Political Nitpicking and Stupidity
We present and encourage progressive Caribbean views of Caribbean and world affairs.
Mr. Lorne Theophilus |
We usually try to avoid
commenting on the empty statements of the current breed of politicians
entrusted with the development of the Caribbean. However, as a responsible
watchdog group, we are totally dumbstruck by recent statements of the Barbados
Minister of Tourism, Mr. Richard Sealy, who claims that the St. Lucia tourism
product is lagging that of Barbados by some thirty years. We are equally
supportive of the stance taken by the St. Lucia Minister of Tourism; Mr. Lorne Theophilus
that he will not engage in any spat with his Barbadian counterpart but prefers
to look at the industry from a regional perspective. This is in keeping with
our view of regional economic development.
Minister Sealy must understand
that if St Lucia is making great gains, in the industry, it is a reward to their
tourism planners, and the people of St Lucia. It is also a significant gain for
the Caribbean economies, that we have another player in the global leisure industry.
Insular thinking and ungracious dialogue are
not attributes that will build the great Caribbean nation we need to survive in
the real world. It is equally depressing that Sealy, who is a prominent member
of a party that was one of the regional architects of what is now called
CARICOM, would want to engage in such senseless nitpicking. It is unfortunate,
that some government ministers in Barbados are resorting to inflammatory
statements in defending their administration. Most recently, we heard the current
Minister of Education, Mr. Ronald Jones, mouthing off about the need for police
to shoot people and crack heads in the event that the populace rises up against
the administration. We remind Mr. Jones that his ministry deserves more rational
and intelligent speeches when he finds himself before microphones. It was not
his finest moment.
At present we are witnessing the
people of Trinidad and Tobago protesting against their government and we have
not heard about police shooting and cracking heads. We are aware that bad
economies mostly affect those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. The
masses of the Caribbean do not have overseas bank accounts and investments to
turn to when our economies go into prolonged periods of non-growth, commonly
called a recession. We are aware that Barbadians by their nature are not
radical and only take to the streets when they really cannot take the pressure
any more. We saw that some years ago, when they took to the streets to protest
the economic policies of former Prime Minister, Sir Lloyd (Sandiford). There is
a big difference between an insurrection and a protest. We don’t recall any
violence being unleashed on the people for marching and to use such language now,
is to say the very least, an act of unparalleled stupidity.
We therefore urge our politicians
to desist from nitpicking, and to concentrate on turning around these Caribbean
economies, so that the next generation would have a better wicket to bat on. If
that is not their purpose and vision, we urge them to do the proper thing and
quietly retire from public life.
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