FACTOID #151: The five countries with the highest coffee consumption are also the five countries whose citizens trust one another the most. Coincidence? Probably.
Bird was unique from other West Indian politicians, lacking in any formal education except primary schooling. He worked in the Salvation Army for 56 years interspersing his interests in trade unionism and politics. In 1943, he became the president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union. He achieved national acclaim politically for the first time when he was elected to the colonial legislature in 1945. He formed the Antigua Labour Party and became the first and only chief minister, first and last premier, and first prime minister from 1981 to 1994. His resignation was due to failing health and internal issues within the government.
Criticism and Praise
The biggest criticism from the public of Antigua is alleged corruption and cronyism within the Labour Party and many claim the government is essentially a "family estate" with the continuance of the Bird dynasty in control of political power as unquestioned. Bird's supporters reject these accusations and say that his actions were justified in order to throw off the institution of colonial sugar planters and the British colonial overlords. The Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid compared the Bird government to the François Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti in her politically-charged narrative A Small Place.
Vere C Bird Sr., who rose from childhood poverty and overcame a lack of formal education to bring independence to Antigua and found a family dynasty that still rules the Caribbean nation, died Monday.
Bird had been in the intensive care unit at St John's Holberton Hospital for three weeks and died on a life support system there Monday evening, according to a Government spokesman who interrupted the 7 p.m.
Bird led his country to independence from Britain in 1981 and still is revered by many as a saviour, despite the many scandals that have tainted the family name and left the country hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
"Papa" Bird, as he is fondly referred to in his native Antigua and Barbuda, where he was accorded the status of the country's first National Hero in 1994, died at the Holberton Hospital on the evening of June 28, after prolonged illness.
Bird was a contemporary of other outstanding West Indian politicians who had emerged from within the ranks of organized labour.
Sir VereCornwallBird Snr., OCC, national hero of Antigua and Barbuda, who had declined the traditional British knighthood awarded to some other Caribbean heads of government, was very proud of this highest national honour.
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