A Guy's View: Poor People Dead

“And you tell me that the world progress
You tell me to look ahead
But all I see is dread
All I see is poor people dead
Poor people dead…
So how the world progress
When the rich don’t care ‘bout the rest
And got the world in a mess
All I see is poor people dead.”

Poor People Dead - Poem by Aja.

The gullible may regard it as a stroke of genius. A Government elected less than one year has embarked on an election style campaign to rally its base to continue suffering in support of its programmes which are devastating the poor in the land. This is unheard of in these parts, but it speaks to the reality which this country now faces and elaborate attempts to obfuscate this reality.

Taxes are cut for the rich, the famous and the infamous, but a heavier burden is placed on the backs of those who are least able to bear it. And those poor people who are treated like beasts of burden are given T-shirts to sloganize their suffering. Stay the course.
It is often necessary in capitalist states for the masses to be persuaded to act in ways that are contrary to their interests. This is usually achieved through sophistry and persuasive speech. But even then, it works because the people hope for what they do not see. In the current Barbados case, the people who are asked to commit suicide see the sword that is hanging over them and are still willing to put their necks on the block. This is exceptional behaviour that demands psychiatric evaluation.

Contemplating what our poor people are now facing brought to my mind an old Charles Johnson hymn called Rough Side of the Mountain. When you know the words you would recognise that only black people sing this.

“Oh lord I’m striving
trying to make it through this barren land
but as I go from day to day
I can hear my savior say
trust me child
come home
I’ll hold your hand

I’m coming up
On the rough side
On the rough side
Of the mountain.
Of the mountain …
and I’m doing my best to make it in

I’m coming up lord
I’m coming up lord yes
although my burdens
sometime press me down
if I could only keep the faith
I would have strength
just to run this race
lord I’m lookin lookin for my stary crown….”

Poor people in Barbados are being put to the sword unnecessarily, and almost all of the media bases in the country have been mobilized to tell them to stay the course. Suffer for no good reason and wait for your pie in the sky – your starry crown. Damn them.
Meanwhile, those who wield the whip sit pretty like demigods. And the armchair experts sit and discuss why our young people are determined to chart another course for themselves, even if we call it criminal. Our labels no longer phase them.

God did not place the rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate. Unfortunately, someone has been able to persuade our poor that they belong as beggars at the gate or in Queen’s Park receiving handouts. Our people need to stop imbibing whatever Kool Aid is fed to them and think.

Bus fares are about to be raised to a level that many unemployed and under employed persons will struggle to pay. The hue and cry went up to heaven. The solution was not one of compassion. Here came the solution: you can’t afford $3.50 per ride, so find $84 to buy tickets in bulk. The depths of the lack of care and respect for poor people are unplumbed.

We have a tradition that many of us eat fish on what we call Good Friday. Flying fish is a part of our national dish. I recently saw a price list for fish and a ten pack of flying fish was listed at $28. Poor persons with large families use flying fish because every member of the family could have a fish and it worked out cheaper than pound fish.

Flying fish used to be a cheap source of protein, but no more. Ten boned flying fish cannot take a family very far in terms of satisfying their nutritional or satiation requirements. The National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL) has been removed, but this was not a direct tax on consumers and supermarket prices have not changed. In fact, many items are more expensive now than they were before the removal of that levy. One difference is that now, thousands of Barbadians no longer have jobs and many who received salary increases take home less money. So what are poor people to do in this current environment of punishment? Poor people dead.

If you bought a piece of land when things were better and you have since been sent home from your job or because of uncertainty you cannot afford to build anything on it, you will now be punished by higher taxes for having the temerity to try to acquire something more than a car. And if you cannot pay the increased taxes, it may not be long before the Government confiscates your land and sells it to those with ready cash. In recent years, this has been one avenue of land transfer from those poor people who struggled to own a piece of the rock to others who have been busy taking it at a discounted price.

Poor people dead.