Submitted by Douglas
IS THERE MORE OR LESS POVERTY TODAY IN BARBADOS THAN IN 2008? I say there is a lot less since 2008, despite what the Barbados Labour Party and its supporters are saying.
If one reads the claptrap written in today’s Sunday Sun – NOT ALL BLACK AND WHITE: Govt should resign for the greater good – by the ornery Caswell Franklyn (who the Labour Party jettisoned after a former BLP minister was elevated) it would appear to the uninformed that conditions in Barbados are akin to those in Haiti. What Absolute Rubbish!
Hear the BLP’s ardent, apologetic protagonist and modern-day, union rabble-rouser: “Personally, I have not seen this level of poverty and deprivation (here) since the 1960s.”
Well, I don’t know where he has been living; maybe on Mars or under a rock; or the guy is so partisan that he is either purblind, believing his own propaganda or downright apparatchik. Wake up Caswell!
But, who could blame him; that newspaper has given him a weekly platform to squirt his venom. I would suggest he should start telling the truth. For, despite the tough economic times we have experienced because of the worldwide recession, Barbadians are still keeping their heads well above water, holding their own, prioritising their needs as they separate them from their wants, and, generally, are doing better in spite of …. A few real indicators are: the liquidity that abounds in the banking system and at the credit unions; the ever improving housing stock and vibrant construction industry; new, small and medium sized businesses that have sprung up; good transport and the number of new vehicles on our roads; affordable health care; continued educational facilities; attendance at social events; and the acquisition of non-essential, but inexpensive, day-to-day items by many persons. These are the real indices that count.
As a matter of fact, we are faring much better than most of our CARICOM neighbours, better than many in some US states, France, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Italy, ‘poor’ Greece and some other EU countries with far more resources than us.
So, let’s do a comparison between 2007, when the “Great Economist” was “in power”, VAT receipts were being squandered all over the place and a ‘trade union’ nuisance and his friends were living high off the hog; and today, when we are still in the throes of a prolonged recession.
Back in 2007, when the country was awash with VAT $$, no less a person than Dame Olga Lopse-Seale had publicly bemoaned what she had seen during her daily treks across the length and breadth of Barbados before Christmas, as she investigated requests for assistance from her Needy Children’s Fund. Her actual comment, which was carried in the Daily Nation newspaper, was: “IN ALL MY YEARS HERE, I HAVE NOT SEEN SO MUCH POVERTY IN BARBADOS. IT HAS GOTTEN WORSE”. And guess what? It happened under the Barbados Labour Party’s watch.
The BLP and its apologists, including Caswell Franklyn, have no moral ground or principled legitimacy to attack this administration on the issue of poverty. Indeed, the Dems can assail the BLP for not doing much when they had millions on top of millions during their 13 odd years in power; yet the late Auntie Olga had to be critical of them on their insensitivity to that social plight.
Fact Check: the relevant extract from the Daily Nation of Dec. 20, 2007.
On 19th. Dec. 2007, after one of her visits to several urban and rural households Dame “Auntie” Olga Lopes-Seale noted: “More women and children are living in poverty in Barbados’. In all my years here, I have not seen so much poverty in Barbados. It has gotten worse.” While saying she had no statistics, she stated that she was seeing an increase in poverty while doing her work in charity. (See the back page of the Daily Nation of 20th. December, 2007)
Fact Check: the DLP alluded to Dame Olga’s comments on poverty in Barbados in its election campaign Charge Sheet against the inept BLP in 2008.
WOW!!!! Who do you believe? The late Dame Olga or Caswell Franklyn and the BLP? Dame Olga was a lady of impeccable integrity and could certainly be trusted. We need not say anymore !!!
Well, lest people forget, we have to remind them that, in the face of the worst economic recession the world has experienced in 100 years, this administration has worked to wrestle poverty to the ground. Look at the free students’ bus fares, the free summer day camps (which the BLP opposed), the payment of utility bills for seniors, the aggressive low-income housing programme, the ongoing work of the Constituency Councils (which the BLP opposed), a reduction in income tax (PAYE) from 17.5% to 16%, etc. All of these have been achieved from a greatly reduced revenue base.
Actually, this DLP Government, to its credit, has actually strengthened the country’s welfare safety net, as it endeavours to prevent more people from falling through the cracks, particularly the most vulnerable members of society, e.g. single mothers; the elderly and young children.
Keeping It Real
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