Friday, February 22, 2008News from Around the Region - St. Croix

Portia HarriganA Visionary and his Journey home

Six years ago, Anthony Weeks the businessman, business developer, mortgage banker sat in his office in Westchester New York, planning the next phase of his life.

Notwithstanding his failed marriage, a lost venture in the restaurant business, and his unsuccessful bid to return to the USVI back in 1989, due to the devastation of his beloved island by Hurricane Hugo, Anthony was not feeling sorry for himself at all. Rather, he was absorbed with the idea of making a difference. Anthony wanted to improve the quality of life for the people on the island of St. Croix. For over thirty years, St. Croix had been in a state of stagnancy - very little to non-existent economic growth. It seemed as if the gruesome occurrence of that summer morn back in 1972 had left a permanent curse on the largest of the US Virgin Islands. An event that was so over sensationalized by the media that it threw St. Croix into a dark abyss from which it seemed doomed never to emerge.

Anthony heard a quiet voice telling him otherwise. He felt that what ever caused this spell of darkness; it was now his calling to shed a little light. And so on September 26, 2003 Anthony Weeks returned to the island and spent the next two years analyzing the conditions on St. Croix. He felt he could find the answer to set this beautiful land on the course to economic recovery. The greatest challenge however, would be determining the most effective mode of communication, considering his very limited time on the island, after being gone for two decades.

During his twenty years in the United States, Anthony had made numerous, valuable acquaintances. He had met some of New York’s leading business people, and had forged relationships with some of the metropolitan tri-state area’s (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York), powerful economic and political strategists and it was now time to call in some favours. Through extensive research, Anthony discovered that talk radio broadcast is a very popular cultural past time in the Virgin Islands and became convinced, that radio would be the best medium for local and international reach.

With two years of research behind him, Anthony launched Money Talk and More (MTM) on August 09th, 2005 on the JKC Communication family of radio stations with Mr. Jonathan Cohen, owner of the multiple-radio stations. Those US contacts (MTM co-host(s): Mr. Hubert Lorenzo Frederick, CFSA, CFE, Commercial Loan Officer, Mrs. Julaine Smith, CPA, Attorney William Haston, Mr. Rocco Dionisio, Dr. Roy Hastick Sr. CACCI Caribbean Trade Center) would prove invaluable over the next two years, as Anthony called them in to appear on Money talk, to discuss and offer solutions on the socio-economic challenges facing not only St. Croix, but the entire Caribbean region. Over the past two years, topics such as real estate investment, global competitiveness, job training and a host of others have been discussed on Money Talk & More. For the first time in history, there is a weekly radio program focusing on financial matters, geared specifically to Caribbean people.

“Money Talk & More radio is a dynamic financial radio program, created to engage and advise listeners on how to participate, navigate and plan to empower themselves economically and socially,” says Weeks. When BBVI met up with Weeks last August, we were moved by his energy and enthusiasm for the work that he is doing in St. Croix through Money Talk. He is convinced that through this program, he can help Virgin Islanders to harness their purchasing power, facilitating the transition from working, consuming and spending to savings, investing and building equity. “The show is serving as a source to educate and disseminate information to consumers on how to leverage their purchasing power, credit readiness and worthiness, while charting and hedging their financial future.” says Weeks with definite pride. “It is truly fulfilling to be able to do this for my people.”

Money Talk has had such an impact on the St. Croix community, that Anthony has garnered the credibility to host major events. Last September, he organized the first ever Economic Summit-“Defining a New Economy”, featuring a list of distinguished speakers, including Governor John P. DeJongh Jr. of the Virgin Islands, Sir Allen Sanford of Sanford Financial Group and Mr. Rick Kirkland, Senior Editor-at-large of Fortune Magazine.

The purpose of the recent summit was to engage St. Croix’s top executives and community stakeholders from government, education and the private sector in collaborative, intelligent and visionary dialogue about St. Croix’s opportunities for economic revitalization and to determine the action plan. The long-term goal of the summit is to develop working partnerships among the stakeholders that will define the path to share, sustainable economic success for St. Croix.

Anthony hopes that one of the outcomes of the summit will be the formation of a task force (a think tank) of business and community leaders who will accept the challenge of sustaining the momentum for economic revitalization and agree to meet with the governor on a regular basis to ensure full partnership.

It has been thirty-five years since the event that threw St. Croix into economic disaster, but it has taken only two years of determination, dedication and hard work, to get the machinery of economic recovery oiled and operating. Mr. Weeks has a long and arduous road ahead of him, but it is certain that he will realize sweet success.

Oyster Publications Inc, PO box 3369, Road Town Tortola, British Virgin Islands, VG1110