While suggesting there is currently a lack of available information, one resident has firmly stated the need for government to have a more serious dialogue with Virgin Islanders about where it needs to be in the tourism industry. Photo: VINO

“We can’t just have thirteen persons, as it were, deciding where [and] how we should go…” Douglas Wheatley said while making reference to members of the legislature.

“If we go wrong and the people make the decision, the people can’t blame the government,” the resident expressed on the Speak Out BVI radio programme aired on June 4, 2013.

The resident said the Virgin Islands has very much to offer and its people are very ambitious and talented, therefore more needs to be done to accomplish its goals.

The resident suggested that part of what needs to be done can be executed, “when we go wrong and the people were never a part of it, then we have a problem,” he added.

Host of the programme, Douglas Wheatley, was in full agreement with the caller and said persons in the Territory needed to have a say in what goes on.

“We can’t just have thirteen persons, as it were, deciding where [and] how we should go…” Wheatley said while making reference to members of the legislature.

He was particularly critical of divisions that existed between residents along party lines and stated that persons should not see each other as NDP or VIP supporters, but should instead show love for each other.

The resident suggested that something was keeping the Territory back from where it needed to be going and suggested that whatever this was needed to be resolved.

“To me the government needs to know how to go out there and sell [to] the public,” the resident said, “let the public be involved in more of their decisions.”

While stressing that unity was the key to development, Wheatley said it was important that Virgin Islanders come together in order to achieve any level of progress.