Submitted by Anthony Davis on 25/12/2014

“NEARLY 200 PART-TIME members of the academic staff of the Barbados Community COLLEGE (BCC) are singing the blues this Christmas. With just 24 hours to go before Christmas day, the workers say they still have not been paid for services performed in November” – Nation Newspaper 24/12/2014

First, let me ask a simple question. I only attended Brumley – and not for long – so please bear with me. Is it remotely possible that I will pick up a Nation, read BT or BU online or listen to CBC evening news, and not hear/read about something which is detrimental to some section of the tax payers of this country and attributable to this “people-centred” Government?

It was the BAPO yesterday who were not paid. Today it is the teachers at the BCC!

The irony of this all is that the Minister of Finance – the best one in the world – is being paid thousands of dollars monthly  from the taxes of the said people he neglects to pay. He and the other people who make up this Government do not have a care in the world, because their money is secure.

How do you expect people to work on hungry stomachs?

Or do you expect them to engage in extra curricular activities?

What kind of lessons will they impart to their charges if they are overworked and underpaid?

The permanent tutors are already being made to work twice as hard for the same money?

It is obvious that, if they work so hard, and don’t get enough rest that the tuition would lack the necessary fervour. Add to that now the non-payment of their money, and we have a stack of dynamite ready to blow! This is unconscionable – especially at Christmas time. Can you imagine parents/guardians who promised their charges something for Christmas now having to renege on their promises?

In the BARBADOS TODAY under the heading “Why the fuss?  SINCKLER: NO FORMAL OFFER HAS BEEN MADE” Minster of Finance, Chris sinckler, stated: “. . . All those people who believe they are doing the Government damage by lining up and saying the most negative and the worst things they can about Barbados and about the Government, and about the future, and then pretend they are surprised or affected by downgrades and other negative reports when some of them have contributed to them.” On page 3 of the abovementioned issue.

What audacity!

Pray tell me, Mr. Sinckler, can one paint a beautiful portrait if the subject is, to put it mildly, NOT beautiful? I would suggest that if you cannot take the heat you should desist from going into the kitchen. Every day there are negative reports about things which this Government has done to some section of our people – ESPECIALLY to the poor, the needy and the vulnerable. Don’t you think that those people would have liked to joined the throngs who went Christmas shopping yesterday (24 December, 2014), and could not do so because you did not pay them?

Instead of getting on your high horse what you need to do is to find some sympathy for those whom you have placed in a situation where they do not know if they are coming or going. Not only you have bills, mortgages, etc. to pay, but they do. Can they take a promise to any of those places and pick up some goods, or take it to one of the stores and collect uniforms for their scions?

All we are hearing about promises and plans which never seem to bear fruit.

This Government needs not only to take its head out of the sand, but its whole body. If the guy says that Barbados is the “Rolls-Royce” of the Caribbean, is it not possible that that is no more than flattery for you to agree to their terms? If “no formal offer has been made” why are you getting so hot under your collar about it? It seems that there is already more in the mortar than the pestle about this offer.

“Tis better to hear a truth which brings a tear, than a lie which brings a smile.” J.D. Higgins.