Addressing issues of working class crucial

THE issues the working class face in this country, continue to be one of the more important areas that must be addressed going forward in terms of development.

This is coming from the new Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for the constituency of St. Michael South East, Rodney Grant, who spoke with the media after touring some of the residences in the Pine, St. Michael yesterday.

He said that this is especially important in light of the fact that the majority of Barbadians across this island happen to be working class.

“When you look across Barbados, the largest percentage of people across Barbados are working class people; people that we definitely have to represent going forward. One other thing that also concerns me very much is the whole issue of nationalism… Definitely, there seems to be a pull-back from a sense of what we would call nationalism – having a sense of really knowing what is a Barbadian – that really concerns me.”

Grant stated that this could be said of his constituency as well and a walk through of the area showed this, and what he would like to see now is a faster timeline being given to the way that institutions tackle the issues that the working class encounter.

“This constituency that I am about to represent has a large low-income population. It is (also) a kind of a peculiar constituency in that it also has upper class, middle class, but definitely the larger percentage is what you would call working class. So obviously, there would be a lot of issues that we would have to deal with. My main concern is the pace with which certain institutions deal with some of the problems that are faced by some of the constituents. So really this speaks to a broader issue of institutional reform, public sector reform and this has nothing to do with any specific government. I think all governments have attempted to do some form of reform within the public sector and definitely we have to find a greater pace in which we respond to the needs of our (constituents) and I think that that is absolutely important.”

Grant also spoke about the importance of not losing the whole ideology of what it means to be a Barbadian, which is important to the whole process of public sector reform.

“I think that it is really important that we do not lose what it is and what it means to be a Barbadian because that role is the very essence of giving and how we deal with issues in a constituency like this. You have neighbours that you need to depend on and that have to depend on you. When we forget who we are, I think that that is absolutely critical.”