ON REFLECTION – No mercy from BL&P

UNBELIEVABLE, I thought upon listening to the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) boss.
Peter Williams, managing director of BL&P, was telling Barbadians on national television last Friday night that his company provides a service for those living here and, unlike other companies, doesn’t encourage consumers to buy the product. It sounded true and noble on the surface.
He added that if Barbados doesn’t do well, then his company can’t do well. Another believable fact, but only if one is currently in a deep slumber.
The first statement was, for those listening to the interview with CBC’s Peter Thorne, almost insulting. Clearly, the BL&P – whose attitude between the time of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC)-granted rate increase in January 2010 and today smacks of nigh-parasitical greed – knows it doesn’t have to encourage consumers to buy its product because, for the last 100 years, Barbadians have had no other choice.
If this company is the only one offering a readily available and immediate source of energy to the average citizen, then it is insulting to compare itself to other entities that do not have a monopoly on a basic necessity.
For the average citizen, buying solar houses or equipment to procure alternative sources of energy is too expensive. So what option do the 80 000 Barbadian households, including the elderly and disabled, have but to pay the massive increases in electricity while BL&P pretends it really doesn’t want all this money – part of its $45 million profit margin – coming into its Canadian-controlled coffers?
Someone also needs to tell Williams, Worme and majority shareholding company Emera that Barbados is not doing well.
Hello! It is clear to all and sundry, from the person at the lowest end of the economic ladder to the Canadian “fat cats” who own BL&P and have regained control of FirstCaribbean Bank, that Barbados is in dire economic straits and grasping at the tourism straw.
Therefore, a company providing a service that it doesn’t really want people to buy should not be hard and fast on its obligation to shareholders and on its plans to build a more modern facility under the guise of “serving Barbadians better”.
People are writhing under the burden of food prices and other utility price hikes, so we don’t need rhetoric that even on cursory examination makes no sense.
Does BL&P expect householders to empathise even now? We did that back in 2010 when the FTC saw worth in the then Barbadian-owned BL&P proposal for a 10.48 per cent increase, despite the bad timing with the spiralling cost of living and national economic growth projection at a mere 0.5 per cent.
That empathy paved the way for BL&P to earn an additional $25.1 million!
Then, six months ago we were jumped by the takeover by Emera which, since May last year – four months after the FTC decision – had made its first investment of 38 per cent in Light & Power Holdings (LPH). This was followed by an additional 41.43 per cent investment in January 2011, making Emera the majority shareholder.
The shocker goes even further, since our National Insurance Scheme, also a shareholder in LPH, now finds itself in bed with an entity whose agenda is somewhat inimical to the average working-class citizen.
So stop the rhetoric, Williams and company! Barbadians feel helpless in the face of this rapacious addition to their economic woes, and no amount of placating, or the defence of high fuel costs, will erase the fact that BL&P, after gaining our trust over a century, showed no mercy in its quest for profit in the midst of a harsh recession. And, worse is yet to come.
 
Blessing in disguise
SAYING the Lord knows best is an understatement, but for me it applies indirectly to the ongoing corruption charges enveloping the formerly reputable News Of The World newspaper.
Two years ago I was looking at exploring my options as a journalist and discussed with close relatives the possibility of relocating.
Most listeners encouraged me to give it my best shot, and one relative who had resided in Britain urged me to seek out various news entities, including the same organization now charged with one of the lowest breaches of journalistic ethics.
Somehow I never reached anyone at the News Of The World but corresponded with others, including a few of the numerous media houses owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Encouraged by a former editor to return, however, I did – with a twinge of disappointment.
Today, that disappointment is a blessing.