(A Grenadian sifting for oil after the signing of the agreement)
There is a little piece of land on a small plot in Diamond Street in Victoria, the parish of St. Mark's in Grenada, which is my home. I was not born there, but my navel-string was buried under the mango Cadjona tree to the north, where speckled fowls perch at six and make such a racket, quarrelling like siblings, over which one is entitled to the better branch, the better view. The area around this house that my great grandfather built is small, almost claustrophobic, but it is large enough to host foliage that include tangy swivel-orange, pale yellow guavas that when parted reveal the pinkest sweetesr flesh, syrupy West Indian cherries, tart damsons and one force ripe French cashew. Our little oasis was bounded to the North by my "Papa" and "Uncle Auban" who having lost a leg, relished my cheeky visits asking him over and over how exactly did it happen. To the right was my "Nen Syb" who forbade us from picking her plumper and juicier cherries, to the left were the neighbours who to us were like family, legacy of the grandmother I never met but loved all the same: "Aunty B".
Maybe this is the reason I do not like boundary disputes. Like my mother, I could not care less about a stray brick 3 cm to our side of the boundary line. I love when the neighbour's bananas hang over our side of the fence: easy access. I am unperturbed when her children choose to play "moral" on our side of the platform, on our septic tank no less. I am ever conscious that all I am entitled to, in the end, are six feet of dirt- hopefully cosied within the warm environs of the Coast Guard cemetery. So I listen in wry amusement when people assault me with stories of land and boundaries and rights of way. I hate the idea of boundaries and I hate disputes even more. Odd for a disputes lawyer.
One boundary matter which has drawn me out of this self imposed exile of consideration of boundaries is the delimitation of the waters between Trinidad & Tobago and Grenada. If Trinidad is the butch, stronger, older brother with his own pocket money, Grenada is the pretty, fertile, younger sister trading on her good looks and fertility. This delimitation exercise became interesting to me over 4 years ago, when I read that Barbados, our wayward cousin, was involved in arbitration to delimit the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf between them, brought on the basis of mutual fishing waters. I was particularly concerned because based on the relative positions of the splattering of the islands in the Caribbean sea, I knew that if Barbados, several miles further north, alleged a valid claim, Grenadians were even more entitled. In the end, Barbados did not succeed on most of its points but the decision spurred Grenada to act.
As Prime Minister Tillman Thomas set out in his address yesterday when the two islands signed the treaty that would mark out the borders, the settlement of a maritime boundary presents enormous possibilities for the socio economic development of Grenada not only in the area of oil and gas but also the development of other marine resources including fisheries and hydrocarbon. What was great was that this was accomplished using our country's own human resources: the effort was "total local"- our delegation included Dr. Carl Mitchell, the experienced and able petroleum economist, Reynold Benjamin, a person very knowledgeable on Grenada’s maritime oil and gas resources, and Anslem Clouden, maritime law specialist. The only person who was missing was Francis Alexis, who by his own folly, could have been a part of that government (or the one before) many moons ago.
I am especially interested in what happens to Block 21, a seabed depositary which is reputed to have millions of dollars in oil and gas deposits. This block has been identified to be located “more on the Grenada side of the boundary” (although this might be just "ole talk") and apparently, we have negotiated on the basis that TnT will be exploiting the resources on our behalf and paying us the necessary royalties. While the merits of this method is questionable in that it is imperative that we become more self-sufficient, we also need to balance this with Grenada's reputation as one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. I hope that this treaty that was signed does not end up to be a cheat-y and hopefully we can proceed to also delimit our borders with Venezuela, to squeeze some savings on spending and to also generate some much needed foreign exchange.
I am interested to know how the actual area was delineated and under which theory. Equidistance? Along the median line? Economic resources? Using up to date satellite technology? Did we properly prepare our State for this agreement? Is our maritime legislation relevant and up to date? There is no point having rights which cannot be enforced. Was a hydrographical and technical report completed? I am sure that Trinidad, after years of exploiting the oil industry, was armed with its rifle of a report in its pocket. We went along with a land surveyor, when what we really required was a hydrographer. In short, did we do our homework? What was the negotiating brief? Did we set out what legal, technical and economic considerations that needed to be taken into account? What was the end result of what we would have liked to attain? Were there any compensatory trade-offs made?
It's important not to enter a big and momentous deal like this, "hot and sweaty" like my Nana would say "freshcold running down we nose". It would not be amusing to find, that years down the road, we inadvertently traded off an oilfield or a rich fishing bank.
It is also a shame that this "forward step" agreement comes now, at a time when our focus should be on renewable energy sources. Discovering an oilfield means we are less likely to take full advantage of our over abundance of wind and sunlight to harness sustainable energy.
