Take Me to My Paradise: Tourism and Nationalism in the British Virgin Islands

1. Tourism’s Paradise: Historical Background

Chapter 1 Tourism’s Paradise Historical Background Big ol’ jet plane, wide-span, chrome-plated wings Fly me to my island, fly me to that island in the sun. Concrete jungle and that painted smile you put on me Say I got to leave you, Yeah you know I got to leave you, now. Come come come come take me, take me to my Paradise. —Quito Rymer I begin this chapter looking at the first two lines of the song “Paradise,” “Big ol’ jet plane, wide-span, chrome-plated wings / Fly me to my island, fly me to that island in the sun.” Where the chorus, “Take me to my paradise,” calls forth images of a premodern Eden fixed in time, the first two lines reference modernity and mobility.The friction between a premodern paradise and modernity, between a place fixed in time and mobility characterizes the contemporary BVI experience. In this chapter I sketch a historical backdrop for the analysis of the modern and mobile lives of BVIsanders, lives that are also in many important respects shaped by the need to satisfy tourist desire for an untouched, premodern paradise.“Nature’s Little Secrets,” the slogan that brands the BVI as a tourist destination, targets this desire, and also conveys a sense of the particular character of BVI history. The uniqueness signaled by the “Nature’s Little Secrets” slogan also reflects a sense on the part of BVIslanders that they and their native land have been specially blessed. This sense seems to be borne out by its contemporary circumstances. The BVI is a British Overseas Territory located sixty miles east of Puerto Rico and just a few miles east of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) island of St.Thomas, in the Lesser Antilles chain in the eastern Caribbean (figure 1.1) Throughout most of the three hundred years of its relationship to Great Britain, the BVI was, at best, economically dependent and politically marginal. Today, the BVI is financially self-sufficient, 15 Take Me to My Paradise 16 with a per capita income approaching $40,000 (U.S.). It also exercises great autonomy over its political, economic, and social development. A crown-appointed governor has executive authority over defense and the administration of the courts, but all other areas of governance, including internal legislation and statutory bodies, external relations, and consultation in the selection of the governor, are the purview of a locally elected premier, cabinet, and House of Assembly.The economic and political transformation of the BVI from an economic and political backwater to a prosperous semi-autonomous state has occurred so recently and so rapidly that most BVIsanders over fifty-five years of age still recall a pretourism BVI, when the mainstay of the economy was small-scale farming, fishing, goat raising, charcoal making, and the occasional rum smuggling. These memories were codified in a report, commissioned by government, “The BritishVirgin Islands MacroEconomy.”“Before the 1950s, the BVI economy was primarily dependent on agriculture. With limited capacity to import, and the absence of investment, the populous [sic] depended on agriculture and fishing as a means for survival. During this period, the main means by 1.1. The British Virgin Islands. Map by Meg Stewart. 0 1,000 0 500 10ºN 15ºN 20ºN 25ºN Wº 0 8 Wº 5 8 Wº 5 7 Wº 0 7 Wº 5 6 Wº 0 6 Florida, USA Cuba Dominican Republic Haiti Venezuela Columbia Mexico Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Sea British Virgin Islands kilometers miles 0 20 miles 25 kilometers 0 Jost Van Dyke Sandy Cay Little Jost Van Dyke Green Cay Great Thatch Little Thatch Great Tobago Frenchman’s Cay Tortola Road Town Cane Garden Bay Great Harbour Sage Mtn. St.John (USVI) Virgin Gorda Anegada Guana Island Great Camanoe Scrub Island Beef Island Buck Island Great Dog West Dog George Dog Seal Dogs ^ ^ Nanny Cay Flannagan Island Norman Island Pelican Island Peter Island Dead Chest Salt Island Cooper Island Ginger Island Carval Rock Round Rock Fallen Jerusalem Mosquito Island Necker Island Prickly Pear Island Eustasia Island Marina Cay Little Camanoe l e n n a h C e k a r D s i c n a r F r i S NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN Caribbean Sea e g a s s a P a d a g e n A N BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Historical Background 17 which goods were traded was the barter...