Tuesday, September 15, 2026 - Part 1

0:00On Analyze this are entirely those of the on-air participants and do not reflect those of the station's board, management, staff or underwriters. And good Tuesday morning and welcome to another edition of Analyze this here on your MP or station in the US Virgin Islands WTJ XFM 93.1 where yours truly level James. I'm a governor of Canada Gustav James is going to be joining us in the early hour and I believe his running mate may be calling in as well.

1:08So I'm looking forward to that discussion on the candidate speak and then in our number two push the right. I don't know if I'm doing here we're going to tell you tell us you got my girls who bars on this morning but we got a lot nationally international things to knock out in that bush. I'm going to go 90m to 10m. I just had a text of John can I get that one so I hope to hear from John E.Cocale because a lot of it has to do with Republican. I'm not as not a good you know 72 hour window for the Republicans. A poll just came out the yard times the anapul that don't reflect poorly for them at all but you know you don't win a race on paper you go win a toast on the track. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the next 49 days. It is national voter registration day which includes the Virgin Islands so go out and if you want registered to vote be a part of the process.

2:12All right go and register to vote if you have family members on the mainland tell them to do the same thing as well right wherever it may be once the resident once your citizens and that was able to register as a vote. Tell them go tell me a part of it. I am hearing St. Thomas in my head send a song to Glenn Roy right and the original voice and the son of your own voice and a beautiful voice. But that that's on the olive and see a version. I go just here that now that that that that don't move me. So I need to hear that that's on the olive and see a version of St. Thomas right because the trumpet mandem. Otapuriko is the best. Thank you for the bit. Atal. We've had great trumpet. That's great. I'm not in the voice and I agree.

3:12That's your world. Puerto Rico is the best. Okay straight up and then sing do that. Okay. By the way I just want to mention I was good to see some clouds this morning and some some rain. But they understand the water that is just teasing showers but if we could get teasing showers every day until we get to November. When the weather cool off and the humidity that go about the business I appreciate that. Well I said good morning to runny Michelle Garrett today is her body. It's a friend of mine. I'm saying so good morning night. Right and I hope you lift the sea many more going forward. I'm saying. So let me know when you're ready with that. Tell me all events. Right. St. Thomas. I'll keep about from a conversation.

4:12When I was playing lobo the last year and you know that. And every Christian call me to tell me. Tell me all events. Oh guys. That's my Dingo brass. That's my Dingo brass. Before my Dingo brass even existed. The side of the voice and the Puerto voice and. I'm saying with every Christian and tell me that. Tomahle vencer. Oh guys. And I'm doing a thing so come. In 68 and bamboo sea. Next thing you know you're gonna text message. Automahle vencer playing Calypso. Fire fire. For Calypso rules. Manel es de comisión. Yeah. If Calypso's de comisión.

5:13Oh. Calypso. I'm going to go to bed. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Andi. Marin. Sophie. Fracidendement. Marin.

6:13Wow. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I might be listening to the greatest trumpet I ever hear my legs. I'm not excited. I put the x-men in first go and move to the lead. I said we got it, so... So that music is indicative of musicians simply having fun playing without a doubt. He's never... He's never... He's the most perfect text in the life. Oh gosh. The greatest trumpet does, man. I'll go for a rickshaw. Not hyperbole.

7:13Here it is. Eddie Bruce. Man, man. Patrick flies on LeSaint Romance I want this one E-Ralins before he passes away. No one. This is Georgia. And by the way, I know, I'm having more else to do for this one E-Ralins. So I thought it... I'm from...

8:16I'm from New York. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here it, man. I will hear it, man. More than Lucila Mota. Blessings, Buñecca. You know how it is, right? Yeah, man. I think it's the 18th or not. I did the 18th or the 19th. This one E-Ralins memorial. Right? I like to go up, but I got some local thing. And I think I-G. I think I-G, I'm feeling really good this week, Tony. Sonny Ralins memorial.

9:17Yeah, I think it's up Tony. I want to have a look at it. You see? You're welcome, Lucy. I thought that you were on it. To say a public celebration of life for legendary jacks, saxophones. Sonny Ralins titled A Celebration of the Life and Music of Sonny Ralins is organized by the jazz foundation of America. The event runs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Right? With a rave I'll recommend it by 12 p.m. for bag checks. Right? The cathedral of St. John the Divine, located on 10-20, you know, 10-42. Amstad Am Avenue. And 112th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The event will not be live stream, but organizers plan to record it for future public accessibility. Okay? And I believe that is Saturday coming in.

10:19Yeah, Saturday, September 19, 2026 at 1 p.m. presented in partnership with the Ralins family. You know what I'm saying? So musicians, schedule to perform. Ready for this? This is a long release. Melissa Aldada, Monty Alexander, Clifton Anderson, Tom Barney, Gary Bartz, Ryan Blake. That's one of ours. Right? We have the six Russell Blake, George Brath, Bobby Brum, Ronnie Barridge, that's 10. George Cables, Tommy Campbell, James Carter, Kenny Davis, Billy Drummond, that's 15. John Fattis, Sammy Figueroa, Gene G, Craig Handy, Billy Hart, that's 20. Eddie Henderson, Javon Jackson, Steve Jordan, Rodney Kendrick, Joe Lovano, that's 20.

11:27Yoshiyaki Masua, Benny Mappin, Bill O'Connell, Chris Potter, Rufus Reed, that's 25. Wallace Rooney, Jr., Bill Saxton, Ivory Sharp, Mack Marksaskin, Gary Thomas, that's 30. Henry Threadgill, Camille Thurman, Charles Tulliver, Steve Ture, Orientery, that's 30. Dan Alviga, Pete Washington, Jeff Tainewatz, Lenny White, Eric Wyatt, and Victor CUN, 36. 36 musicians, going to be performing at the Sony Eurali's Memorial, taking place this Saturday, up tongue, New York City. The event is free and open to the public. Seeding is available on a first come for a service that I like to go.

12:34I don't want to go to them thing. I like to stand up outside and cool out. Check. A great musician with Virginia Islands roots is being recognized in New York City for his accomplishments and contributions in the music world over the years. The legendary Sony Eurali's. Wow. I'm saying so. If you want to make a donation, please direct contributions to the Jazz Foundation of America's donation page. Feel free to specify that your donation is in honor of Sony Relance in the note line. The event is a two-way event. We got candidate Gustav James, working as we're into the studio.

13:34One I might call my city up on the headphone and the mic and all that stuff. We have a very straightforward conversation about candidacy in the 2026 gubernatorial election cycle. It's a 40 minute discussion. Looking forward to talking with Gustav James out at a west here in 2026. For those of you who don't know, Sony Relance died at the age of 95. Walter Theodore, Sony Relance was an American Jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important influential jazz musicians. Roots are coming out of the Virgin Islands. Father was born on St. Croix. Mother was born on St. Thomas. They were from what was then the Danish fraternal.

14:38So we're getting to that in our number two. Let me welcome the analyzed list of candidates. Speak Gustav James, gubernatorial candidate on the Gustav James roundout. Benitim, good morning sir. Good morning sir. Thank you for having us here. I would like to say good morning to the listening audience. Thanks for tuning in. I'm going to go to see you. So are you Ben? How are you? I'm good. Feeling good. Why 2026? My reason for running. In 2025, I looked at the situation in the Virgin Islands. And I was highly dissatisfied. I feel like we are underperforming in our most every category that counts. I think that our education system is underperforming. Our healthcare system is underperforming. Our infrastructure is underperforming. Our public safety is underperforming. I feel like we are underperforming in just about every category. And therefore I decided, you know, we can do better than this.

15:39And I'm convinced that we can definitely do better than this. And that's why I'm in this race. And I want the people to understand that it's not about making Gustav James Gov. It's about the Virgin Islands performing at the level that it should. And what I see in the Virgin Islands, as I look at all the lack of performance, it's lack of management. You know, I see a lack of management. I see a lack of managers demanding performance from the people that work for them. I see a lack of concern. I see a disrespect for the people when it comes to certain things that are done around here. And I just got to the point where I said, you know, you can sit back and just continue to say, this is not acceptable and do nothing or you can get in this race. And that's why I'm in the race. For those of you who may not know Gustav James, tell us about your background. What has prepared you to get to this point where you're confident that if you're elected to be the chief executive of the Virgin Islands, you can handle the gig.

16:41Yes. Well, my background is engineering and construction. I started in my first construction before I talked. Don't be afraid to talk about growing up in Western. Oh, okay. Yeah, I start from the beginning. Yes. I was born in Ferdick's dead. Born right in the town of Ferdick's dead. Born in my house. Wow. And never went to the hospital. To this day, I've never spent a night in a hospital ever. And so I've been fortunate. Yes. I'm a highly fortunate person. Very much so. Yes. And growing up in Ferdick's dead, we had a nice town. You know, I told a story recently about my father having a business in town. And my father and your father were good friends and family. And I told a story about growing up in Ferdick's dead and my father having a store. And I was when I was about maybe seven or eight years old. My father was sent me to the bank.

17:42And at the time, of course, I'm just doing what my father says. But he would give me everything from the store in a cigar box. And send me to the bank to this lady named Gwene Lucas at the Chase Manhattan Bank. And in all those years that me and my brother and sisters did that, we never thought about there being a risk. Stop right there. Go take a break. As a high note, because my first question will come based on what you just said. We got Gustav James here in the studio. Mr. Benning and we call him in. You got to try to call him. No, he's going to be in a difficult position. Okay. Okay. So the mayor, you're okay. Where the candidate's week is in effect, we got Gustav James number five, number five, Annabelle and gubernatorial election 2026. We'll take a break and be back right after this.

18:55Healthcare costs are continuing to rise. Bank of St. Croix offers health savings accounts for individuals enrolled in qualifying high deductible health plans. HSAs provide a way to set aside pre-tax funds for qualified medical expenses, such as doctor visits, prescriptions, and other eligible healthcare costs. Contributions may be made by account holders, employers, or others on the bank. Accounts may be open with a minimum deposit of $25, earn interest over time, and our FDIC insured. Bank of St. Croix offers health savings accounts through its local banking centers and online. More information is available at bankofsynccroix.com. Bank of St. Croix, member FDIC. We'll take a break. We'll take a break. Our question is available at bankofsynccroix.com. Bank of St. Croix, member FDIC.

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21:07The end of the season. We're back here, analysis to Canada Speak. We got Gustav James, a part of the James Bennett ticket, number five. And the Google nature about it, come on in once again, Gustav. Good morning, yes. So you're telling me, as a child, your father had no concern, sent me to the bank with the daily earnings of the business. The risk level was virtually none. None existed. No risk. So based on what you say. In a cigar box that everybody knew. In a cigar box. What was in the cigar box? Are you saying that we have not just regressed, but significantly regressed. Very significant. In the areas of safety. Safety. Crime and respect for one or other people. Respect also. We've regressed also in our standards, our morality, our integrity.

22:09In terms of when my father and your father shook hands on something. It meant everything to them. It meant everything to them. And that, to me, seems to have been displaced by money. People today in the Virgin Islands, seems to think that they're willing to sell themselves. I mean sell their integrity, their professionalism. We've been compromised to such a level that, look at how many of the government officials have been incarcerated. And that, to me, is a symbol or a symptom of the decline in our standards. You graduated from Sanjohai or our St Joseph? Graduated from St Joseph. When to Cali School, my entire school days from kindergarten to 12th grade. I explained to the public that the ratio for parochial school and public school was pretty much even when you were growing up.

23:14It was even, but it wasn't as this, the disparity isn't as great. Or wasn't as great back then as it is now and economics plays a part in it. Economics played a part, but also the fact that you got to remember also that the parochial schools had somewhat come before. They had come before the public school system. So we had the Catholic school in place and a lot of people left the school that the school you had to go to. Also, when we were growing up, maybe not you, because you're a little younger, but when I was growing up, the people from the Caribbean... I know you're a parochial school child. But I'm a little younger. I'm a little younger. But remember that the Eastern Caribbean people, or just the people non-citizens of the United States, back in those days could not go to the public school. There was a law against it. And so they had to go to private schools.

24:15And so we had all of those students in the private schools. In fact, I tell my children, I remember so many of my classmates in high school paid their own way to high school. Classmates themselves. Yes. A number of my classmates, including Caucasians, paid their own way to high school when I went to high school. They had to... They were working in restaurants and doing construction work. They paid their own way to high school. But we had a different attitude back then. I mean, we actually thought that we were supposed to pay. So before we get into what you're looking at as a vision for the Virgin Islands, based on what you were saying, are you making an argument for the people of the Virgin Islands, having a greater appreciation for the Virgin Islands history, so that that could partly enter them reestablishing the standards that you're talking about earlier?

25:16Pride. Yes. Having some pride. I really believe that people need to understand where we came from, and where we should be going. And take some pride in it. As I went to high school, I couldn't afford to go to college with my money or my pocket because I came from a large family. I had four siblings. I mean, there were four of us in high school at the same time. Four of us, 12, 11, 10, and 9, all together in high school. And there were more behind coming. So it was never a case of us being able to say, well, mommy and daddy will pay for me to go to college. What college you went to? I went to Michigan State University. I was funded in East Lansing. I was funded by the Hess. I was one of the first Hess Scholarship recipients, one of the first group. And you were the class of 1972. I was a salutatorian at that class.

26:21And we were selected as that first year for the Hess overall scholarship for the Virgin Islands. I think it was about 15 students in the whole Virgin Islands received scholarship for Hess. And I tend to believe it might be the fact that we were the same age as John Hess, the son of Leon Hess. And maybe that's why he decided this is a year to give college scholarships. But anyway, but you know, this conversation, we're supposed to be talking about the vision for St. Croix. But I am so, uh, was the word here. Mass my rights. I'm going to answer you about the quality of life component at this discussion you talking about growing up in the 60s and 70s here in the Virgin Islands. I mean, I mean, this is painful in some respects. In some respects, yes, to see where we are now. Not that there's any love, any less love because I love the territory as much now as I did them.

27:23But I, you know, I just believe that there's so much more potential. So is that that's why I'm in this race. Okay. That is why I'm in this race because of this potential. And you're not giving up. You know, I'm not giving up. And I'm, you know, you met my youngest daughter because she was on your show. Yeah, man. And, uh, she said to me one time, that I don't want to come back to St. Croix. You know, and I heard me. That's a whole. And, but I couldn't argue the point. I didn't have good data or, or evidence to say there's a whole lot of good reasons for you to come back to St. Croix. And when she showed me, you know, what she was seeing in terms of the quality of life here, in terms of what's going on with the crime, what's going on with the, you know, infrastructure, what's going on with the people in terms of how people are treating each other. I didn't have a whole lot to say.

28:23I had to just take that and say, we really do have to fix this problem in this Virgin as we have to fix it. This is not a situation that we should accept where we have such a, a low self esteem for each other. You know, it's a disrespect for each other. We have here in the stereotype to my, to my belief that causes some of the, Charity discussion. Let's start with the beginning. How do we fix this, this intangible, not just a tangible, intangible, that's the, that's the right word. I want to start with the, with the children from the daily born. And when I say that, I mean that to, to that extent, because I don't overlook and I've had some experiences in my life that have shown that what they say, what the professionals say about children acquiring their character in such an early part of their life, like the first three to five years, I believe it.

29:26And so I feel like we should start with the children from the day they are born. That means that we should know who, which children are being born in these Virgin Islands, especially the ones that we have more input with. For example, you have a child and you, you're paying all your own bills and everything, that's, that's one thing. We have less input with your child. But the children that we are paying for their housing, we are paying for their food, we, you know, in the school, they're going to the public school system. These children, we do have a lot of actual contact with them if we wanted to exercise it. So I'm saying, let's use this, this leverage that we have to engage with our, with our children, because I call them our children, because that's what they are. They are our children. I say, let's use this leverage that we have to engage with these children. So yes, the, the mother may have to get housing assistance, or she may need to get food assistance.

30:32But also, let's input, let's impose not a requirement such that she may have to come to a certain place on a regular basis with these children, so that we could have some sharing, learning experiences with them, so that we can ensure that they, that they're not only getting properly housed and fed, but also loved. So then let me talk human services, then, just let me talk in different different areas that we're going to touch on over the next 20, 25 minutes. Human services, what is it about human services? What can the James Bennett team bring to the table that will make for human services, or the human services product better for the Virgin Islands? Well, I think that human services is limited right now in what they can do based on the size of the operation and the resources that they have. So we have to give them the resources that they need. And when I say resources, they do have resources. For example, they do have like a pre K, some pre K head start kind of stuff.

31:35They got a zero to three program with, but the zero to three program that they have is one that only addresses children that were identified as having a problem from birth. Like if the mother was what they call it in the pre natal state, she was. That's it pre natal. Yeah, she had some drug issues, things like that. You may identify a high risk, maybe that way. And so the these programs address those, but I wanted to be more generalized. I want I want to also the postpartum phase as well, right after babies born and all that stuff. Right. So are you saying that we have based on our structure now compared to how it was back in the day when everything was consolidated on the health. Maybe we need to look at what was working back then and incorporated now or does technology. The source to actually be in being being stepped with the date with the day and actually do things to modify the service that we provided.

32:39We the technology gives us so many more tools that what we had in the past, but I don't see the problem in the virgin or anywhere that I see this type of problem. A lot of times we think, oh, well, maybe we need to change the system or the program. What I see in the Virgin Islands is not that I think that you know, either one of these systems got to work whether it was centralized or decentralized, it could be worked. If the people were being properly managed, I believe what's lacking in the Virgin Islands is proper management. I don't see the demand for performance that I'm accustomed to having spent most of my career in the private sector. I only spent two and a half years in government. And in the whole time that I existed in the private sector, we knew performance was demanded. I mean, it was something that if you didn't deliver, you would be replaced. And that's the way I was trained and that's the way even as a child, we were trained that way.

33:42My grandfather was Gatewood James. One of my two grandfather's was Gatewood James. He was the chemist for the Lagrange Sugar Operation. What they call the Sugar Boiler. People talk about things like cruise and time. People showing up late. I couldn't do that when I was growing up, showing up late to my grandfather or my father. If they said we got to go someplace for a certain time, I had to be on time. And that was expected from all of us. Those are intangibles you're talking about. Those things, people were demanded performance. When we go to do something, we have to do it right. Every issue that we're going to talk about here is for you and your candidacy, the GM's better candidacy, is about performance. It's mostly about performance. Mostly about performance because, like I said, we could have a different program, we could have a different format.

34:42I had a big discussion with the doctors of the territory on Saturday. It was a forum for candidates to talk to the VI Medical Association. Only two candidates showed up. The other three, Gobernatorial candidates were no shows. Or I shouldn't say no shows. They were not there. But the two of us that were there discussed this. I found that a lot of the discussion was whether we should have one central health care. Instead of putting the hospitals back under the department of health, that kind of thing. And once again, I found the same thing. I felt like it's not the problem that they're not in the same organization. It's a problem that they're not performing. It's not a structural issue. It's a performance and management issue. No. Since you ventured into health care, what's your take on the recovery?

35:44Because I had to ask that question because incorporating into the recovery is a plan for a no-wang-lui hospital and a no-schnight-a-region medical center. $2 billion. That's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. I went so far as to say that sounds like a whole lot of money for $40,000, $45,000 per island. I know what I heard. You're correct. I know what I've heard, but I don't want to take any shots. I'm not a candidate, I'm not a business. Let me ask this question. What should be the outcome after we have rebuilt these two facilities, these two community hospitals? Because if you're talking performance, then we should be getting the best of health care. Well, given that dollar figure we're talking about. Given that dollar figure, but you gotta remember that dollar figure is talking about a physical facility. It's not talking about health care. Correct. Let's just be clear there.

36:45But the physical facility is very, very important. That's the structure. That's the structure. No, I don't feel like we are getting what we're paying for with these physical facilities. Because that is my profession. And I know what it costs to build things. We just, for example, built a school for a... The richer school. The richer school. And we came out somewhere close to $2,000 a square foot. A facility like that should be built for more like $500 to $600 a square foot. So what are we doing with all this extra money? We're handing out money without proper control. You know, if I got a few minutes, I can talk a little bit about this. We're talking about breaks. We're talking about breaks. So, generally, you're saying that the school that was constructed, and we're grateful for the school. As crucial as Virgin Islands came in at three to four times the cost per square foot.

37:49Yes. That's significant. Very, very significant. Very, very significant. Wow. And meanwhile, while we're paying these large outside contractors up to $2,000 a square foot, we have the same agencies taking... Having local contractors now build houses for people and pressing our local, smaller contractors to build a house for $200 a square foot. We're going to take our break on that note. We got Candida Gustav James here and the Candida Speak. Analyze this. We'll be back right after this. WTJX is underwritten in part by Cost U Less.

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41:02www.usda.gov. www.usda.gov. www.usda.gov. www.usda.gov. We're back here. I had a resistive candidate speak and the candidate on the mic is Gustav James. He is a gubernatorial candidate on the Gustav James Randolph. Beneteen number five on the Balakum 1 and 1 again. Good morning, once again to this audience. So let me create a recovery. I ask this question of every candidate because we're in the midst of the recovery recoveries. Our 10, 15, maybe 20 year deal given the scope and the magnitude of Raman Maria impacting on some nine years ago. I'll know so September. Right. One being poor 10 being excellent. What would you agree to recovery? I will grade it very poor somewhere between two and three. Well, I'm this is my business.

42:02No, no, no, no, I want to say well because that's a consistent trend that I'm seeing here. Yes, it's very poor. Because the work is not being done. Let me ask this question. And this is something that I heard more recently. Was this size has the size of the dollar figure dominated us that we could say in retrospect. It was more than we could we was more than we could handle. I just being candid this. Right. No, no, no, it was it was overwhelming. I think for some people. And I think it was mishandled in some ways. It was really I did an original amount that eight billion that big money. No, that number is tripled to 24 25 million significant billion. Billion, yeah. Billion dollars. Yes, it's very large numbers. Very large for the Virgin Islands. I think that in a number of cases we could have done what needed to be done with less.

43:02I'm going to just be candid here. The people want to kind of. I want to be straight up. And so we yes, we could have done a lot what needed to be done with less. And we've been more efficient. Efficiency has to be. Right. And we just been diligent and doing what needed to be done. Now, let me give you an example of one of the problems that I've seen. In the engineering and construction business, they have a. By the way, tell the public your major and our last stop. Right. I'm not. I'm by profession. I'm an engineer. I started off in the oil business when I graduated after after doing my training in the automotive industry. I was trained in Michigan, working for general motors, built cars. I love building cars, by the way, is something that I really enjoyed doing. However, just because I wanted to leave and go see the world, I took a job with an oil company. Okay. And so I ended up working out in the Middle East. I worked in in Japan. I worked in the United States.

44:03Wow. So I had a very. So you're going to regret. No, I had this. Where goes to our James Scott? I had a great life as far as up to this point. Okay. And so I'm not complaining at all about my experience in this world. Because I've seen the world. I've done the things that I wanted to do in this world. But I also learned a lot. And one of the greatest things that you get from any project is what you learn and what the people learn. First of all, when I see all this money coming into the Virgin Islands, how I see it is an opportunity for me to train Virgin Islanders. For Virgin Islanders to learn how to do things. I don't see this as an opportunity for me to import contractors from outside who are going to tell me that they know how to do this and we don't. That's not what I see. I see opportunity for the Virgin Island contractors to grow and to learn. Do the Virgin Islands have any of the Virgin Islands contractors been marginalized in this recovery? Well, they have, yes, they've been asked to be subcontractors to these outside contractors

45:04instead of giving them the contract. And so, for example, we've got a company here from outside that's been putting up composite poles. These WAPA poles. Now, we never put up composite poles before, but this company probably never had either. Frankly speaking, and as I said, I've been all over the world. The biggest contractors in the world has had to work for me. Floor, Bechtil, Foster Wheeler, Pullman Kellogg, they've all hired all of them, have hired Hyundai. I've hired so many huge contractors around the world to do work from the companies that I represented. So, it is not as if I'm not familiar with this process. And we've bringing this company to put up these poles. Now, I could have never put up the poles myself, but I could have struck a construction company how to put those poles up with one pole. You know, let's say we've got three different types of poles and we do, we use three different demonstrations, but we could teach a local contractor

46:07how to put those poles up in a matter of a couple of days. Yet we decided to hire an outside contractor, pay them huge amounts of money to the point where they are now, that same company is now buying up a number of resources here in the territory. That company bought the paving company, that company is buying real estate, that company has bought the crusher here on St. Croix. So, we've got companies that we are developing them. We are making them bigger, greater, stronger. That's a sad commentary I hear in your dismanage for you kind of, that goes to James, that in effect the recovery has enabled outside companies to come to the vote in islands and impose their will and their ability. Yes, and we've made them that much stronger. We have made them that much stronger than they were before. And that's what happens. That's not good though. Well, it's not good for us. That's what I'm talking about.

47:08I mean, I'm not good for the Virgin Islands. No, no, we're supposed to be Virgin Islands companies that are supposed to be getting stronger here. That's what I'm talking about. And Virgin Islands workers are supposed to be gaining more skills. We don't need to export our work. When I worked in Japan, that's something I learned from the Japanese. They never export their work. They may import an instructive teacher for something, but they will not give that work to outsiders. They will give the work to Japanese. Let me put that to a topic that is personal with you. You were one of the first voices that I recall that highlighted how serious a problem this was. And I saw what energy crisis. Yes. That goes back over 20 years. Yes. In fact, even the whole city is radio shows. Yes, that's how somebody is talking about it. You know, I know about it. Yes. I'm being very candid here. Why has the energy crisis lasted so long in the opinion of Gustav Giggs?

48:11It's once again, it's failure to do what's necessary to fix a problem. The technology that was being misused or not used back in 2013, when I made a presentation to the legislature, a bulk warper. They were not using technology that had been in existence for 100 years. So we're talking about people just simply misusing our funds. When I first investigated WAPA's efficiency, I expected to find that WAPA was maybe mishandling our funds by maybe taking money and doing other things with it. What I found out was that WAPA was taking our money and burning it up and sending it up the stacking smoke. Because they were not using the fuel in the right way. When you run a turbine, a turbine is like a jet engine. Correct. Now, a jet engine is blowing out 80% of the energy is being left up in the air

49:17as that jet flies through the air because it's just blowing that hot gas out the back. Now, it's hard to recover that energy when you fly in on a jet. But when that is a stationary plant, you recover that heat and you use that heat to generate more energy, you have to have heat recovery if you're running a turbine. So nobody in the world would install a turbine if they have any respect for the fuel that they're burning would install a turbine without heat recovery. So let me ask this question. Except for WAPA. In 2010, when WAPA made a commitment towards waste heat recovery. Yes. And I was a center of the time, a big proponent of that. Are you saying that you were also a big proponent of that? Of course. Of course. Where is heat recovery? So I'm glad that I engineer his validating because... What? Yeah, heat recovery, like I said, that's not new. Okay, good. That technology was 100 years old.

50:17Here, that's number one. Number two. Different maintenance, big problem with WAPA as well. So it wasn't just about structure. It was management again. Management again, but also design because when you build a plant that has to be online at all times, you have to design it accordingly. So you have to design it with what we call redundancy. That means that anything can fail. We know that. We build that into the plant. Anything anywhere in this system can fail. And yet our system is not supposed to shut down. Our product is not supposed to stop being delivered. But with redundancy, there must be contingency. There has to be in the event of something happens. That redundancy coming from contingency. Yes, you have come in from the other machine. Yes. For example, they got a machine in St. Thomas' car unit 23. It's a 42 megawatt unit. It's the wrong size. That machine should never have been...

51:19When I first found out about that machine and they told me that they just... That was overkill. It's way too big. It's way too big. And that's without the heat recovery. So that means that you cannot run that machine in any configuration which will allow you to have redundancy. If elected and you're taking over in January of 2027 as it relates to our energy crisis, what's your first move? It's not... I'm not even worrying about those machines now. I'm buying batteries. Okay. I'm buying batteries. First thing, we need to have enough battery power, battery storage. Because the technology has come to the point now, the batteries, the prices have come down to the point now where we can afford to have battery storage for the entire territory. No, you're aware that you will be inheriting what has been agreed to... To some extent. Yes.

52:19By the current administration of which in 2020, 40-and-nong's new facilities for St. Croix and St. Thomas. So how do you modify what we've inherited with what you want to do? Well, first of all, we will keep machines as standby backup. So that, for example... So batteries will be the primary power source? No, solar panels will be the primary source. But with batteries coupled with the solar panels. So you've got panels and batteries, and then you have these same machines that we've already purchased will be available to charge the batteries if there's no sunshine for two days or three days. Okay, so you will have a system that... That's redundancy or talking about that. That is redundancy. You must always have redundancy. In all the years that you've been here how many times have you heard that the refinery lost power? Oh gosh. I guess.

53:19No, because it wasn't acceptable for the refinery to lose power. And it should not be acceptable for us to lose power in our homes. But no, forget the refinery. They claim had the ability to power the entire Caribbean. Yes, well, no, it didn't. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just... Yes, I probably was just saying the size of the magnitude of the power source inside the refinery... What? ...cocover a significant amount of the Caribbean. Yes, but it was built for the refinery and was built with redundancy. Yes. And such that you never ran one machine. You're running several machines at the same time with several other machines ready to run. So that you never have a situation where you lose total power. They had a business, got to operate. The business has to operate. And money got to be made. And if you lose it, it's going to take you in that refinery. In the case of every refinery might have taken you two weeks to get it back up to where it needed to be. Are you a supporter of potentially restarting the refinery? I'm a supporter of clean jobs in this territory.

54:23Of which refinery is inclusive? Inclusive, but clean. And that people think that that is some sort of oxymoron to say clean refinery. I don't think so. I think that you could have a clean refinery, but you need to be on top of it. You can't have a missing department of interior, I mean energy or a absent EPA. Yeah. Yes. You can't have the EPA absent. You can't have DPR not knowing what's going on. I went to a hearing about the refinery and asked them what about the mass balances for this refinery? Mass by definition mass balance. Mass balances tells you that if I put this barrel of oil into this refinery, this barrel is consistent of so many hydrocarbons, a different hydrocarbons, so much sulfur, so much of all the different elements are in this barrel. By weight, you know, you know from science.

55:23That's your 42 gallons of. 42 gallons in the barrel. From science, you know that you've done like moles, balances in chemistry, right? Yeah. The same thing in the refinery. Okay. Everything that you put in has to come out. Therefore, when you hear them say they don't know what's going up the stack, that is pure nonsense. You cannot run a refinery if you don't know exactly what's going up the stack. No, I know. We get passionate great conversation, but closing remarks are already at the closing. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 40 minute conversation. Ten to public. Ten to public. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. We got to do. We got to do it. We got to take a break between now and November the thought. Yes. Tell the people why they should consider and vote for the James Bennett team in the 2026 group in the third election. The James Bennett team is the one team that is not from the past. We are not status quo. We are new and we are going to make a difference.

56:24We are not going to continue what's been going on in this territory. So we are talking about demanding performance. We are talking about making things work the way they should work. And that comes from leadership and responsibility and expectations of the leader. Because you cannot have corrections to the behavior if the top is not ready to make those corrections. You know, it all starts at the top. And so we expect that when we get in office, we are going to make these Virgin Islands function. The way they should function. Got a good relationship with your lieutenant governor, candidate? Very good. Very good. It's grown during the campaign. No, no, no, you're hearing all that from the public. We're hearing a lot of positives. We're getting a lot of feedback saying that the, you know, the James Bennett team is the alternative to the status quo. We're hearing that we are the ones that the people can expect to have some kind of real management in place because like I said, management is what's missing in these Virgin Islands.

57:28And I know that. Thank you very much for joining us and go look with the campaign. Can I number the ballot again? Number five on the ballot. On tomorrow night, we are having a meet and greet at levels in push and step six, 30 to 830. Thank you very much, Mr. Staujins. We'll be here. And opinions expressed on analyze this are entirely those of the on air participants and do not reflect those of the station's board management staff or under a join us for season three of hometowns. 10 stories. 10 chances to remember what home really means from Asheville's Blue Ridge soul to the high country of Granby, Colorado from the raw wild edges of Alaska to the grit and glow of Arkansas. And for the first time, we cross international waters in our two part season finale in St. Kids and Nevis. It's not just where people live. But they hold on to and what they're brave enough to become. Toon and Friday's at 530 PM on the BTX TV channel 12. Weekday mornings are a juggle. Sometimes even a struggle.

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