IT IS EMPTY VESSELS that make most noise. That is the reminder from Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick to critics of the Freundel Stuart administration.
“Quite recently there has been much media ado about nothing, as our detractors have sought to question what they perceive to be our silence on matters of pressing national importance.
“They have jokingly likened us to Rip Van Winkle politicians, capable of being asleep for 20 years at a time,” he said.
Estwick spoke to the ongoing issue during his feature address at the opening of the Oistins Fish Festival on Saturday evening.
“Need I remind them also that the race is never for the swift. No donkey who fancied himself in a thoroughbred race has ever lasted to tell the tale of conquest, nor has he enjoyed the spoils of sweaty labour,” he stated.
Estwick said Barbados, like most other countries, remained entangled in the biggest economic fight of its life, and there were “no quick fix solutions”.
“My Government acknowledges the pitfalls of the short run while it plans astutely for the long run. It recognizes the limitations of a closed model while it continues to confront the challenges of an open economy.
“Now is the time for action rather than endless, empty long talk; it is simply not a time for political gerrymandering or public posturing.
“The people of Barbados demand better. It is our mandate to deliver just as the organizers here at Oistins have delivered,” he told his audience.
