‘Ridiculous’ Ralph ‘extracted 5 times’ what Wace planned to spend

Hedge fund manager Ian Wace has praised Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ leadership, describing him as “ridiculous” in his quest to get money for the rebuilding after the impact of Hurricane Beryl on the Southern Grenadines on July 1, 2024. 

“I hope I never become the pest,” Wace said in Canouan at an event to mark the first anniversary of the category 4 cyclone that damaged or destroyed 90% of buildings in the Southern Grenadines, according to government estimates.

Wace was referring to a comment by Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves, who suggested that the response of other investors in Canouan after the storm has shown that they are “pests” to be eradicated. 

Wace said he sat at his desk in London and watched Beryl, “like a big cotton wool ball descending on the Southern Grenadines.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, my God! Can you imagine being in that, what must it be like?’” he said the event at which the government commissioned a wharf and ferry terminal on Canouan, which had been without a proper wharf for years before the category 4 cyclone devastated the Southern Grenadines. 

Wace said that a couple of days after the hurricane, he travelled to Canouan and met Gonsalves at the airport, for the second time ever.

“And I know that to lead is incredibly difficult,” said Wace, who referred to Gonsalves only by his first name.

“To lead, you have the responsibility of power; you have the responsibility for all of your people. You have the responsibility for your finances, for your administration, for everything,” he said.

“Never, ever underestimate the burden of responsibility,” he said, adding that Gonsalves — who turns 79 on Aug. 8 — “likes to think he’s young, but is not so young. 

“This is a man who is unbelievably capable and unbelievably erudite. I had come down with a certain perspective about what I should try to do,” he said during the ceremony in which Gonsalves said Wace had committed US$5 million to the recovery effort.

The money was initially to go to the repair of house roofs in Canouan, but Wace’s efforts were expanded to Union Island. 

Gonsalves suggested that he wanted Wace’s assistance to go beyond the repair of roofs, but Wace’s position was to help people to a certain point and let them do the rest.

The prime minister suggested that the government would help in addition to the assistance that Wace gave, those who cannot help themselves. 

“By the time I left, this gentleman, he had extracted five times the amount of money out — five times!” Wace said.

“If you don’t think that is the most capable politician in the world, right? The man is ridiculous. Just when you think you have extracted enough money, he asks for more and more and more, and then he tells you with this wonderful look, ‘Come on! A bit more.’

“And I think that is remarkable. I stand here having received an anal lobotomy of extraction of money, and I am unbelievably proud for having done so. But most of all, I’m unbelievably proud because we did all of this together,” Wace said.

He said that he did not go to the Southern Grenadines “with this firm idea of what we should all do. 

“I didn’t have the view that we should redevelop this area here — the square — or we should build shops, or we should put — all I came down and think we have to put roofs back on. We have to rebuild this community, and we have to do it with love and with care and with spirit.”

Wace praised the efforts of the hundreds of people who contributed to the recovery effort, noting that a plaque had been erected with 510 names.

“I’m sure there are many other people who came and did this, but have not been honoured. But we never, ever can forget what everybody did.”

“We have done the most extraordinary thing together, and we must never forget together.”