Reparations or Rwanda?
When in doubt, review the documents.
By August 26, 2008, Shelley Moorhead was one week into his peaceful hunger strike on the steps of Government House on St. Croix. He was protesting the fact that his organization, the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), had not received $35,000 that had been appropriated to the group for their activities at that time.
On that date, Governor John P. deJongh, Jr., issued a letter to Moorhead and, after expressing concern about Moorhead’s “health and well-being,” went on to explain that while the funds for ACRRA had been appropriated that they would not be released because of the “difficult financial circumstances” the Territory found itself in during that time.
He went on to recommend that Moorhead raise his own funds, and used as an example, a recent trip his wife, Cecile, had taken with eleven students to Rwanda. “They did not request or utilize government monies, but rather fundraised to achieve their goals,” deJongh wrote. (Page two, letter attached)
Documents have since been released that directly contradict the Governor’s assertion that public funds were not used for these and subsequent activities related to the Rwanda initiative and show that funds have been distributed from the Virgin Islands Lottery, apparently without Lottery board approval, well in excess of $140,000.
The “Rwanda Project” document attached below shows requests to and disbursements from the VI Lottery dating back to March, 2008, relative to this initiative as well as requisitions and cancelled checks showing when and to whom payments were made. Specifically requestors were Barbara Young, on behalf of both the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands and in her capacity as the Teacher Club Advisor of the World Religion Club at Eudora Kean High School; Cecile deJongh, on behalf of the Children and Family Council, Leadership in Action Program, (Page 5), requesting a monthly contribution of $10,000 for ten months; and a request from Shaun Pennington, St. Croix Source, on behalf of the Rwanda Project, USVI (page 25.)
Young, deJongh and Pennington are also listed on the Pennington letter as president, vice president and secretary respectively of the Rwanda Project, USVI.
All this had occurred before Moorhead sent a letter in September, 2009, to the Governor still trying to receive the now $62,000 appropriated to ACRRA – funds he has not yet received.
Is this an appropriate (or legal) use of Lottery funds? Was their disbursement correctly authorized? In this environment of fiscal confinement, is this a responsible use of public funds? Can duly authorized Legislative appropriations be summarily withheld in favor of other “projects”?
Draw your own conclusions.
When in doubt, review the documents.
Shelly is mad as hell that he can not get a piece of the pie. Don’t cry, Shelly. Ghana has free land and will send a boat for you to sail there. How soon are you ready to board? It is a free trip, too. Go, Shelly, go!
I’m a fighter myself and I applaud you for being likewise.But do me a favor nuh,enlighten me as to what Red,Black and Brown stands for? Something tells me it isn’t something I’d want to
‘embrace’.
@ Eyes wide Open:I’m a fighter too and admire you’re being likewise.But do me a favor nuh,enlighten me as to what your Red, Black and Brown stands for.Something tells me it isn’t something I would want to embrace.
Its America: the red,white, blue, yellow, black, brown, and red!
….oh,but of course.That is something we should all embrace.
Is there anyone else out there who comprehends the depth of what our first lady has done????
Folks, this is serious, this is fraud and deception, and worse off, this is real.
We must persue this, as this action of using $140,000 of OUR dollars intended to go to education has been wrongfully acquired by our administration. This is definitely a revelation of the impact of cohortion that has been placed in our lap, and I for one do not understand how we can let this slip by us. THIS could signify the END to government corruption IF in fact we move forward with this documented information.
Pursue it! You will waste your time just like the 4 idiotic senators who acted ridiculous during last night hearing. The First Lady is doing an excellent job educating the public about Rwanda. This is a worthwhile humanitarian cause. Shelly Moorhead’s cause is to raid the VI Government and exploit the Danes. He wants revenge for slavery, but the First Lady wants to emancipate the people of Rwanda who are being oppressed.Get educated about her mission. Don’t you think there are people in Africa who are still enslaved?
……so tell I man,while the first lady is busying herself with the freeing of slaves in Africa,who,or what,exactly,is going to free the ‘enslaved’in the V.I.? And please don’t tell me what I already know,which is that you live in a democratic society,have freedom of thought,speech,religion,worship and all that good stuff.I’m talking about slavery of having to be constantly kiss-
ing-up and sucking-up in order to get along.Sure,that goes on,to
some extent,the world over.But has this now become the norm in the V.I.and its government? There are oodles of brilliant and most capable people in the Virgin Islands who do not and would not be putting up with the crap that is going on in government today.What has become of them? None seem to be housed in the senate or up on the hill.You know,president Reagan used to proudly proclaim (with that impish look on his face)’the best is yet to come for America’.The question is:’have the best days for the V.I. come and gone’?
anonymous you are doing the best thing to say anonymous. tell the governor about the free land in Ghana because he going to need it after November. he ca take you hill the gate and the beach, and we will send a u a boat just hope that all a u make it over the Mona passage with out falling over or getting push over, or the boat sinking and killing all a u good for nothing —— ——-. who going to emancipate all a u from the jail when the time come.
@ anonymous, aka Verdel?, my beef is not about reparations, it’s about the blatant misuse of dollars intended for public education use. Would it not be more humanitarian, locally, to fix every bathroom in public schools? Would it not be more humanitarian to rid CHS of the rats in the gym? Would it not be more humanitarian to teach our youth how to treat our neighbors who suffer the same crisis as Rwandans?
$140,000 would have gone so far in our own back yard, but now that she has taken that money, our very own community suffers all the more. Think about it: How much of that money for Rwanda went to accomodations, food, airfare, and misc use that will make no difference to more than 7 highschool students? I think id the highschool students wanted to go to Rwanda, they should have earned/raised the money through initiatives, not the governor’s wife.
I am not against reparations, but until reparations include every woman who was raped and every child who has experienced incest, then I can not join the cause.
We have so many issues here in our territory, that I just can not fathom that spending $140K of community dollars, PLUS all the money raised by all the sponsors on the Rwanda website, was a good and lawful choice.
We could have a boat ready for those too distraught to live in the VI when deJongh is re-elected.You and Shelly would be welcomed to board. I will be present to rejoice your departure, back to Africa!
U see, no response from “anonymous” right now…she must be teaching her class…or, maybe better yet, she might be seeing the light!
Who authorized the first lady to solicit V.I. Lottery money for the purpose of saving Rwandans, financing her friends’ and family members’ trips, purchasing land????? I don’t think even the gov. could legally arrange this.
Vadell need to get a free trip to a sanatorium because she must be sick sick sick. Get help please get help.
I will never get too distraught to live in the VI never never and i did not come from Africa i born YA. and even if the place on fire again i staying.
Verdel, Jimmy and Bert: Please do not visit the Mental Health clinic.We do not have the prescription that you need;however, I will give some free counseling here.
Verdel: Are you chanting enough? I do not think so, please chant more and stop annoying Jimmy. You are going to cause him a stroke if you continue to say 4 more years. Jimmy would collapse if he thinks your chanting results in only 4 more years for deJongh. Let him know it means 4 more years for him to bask in paradise with his fellow Democrats. He will be nominated by deJongh to serve as Commissioner of Finance and his sister will become Commissioner of Education.
Jimmy: your problem is PMS Syndrome. Reduce your estrogen intake and get more rest. You are spending too much time blogging & getting clogged. Take an enema and use vaseline. The lubricant that you have been using has been recalled.
Bert: Take a trip to the Vatican in Rome and seek the Pope. Your sins are no worst than deWolf’s. The Pope can forgive you for your transgressions.We all could make mistakes. It was an oversight that you were not charged for defending your life. You were not looting;the lumber was to rebuild the homes of victims of Hugo. It is okay if you send relief to Haiti. Remember,your great-great grandmother was a slave in Haiti. Some of your relatives there are Ancestral Natives. Adopt a Haitian boy and train him to be the perfect leader of the VI.Only you and him would be spared the wrath of Mario who thinks everyone in office misleads.
Others: Peace & Love. Continue to visit this site and don’t just read the posts. Be an active participant and let deWolf know how much he affect your life. Say you’re mad as hell and WILL not take it any more!Do more than call him deWolf. Organize a march to take the wolf out of office and lock him in a cage. Clip his claws and knock out his canine.The beast must be detained!
……’the beast must be detained’? From what I’m reading it sounds more like he must be released.Sent on his merry way.
This issue of misdoings by the first lady, shaun pennington, and all the board members needs to be kept on the front burner. Read the documents, look at the time line. Maybe this is how the gov is going to pay for Mafoliegate…through the major donations from the VI Lottery…let’s pay attention
Tell your senators to call a special hearing called ladygate. The PFA lady and 1st lady could be star witnesses. Let’s see how mad the senators get when they realize how powerless, ignorant and ridiculous they are being in this matter. Why not simply run to be governor without all the unnecessary drama?
I just checked, and the VI Lottery is intended to benefit the Handicapped Childrens Fund and the General Fund. I would like to know how much is going where, so maybe it is time to send off a letter to the US Inspector General, so as not to cloud any more senator’s time with illegal misuse of money. This one the senators can just sit back and watch.
Mr. Springer, I praise you for your informative site.
I fear for your site, as it is so very informative, that there could likely be an attempt to shut you down too.
I hope for your site, that all the scoundrels will be spending more time looking over their shoulders while packing their bags!