Submitted by Anthony Davis
It is our money and we want it now. “This is becoming the urgent plea of many Barbadians to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), despite an advertisement appearing in the Press that the department is upgrading its system and claims will be delayed. That is little comfort to four despairing young mothers who turned up at the offices of the SATURDAY SUN when their efforts to get some clarity from the NIS about their maternity benefits did not bear any fruit – Saturday Sun
My, my, my!
How much more will this “people-centred Government” humiliate the lower echelons of our society? In the 1960s Jimmy Cliff sang: “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer . . .” This Government is taking us back to the days of slavery – with the difference being that the taxpayers of this country are NOT getting what is theirs. This makes the situation worse, because people have to go cap-in- hand to beg for what is theirs.
There is money for high-end toys for the boys, but the poor, the needy and vulnerable cannot get what is rightfully theirs.
The Minister of Finance has cut the funds to the various departments, so it is a very paltry excuse to be telling the taxpayers that they cannot get their money because the computer is being upgraded – for ten or more weeks. That computer must be very antiquated!
Does Government expect these women to carry out some extra curricular activities in order to be able to sustain themselves and their children? This is despicable, and scandalous! These are the same taxpayers who pay you thousands of dollars every month, and pay for your big rides and all of the perks that go with them – and they cannot get what is theirs.
Yet you, Mr. Prime Minister, have the audacity to say: “Barbados is alive and well”.
This would obtain if you are referring to yourself, and the members of this Government, because many Barbadians have been sold down the river, and don’t know where to get the next meal for themselves and their scions from. Every day one sees more and more vagrants – including females – on the streets of Bridgetown.
Are they alive and well? They may be existing but they are certainly not well. How many more must bite the dust before you start treating them like human beings who have the same human rights as you? There are now young mothers with their children in hand begging for help on the streets of Bridgetown when they should be getting their maternity cheques!
Is that what makes Barbados “alive and well”?
I don’t think so!
Will you pay the creditors who are breathing down the necks of these mothers?
Is this why Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, invoked the females in this country to have more babies?
What would happen if they went ahead with his suggestion?
They would only be bringing the babies into this world to suffer, because those that have been born are not being nurtured by this Government.
So that is another big no, no.
In the same paper, and on the same page, under the headline: “Tax amnesty ends soon” it states: “TAXPAYERS ARE being reminded that the deadline for the amnesty programme is March 15. The amnesty is being offered to all tax payers on interest and penalties accrued at December 31, 2014, in respect of arrears of land, value added and income taxes. “The amnesty has been granted on the condition that any outstanding principal must be paid on or before March 15, 2015.”
What about the value added and income tax refunds which this Government owes taxpayers?
When does its amnesty run out?
Value added tax was supposed to be hiked for one year!
How many months make a year, Mr. Minister of Finance?
Are you counting in Martian years?
The mothers in this country need to be treated better!
On the one hand you want to jail every man or woman who lays hands on a woman – which is right – but on the other hand you are doing them more grievous bodily harm than those who do it physically.
The mothers need their money yesterday – not tomorrow!
It is theirs.
“When a nation goes down or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.” – Carl Sandburg
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