It’s great to be back after four carefree weeks of holiday. I had a terrific time with my family, just doing fun things without even a hint of interruption. It was my first real vacation in 15 years. I most enjoyed having my aged mum with us as I really wanted her to have a change of scenery and do something exciting.
We spent three weeks in Florida taking in Disney and Universal theme parks, and a cruise which went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I had visited these territories before on business but never got a chance to do anything touristy, so it was a pleasure to climb Dunns River Falls in the former, and play with turtles then swim with dolphins in the latter.
If some of you are like many of those I told about my holiday, you’re probably saying it was expensive. Yes, it did cost a bit; but that is where planning, saving, and if need be, borrowing comes in. No expense is too much for those you love most – family should come first.
Of course, the journalist in me couldn’t help but take note of the numerous “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs, boarded up motels, hotels and office blocks, and a few seemingly abandoned buildings as we traversed central and south Florida. It was the first time since 2008 that I travelled so extensively there, and it was clear that they are still reeling from the impact of the lingering global economic recession.
I also took the opportunity to watch a number of the local television channels and most were critical of President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. While there the United States stellar credit rating was downgraded for the first time.
That move by Standard & Poor’s, one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies, was proof to those commentators that Obama had to go.
It was noteworthy that they blamed Obama for not managing the recession effectively. As far as they were concerned, after three years in office he “owned” the problem as he was there long enough to have implemented measures to solve it and get the United States economy back on track.
I could not help but think of our situation here where members of the ruling party blame the same recession and the former administration’s overspending, for the fiscal woes now being experienced by the country.
They speak as if they, in their three years in office, have done everything that can be done to solve the problems, but their lack of success is through no fault of their own. That’s why today we still hear crosstalk on issues first raised during the elections, like the building of the Dodds Prisons.
Please, enough is enough.
Such talk does not address the spiralling cost of living and how some average Barbadians are now withdrawing their hard-earned savings from credit unions and banks just to help them manage their out of control household expenses, in particular their high electricity bills, which no one
seems to be able to get a handle on.
In an interview with CNN, Obama did not blame the previous administration for his troubles, except to say that what was left was more problematic than initially thought. Instead, he focused on what his government had done and was continuing to do to ease the plight of the average American.
Ministers here should take note of this approach and adopt it as a way of giving hope to the average person, who does not care about politics, as most people just want to be able to provide a comfortable life for their family.
This brings me to a topic which I intend to delve into at a later date – the cables sent from the United States embassy here that were unearthed through WikiLeaks. These intended private communiqués paint pictures of Eastern Caribbean politicians, in some instances, as less than competent and as opportunists, with a few being possibly corrupt.
The cables dissect personalities and political positions with surgical precision, and lay bare the bluffing that masqueraded as the sharing of facts, and the buffoonery that substituted for solid governance.
These documents, never intended for public consumption, clearly show what others really think about us and our actions in our independent countries. It is enthralling reading. But more on this later.