And so, who is the big bad guy? When we've been trained to serve
Profit over People, why would we be surprised? Capitalism is both
cold and cruel to People.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/23/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Robert De Niro Accused of Exploiting Hurricane Irma to Build Resort in
Barbuda
By Naomi Klein and Alleen Brown, The Intercept
23 January 18
A chorus of voices from the Caribbean island of Barbuda is accusing Robert
De Niro of being part of a backroom effort to exploit a devastating
hurricane to fundamentally change the island's communal land ownership law
in the interest of developers - changes opposed by many Barbudans, but
which
could aid the actor's controversial plans to build a large luxury resort
called Paradise Found Nobu.
Earlier this month, with almost no international news coverage and with the
majority of Barbudans still displaced from the storm, an amendment to the
law in question was quietly pushed through the Senate of Antigua and
Barbuda
- a body dominated by politicians from the wealthier and more populous
island of Antigua. If the amendment stands, a tradition of communal land
rights that dates back to the abolition of slavery in 1834 - and which has
protected Barbuda as a rare beacon of sustainable development in the
Caribbean - will be extinguished.
But as news of the change trickles out, Barbudans are fighting back,
challenging the legality of the amendment to the Barbuda Land Act. And they
say the island's highest-profile investor, Robert De Niro, stands to
benefit
most.
"It's just a scam to take away the land from the Barbudans so they can give
it to people like Robert de Niro," said Mackenzie Frank, a former senator
from the island. "Anyone who has beach land is laughing all the way to the
bank."
De Niro, who has so far stayed silent as the controversy has grown, did not
respond to The Intercept's requests for comment.
Up until the recent changes, land in Barbuda was held in common: It could
not be bought or sold, and though developers could lease land for 50 years,
their projects needed to win the consent of a majority of Barbudans. It was
a rare example of participatory economic planning and successful land
redistribution to freed slaves and their descendants.
But the Land Act was resented by foreign investors and wealthy Antiguans,
and the latest push to alter the law first reared its head just days after
Hurricane Irma roared through Barbuda. The island had been hit by storms
before, but never like this: Upwards of 90 percent of the buildings in
Barbuda were damaged, and all residents were evacuated to Antigua.
When they heard about the proposed changes to the Land Act, many Barbudans
(including those living in the diaspora) objected - but it was nearly
impossible for them to organize effective opposition. As Tim George, a U.K.
citizen whose mother is Barbudan, observed weeks after the storm, "An
entire
population is now housed in temporary shelter, reliant on the authorities
for everything, and restricted in their access to their homes. By allowing
an opportunistic Antiguan government the momentum to force this change past
a traumatised community in its most vulnerable moment, the core freedom
secured by those emancipated from slavery, successfully defended and passed
down through generations, is under serious threat."
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and ocean conservationist who
worked in Barbuda for years, describes the attempted changes a "land grab"
and "a wild episode of disaster capitalism."
To many outsiders, the role De Niro played in this period seemed benign, if
not downright heroic. In the weeks after Irma hit, he appeared at the
United
Nations and on cable news, pledging to personally help with Barbuda's
reconstruction and urging governments and international agencies to pony up
aid and stand with the "vulnerable." In interviews, De Niro did mention
that
he had a hotel project in development on the island, but only to explain
his
particular compassion for the people there.
The facts paint a more complex picture. Though best known for acting and
producing (as well as founding the Tribeca Film Festival), De Niro has also
emerged as a highly successful real estate mogul, accumulating a rapidly
expanding empire of elite properties. As co-owner of Nobu Hospitality, De
Niro helped turn a celebrated Japanese eatery in Beverly Hills into a chain
of dozens of restaurants around the world, as well as a growing roster of
luxury condos and hotels.
***
For the most part, Nobu's expansion has focused on cities, but in recent
years, De Niro has had his sights set on an ambitious project on Barbuda,
which has a population of approximately 1,800. In 2014, the actor partnered
with the Australian billionaire bad boy James Packer (best known for his
messy break-up with singer Mariah Carey) to develop an exclusive hotel
there. They bought out the lease on a derelict resort that, in its heyday,
had been Princess Diana's favorite family beach destination. Attracted to
the island's unspoiled white beaches, shallow turquoise waters, and slow
pace, De Niro and Packer unveiled plans to significantly expand the
property
and rebrand it as "Paradise Found Nobu." Packer has also not responded to a
request for comment.
But there were limits to how big and how lavish the resort could be. That's
because Barbuda's unique and democratic collective land ownership structure
keeps the pace of development in check. As explained in this New York Times
documentary, the island runs "like a co-op," with decisions about land use
driven by an elected council, and approvals for major developments going to
a general vote. Many of its inhabitants raise livestock or fish for lobster
to support themselves. "Life in Barbuda, it is slow, it is quiet, it is
restful, it's peaceful," 25-year-old Kendra Beazer, the youngest member of
the Barbuda Council, told The Intercept.
In contrast, the other half of the twin-island nation, Antigua, has flung
itself open to mega resorts and heavy cruise ship traffic (as well as
financial services). Seeing further opportunity in Barbuda's pristine
beaches and abundant fisheries, the Antiguan-dominated government - which
has strong ties to real estate and banking - has long fought to end the
tradition of communal land rights on Barbuda. Casting this pressure as an
attack on hard-won victories after the abolition of slavery, Barbudans
convinced legislators in 2007 to cement in law the practices they had
followed for hundreds of years. The Barbuda Land Act underlined that "all
land in Barbuda shall be owned in common by the people of Barbuda," and "no
land in Barbuda shall be sold."
All of this has kept the vast majority of the island in the hands of
families directly descended from slaves - a remarkable achievement. It has
also kept tourism and most other development at a sustainable level, which
is the reason Barbuda remained a "paradise" to be "found" by men like De
Niro and Packer in the first place.
But for investors with big dreams, the Barbuda Land Act was also highly
inconvenient. It placed limits on the length of their leases, the footprint
of their properties, and the infrastructure that could service them. It
also
required a great deal of democratic engagement with the island's residents,
as opposed to the usual top-down deals.
De Niro and Packer have not navigated this landscape well, choosing instead
to try winning exceptions to the Land Act from the Antigua-based government
of Prime Minister Gaston Browne, a former banker who consistently casts
Barbuda as a "welfare island." De Niro has found a fierce ally in Browne.
Months before the Barbudan approval process could even begin, the prime
minister signed a memorandum of agreement with the actor, promising a
198-year lease of 555 acres for just $6.2 million, plus an array of tax
benefits. He went further, dubbing De Niro an official "economic envoy" of
Antigua and Barbuda.
This approach has not gone over well with many Barbudans, who see it as
railroading their democratic rules. It's a conflict that has landed De Niro
and Packer in a protracted legal mess, with hundreds of Barbudans signing a
petition against their plans for Paradise Found. Members of the political
party Barbuda People's Movement sued the project, arguing that the
referendum approving it illegally allowed non-Barbudans to vote and failed
to anonymize the ballots.
Browne responded to these challenges by going to war for De Niro. "Those
who
may intend to become economic terrorists in this country," he said in March
2015, referring to project opponents, "they would have to face the full
extent of the law for any infractions whatsoever." Months later, his
government went so far as to pass the Paradise Found Act, specially
designed
to approve De Niro's project and bypass the Barbuda Land Act with its
collective approval requirements. Just for Paradise Found, the act
explicitly nullifies the community approval sections of the Barbuda Land
Act. It also grants the project permission to build its own television
service, renewable energy, and desalinization plants, "for the sole purpose
of the Project," as well as infrastructure for "large and super yachts" and
a helipad.
Members of the Barbuda People's Movement once again challenged the Paradise
Found Act, wary that this one development was a harbinger of a future for
their island that would be all about catering to the global yacht-owning
set. (Indeed several other high-end developers have pursued similar
projects, including John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire creator of Paul
Mitchell hair products and Patron tequila, and Peter Virdee, a British real
estate developer and solar energy investor, who was arrested last year for
allegedly leading a carbon credit fraud scheme.) It did not escape their
notice that buried in Browne's memorandum of agreement with De Niro was a
troubling clause, stating that should Barbudan land become available to own
privately at any point in the future, the government of Antigua and Barbuda
would "facilitate the immediate conversion" of leased Barbudan land to
private title.
At the time, changing the law didn't seem politically feasible. But then
came Hurricane Irma - and those troublesome Barbudans were literally swept
out of the way. As Rodney Williams, Barbuda's governor general, memorably
told the U.N. last September, "For the first time in over 300 years, there
is today not a single human being living on Barbuda."
***
Shortly after the storm, Browne declared the island unfit for habitation.
Eventually, the prime minister began to allow small groups of islanders to
return to Barbuda for a few hours each day to pick up their lives before
getting back on the two-hour ferry to Antigua. But it would be three weeks
after the storm before the mandatory evacuation order was lifted.
To this day Barbuda remains without power or running water. Only around 400
people have returned, in part because the schools have not reopened,
leaving
families with children stuck in Antigua, many still in temporary shelters.
Although a state of emergency expired in October, the military never left.
Now many are asking why - despite an outpouring of aid - reconstruction has
been so slow.
According to John Mussington, a Barbudan school principal and co-founder of
the group Barbuda Silent No More, livelihoods collapsed in the weeks that
went by before people could return. Homes filled with mold, chickens were
attacked by stray dogs, pigs trampled gardens. "The economy in Barbuda was
destroyed," he said in an interview.
With Barbuda empty and its people's means of saving money dramatically
eroded, Prime Minister Browne made his move. Less than a week after Irma
hit, he announced a plan to allow Barbudans to buy property rights to their
own land for a dollar per plot, casting it as a crucial form of
post-disaster relief. According to Browne, the sell-off would allow
Barbudans to obtain loans that he said they couldn't access without a deed
as collateral. "They can go into the bank, they can borrow money, they can
repair their properties, they can get a mortgage, they can build," he said.
Browne has made no secret of the fact that he sees the storm as more than a
tragedy. "We are saddened by the extent of the damage," the Prime Minister
said in an interview with the New York Times, "But there are opportunities
to be exploited."
Many Barbudans - those displaced to Antigua and those living in the
diaspora
in places like New York and Toronto - have spoken out against Browne's
definition of "opportunities" and insisted that this was no time to attack
centuries-old land rights. But like all disaster-struck people, they were
also focused on immediately pressing emergencies: When would they be able
to
access their homes? When would the lights come back on? When would the
schools open?
It was in this context that, on Dec 12, a sweeping 13-page "amendment" to
the hard-won Barbuda Land Act was officially introduced in Antigua and
Barbuda's house of representatives. It includes changes that entirely
reverse the meaning of the law. In the amendment, a clause declaring a
Barbuda "owned in common by the people of Barbuda" was deleted and
replaced.
"The fundamental purpose of the Act is to grant to Barbudans the right to
purchase the [land]," the amended act reads.
Prime Minister Browne has said that the law would restrict ownership to
Barbudans - and only if they choose to buy. But by allowing land to be sold
at all, the communal land ownership structure is being fundamentally
changed, and many see a slippery slope. Moreover, once land has been
purchased, it can then be leased to foreign developers without a democratic
process.
To add salt to the wound, the amendment also altered the definition of a
Barbudan, eliminating those whose grandparents lived on the island. With
the
law's passage, a swath of the Barbudan diaspora's claims to the land were
erased.
Significantly, in a section entitled "Leases for major development," it
states that while investors can apply to the Barbuda Council for leases,
the
Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda can also grant leases on its own, after mere
"consultation" with the Barbuda Council - and there is no mention
whatsoever
of the Barbudan population voting or participating in decisions to grant
leases, effectively erasing their participatory democracy. It also states
these leases can be handed out for periods longer than 50 years "as the
Cabinet may deem fit."
In short, these radical changes would retroactively enshrine in law a
version of what Gaston Browne attempted to do - against the legal
objections
of many Barbudans - for Paradise Found. De Niro and Packer's property is
specifically named at the end of the amendment, making it explicit that it
is covered by these new business-friendly rules. Sections of the previous
version of the law, meanwhile, are declared "unconstitutional" and
therefore
repealed.
All of which means that turning Paradise Found into a reality - including
those parts of the project that many Barbudans objected to - appears to
have
gotten significantly less complicated, and potentially more profitable.
Members of Barbuda Silent No More filed a request for an injunction,
calling
the amendment illegal. "The law in Antigua and Barbuda specifically states
that the Barbuda Land Act and the communal land rights it protects cannot
be
changed without the consent of the Barbudan people," the attorney Leslie
Thomas said in a statement. But a judge denied the injunction, and this
month, the amendment to the land law was approved - it now awaits only the
signature of the governor general.
Many Barbudans have pledged to continue fighting, despite the difficulties
organizing a disaster-struck people. "You just do not get the kind of
reaction that you would normally have if this was going on under any other
circumstance," Mussington said. "It was done deliberately and while
Barbudans were traumatized, while they were kept away from their homes,
while they were scattered, suffering post-traumatic stress."
And he insists that developers like De Niro share the blame. "Whoever are
the beneficiaries of Paradise Found, they have to bear the responsibility
of
what is happening to us in Barbuda." He added, "You are coming into
someone's territory and there are laws and regulations, which govern how
you
should operate. You do not like these laws, so you ignore them. You go even
further and change those laws to suit yourself. Your actions therefore
demonstrate that you have elevated yourself above the people you are
dealing
with."
Asha Frank, a member of the Barbuda Council, puts it in starker terms: "You
can't just expect you can go somewhere and then decide 'this is how I want
to do it - it doesn't matter who's there, this is how I'm going to do it.'
It's neocolonialism."
Of course, Barbudans are not unanimous in their criticisms of the
concessions granted to Paradise Found, an issue over which the Barbuda
Council has been divided. Even those who have objected to the efforts to
bypass Barbuda's democratic process are quick to explain that they do not
oppose Paradise Found entirely, nor are they anti-tourism. As council
member
Kendra Beazer said, "We want that type of development on Barbuda in terms
of
[De Niro's] reputation and recognition worldwide. However he needs to
respect the Barbudans and their way of life and work with us."
There are painful historical echoes in this series of events. Barbuda's
history is sparsely documented, but according to residents the special land
law has its roots in 1834, when a pitched conflict erupted in response to
an
attempt to forcibly relocate newly emancipated slaves in Barbuda to
plantations in Antigua so that a slave owner, Sir Christopher
Bethell-Codrington, could collect compensation for his lost "property" from
the British Crown. The Barbudan slaves refused to move, preferring to stay
on the land and waters where they had long raised animals, farmed, and
fished. After a failed attempt to quash the resistance by British forces,
the freed slaves eventually gained control over the land on their island,
leaving Codrington to gripe that "Negro emancipation seems to have made the
Proprietor the Slave. The former will reside on my Property and have daily
wages whether I have work for them or not."
Indeed, on the land where they had been slaves, Barbudans created a
democratic, communal ownership structure, which they have fiercely
protected
for almost two centuries. As former senator Mackenzie Frank put it, "It was
born in the bowels of slavery and continued to grow in the
post-emancipation
world."
Now, with the help of Hurricane Irma, Gaston Browne seems to have pulled
off
what Barbuda's former colonial masters could not: he relocated hundreds of
Barbudans to Antigua and proceeded to strip them of their communal land
rights. Meanwhile, the pro-corporate makeover of Barbuda that politicians
like Browne have long dreamed of is speeding ahead. With homes still
destroyed, and the primary school sitting without a roof, construction of a
new international airport is advancing. Before the storm, Paradise Found
reportedly put up some of the funding for the airport since it is needed
for
the elite resort to move forward.
Days after the Barbuda Land Act amendment passed, the Clinton Foundation
and
the Rocky Mountain Institute announced "a new effort to redesign Barbuda's
power sector and to shift to a renewable energy model." Council members say
they were not consulted.
Prime Minister Browne's office did not respond to a request for comment.
For now, the steep inequalities that are a fact of life nearly everywhere
on
earth do not exist on Barbuda. The ocean provides food security, and any
Barbudan can claim occupancy of beachfront property. "You don't have
homeless persons, you don't have persons starving because of their
inability
to sustain themselves," Mussington said.
All of that, he predicts, is now at risk. "When anyone can purchase land,
and especially when you're going into luxury homes and these real estate
ventures - what happens to property prices? They skyrocket. Pretty soon
land
will not be within the reach of the average Barbudans." He says that
mortgages will lead to foreclosures, and banks will likely end up selling
to
non-Barbudans.
Kendra Beazer agrees. "I believe in my heart that this will change what was
Barbudan completely, because the whole notion of us owning this precious
island in common is no longer the case," he said. "We will no longer be
entitled to a plot by just seeing it and being able to build for our
family,
build our life, on that plot of land."
To Mussington, De Niro is a brand, a face that stands for an array of
wealthy investors who fail to carefully consider the lives of Barbudans
before staking a claim to their paradise. "Such investors get their hands
on
virgin land, cheap or at no price. They then turn around and sell these
lands as luxury properties for the rich and famous and make a quick profit
with huge returns," he said. "Getting a big name attached to your venture
is
seen as a way of selling to the clientele."
In an interview with The Intercept, Tim George added, "Robert De Niro has a
direct responsibility to grasp Barbudan culture and tradition. However,
while Gaston Brown does the dirty work on Barbuda, De Niro has chosen
silence as if waiting to benefit most from a paradise lost."
When Robert De Niro spoke at the United Nations in the immediate aftermath
of Hurricane Irma, he told the audience that, "We must act together to help
the most vulnerable. The recovery process will be a long, hard road.
Barbudans must be a part of it."
Barbudans, with their long and deep tradition of participatory democracy,
believe they should be part of it too. Which is why many are now calling on
De Niro to change course and stand with them as they challenge a radical
change to their land rights they consider illegal. In her letter sent to De
Niro's office last week, the marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson wrote
that "If Mr. De Niro expresses support for Barbudans' will to maintain
their
communal land ownership, that could make all the difference, and his resort
project could still proceed, just requiring the consent of the community.
If
he does not speak up, he could become the next iconic face of a white man
increasing his personal wealth on the backs of people of color."
In so many cases after major disasters strike, survivors fight for the
right
to rebuild in ways that are fairer and more sustainable than the
pre-disaster status quo - with greater food and housing security, with
economic development focused on people's needs as opposed to investor wish
lists, and with the power to fully participate in the decisions that will
greatly impact their futures. Those have been the core demands of movements
calling for a "just recovery," from Puerto Rico and Houston today to New
Orleans after Katrina. The bitter irony is that Barbudans - with their
participatory democracy and careful land use practices - had all of these
rights before disaster struck. And now, dispersed from their homes after
Irma, they are in the midst of losing them.
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