In Grenada, it was not apparently clear what acts, if any, the "patriots" have committed in order to be called troublemakers. However, in Turks and Caicos, a group of anonymous activists use a website called TCI Journal to vent anger and seemingly malign developers, disguising it as news. Many of their articles and opinions reveal resentment toward developers. The man who runs the site, Shaun Malcolm, is published in a UK Crown Report making a formal complaint about Crown Land usage reserved for Belongers only (islanders of Turks and Caicos).
You may have recently heard of this matter heating up when the developer, Cem Kinay, sued for defamation resulting in Google being served a subpoena to hand over the ip addresses of TCI Journal. Certainly, now Wikileaks is involved as TCI Journal published a court ordered suppressed report in violation of the court order, on the Wikileaks site.
It certainly appears that the rift between the developers and the locals are heated.
On the one hand, it seems reasonable for citizens to be vigilant about their government, and standing up for one's rights is a basic form and expression of speech. It is a right afforded to everyone. If these nationals feel disenfranchised by their government with respect to land, they should go ahead and protest and take all actions available to you legally.
There are only a couple of issues that I have with creating a news media outlet for activism, as in the case of TCI Journal. I am certain that TCI Journal does not speak for all islanders. In fact, many of the islanders I spoke with are grateful for the investors and developers for creating jobs and they wish to see the developers succeed to that end.
My second issue with this is that developers and investors have no control over the local's situation. Many times, these are businessmen from abroad that made the choice to commence a development on the islands, not at the expense of locals. It seems that the islanders have misplaced or misguided anger.
You should always complain up the ladder to someone who can help you. Targeting investors and developers will not change or enhance your position. Maybe then, the group of activist islanders will no longer be called trouble-makers and they will be able to be heard and called true activists.
Article comments
1 - Jimmy
"The aforementioned resort developer, Dr. Cem Kinay, has been targeted by nationals and activists in Turks and Caicos seemingly for the same reason: resentment of land acquisitions."
So you don't think it had anything to do with the $500,000 paid to local politicians?