I can go further back to ’86 when Richie offered unlimited home repairs as a write off on income tax and David Thompson in 94 invited all and sundry to Queens Park where he was going to read an IMF letter written to Owen Arthur and Sandy in 91 countering Henry’s facts that thousands of public workers going home post election, by saying not a man going home, the economy performing like Garry Sobers..All a bunch ‘o liars worse than Ananias.
One of the major disappointments of the blogmaster 19 days from election day has been the level of discussion by those representing the political parties, supporters AND the general population about the issues affecting the country. The concern is given context when one considers the economy has been in a perpetual state of flux for nigh ten years and the social landscape has been deteriorating. So disappointed has the blogmaster been, there is no fire in the belly to comment on political issues in recent days.
One would have thought with the Governor of the Central Bank confirming what all sensible Barbadians already know i.e. that all economic indicators support the view that the economy is in stall fall mode, it would have unleashed a torrent of commentary from independent voices on the Hill, NGOs and wider society. Instead we have the leading media house in Barbados overseeing the punctilious exercise of being ‘balanced’. It should not be about being balanced if the mandate of the media is to play the ‘watchdog’ role, the channels of the news media can function to promote government transparency, accountability, and public scrutiny of decision-makers in power, by highlighting policy failures, maladministration by public officials, corruption in the judiciary, and scandals in the corporate sector.21 Since …Sep 15, 2007‘ 1 Chapter 8 The Fourth Estate What is the role of the free press in …
Clearly the ministers lining up to call the media houses on the eve of a general election is opportunistic and should be dealt a retaliatory response by saying NO, we are not fools, pay for your message. The number of homeless people and vagrants to be seen in Bridgetown and its historic environs is a sure sign the mantra of the incumbent government is a mythical concoction meant to deceive a gullible public if for no other reason it has been unable to implement.
The blogmaster has resigned himself to the view that the politics of bombast is preferred by Barbadians. The colourful political vernacular utilized by the politician on the platform; the theatrics, stokes the excitement for many who eagerly look forward to sitting on folding chairs in the ‘dew’ and listen to platform speakers deliver bunkum and balderdash. Is this why Prime Minister Freundel increased tertiary level cost to Barbadians because he assessed that it was money better spent in other areas?
Unlike many the blogmaster will be meticulously read the social contracts of BOTH parties, otherwise described as manifestos, to determine if there is a new thinking which is required to lead Barbados out of the economic and social morass the country remains firmly lodged since 2009 .
In the next few days thousands will venture out in the night air with the expectation the party their support will deliver the Queen’s Park or Haggatt Hall bombshell message. Will we ever Rh learn?
There is a tide in the affairs of mean, Which taken at the flood, leads on the fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
- William Shakespeare
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.