A Small Place

Kincaid distinguishes that time in “a small place” (52) functions differently than in most places because every event becomes a major event, and thus even everyday events become major events. People from small places—like Antigua—don’t think of future implications because all events from the past and future are bound up in the present. For Kincaid, this perspective inhibits Antiguans from really interrogating the corruption of their government and why it has continued unchecked for so long. Antiguans focus too much on trivial matters, Kincaid believes, and look at their destitute lives from an outside perspective. Thus, she argues, Antiguans are unable to see ways of change aside from hoping someone will come and make things better.

Kincaid dedicates much of this section to the various ways government ministers use their power for personal profit at the expense of Antiguan citizens. Ministers involved in businesses hold importing monopolies with government approval and misappropriate public funds for their private business infrastructure. Some of these are regular businesses, like cars or cable television, but others are more unsavory, like prostitution and drug trafficking. Gambling casinos—a staple of most tourist hotels—are all owned by US mobs who lend money to the government in exchange for operational control.