Submitted by Anthony Davis
With work on the new Wyndham hotel due to begin in two weeks time and another Luxury hotel project under active discussion, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler is very upbeat about the prospects this year for job creation. In fact, he expects the national unemployment rate to go down – Barbados Today, January 20, 2016
In the last paragraph which I took from this report the Minister of Finance makes the analogy of a ship which goes off “track” which sounds very strange to me as one usually speaks about a ship going off course. Be that as it may, I will continue along this vein.
Which captain and his crew promises their passengers that they will be heading for the Caribbean, and then waits until that ship is out to sea and heads in another direction, and on their way jettison all of its life boats – except those which he and his crew can use to get away from the ship if it starts to sink?
Which captain will allow his helmsman to stay at the wheel, seeing that the ship is going in the wrong direction and instead of trying to stop him tells the passengers that his helmsman is the best in the world?
Which captain gets together with his crew and heads for covert destinations whenever they feel like – especially if the passengers have to pay extra for the destination which will put their health in jeopardy, or one which will put the livelihood of some of them in jeopardy?
The captain and crew of this ship have made many promises, but they have only kept one. After leaving port the helmsman kept his promise and chose every willy-nilly thing with which to burden the passengers, but expects them to take it all with the silence of lambs, and when some decided that they wanted to protest against the direction in which the ship was heading, some of the crew – and the captain – started making all kinds derogatory remarks about them.
On this odyssey some of the passengers have been made destitute, and don’t know where to turn, whereas others are just keeping their heads above water, with the ship cruising along like some juggernaut.
They cannot even make a mobile call home seeing how far the ship is out to sea, because they don’t know to which port the ship is heading, and that the mobile phones in the country to which they belong attract the highest tariffs in there. So, the ship, and its crew, continues towards its unknown destination without the slightest worry about their passengers. A captain and crew without a destination may end up anywhere on the globe – even in a war-torn country!
Now the helmsman is coming to the passengers with more promises.
The questions are:
(1) Will these promises be kept, or will they be reneged on like the others?
(2) If they are kept, how long will they be kept for – one year, two years, or more/less?
(3) Will the passengers continue to be taken to covert destinations?
Please note that the helmsman didn’t say definitely that the passengers will get some kind of relief this year!
There are more questions than answers, and the passengers should be very wary of any promises which are being made.
“Beware of gift-bringing Greeks!”
One never knows who or what may be in that beautiful, wooden horse!
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.