“It’s a soap opera society. People live and die on rumors,” said Jeffrey Prosser, the man who hoped to be king of the Virgin Islands, to Wall Street Journal staff reporters Michael Allen and Mitchell Pacelle more than 25 years ago, of the islanders — or should I say subjects — he hoped to exploit.
Prosser’s February 2000 statement was an early attempt to shelter himself from the rumors that would turn out to be truths despite his attorneys’ attempts to belie the facts.
Over the years, the Source was able to both confirm and deny a variety of rumors that were critically important to our community.
Today, I make an attempt to expose a rumor in the fervent hope of keeping it from turning into truth.
The rumor is: Jean Pierre Oriol, who has headed the Department of Planning and Natural Resources since 2019, is about to be fired (for doing his job).
As stated in the Source story announcing his appointment nearly seven years ago, Oriol, known fondly as J.P., was charged with maintaining and managing the natural and cultural resources of the Virgin Islands, “through the coordination of economic development, in collaboration with local, federal and non-government organizations, enabling present and future Virgin Islands generations to live safer, fuller lives in harmony with their environment and cultural heritage.”
He is also required to follow the laws that provide the guardrails that literally and figuratively protect our precious environment from natural and unnatural disasters as well as invasive and even indigenous species of all types.
Among his other accomplishments, while working in a completely underfunded and understaffed environment, Oriol has midwifed the long-dreamed-of V.I. Territorial Park System and beaten back and been instrumental in shutting down, through persistence and collaboration, illegal permitting, illegal operations and, over and over, along with a small, but determined staff, protected our still-pristine shorelines from other would-be kings.
Why would someone want to fire such a man? The only thing I can think of is he bucked the prevailing corrupt capitalistic system.
And what does that system look like? Well, in my long lifetime of counting on art and music to answer these big questions, Randy Newman answers that best.
It’s Money That Matters:
