World famous Merry Men composed the song Beautiful Barbados.
Three items in the news this week have resonated in the BU household. The revelation that a road in Christ Church has been suspended for eight months because the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has been unable to procure a 6 inch pipe to complete their part of the work. The second, several Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) trucks have broken down and garbage collection has been severely affected. The sight of piles of garbage complete with booing flies, cat size rats and a pig pen stench has become part of the landscape in many districts. And the last item, the statement made by former minister Haynesley Benn that the government should manipulate the St. Peter constituency to create a partisan advantage.
The 40 million dollar BWA headquarters under construction perched on St. Barnabas Hill is an impressive structure. It is difficult to visualize or justify the investment in the building if juxtaposed to the level of bad service Barbadians have been subjected to for many years by the BWA. The construction of the building has been saddled with controversy from the start with alleged malfeasance. BU is confident though under Minister David Estwick everything has gone by the book so far. It is the greatest irony the BWA takes almost one year to procure a 6 inch main while construction of its multimillion headquarters nears completion.
As the country mobilizes against Ebola by holding frequent press conferences, media releases, identifying quarantine bays and generally dusting of protocols – 90 Nigerian students have been a casualty of the exercise – an inefficient garbage collection is a mounting concern.
Garbage pile up in neighbourhoods has health and environmental challenges associated with it, our inability to safeguard the health of Barbadians brings into question how serious we are as a nation about maintaining a pristine environment. It is the greatest irony we have the minister of health and other officials talking up a storm about the robustness of our Ebola readiness but the ministry of the environment struggles to maintain a fleet of mainly new trucks purchased less than a year ago. This is the same ministry led by the taciturn Denis Lowe who has been charged to oversee the rollout of a 600 million dollar Waste-to-Energy plant.
Finally we have the statement by former candidate for St. Peter Haynesley Benn who called for the government to engage in gerrymandering to secure a Democratic Labour Party win when the bell rings in St. Peter. Surprisingly, the practice of gerrymander is not illegal and is used by democratic systems of government, especially in first past the post systems, to good advantage. Needless to say gerrymandering favours the government and not the opposition. Between now and the next election there is the opportunity for the government to carve out Orange Hill from St. Andrew and Black Bess from St. Peter constituencies. It is the greatest irony a system of democracy we hold proud validates gerrymandering, in BU’s translation, a manipulation of the electoral system.
BU has highlighted three ‘symptoms’ to help Barbadians connect the dots. Some will describe the picture that emerges as negative and others will see it as positive. To improve any system there is the need to understand its shortcomings. Barbados has maintained an edge over other countries in the region because of our ability post Independence to efficiently manage our affairs. Barbados’ position on the Human Development Index is a measure both political parties have used as an indicator of successful management. The slip to #59 behind #51 ranked Bahamas is an independent measure to alert Barbadians we need to improve the management of little Barbados.
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