Is Drugs Money

I have written quite a bit about living on a tiny island in the Caribbean. By now it is clear that I think small island people mind other people's business as though it is theirs. Not just mind it, but become absorbed in it, allowing it to make us hate people we don't even quite know, and don't even want to know because of what we have heard from our fellow small islanders about them.
 This is not nice news but it is nevertheless quite true.
 We are aware that this happens in larger countries too as much of it is basic human curiosity, but on tiny islands like ours it is epidemic; the things that matter to us are astonishing: it painfully matters to us if a man or woman is in love or out of love and with whom, if a person is divorced, has been married once or several times, was fired from his job, is gay, is not gay, is a Christian, is not a Christian, is a supporter of this or that political party, is not a supporter of this or that political party.... The list of things that trouble and concern us, influencing our attitudes and behaviors is exhausting.
 So when recently I met a woman who owns a large piece of property and is about to acquire more of it, and I recalled the rumors spread of how she manages to acquire it all, the first thing that I observed was that, though it was late at night, she was still at work. She had been at work all day managing her own business.
I observed something else too. She was friendly, gentle and extremely attentive to her clients. She spoke with them in pleasant tones, dealt with them as though what mattered to them, mattered to her, and then, at the end of it all, she said goodbye with an earnest glint in her eyes.
 On these small islands people easily become jealous when neighbors acquire material things. We imagine they are doing all sorts of evil to live the lifestyle they do, but somehow, small island people fail to see the long hours of hard work and the personable nature that are pivotal in enabling people to attain individual success.