Dear Nesta,
I know wunna got a real fas’-movin’ grapevine up dey so you would be well up ’pon de politrics in de Caribbean – an’ even beyon’.
Evrybody got problems. De Grenadian PM firin’ members lef’ an’ right; Kamla got she own problems in Trinidad; Chavez fightin’ to win in Venezuela; same t’ing wid Obama in Amurica; an’ we Bajans still waitin’ fuh de election call.
When de mos’ recent CADRES Poll come out showin’ de BLP wid a six per cent swing towards vict’ry, dah really put de cat ’mong de pigeons.
I en need to tell yuh de reactions sence it happen. De airwaves an’ newspapers been hot. Some people “greein” wid de poll while ethuhs got reasons – right or wrong – why it could never be correck. But dah en neffin yuh din expeck.
De Healf Minister was quick to name it a “wake-up call” fuh de Dems to improve duh public relations strategy an’ remin’ Bajans ’bout all de wuk duh been doin’ over de las’ four years.
Mr Kellman put down de telephone long enuff from de call-in programmes to explain dat de poll was wrong – despite de Bees hol’in’ a lotta mass meetin’s an’ gettin’ constant coverage in de news media, de Dems was still in front. But not one peep outta de Prime Minister ’bout dis lates’ “bomb” from CADRES.
Ef Mr Kellman talkin’ ’bout de Bees gettin’ constant coverage in one o’ de newspapers after mass meetin’s, yuh might agree. In fack, recent news in de same paper had muh smilin’ when I see a picture o’ Owen an’ Mia tryin’ to look happy an’ friendly as duh tell Bajans how de party only got one leader an’ all is well in de BLP worl’.
But apart from newspaper coverage, I cyahn remember when las’ I see anybody from de Bees ’pon de television.
’Pon de ethuh han’, dah station don’ evuh gi’e viewers a chance to lose sight o’ Guvment ministers fuh one minute. One night I counk no less dan seven o’ dem comin’ ’pon TV one after de ethuh, p’intin’ out wuh duh doin’ fuh de country. It mek muh start to wonder ef nobody else en doin’ anyting else news-worvy dat we should know ’bout. But we in de “silly season” an’ I suppose dis gine now become de pattern ’til elections come an’ gone.
Befo’ Philomena coulda get ’pon she high horse to start tellin’ muh how de same t’ing woulda been happenin’ ef de ethuh side was in power, I was quick to agree wid she. Bofe sides do it, and it is wors’ when elections near.
As CBC belongks to whichevuh Guvment in power at de time, I suppose we jes’ got to put up wid wuhevuh dah station decide to do. But de two parties should trus’ dat duh followers gine vote fuh dem, wevver or not duh see dem ’pon TV night after night. So mebbee CBC could ease up li’l bit wid dis nightly parade, regardless to who hol’in’ de reins.
An’ lemmuh tell yuh, I en de onlies’ body wid dah reaction; I know quite a few folk. My nighber is one o’ dem. Only de ethuh day she was tellin’ muh de same t’ing. She say she don’ watch de news too reg’lar nowadays – it gettin’ too political.
One t’ing I know, anybody dat t’ought de results o’ dis poll woulda stir de PM to start checkin’out ’e calendar to gi’e we a election date had anethuh t’ink comin’.
No, sirree. He mek up ’e min’ long ago an’, come rain or shine, neffin en gine move ’e. An’ so, fuh de res’ o’ we mortals, life got to keep rollin’ on wid all de humps an’ grumps ontil . . . God only knows.
Tek care o’ yuhselfYuh frien’ Babsie
