cultivating. And they have that system in place because they recognize,

living on the island for all these generations, that Barbuda's ecology is extremely fragile, extremely limited. Its resources are limited. And so they have to safeguard their sustenance for generations to come. Yeah, that's fascinating, actually. I didn't know anything about that.

Yeah, it really is. Similarly, with the slash and bloom cultivation, they also had the management of open-range livestock being very much unrestricted. They're actually feral cattle that exist on the island in addition to the more teamed and penned animals. And so how they basically, they allow all their animals to mix and mingle of different families or different individuals

would have their specific cattle or horses or sheep or whatever earmarked or branded. But for the most part, they've maintained this sort of open range husbandry because it helps to sustain their unity. It helps to maintain their, strengthen their social bonds and their community solidarity to basically ensure that everyone is taken care of in a place that is so scant of resources. And lastly, one of the ways to maintain the balance of the island is through emigration.

The population has basically stayed at that level because they've stayed within the limits of the resources they have on the island. And so young Barbudans have had to leave the island while still maintaining their communal use rights to the land and then eventually they would make remittances

of money or resources and periodic returns that would help to introduce you know healthcare resources and housing resources and educational resources to the island. So it's not that they're like completely isolated from the outside world living in this sort of bubble. They do still have that exchange going on. Most of the immigrants live in three primary

communities. St. John's Antigua, of course, seeing as it's their neighbor. A lot of them are in New York City. I mean, a lot of Caribbean people in general are in New York City, but Barbudans are in New York City. And a lot of them also live in Britain, in Leicester, as part of the West Indian exodus that took place all the way back in the late 1950s. all the way back in the late 1950s. So, to sort of wrap things up here, their communal ties and their solidarity have allowed them to cope with a harsh environment

and to successfully navigate a succession of misinformed, aloofoof sometimes actively hostile and mostly incompetent proprietors managers and administrators being so unified and holding themselves in solidarity they have managed to maintain their traditional resource ownership their communal land tenure and their fragile ecology. Completely and totally rejecting the assertions that the economist Garrett Harden made about the tragedy of the commons. It has not been a tragedy for

Barbudans. It has been a triumph. Until recently. Unfortunately, in September 2017, Hurricane Irma damaged and destroyed up to 95% of the island's buildings and infrastructure. And as a result, all of the island's inhabitants had to evacuate Antigua, leaving Wabiura empty for the first time in hundreds of years. Wow. I mean, two years later, by February 2019, most of the residents have returned to the island.

However, the Prime Minister of Antigua, Gaston Alfonso Brown, he's been leader since 2014, has been making moves essentially to privatize barbuda his background before entering politics was being a banker and a businessman and he seems to be employing the shock doctrine tactic of using environmental catastrophe and social displacement to accelerate capitalism essentially after you know hurricane amos swept

through um and postal residents became homeless communication systems came that went went down um and segan barbuda got relief 120 000 pounds of relief for barbuda um that's not very much not very much at all. Yeah. But it would take over $100 million to rebuild the homes and the infrastructure in Barbuda. All the critical infrastructure that existed, the food supply, the medicine, the shelter, electricity, water, communications, waste management.

And as one person said um the director of Antigua and Barbuda's national office of disaster services Phil McMullen he said in my 25 years of disaster management I've never seen something like this it is optimistic to think anything like this could be rebuilt in six months they have to rebuild entirely all of their public utilities um and so essentially what prime minister gaston alfonso brown is trying to do is revoke communal land ownership allow the residents to buy some land and use the rest to basically introduce

resorts and hotels and other tourist attractions to help fund the rebuilding efforts. But of course, we know where that money is actually going to go.

And that's as far as I know about the situation. Unfortunately, I don't have any connections in Antiguan Barbuda yet. But unfortunately, that is what has been going on. Another example, basically, of disaster capitalism trying to seize and accumulate through violence and through exploitation, as usual. I hope that you know we've seen and been inspired by

Barbuda's efforts and I hope that Barbudans are able to continue to prove themselves resilient in the face of this disaster That's fascinating Do you know like I'm interested in these like diasporic communities like you said

there's one in Leicester and stuff um like do they know, like, I'm interested in these like diasporic communities, like you said, there's one in Leicester and stuff. Like, do they still have like a very strong community coherence, like when they when they go elsewhere? And to like, did like you said, they tend to gather in like certain spots. I'd be interested in like how those folks, I guess, dealt with a very different life in like new york or leicester or wherever right well um like other caribbean people who have emigrated we do tend to concentrate in certain places where we already have family connections um i think most caribbean people have at least a relative living abroad um an uncle a great uncle second cousin a cousin whatever um and so it sort of builds from there and so you try and basically create like a piece of home and sort of settle and concentrate in those areas and live in those areas and support each other in those areas. Yeah.

And that, I would say, helps with the adjustment. Yeah, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So you can find me on YouTube.com slash Andrew Zung. On Patreon.com slash St. Drew. And on Twitter.com slash andrewism on patreon.com slash st drew and on twitter.com slash underscore st drew if you are uh bob you done please don't hesitate to reach out to me i would love to learn more about the situation going on and wish you all the best solidarity forever peace

it could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow Broth. Thanks for listening. Inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba?

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