Curious as I am to unravel the unfathomable workings of the minds of some Barbadians, I came across the most profound, pointed, direct, clear and compelling reason why Owen Arthur was kicked out of office in 2008 and deserves the utmost contempt by Barbadians for his brand of politics, economics and – more importantly – his fundamental outlook on life. By the latter, I mean his life’s philosophy.
The rules of journalistic and political fairplay demand that I cannot leave such bold and ribald comments, unvarnished by usual political courtesies, without explaining in detail why I am making them: In another section of the media, Mr. Arthur was heard at some BLP meeting last weekend to be belittling the investment by ordinary Barbadians in Pickering, St. Lucy and essentially calling it a mirage.
Mr. Arthur had every detail of their financing arrangements; who they borrowed from, how much and for how long. He sought, by his aspersions, to cast doubt on the seriousness of the investors and the value of their project because, “it was in the middle of St. Lucy.”
Arthur was clearly out to make somebody shame and it was more likely to be a Barbadian than any foreign investor. It was a hatchet job. It is that very mission by the former Prime Minister of our country that should cause every Barbadian to judge him even more harshly than they have since that historic meeting in Haggatt Hall which, in my view, finished any serious political career for him except among the BLP’s most rabid foot-soldiers.
The way Owen Arthur has belittled Barbadians on the floor of the House, at Public Meetings and now in the media is a form of political sadism. But it gives him great enjoyment and he privately compares himself to other formidable political mischief-makers, as if competing for their spurs. I can see why that would happen. The man has no legacy. And add to that no mirror image either!
While Arthur is picking on Pickering, we may not remember – so I must remind – that in 1996 we were promised a major, billion-dollar Pierhead Project which would transform the City of Bridgetown forever! The total redevelopment of Bridgetown was promised: A marina, condominiums, housing for Barbadians, a cruise pier, a five star luxury hotel were all on the cards. Town Hall meetings were held, great speeches delivered and promises galore were made. This was in times of economic plenty.
The Barbados House of Assembly was called out on a Friday to pass a Pierhead Development Act in which tax concessions were given, Town Planning facilitated, roads were to be closed in our historic city and given over to the project and all kinds of benefits were granted by that special law. I said to myself then, well if they are even passing a law, it must be a serious development! I swallowed it hook, line and sinker like thousands of Barbadians. I remember the then Opposition DLP scrambling about for something to say in the debate. Need I say more? Arthur believed in that project. It was not a mirage.
I have two simple questions for Owen Arthur: First, have any of these things materialized?
And, by the way, apart from some effete criticism at the opening of Clico’s Headquarters Building (an event over which Arthur otherwise suffers political amnesia about what he actually said) why didn’t Owen Arthur, when he had the power to do so, investigate the approach to the financing of that project?
There is, of course, one important fact in Arthur’s equation: the promoters of the Pierhead Project came from the traditional private sector. Yes they are Barbadians too. And no one should disrespect them. But the guys from Pickering ran around St. Lucy barefoot, sat with him in class at Coleridge and Parry and courted the same girls from the North. The point here is that he does not have them classed as anybody!
They were never in Owen Arthur’s development plans and that is why he has seized so wantonly and punishingly to embarrass the Yearwoods, Kellmans, Greaves, Toppins, O’Neals, Barrows of St. Lucy!
Owen Arthur has a sorry, sad mirror image!
Add to that the media did not report that he said a word about the Flour Seasons project in which this government had just given a US$60 million guarantee. He has no comments about that because the original promoters – when he was Prime Minister – had him within their orbit. It is only dead men who tell no tales!
I was more than heartened, though, to read in a business report that Prime Minister David Thompson asked Professor Avinash Persaud – a Barbadian – to find a Barbadian solution to getting the Four Seasons project back on the road. Persaud said that himself. This is not hearsay! This is the difference between the two leaders graphically illustrated.
What Avinash Persaud was unwittingly speaking to was David Thompson’s wholesome mirror image. Here is a Prime Minister who has strong faith and confidence in his people to find solutions to challenges and to work with them rather than tearing them down and tearing them up.
Owen Arthur prefers to pick on Pickering! A property associated with two, possibly three if you add Right Excellent Hugh Springer to Barrow and O’Neal, of our greatest National Heroes. Arthur’s mirror image is totally disfigured.
In his own constituency – in fact in the middle of St. Peter – there are projects that were on “go slow since 2007” and collapsed and are now on the market internationally. Not a word from Owen Arthur on Sunday evening or at any time before that, about how those projects were to be financed. Or, for that matter, how they came unstuck. But that wasn’t important, because they did what they had to do to get through the door and into his good books. But that will be the focus of another Haggatt Hall type meeting, in the fullness of time.
The backgrounds of the persons who built the prison at Dodds, that seeming monstrosity at Newton Roundabout and the broadened ABC Highway will all be brought sharply under the microscope, and compared to those of the “barefoot nobodies” behind the project in St. Lucy.
The second question I have for Owen Arthur is ‘who or what made you somebody?’
Suffice to say, Arthur has a sick, political agenda which focuses exclusively on investments by ordinary Barbadians, who have integrity and are not prepared to dance.
Owen Arthur sits daily in luxury in a fully taxpayer funded office at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. It’s about time we questioned what value for money we the citizens of Barbados are getting from having this brazenly petty politician, whose claim to fame as being a former Prime Minister allows him that privilege, but who has now become a national liability and positively dangerous for the self-esteem of ordinary Barbadians, by every statement he makes to belittle them.
Owen Arthur chooses to sully the name of Pickering and the people of St. Lucy! I take it as far as that because it should be an affront to the good people of St. Lucy.
Errol Barrow said on the famous night of his mirror-image speech that you have to like yourself first before you can like others. I didn’t understand him fully then. The more I hear Owen Arthur speak, the clearer my understanding of what that great man really meant.
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