Barbados Underground

Submitted by Beresford

We don’t even get a tanker when it off. It real ridiculous, it horrible. One resident on water woes.

Only Sunday gone, they almost had a big fight down there because the lady with five children hadn’t washed clothes in months. One of the other neighbours was upset because she was washing clothes. Another comment on water woes.

I lost ten thousand suckers because I couldn’t put them in the ground. Yet another lament by a farmer on the lack of water.

17 hours in a horror house. A recent experience at QEH.

“The QEH needs restructuring…I was at the QEH from 4 p.m. and wasn’t treated by 9 a.m. So I ended up leaving the hospital. You know what is being at the hospital for more than 15 hours….with a fractured hand going through all that pain? Another recent experience at the QEH.

…..they are just potholes that remained and got bigger and bigger. It is about time the road was repaired because this road is a serious problem. A comment on one crater-filled road.

I cannot even put a piece of cake in my mouth without the flies coming. This is bare foolishness. Reaction to garbage pile up.

Barbados is being destroyed and this illegal dumping is getting now out of hand. And I believe it is caused by the tipping fee [introduced by Government last year] that is being charged for dumping. I would like to suggest that the Minister of Finance take a closer look at this and save Barbados. A businessman on garbage

(We could fill the newspaper with comments of Barbadians on the woes of the land)

A country is in trouble when it cannot even provide the basics. Barbados is in deep trouble. With every day, the inability by the DLP to supply the basics is opening up a new path of destruction for Barbadians.

The provision of water, transport and roads, health care, sanitation and garbage removal, and housing is in shambles. And, getting worse.

Across St. Lucy, St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Joseph and St. John, especially, the water situation is so grim that, after months of non-supply, people are beginning to talk of a Barbados that all thought was extinct.

This is now no longer a case of intermittent interruption. All over the north and east, there are pressing and dangerous ramifications for the personal hygiene and sanitation of thousands, the livelihoods of dozens, the ability to be at school and work and the overall impact on daily living.

There is no exaggeration in MP for St. Joseph Dale Marshall’s summation of the situation, existing in the extreme since last September, as “a frightening state of affairs in St. Joseph”

And BLP leader Mia Mottley has rightly deemed the situation a national crisis. People are being reduced to fight over water.

This has been allowed to fester to breakpoint with nary a word from anyone. Explanations, contradicted by residents under siege and laced with illogicality, is further indicative of how the DLP’s mishandling of situations and contempt for the public pushes the society to disruptive action.

Barbadians are expected to believe that climate change only affects very specific areas of the country and not the rest.

We are also to accept water tanks that bypass them and supply others, if they turn up at all. This is a daily fact of life for people. Dale said it, “This has completely destroyed any semblance of a normal lifestyle for my constituents.”

No notice of water outages. No supply either by the new standpipes, the so-called community tanks, or water tankers. No word from anyone at the BWA.

Minister Estwick has disappeared. So, too, Lowe on garbage. Boyce says nothing on health, maybe because he knows nothing. Ditto Kellman. And Stuart crowns this hateful disregard for the welfare of Barbadians with his own silence.

If the supply of water and the provision of basics cannot bring a Prime Minister to speak and immediate action from a Government, what exactly is the purpose of either?

The fact that solutions are available to better deal with water supply, as well as the other critical areas plaguing the society, but are not even being discussed, far less attempted, by the Freundel aristocracy, indicate how much of a distance the DLP is operating at from citizens.

It is more than a contradiction that all this is unfolding as the DLP indulges in a big one year long party to mark the 50th anniversary of Independence.

Let’s celebrate Independence and party hearty, never mind  the drivers that led to Independence and the celebration of the nation in the ensuing years are in disarray and unrecognisable under this DLP.

Let’s rally around the flag and be knocked out by this noxious mix of deception that we are great when all around us the economy is failing; our foundation pillars are failing; institutions are failing to deliver, infrastructure is failing.

The DLP’s inbred prescription to take Barbadians for a ride is, philosophically and practically, the most ironic feature of Barbados’ desperate state of affairs as the DLP stake out 50 years celebrations.

Rather than acknowledging and dealing with the facts of the issues, the DLP rolls out its propaganda – and this is expected to soothe Barbadians and salve the blows being taken repeatedly just to survive.

So Donville Inniss trots out trite nonsense suggesting suffering people should bear with water outages. The DLP plays the republic card, denies it, but good old Donville declares bring it on. The Governor of the Central Bank says categorically there will be anaemic growth but all-knowing Donville declares there will be 2 per cent growth.

The BLP will not be sidetracked by the various posturings of the DLP, nor, while we believe 50th years as a nation is worthy of celebration, will we join in the flossing over of the several serious issues crying out for solutions under the guise of feeling good about this milestone.

The BLP is well aware of the political dimensions of the celebrations. As the Party has demonstrated on Cahill, the Municipal Solid Waste Tax, QEH and water, Mia Mottley and team will fight on for Barbadians to receive the respect, attention and services that should be theirs as the norm if they were managed by a caring, progressive government.

We believe the people are, too. The comments on the water issue and many others show Barbadians understand the game plan of the DLP. And are waiting to checkmate, 50th anniversary celebrations or not.