Elections: Party Time

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                                                                                                           Here we go again!
Are our Elections a prelude to Crop Over?
The coming elections have one certainty: The government will be formed by the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party. The sophisticated one party government will continue. Elections are now about partying not policy. Meetings start in the early evenings and the feting goes on until the comedians come on stage. This one is a   prelude to the Festival of Flesh formerly known as crop over.
Progressive thinkers are ignored or condemned to political oblivion. Some even find the guts to dwell comfortably in the belly of the whale. Citizens are expected to blindly follow the young lawyer class and other intellectual elites.  While the promises will pour forth; the truth is that both parties are in this together and unfortunately this circus is now fixed to become one of the longest running shows on earth.
We challenge anybody to point out any new idea from the current list of thirty candidates. We challenge anybody to ask them what are their views on education reform, the environment, and the changing demographics of our island state, the underlying racism and control of our economy; ask them how they will revolutionise agriculture.  Ask them if they have ever written one serious article about policy.  Ask them what they would like their political legacy to be. We assure you that they will be embarrassed. They simply have no ideological or philosophical positions. They are following their political mentors (BLP/DLP) to the letter. They believe that parliament is their gateway to professional and financial security. They are seeking upward social mobility.
Ask the collective BLP/DLP leadership why after forty six years of independence we are not a republic and still under the reign of a dysfunctional royal family, mostly known these days, for appearing nude on hotel balconies. Ask them why they cannot get the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to function properly. Ask them why they cannot develop a proper network of roads. Ask them why after a half century or more of collective BLP/DLP leadership there is still a waiting list in excess of twenty thousand for government housing. Ask them who owns almost all the arable land in our country. Ask them how businesses can owe the treasury in excess of one hundred million dollars. Ask them why the transport Board is still in a mess. Ask them why they are now promoting privitisation. Ask them who are earmarked to benefit most from the privitisation of services to the poor. Ask the candidates if they support the abolition of free education and why. Ask the new faced ones if they will support progressive worker participation. These are all legitimate questions to ask people who will be guaranteed a salary for five years in Parliament and a hefty pension after two terms.
There will be no national debates on these issues. We understand that there will be entertainment. However we are diametrically opposed to feeding the populace a diet of jump up and whine followed by so-called educated men and women “cussing” each other on platforms. 
Citizens are the real protectors and driving force of our democracy. Once we support the current level of national discourse we will forever be burdened by these two monstrosities. It is now clearly obvious that the well being of our country comes second to the blatant opportunistic proclivities of those now begging, buying and beseeching us for our vote.
We deserve better!

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