Budget day: Wednesday, March 20. Prime Minister Mia Mottley will deliver her first Budget on March 20, 2019.
Without doubt the 2019 Budget will be interesting not only for the pundits, for the masses as well, who for the first time are witnessing a Barbados in the grip of economic and social turmoil NEVER experienced in our history. The political partisans as if trapped in a time loop will forever be debating -who to blame, B or D. The blogmaster and sensible others respectfully suggest we need to take a long hard look at the image in the mirror.
We have allowed a burgeoning political class to hold a people and country to ransom while we stood by and applauded. The lack of people participation in government in the last 25 years has given birth to the current state of things. A dysfunctional system will never generate the desired result.
There has been a heavy focus and expectation by Barbadians that monetary and fiscal policies of government represent a panacea to the many challenges which confront us. If youth employment is 24% how does one justify an allocation of 3 millions dollars to the BLOCK program being promoted by Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, Adrian Forde? The young people on the BLOCK is one of the symptoms how the society is failing the people. Our inability to create opportunities for our people. Our inability to repair, fix and grow and build
Barbados is navigating uncharted waters. The budget will be debated this week with token opposition. Another dysfunction we are grappling. We have a people still hoping for the usual Budget handouts from government notwithstanding the deep economic hole we continue to find ourselves.
One of the greatest disappointments in the post 24 May 2018 period is that we have not been able to reach a national consensus on a way forward. A view from the idealist perhaps.
If we read the political leaves of the 30-0 result the electorate almost to a man determined the DLP was an incompetent government. We have the BLP incumbent and although commonsense suggest the government needs more time, we have spotted a legacy behaviour by the political class which serves to stoke the apathy latent in many of us.
As vivid as the imagination of a child the blogmaster – try as he might- is unable to see the flicker of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Bear in mind the cracking of the economic juggernaut requires a parallel effort in the social sphere. There is corruption, rising crime, an irrelevant justice system, a scant regard for the environment etc.
Our strategies must be holistic.
Participation must come from all of civil society.
We must commit to re-engineering our thoughts, words and deeds.
The mantra now and in the future must be sacrifice from everyone for the good of ALL.
If Barbados is to rise, we have to park the noisy adversarial ethos political talking heads and partisan supporters revel and earn pennies from. The final say – in theory – rest with WE the people. Let us power up our collective intelligence to wrest our country from the political class. The hopes and dreams of our children and their children depend on it.
Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people –
-Abraham Lincoln
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.