BLP Legacy (1999-2003):
Established a Senior Citizens Drama Group; engaged the elderly in constructive activity through structured programmes at 14 Recreational Activities Centres; staged exhibitions of craft by elderly; and launched as a major event the popular and successful National Senior Games.
For some time now, Barbadians have been wondering what would have motivated the DLP to brutally snatch away the income tax concessions long enjoyed by members of credit unions, recipients of travel and entertainment allowances and subscribers to mutual funds. Especially since it should have been obvious to Finance Minister Chris “Unclear” Sinckler that doing so was bound to have devastating effects on disposable incomes and living standards.
But thanks to Parliamentary Secretary Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner, we have been given invaluable insights into the DLP’s thinking. In a speech in the Senate on December 19, 2011, Sandiford-Garner in her usual shoot-from-the-hip style and like the proverbial “Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” delivered a scathing tongue-lashing on Barbados’ middle class. IS IT A SIN TO BE MIDDLE CLASS?As far as she was concerned, it was nothing but a lack of “gratitude and thankfulness” by those who raised a “hue and cry” over her government’s removal of tax allowances for credit union savings, and scornfully dismissed what she said were charges by parents that because of the tax change, “they could not pay for their children’s ballet, swimming, French and other lessons.
” Barbadians were rightfully and understandably highly offended by her criticisms. For one thing they sought to make being middle class something to be ashamed of, and tended to belittle activities like “children’s ballet, swimming and French” This is ironic since she used to be paid as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Community Development. What also made the lambasting especially painful and confusing was that it was made by a high profile representative of a party that once used to credit itself with having “created” our middle class.
Topping off her tirade, Sandiford-Garner said that since Barbados had not yet “felt the true impact of the recession”, such “middle class cry out” showed that members had “no comprehension of what hardship really is.” Such characterisation is insensitive and crass and lacks realisation that most middle class persons are less than generations away from back-breaking agricultural and other manual labour.
MORE TO JOIN MIDDLE CLASS UNDER THE BEES But the aggrieved middle class and those who rightfully aspire to such status can take great comfort from the fact that the BLP has a proven record of consistently strengthening that group. The late Prime Minister Tom Adams legally paved the way for the transformation of credit unions into the powerful movement it now is. As PM and Finance Minister Owen Arthur not only brought almost 14 straight years of progress and prosperity, but triggered economic enfranchisement and the creation of a shareholding democracy through income tax allowances for buying new shares in public companies and investments in mutual funds, registered retirement savings plans and venture capital funds.
The middle class can therefore trust the BLP to make life better for it through its “Rescue, Rebuild, Restore” mission for Barbados that create more middle class Barbadians not stifle their progress.
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