I always wanted to start an ‘ask the …’ thread, but didn’t think anything in my life was interesting enough or that I knew enough about anything to do it, but today I thought that someone might be interested in knowing what it’s like to move to the Caribbean and live here. Or if someone is thinking of coming here and wants some recommendations on times of the year, places to stay etc. FWIW, I am a 30 something year old, originally from South Africa, and I have been living in Antigua for the past 6 years. I will try and answer everyone’s questions.
First off, I have no knowledge of Antigua at all, so excuse my ignornace.
What’s the ecomony like? What’s the social structure like (are there a lot of poor compared to middle class, for example)? What religion predominates? What is day-to-day life like?
Here is a good site on factual information about Antigua.
In terms of day to day living, it’s not much different from say living in a small town in South Africa. You tend to know a lot of people and people are always in your business, but the advantage is that you know a lot of people…lol. The biggest difference is that the weather is hot most of the year. The Antiguan people are predominantly black and descended from slaves. There is a pretty large ex-pat community as well as quite a large number of people from other islands and a big Spanish community (mostly from the Dominican Republic).
It is very expensive to live here as there used to be no personal income tax and all income came from import duties and other indirect taxes. Unfortunately, our last government was fairly corrupt and ran the treasury into the dust after 25 years of mismanagement. Subsequently a new government was voted into power last year and have since re-introduced personal income tax but only for the middle class and above. It comes into play this month. There are predictions from both sides, one saying that it will stimulate the economy, the other saying that it will cause great hardship and cause a few companies to go out of business (meaning a decrease in company tax going to the government as well as other associated ills). Our economy relies very heavily on tourism although there is a significant offshore gaming industry too.
I hope that answered your questions 
I read that title as “Ask the person living in Antigen” and wondered when you’d had time to move in… and why I hadn’t noticed you yet! You’re in one of those Fantastic Voyage subs, right?
One key question: Are there nude beaches? 
I believe there is one nude beach, but I have never been there. There are, in fact, 365 beaches. One for every day of the year!
And Antigen I thought about moving there, but it was a bit dark inside, so I moved to Antigua instead :D.