Politics of Exclusion

THOUSANDS OF BARBADIANS are asking themselves how and why after years of making their contributions, they now find themselves at the bottom of the National Insurance pension pool since the Prime Minister’s Black Monday Budget. They also want to know what justice there is in contributing to an earnings-based fund only to see others who made smaller contributions receiving the same pensions that they do, less a dollar here or there.

 

 

When you add the increased cost of a driver’s license, higher road taxes, more expensive petrol, rising professional and trade fees and of course higher prices for food and medicine, there is a lot of grumbling among working class and lower middle class senior citizens these days. For the Government to be reminding them that they voted for change is like a stinging hot slap across the face.

Once again the Government is using its position to hand-pick people for its own advantage without any regard for equity in the system. We support an increase in pensions for those at the bottom, whether they are contributory or non-contributory.

However, we recognize that any manipulation of the National Insurance Scheme has far reaching consequences, not only on the viability of the fund but on its validity. There are tried and tested methods for changes to the Scheme which this Government has studiously ignored in furtherance of its own selfish ends.

If this was the only example of a Government failing to seek qualified advice we might be more charitable in our criticism, but the agenda is patently clear and does not favour fairness for the majority.

In fact, there is now an all out assault on the culture of responsibility that once made Barbados the envy of our Caribbean neighbours, large and small. Ask yourself where is the fairness in a Government that seeks to disadvantage industrious, working-class Barbadians who paid down on their National Housing terrace units, by refusing to refund their deposits while promising other tenants who made no such effort their units free of cost.

What could be more unfair than this? The fact is that if you reach the 20-year tenancy qualification after April, 2008, there is no free house for you.

Or take the much-touted constituency councils that are supposed to give the people a say in running their own affairs. How can the average constituent feel that he or she has a voice if from the outset they cannot choose the people who will represent their interests on the council.

What fairness will exist in a system where the people with the say are appointed by the Minister? If the Government is truly interested in empowering people in their own communities they would remove the politics from the constituency councils, establish community councils and let people choose their representatives from among themselves.

We intend to fight for this basic democratic right for all Barbadians, regardless of which political party they support. In fact, our leader has made it quite clear that political parties should not be involved in the selection of council members at all.

Bajans are beginning to see through the game being played by the changelings and they don’t like the rules. What they like even less is the bloopers, bleeps and blunders that accompany the Government’s feeble attempts at introducing ill-conceived policies, or the total absence of solutions to everyday problems.

Just listen to conversations in the supermarket aisles, at the doctor’s office, in the rum shops or the bus stands. More and more the phrase one-term Government is creeping into the discussions.

Put that in yuh song, Hartley.

Rest in Peace Duncan

The Passing of Duncan Carter

A brief Appreciation

From: The Rev O Glenville Butler 

The passing of Duncan Carter (68) is a great shock to us all – though we knew he was ailing for some time. Duncan and I joined Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) together in 1959 – he came straight from school at the ACME in White Park Road; this writer had done a stint in school-teaching. 

He was a big- boned gentle giant – soft spoken, thoughtful, easy to get on with. After four years in RBPF where he worked in Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Duncan became a professional cricketer (English Leagues) and Member of Parliament (Barbados). In training at Regional Police Training Centre ( RPTC) at Paragon he confided in me in quiet assurance, “Seymour Nurse and I played  cricket together for Middlesex in the BCL (League) – and he has gone straight into First Division Cricket at Empire (BCA). I am going to do just that,” he added. Players just did not make such rapid strides in those days, there were lots of good cricketers around – but Duncan did as he said. 

Under Oliver Brome’s captaincy, Duncan was selected for the Police First Division team after recruit training at Paragon. He was a solid batsman, powerful fast bowler, good slip fielder. The Police team won the Division 1 Cup for the first time under Brome’s captaincy in 1964 with Duncan  as an outstanding player. Commissioner Captain Wilfred Farmer for decades had hoped to see that day. 

(Sir) Everton Weekes played a big part in the (cricketing) lives of Nurse, Brome, Carter. Duncan again confided in me in UK (1970s): “The happiest day in my life was when (Sir) Everton knocked on my door in 1965 and told me he recommended me to play professional cricket in the UK Leagues.” Duncan had  not at that time played cricket for Barbados, but (Sir) Everton saw something in the all-rounder. He loved batting, and “never gave it away” (his wicket). He spent seventeen years in League cricket in England, and also qualified as a craftsman in Heating and Air-conditioning.  

Duncan (“Rest”) Carter returned to Barbados with his wife Pauline in the 1980s, and he became an M P for a Christ Church constituency. A Care Home in Warners in that Parish is named after him. He was a community minded man; he enjoyed life and loved people. I last spoke to him earlier in the year. 

Deepest sympathy to wife Pauline; their son and daughter. Duncan was a jolly good fellow!

The Great Disconnect

One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, Men are not united but merely lined up.

 

 

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 

We thought we were witnessing a new phenomenon among the electorate – an uncharacteristic early withdrawal of support for a newly elected Prime Minister and Government. Then we happened across the words of the author of The Little Prince and knew immediately that the fault lay not with a demanding electorate but with a leader and a Government that have become disconnected with the people in world record time.

Take the Prime Minister’s most recent attempt at a gold medal performance – his announcement that he plans to scrap the Independence Day Parade. Bajans are already relegating this idea to the dustbin. They do not take kindly to people trifling with their national symbols and traditions. Add all you want to our Independence celebrations, but do not subtract the things that have become an important part of our national heritage for purely crass political reasons.

In his zeal to create a legacy and make his mark on the political landscape, the Prime Minister needs to holster his gun and stop shooting from the hip with such regularity. His attempts to stamp his authority on his Cabinet and the country are costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. For starters, perhaps his Senate appointee Derek Alleyne could give him a crash course in industrial relations and how not to dismiss people in public when he does not have the legal authority to do so. Legacies rarely hinge on cosmetic changes, although, having observed the Prime Minister’s approach to politics over the life of his political career, we cannot say we are surprised by his present modus operandi. The fact that he finally succeeded in lining up a team of men and women behind him should not be confused with unity or leadership on his part.

The cracks are already beginning to show, with reports of threatened resignations, the non-performance of some people and the public discord with the Minister of Health on whether we should have a new hospital or refurbish the existing structure.

The Nation’s weekly poll will soon tell us how Bajans feel on this matter. The Prime Minister would do well to make these polls part of his weekly required reading. They are wonderful snapshots of national feeling on diverse issues.

This is how Bajans view their Government so far.

* 71 per cent gave the Government a failing grade for its first 100 days performance;

* 85 per cent gave it a failing grade on the petroleum price increases;

* 55 per cent feel the Government’s position on flyovers is wrong;

* 71 per cent said the Budget was poor;

* 100 per cent support the declaration of assets by politicians and senior public servants as done by the Leader of Opposition and the former prime minister;

* 80 per cent do not agree with the DLP’s position on flogging;

* 75 per cent do not agree with the Prime Minister that PSVs should set their own fares.

The disconnect is clearly there and not even the $155 000 part-time political adviser seems capable of reversing the trend. Of course, sometimes winning is the easy part. It’s what you do after, like Peter Wickham said, that ensures another term in office.

Someone sent us a refashioned version of an old familiar nursery rhyme about Tom, The Piper’s Son that seems relevant in the present circumstances.

“Davie, Davie you son of a gun

“You won a Government and couldn’t get it run.”

Now there’s an idea for a Nation poll

Bravo David, are you sure?

 

Blinded by the real issues.

 

WE CONGRATULATE Dr David Estwick this week for finally coming to the realisation that former Minister of Health Jerome Walcott’s proposal for a new general hospital is the best solution for our tertiary health care needs for the next 40 or so years.

 

 

The Democratic Labour Party made light of our plans for a new hospital during the election, but like so many things since then, were it not for plans left behind by us in tourism, energy, agriculture, the environment, health and education, the country would be in an untenable position today. But such is the nature of politics.

Having agreed with our proposal for a new hospital, Dr Estwick must now get the job done. In the foregoing seven months he has made proclamations and promises, issued threats and advice, discovered plots and plans and generally upset everyone from the unions, doctors and nurses, to the Sanitation Service Authority staff and even an overseas medical insurance broker. His ambit has been far and wide. Oh what a change from his first tour of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) when the staff was lined up to greet him with hugs and gift baskets.

Say what you like, there is never a dull moment with the doctor around, particularly when his mouth is open or if he feels he is under fire. Well, welcome to the big boys’ club, doc. Here is where you get to play for keeps. Words hurled across the floor of Parliament from the Opposition benches don’t count for anything now. You have to perform on that side, doc.

We are more than puzzled by a few incongruities. For months now the minister has been vacillating on the way forward for tertiary health care for Barbadians. First there was to be a redevelopment of the QEH. The good doctor was “very shortly” going to present a redevelopment plan for the QEH to Cabinet back in February. Well, we don’t know if the plan was presented, but we have not seen any evidence of its implementation.

In this year’s Estimates in March, $150 million was voted for the QEH when the minister again reminded us that wrong things would be put right. By April he was telling us that no decision had been taken on whether a new hospital would be built. In May he promised that he would open a new ward by monthend to relieve some of the stress on the A&E. We are still waiting on that.

July was notable for the public showdown between the minister and the National Union of Public Workers during the Budget Debate. But it was notable for something else. At Page 49 of the Budget, the Prime Minister said: “In the meantime the Cabinet has agreed to the expansion of the QEH on its present site estimated to cost over $400 million and we have also begun to identify funding for this upgrade and expansion.” The Prime Minister reaffirmed this belief on Brass Tacks Sunday and threw in the Government’s desire to seek private funding from foreign philanthropists and Bajans overseas.

Yet the minister says this week: “The plan is for a new purpose-built facility . . . . Government is selling its shares in the ICB and BNB to raise $200 million for the project and is looking to other sources for funds. Cabinet is to decide very, very, very soon on where the new hospital is to be built.” This would have to mean that Cabinet has already decided that a new hospital is to be built, if all that is left for them to do is to settle on the new site.

So which is it really? Which David are we to believe? Are we getting a new hospital on a new site or are we getting a refurbished QEH? What is really happening here? Who is in charge? What did the Cabinet really decide? There can only be ONE Cabinet decision on this issue.

Barbadians want to know.

What a Kadooment

DISAPPOINTING might be an apt description of our national festival this year, sad as this is to thousands of us who were looking forward to some respite from the long, hot summer of high prices and higher taxes.

 

 

Just ask the anxious mothers who were not able to escort their little ones across the stage at Kensington Oval. The Pic-O-De Crop Semi-finals and the Party Monarch Finals were both a bust with smaller than expected crowds. And now Cohobblopot is to become a showcase for American rapper Lil Jon.

After much bluster from the Prime Minister about giving local producers and promoters an opportunity to be involved in this year’s festival, the owners of Euphoria Inc. find themselves hobbled by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) after early indications that it would outsource this year’s Cohobblopot.

Reports from a Press conference held by Euphoria Inc. indicate that it submitted a bid to the Foundation to stage Cohobblopot before the NCF’s board decided to reverse Government’s policy by having the NCF produce the event itself.

To add insult to injury, star billing, along with US$30 000 plus expenses, goes to Machel Montano, plus his entourage of 21 musicians and performers, which could swell the bill to US$50 000. Despicably, our biggest local act, revered in the Land of the Humming Bird, was offered US$3 500 – an offer she rightly, in our view, turned down.

So, not only are our local entrepreneurs denied the right to once again produce Cohobblopot, but our own performers are treated like second-class citizens by the organisation that is tasked with promoting the cultural industries and a Government that professes to put people first.

New Year’s Eve and Crop-Over are the two times of the year when local artistes can maximise their revenue potential. We have no quarrel with the inclusion of regional acts at any event during Crop-Over, but we see no reason why there should be such a disparity between their pay and that of locals. We cannot believe what we are hearing on the ground that certain voices that were heard on Labour Party election jingles are now being given the proverbial finger, although the Prime Minster’s reason for dismissing Carol Roberts does lend credence to such a view.

What a sorry state for a nation that once prided itself on recognising talent no matter where it lay. The warning signs were there from the get-go, bolstered by Colin Spencer and Reverend Errington Massiah – Family First and the rest be damned. What a strange coincidence that Andy John, Machel Montano’s local contact, could be making a donation to Families First during Kadooment week.

It is no coincidence that the Prime Minster would choose Kadooment week, when national attention is focused elsewhere, to divulge in Parliament that Hartley Henry is being paid $155 000 a year to act as his political adviser. Almost $13 000 a month for a part-time job with no measurable benefits to the country. We shall return to this next week.

We find it equally coincidental that the Prime Minister would choose Kadooment weekend to appear on Brass Tacks Sunday at a time when the church-goers will be giving God thanks for another harvest and the party animals will be staggering home from 10 to 10.

Perhaps it is not coincidental at all and merely convenient as the Prime Minister might already be in town and able to wend his way over to River Road. We do hope someone will call in and ask him if he knows which of these words is not like the others – festival, feting, frivolity, finance and focus.

A safe and happy Kadooment weekend to all.