My Christmas wish

AS we count down the final hours before Christmas Day, what we should all be aware of is that this year – 2020 – has provided us with enough material for all of us to truly appreciate what we have.

Even the most religious amongst us have been tested by this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has cruelly exposed just how vulnerable many of our citizens truly are.   

Our financial situation is precarious. Many of us are living maybe one paycheque to another, and some who are more secure perhaps are existing within the context of two payslips away from total disaster and this year – 2020 – has exposed this to all of us.

We, despite the pontifications of ‘green shoots’ or ‘good news’ on the horizon which permeate all aspects of this democracy, know better. We are educated enough to know that the realities of this year have removed the veil of ‘head in the sand’ optics designed to achieve a particular purpose, but we know that things are hard around this island.

Our vulnerability is also captured within the health status of our citizens. Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are a major concern and this island has a range of them, with these challenges extending beyond the elderly, but also encroaching into the middle-aged and the young.

We continue to dance around the scenario that the virus is being imported into the island. My wish is for our frontline workers who are placed in this dangerous position through the dithering of an Administration which is adept at finding the optimal public relations position, to remain safe until the vaccines arrive on island.

Government continues to hammer home the points related to the public adherence to protocols. While I agree with the cautions and enforcement of rules designed to protect the majority, enforcement has to include those who visit our shores who disregard our protocols, in relation to quarantine rules.

Those who break those rules must face the full weight of the law, regardless of their financial status. During our lockdown in the first half of the year, Barbadians who were found to break curfew rules were dragged in front of the law courts – again, if you break the rules, you should pay a price, but this must be equitably enforced.

This island’s COVID-19 clusters have involved contact between visitors, or returning Barbadians who were supposed to be in quarantine and unsuspecting Barbadians. All the long talk must stop from officials and the strengthening of enforcement actions must be done and included in the carefully packaged ‘reminders’ from certain officials in certain media.

My wish is also for honesty. Our economic situation is not stable.   

Tell the truth about the BOSS program. How many public servants have signed on to the program and what has Government done with the public’s money? Budgeted monies are being repurposed for what is being termed ‘public good’, so it is nothing more than creative economics which looks good at the macro-economic level, but results in workers not getting their full salaries when they need it most, but having a piece of Government paper for comfort.

So we hear carefully spun narratives related to the economic performance of this island. I heard a colleague talk recently the fact that the country qualified for a concessionary loan is a good thing, but I pointed out that the increasing number of loans have to be repaid.

We continue to fool ourselves related to the underlying performance of the economy, where loans are spread out over a longer time frame. Pension reform is being recommended by the IMF, and if people take their heads out of the sand and look at what that means is Government effectively repackaging its debt profile, but the sky is always blue, right?!

We hear carefully spun narratives about how the island was saved from the fiscal cliff, yet the structural adjustment continues to be carefully packaged into sound-bites. Yet the pain of the adjustment might still increase, as the deadlines which were adjusted through the impacts of COVID-19 can snap back as soon as vaccines offer some hope of normalcy returning.

Government continues to avoid talking about increasing commodity prices and by now, Barbadians have faced the increasing prices as they seek to stock their Christmas tables. What has the Commerce Department done on this front?   

When will the Minister meet with the retailers, as was done during the restricted times, related to long lines at supermarkets, when the surname system was used? Maybe, because the truth is that Government has little power as supply chains are in the hands of few major conglomerates.   

When will the truth be told about the social fabric of this island being tested? Parents are out of work, but bills have to be paid, so the local economic situation is tense.

So when will the Attorney General be held accountable for the crime situation, similar to calls the office-holder made about his predecessor? It is past due where the public deserves to hear from this Minister. We need to hear about the work of the consultant who has been placed in his office.

We need to hear about this miraculous promise to deal with praedial larceny and the amend/repeal of the Streams Act. In this space, I mentioned the need to use all existing aspects of our water supply to ease our domestic consumption challenges, through a mix of desalination and underground natural springs and now we finally hear the promise of these actions.

The cynic in me wonders about the desire to address the River Land lease farming issues and the potential timing, as the march to the next election is taking shape.

I do not know about you, but I have a low tolerance for this insistence on spinning every story into good news. Barbadians are looking for information from which they can make the decisions that they need to.

My Christmas wish is for the public to demand that individuals level with them, since truthful information is a priceless gift.