"TWO ISLANDS, ONE PARADISE"
That, at least, is the official tourism slogan of the tiny, twin island nation of St Kitts and Nevis in the eastern Caribbean.
At first sight all indeed seems idyllic. Separated by a narrow channel, both islands host luxury hotels and offshore financiers offering everything from secluded beaches to secret trust funds.
But ever since the pair were joined by their British colonial masters more than 100 years ago, forming the smallest nation in this hemisphere, St Kitts and Nevis have never seen eye-to-eye.
Now Nevis, the smaller of the two, is finally hoping to break away. After the island's five-member assembly voted last month to hold a referendum on independence, Nevis is poised to set a new standard in Lilliputian nationhood.
Measuring only 36 square miles, and with a population of barely 10,000, an independent Nevis would rank among the smallest countries in the world, behind only the Vatican City and the phosphate-rich Pacific island of Nauru.
"We might end up being the smallest country on earth, but at least the people will be free," said Kenneth Williams, editor publisher of the local weekly newspaper, the St Kitts-Nevis Observer. "This thing has been going on for decades. The only way to end the rancor is true separation."
Nevis' road to secession is a tale of two islands grappling to come to terms with the past, while at the same time searching for modern ways to survive economically and preserve their Caribbean way of life.
Nevis' quest for independence worries other Caribbean leaders who say it weakens the region's collective negotiating strength. Smaller islands also are more vulnerable to drug traffickers and money launderers who have made major inroads in the region in recent years.
Nonetheless, Nevisians are determined to go ahead. The referendum could be as early as April. The last time an informal poll was conducted, in 1978, 98 percent supported independence.
Racially, historically and geographically, the two islands could not be closer. Over the centuries families on both islands have intermarried.
At the narrowest point they are separated by less than two miles of water, about half the length of the Gandy Bridge linking Tampa and St Petersburg.
Hopping from one island to another takes less than six minutes aboard the small twin propeller planes that regularly make the $46 round-trip flight. A ferry service between the two island capitals, Basseterre and Charlestown, takes about 40 minutes.
While St Kitts has always been the seat of government, from early colonial times it was Nevis that outshone its big brother across the narrows. At its height, the "Queen of the Caribees," as it was known, produced 85 percent of all the sugar in the British Empire. Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States, was born here.
After slavery was abolished in 1834, former slaves were granted plots of land on Nevis, while on St Kitts the sugar-cane plantation owners did not allow freed slaves to hold property. To this day, most Nevisians claim ownership of their homes and land, while many on St Kitts rent from the government or large property owners.
Administered by Britain as separate colonies, they were forced together in 1882. When St Kitts and Nevis became independent from Britain in 1983, the celebrations were muted in Nevis which was denied separate rule. Some concessions were made, however. Nevis was given a broad degree of autonomy over its internal affairs, and a clause was inserted into the new constitution that gave it the right to secede if two-thirds of the population voted to do so in a referendum.
On and off, local politicians have debated such a move.
The secession issue finally came to a head last year when, upset by proposed new federal legislation to regulate offshore financial services, Nevis Premier Vance Amory invoked the secession clause. Nevisians, he said, had had enough of being pushed around.
Nevisians have long grumbled that they get a raw deal from central government in St Kitts.
"We are treated as second-class citizens," said 28-year-old Nevis lawyer Mark Brantley. "There is a vast inequality of infrastructure. We have always survived on castoffs and leftovers."
According to a local island saying that sums up resentment toward St Kitts, Nevisians are ""tired of bones in me rice and pepper in me soup."
They rattle off a litany of woes. The police station, which burned down in 1991, is still being rebuilt. The islands' only potholed road hasn't been resurfaced since 1973. A new multimillion dollar airport, big enough to take international jets, is being completed on St Kitts. Meanwhile Nevis is getting a smaller one, to replace its wooden shack terminal and "donkey track" runway.
Oddly though, despite its size, Nevis has always seemed to come out of top. Local schools have dominated inter-island debates and quizzes. In cricket, the main sport in the English-speaking Caribbean, Nevis has produced a crop of international stars; St Kitts not one.
Nevisians proudly claim a higher level of education and civic responsibility. The island boasts the highest number of churches per capita, one for every 200 inhabitants, in the Caribbean.
Nevisians put it down to cultural differences.
"In Nevis we are more quiet, more friendly than St Kitts," said Guishard. "On Nevis we value our cultural heritage."
Statements like that only arouse derision over in St Kitts.
"With respect, that is a lot of crap," said Joseph Edmeade, the government's chief of staff. "In terms of culture we are one," he said, pointing out that his grandparents came from Nevis.
Nevisians don't deny their family ties across the "narrows." But they remain adamant that their small island society would be better off without St Kitts.
"It hurts your emotion to see the island where you were born be totally neglected by the central government," said the Rev. Eric Maynard, an outspoken pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church.
Maynard, who writes a weekly newspaper column, preaches that secession is God's will. He cites the Bible, chapter and verse, to back up his claim. Zechariah 4:10 refers to "the day of small things," and tells the story of Zerubbabel, a small man, who laid the to the temple of Jerusalem.
"I think God is still looking for small islands and small churches because the big ones have moved away from God," Maynard said.
Virtually crime free, Nevisians compare their small island tranquility to St Kitts, which has been hit by a string of brutal murders and drug-related crimes in the past four years.
"St Kitts is rotting," said Williams, the newspaper editor, refering to its drug problems. "Nevis has no drug barons. We don't want them here."
To keep itself afloat financially Nevis, like other English-speaking islands in the Caribbean, is staking its future to tourism and offshore finance.
Nevis has quickly earned a reputation as one of the region's most exclusive, and expensive, tourist destinations. Starting in 1984 it was also one of the first islands to carve out a coveted niche for offshore financial services, catering to wealthy foreigners seeking to protect their assets and reduce their tax exposure. In an industry that has been buffeted by money laundering and tax evasion scandals, Nevis has won international praise for keeping its nose clean.
Some fear the financial pressures of secession might make it more willing to loosen its strict offshore practices.
"We don't have the ability to do due diligence to eliminate the rogues and vagabonds," said Joseph Parry, a leading island politician who once backed secession but now says the island is not ready for it. "Sharks must be attracted. They must be smacking their lips."
But that doesn't worry local investors like Joseph Murphy, a Philadelphia millionaire who made his fortune in romance literature and the women's lingerie business before retiring here.
"We have the beauty and the brains here," he said, puffing a fat Cuban cigar. "We don't need the mob."
Some islanders are also concerned how secession might affect their pocket book. Local anglers worry about their access to fishing grounds off St Kitts, and shoppers worry about the cost of living.
"Most of what we get comes from St Kitts," said Sylvia Jones, 50, who has a vegetable stall at Charlestown market. "We're too small to depend on ourselves."
Others accuse local politicians of selling out the island to foreign investors who might one day decide to take their money elsewhere.
"They are creating a false economy, built on sand," said Conrad Liburd, a Rastafarian welder and budding politician. "We are becoming an island of bankers and bartenders, with nothing in between."
But local government leaders who are pushing for secession say they are confidant the island has a viable economic future.
"We feel we are in a good position to secede," said Malcolm Guishard, the deputy prime minister of the Nevis Island Authority, which has autonomy over many local matters. "The island is stronger now than ever before," he said.
While independence would mean some additional costs principally to staff a smattering of overseas diplomatic posts in Washington, London and at the United Nations, there would also be additional revenues.
Guishard said a recent study estimated that Nevis would earn an extra $6.6-million from import duties and other taxes currently collected in St Kitts.
Other practical difficulties involve defining who would be a citizen of which country. Officials estimate that half the 32,000 residents of St Kitts were born or have relatives in Nevis.
But Nevisians say they hope the two islands can still be friends.
Officials is St Kitts won't discuss how they view relations post-secession.
"Any dismemberment of the state is not something you can be appy about," said Edmeade, the government's chief of staff. "But we are not going around in sackcloth."
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