Submitted by Anthony Davis
Minister of Health John Boyce today linked high consumption, especially of sweet drinks, to the island’s exploding problem of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and expressed gratitude that the Ministry of Finance took on board the budget recommendations of an NCD Committee – Barbados Today (18 June 2015
Pray tell me, Messieurs Sinckler and Boyce, if this sweet drink – which has turned into sour drink, not only for Barbadians, […] but many of the tourists who come here – is so potent, and makes us so obese, why would you tax the sports drinks recommended for giving athletes a boost after working out or taking some form of exercise, as recommended by this Government and several other speakers along with eating healthy, as the panacea for reducing NCDs?
Are we to take it that you have reneged on your word of making exercising part of our daily routine of staying healthy?
I find it just another of the Minister of Finance’s ways of pushing his hand deeper into our pockets – nothing more, nothing less. When I see the centenarians whom the Governor General visits I don’t see any obese ones. They are usually slim. They would have drunk their share of sweet drinks such as Ju-c and Bim. Also it is well known that they used a lot of sugar in their tea, and sweet bread was one of the household staples. Even dumplings were loaded with sugar!
So you have to come with a more plausible excuse!
You are doing your best to circumvent putting anti-air pollution laws on the statute books probably because some of your friends/family own trucks, minibuses, ZRs, taxis, and also the Transport Board buses would have to fit diesel filters to their exhausts. There is also the annoying problem of those who only think of themselves – and not even their neighbours -and burn all kinds of rubbish indiscriminately whenever and wherever they like. They don’t think of those who walk, or drive by, and maybe suffering from asthma, or have some problem with their airways.
It is callous!
In Time Online dated 16 June, 2015, under the headline “The FDA is moving to eliminate trans fat, and here’s why that’s a good thing” the report stated:
“On Tuesday U.S. officials announced that they are moving forward with a ban on artificial trans fat in the food supply. Over the next three years, food manufacturers must remove the primary source of artificial trans fat – partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) – from their products.”
“Trans fat is the byproduct of PHOs, and it’s created through a process called hydrogenation. This can give foods a certain taste and texture and it can up the shelf life of processed food.”
“Trans fat is linked to heart disease. This kind of fat has been shown to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol – which can increase risk of heart problems and even type-2 diabetes. Trans fat builds up plaque in arteries , which could lead to heart attack.”
Add to this the air pollution, and we have a cocktail of great volume.
You can tax sweet drinks, including sports drinks which those who exercise often, and strenuously, as they are needed to give them a boost after their exercise – and milk of all things which the poor, the needy, the vulnerable, and the pensioners rely on to put in their tea – as much as you want, Mr. Minister of Finance, in the end the NCDs will continue to spiral upwards if nothing is done about cleaning up the air in this country, and removing the noise polluters from its highways and byways.
It always amazes me how the Minister of Finance can push through some dreamed up tax within months and the other ministers have to wait up to a year to have their day before Cabinet, and longer for important legislation to get into the Statute books – e.g. anti-air and -noise pollution.
If the populace have to suffer from the black clouds which diesel exhaust vehicles leave, what use is it if the Minister of Finance burdens us with tax after tax as if taxes were going out of style, when individuals fall ill from the particulates which get into their blood stream, and they have to visit the hospital?
He wont get the amount of tax he is speculating about.
There are already people in this country who are surviving by the skin of their teeth, and living from pay check to pay check, because they can hardly buy a snow cone after the taxes, rent/mortgage, and bills are deducted from the pittance which they get as pay. We must remember that they also have to pay bus fares and purchase clothing/uniforms for themselves and their scions.
The Minister of Finance, on the other hand, has an MP vehicle at his disposal and is paid by the said people whose pockets he is pushing his hands into every five minutes. Also, his pension is secure, and he will get much more than those persons who are being discarded at Government’s and its quangos’ whims and fancies.
When this Government wanted a second term they talked a lot about “we” and “our” children, but I have not heard any of them use the above when it comes to the youth of this country for a long while. We means “we” as in their colleagues in the Cabinet, and Government as a whole, because this is a “people-centred Government”. The lower echelons of our society are bearing the brunt of everything which is going on in this country!
Our sense of “we” has shrivelled. Now when people talk about “our kids”, they talk about their own biological kids; they don’t think about all kids. This leads to a situation that’s bad for the economy and bad for democracy. But it’s also just not right. We have to care for other people’s kids too.
– Robert Putnam, PhD
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