It is no secret that the BU household all look forward to the weekly musing of Lowdown ‘Dick’ Hoad. We admire this man who is able to merge intellect, common sense and humility. Qualities which many from our mushrooming middle class who feel that by earning $150,000 per annum, and they can afford to build a million dollar house, they have a right to walk on water and have their noses fixed permanently at 90° from horizontal. It matters little to our well educated middle class that the ownership of their houses will remain the property of the bank well into their senior years. Forgive the digression but we do get a little pissed at some people who feel that material trappings should be the criterion for measuring success and contribution to our society.
Earlier this week we highlighted the story of Barbadian Farmers Need To Get Their Act Together, & SOON!, a St. Lucy farmer who for two years running has had to resort to the media to get his produce offloaded. BU summarized his predicament as a matter of poor management. The farmer by his utterances in the media propagated the view that the government needs to do more to help farmers distribute their produce or words to that measure. Surprisingly the blog attracted some critical feedback, we got the distinct impression that we stepped on some corns! In retrospect maybe we were a little harsh with the farmer who is doing what he does best, that is grow food. His commitment to performing this critical vocation at a time in history when our snooty nose middle class has been educated that jobs which require pen pushing and cellphone toting are the more honourable professions to pursue.
This week’s Nation article by Lowdown has confused us. We are not sure if he is defending Sir Cow or using his familiar tongue and cheek delivery to make a bigger point. How can he defend Sir Cow who along with CLICO is a significant landowner, and at the same time knock Minister Benn who is shitting pink trying to find ways to feed the PEOPLE? Lowdown should know that the government has fielded severe criticism at its land use policy over the last 14 years, especially Greenland. We disagree with Lowdown at his willingness to deflect criticism from Sir Cow ‘moving the earth to please’ Williams to the David ‘100 days has expired’ Thompson government.
Developing an agricultural program where producing food becomes part of the national strategic plan makes it a serious issue. With this in mind we must push the debate above the historical and parochial positioning of blaming the usual suspects. We will defend Minister Haynesly ‘want to feed the people’ Benn because he is a 100% upgrade on Erskine ‘do-little’ Griffith who surrendered at the onslaught of the concrete offensive led by his former government.
The success of the government and by extension Benn requires the support of the magnates and conglomerates in our country i.e. Sir COW, Sir David, CLICO and others. We are sure about one of the three…
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