EDITORIAL:

Change needed

PAGE 8 The Avis WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013

Publisher/Editor/Owner . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rena BrodhurstManaging Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephanie HanlonBusiness Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Maria E. MoralesAd Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Linda Clarke

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Letter to the Editor

The Avis

Smart agriculture paysThe feuding at the hospital is like something out of West Side

Story, only this real story impacts us in a serious way. Not having a

vascular surgeon on island is extremely dangerous and puts our citi-

zens in a very vulnerable position.

For too long we've allowed special interests to corrupt our commu-

nity. Senators promising retirees the moon and the stars while our

children don't have what they need, simply because retirees vote and

children don't. Or senators blindly throwing themselves behind a

union that is looking out for their members first and the community

second. It's disgusting but it's partly our fault. We, the greater com-

munity, join the populous movements when we aren't fully informed.

We stand behind things that will benefit one group while the society

as a whole suffers. And it needs to stop.

When we push out specialized physicians from the States simply

because they aren't from here, we are only hurting ourselves. It's also

hypocritical because when we need specialized care we pay for flights

and hotels for the privilege of seeing specialized physicians in the

States that we don't have here. Some local doctors perceive these

non-local doctors as a threat because they aren't from here, dismiss-

ing ideas for reforms that are working at other hospitals. Certainly

not all local doctors, as usual a minority gets to set the agenda for us

all. Many local doctors welcome physicians with specialties that we

don't have here and open their minds to reforms that could possibly

fix our hospitals. We, the general population, are the ones who stand

to gain from more specialized care and badly needed reforms.

It's hypocritical because Virgin Islanders who have money take

their medical business off island, to stateside doctors who have the

specialized training needed for certain ailments — taking money

away from our hospitals because we don't provide the services or the

quality of services they need. Meanwhile, those who can't afford to

leave or who don't have insurance are forced to deal with a dysfunc-

tional hospital where special interests are the norm and senators

infuse their personal desires based on those they have allegiances to.

The situation is completely out of control and we are the ones who

are going to suffer. Former CEO Jeff Nelson might not have been the

most likable person in the world, but we made a mistake dismissing

his ideas simply because they were unpopular and because he was-

n't from here. If the hospital is going to be repaired then harsh deci-

sions are going to be necessary and not everyone will be happy. But

we will all be better off as a community.

A doctor should be judged on the quality of their skills not on

where they are from or their nationality, that is discrimination from

both sides.

It is in all our interest to have a healthy hospital that is ready to

care for us in our time of need. We need a hospital system that keeps

money generating in that hospital, by bringing on staffed physicians

and creating more partnerships with clinics and specialized centers.

We need to welcome outsiders who have specialties we don't have,

just like we are welcomed in other places when we have the special-

ties they don't have.

It's true, we have so many Virgin islanders who are excellent doc-

tors and surgeons, some of them are here trying to do their best

under the circumstances but many have left because they can't han-

dle the dysfunction.

Please send your letters to the editor via e-mail to avisnewstips@gmail.com; via fax to 340-718-5511; bymail; or drop them off at our office. We do not publish

anonymous letters, so please include your name,place of residence and a daytime phone number.

Dear Editor,I read with more than a pass-

ing interest the Editorial pub-

lished in the Sunday-Monday,

October 20-21, 2013 edition of

The Avis, entitled “Food securi-

ty,” which was in reference to

World Food Day and related

activities held over the weekend

at the University of the Virgin

Islands. This is a topic that I

have been discussing rather fre-

quently in a number of settings

and forums. Several statements

made in the editorial are

thought-provoking and stimu-

lating and I would like to offer

my comments on them.

I agree that agriculture (alone)

is not going to save us economi-

cally. I do believe, however, that

it can be a prong or a leg, if you

will, on a well-diversified eco-

nomic development stool. I

recently read a news article

coming from the Caricom coun-

tries whereby that organization

is very concerned, and rightfully

so, with the exorbitantly high

cost of importing food into the

region from the United States

and other parts of Europe,

including the U.K. The latest

Caricom data, as the article

stated, indicated that more than

$3 billion worth of agricultural

products was imported into the

region in 2011. The corollary to

that is $3 billion dollars was

exported out of the region to

pay for these products. These

countries are beginning to look

at ways to produce their own

food and retain those dollars

within their island nations and

the region.

It was stated in the media not

too long ago, that here in the

Virgin Islands we import an

estimated $1 billion of food into

the territory annually. I attend-

ed a seminar earlier this year

that was sponsored by the Vir-

gin Islands Small Business

Development Center entitled VI

Agribusiness Consulting Pro-

gram 2013. It was revealed at

that seminar that we produce

less than 5 percent of what we

consume here in the territory.

Should this give us pause for

cause? Should we be asking

ourselves lots and lots of ques-

tions as to what we need to do,

what we must do, to address

this enormous outflow of dollars

from within our economy? Is it

not time to stop paying lip ser-

vice to developing a viable agri-

cultural industry in the Virgin

Islands and stop using agricul-

ture as a bullet point on cam-

paign brochures every election

cycle?

The Avis Editorial further

stated that where we should

begin in our quest to develop an

agricultural industry is to pro-

duce enough for us to consume

locally before we even begin to

think about exports. This

makes perfect sense to me.

Where I would begin, however,

is in gathering the data. The

data is available that will pro-

vide us with the types of prod-

ucts that we import, the dollar

value of those imports (estimat-

ed at $1 billion annually) and

the location from which we are

importing. Can we carve out or

target those products that we

know can be produced here in

the Virgin Islands and develop

comprehensive studies, plans

and implementation methods to

capture those dollars and retain

in our economy? I firmly believe

that we can do this, but what

EDITORIAL, PAGE 9

EDITORIAL, PAGE 9

we lack is the will to do so. Wehave the University of the Vir-gin Islands, which is a land-grant institution I believe,that has components calledthe Cooperative ExtensionService, Research and Agri-cultural Experiment Service,that has a School of Businessand has the Small BusinessDevelopment Center. And wehave the Department of Agri-culture and the EconomicDevelopment Authority. Canthese entities be broughttogether and be tasked withdeveloping a comprehensiveagri-business plan with inputfrom the stakeholder groupsthat must include the farm-ers? Instead of throwing a fewdollars every now and then atcertain farming groups, itmakes sense to me that wemake every attempt to developthis industry holistically, fromend to end, from productionplanning to final distributionand everything in between.The financial resourcesshould be made available tothese entities to begin thisprocess. It is not an easyendeavor and will take sometime to develop, make nodoubt about it, but it isachievable, provided we makethe commitment to proceedwith such an undertaking.

I applaud the efforts of allthose that were mentioned inthe article – Sejah Farms andReef to Ridge Farm – and alsoWe Grow Food on St. Thomasas well as others that I haveheard about on St. John.Their efforts are steps in theright direction for which theymust be commended and sup-ported, but we also want tobegin thinking about large-scale development of this

industry that no doubt willcontribute significantly to thebuilding and sustenance ofour economy.

Development of an agri-business industry will neces-sitate government subsidies,which can come in manyforms, such as public-privatepartnerships, grants, etc. tomention a few. We must findways to harness theseresources so that we can cre-ate jobs in our economythrough growth and stimula-tion. Speaking of jobs in theagribusiness industry, theyrun the gamut. Yes the indus-try would need traditionalfarm workers, but it alsorequires a number of otherpositions, not all-inclusive,such as production managers,salesmen and women, officeassistants, chemists, labassistants, accountants,bookkeepers, mechanics,maintenance workers andtruck drivers. The develop-ment of an agri-businessindustry in the Virgin Islandsrequires that we view it differ-ently than we have in thepast. We must not look at theresources required as merelyannual expenditures, but asinvestments that will produceconsiderable returns in thefuture.

In addressing our foodsecurity concerns, let us beever mindful of the fact thatwe live on islands and thepotential for us being cut-offfrom the outside world due tonatural disasters or man-made events, if only tem-porarily, is real. Producingour own food for our con-sumption first is one way ofmitigating and minimizingthat threat.

Marvin L. PickeringSt. Croix

JASON STANFORDCAGLE CARTOONS

Women of Texas, RepublicanAttorney General Greg Abbottis here to tell you how goodyou have it. In fact, he recentlysaid, "I'm proud to say there isnobody in the state of Texaswho has done more to fight tohelp women than I have in thepast decade." You'll have toexcuse the man. He's runningfor governor, and it's becomingclear that his right hand does-n't know what the far-righthand is doing.

Abbott says he has prose-cuted sex traffickers and col-lected $27 billion in child sup-port. He deserves credit fordoing his job, but theapplause might be louder if hiscampaign weren't lying aboutSen. Davis's record and givinga forum to sexist attacks onher.

He went trolling for e-mailaddresses by circulating apetition that claimed, "WendyDavis wants to bring gun con-trol to Texas." Hogwash.Among Davis' pro-2nd Amend-ment votes is one giving theAttorney General the power toblock local gun control laws.Let's hope Abbott's aim is bet-ter with a gun.

That lie quickly became asideshow as thousands of peo-ple left comments on Abbott'sFacebook page that can't beprinted in newspapers.Abbott's campaign deleted acouple of death threats but leftup these and others like them:"She looks like a throw rug,"wrote one. "Piss on her," sug-gested another. Someone

called her a "whiney, pantywaggin' broad." The comment"Someone needs to flush herwhere she belongs" was whatpassed for subtlety on thislitany of online abuse.

This happened as votersstarted trickling into the pollsto vote on constitutionalamendments. Texans arealways bragging, but no onecan hold a candle to us whenit comes to not voting. Texashas the worst voter participa-tion rates in the entire coun-try.

To Abbott, that's a goodstart. Despite the fact that hecan cite only two cases of voterimpersonation in the lastdecade, Abbott pushed a lawnow in effect requiring votersto show a valid photo ID beforevoting. Wildly popular andseemingly logical, the lawignores real life. For example,two-thirds of Texas women donot have a photo ID thatshows their current legalname, according to the Bren-nan Center for Justice at theNew York University School ofLaw. To vote, the names haveto match.

This happened to me when Ivoted. My driver's licensespells out my middle name,whereas the voter file onlyuses the initial. I filled out aform stating that I, JasonAndrew Stanford, was indeedJason A. Stanford, and wasallowed to vote. At best, VoterID poses a useless bureaucrat-ic annoyance to voters. Atworst, it's another reason notto vote in a state where hardlyanyone votes.

The women who have differ-

ent names on their photo IDand their voter registrationcards have it better than theTexans who don't have an IDat all, says Sondra Haltom, thepresident of Empower the VoteTexas, a non-profit defendingvoters' rights. She found thatthe Secretary of State, whichruns Texas elections, says795,955 voters lack either astate ID or a driver's license.

Many of these voters, Hal-tom has found, are little oldladies who don't drive or needan ID — except now to vote —and now they have long sincelost the supporting documen-tation needed to get an IDcard.

"Voter ID disproportionatelyaffects women simply becausewomen more often changetheir names when they getmarried and then change themback when they get divorced,"said Haltom. "I think this is anunintended consequence thatthose who wrote this law did-n't think through the details.Now we have the unintendedproblem of women having tojump through hoops in orderto vote."

If there's one thing womenlike it's having to jumpthrough hoops simply becausethey're women, especially toprevent something that almostnever happens. And Abbott isadding insult to inconvenienceby running a deceitful, nega-tive campaign that runs downWendy Davis partly because ofher gender.

Any more defending fromyou, Greg, and the women ofTexas might get mad enoughto vote. Heckuva job, Abbott.

PAGE 9WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2013 The Avis

GOP: Women love jumping through hoops

LETTER:FROM PAGE 8

While conducting researchfor our special report on thehospital, which was publishedon Tuesday, we didn't justspeak to doctors working in theVirgin Islands. We also spoke tosurgeons in the States with lit-tle knowledge about the situa-tion in the Virgin Islands, forbackground information and inan effort to better understandthe situation at our hospital.One highly respected vascularand general surgeon in NewYork, who originally is fromJamaica, explained that theonly areas where the contract-physician system works are bigcities where there is lots ofcompetition and doctors arelining up to set up shop. Hospi-tals in smaller areas are movingtoward a physician-employedsystem with a wider hospitalnetwork in order to keep funds

generating in the hospital,where profitable services offsetthe costs of unprofitable ser-vices. They aren't making thesemoves because the physicianswant it to happen, but becausethey have to in order to stayfinancially viable. As long ashospital-employed physicianshave a productivity clauseattached, this system is work-ing for a lot of hospitals. It'ssomething to consider,because, after all, what is hap-pening now clearly isn't work-ing.

Are we going to open ourminds to the possibility thatthis type of system may helpus, or are we going to continuedoing things the same way?

We maintain confidence thatDr. Kendall Griffith is a firstclass cardiologist and with theright mix of supporting man-agers our hospital can be puton the path to recovery. Ourvery lives depend on it.

EDITORIAL:FROM PAGE 8