I am not sure exactly at what point the addition and subtraction gave way to multiplication during the Estimates debate.
Suddenly, it seemed, instead of a sober reflection on job creation, the topic switched to an exuberant conversation about procreation.
The fact that nobody really cared anyway summed up for me what the whole debate was about: a whole lot of build up without a climax. Sorry, but it wasn’t me who brought the whole thing up.
The only possibly tantalising thing about the Estimates was whether the doctor who said he could point the country in the direction of a Dubai cheque to buy up the national debt would stay within the four walls of his economic prison.
This became something to watch out for as the medic had briefly burst out of his self-imposed confinement with a calculated denunciation of almost every economic measure the Cabinet in which he served – and still serves – had taken over the past few years.
Despite this, few were surprised when the doctor remained in his Cabinet “practice” despite the “patient” not taking the proferred economic prescription.
And so Barbados continued to hobble from one month to the next, with the real economic policy being implemented as quietly as possible – the quiet reduction of the workforce, under a thick veil of silence.
No policy speeches, except the banter which passes for debate in Parliament. The country finds out who is “going home” almost in real time, as it happens. Presumably the administration is following its own master plan, as outlined in the Medium Term Fiscal Growth plan and reiterated in the 2013 Budget Speech. They have no choice. But they should not do it by stealth, as it now appears, at least to me.
All the signs, meanwhile, suggest a government in a serious cash flow crunch, with people going home, projects delayed or not started, and Government waiting and hoping for one or more of several promised BOLT or BOLT-like operations to break ground.
The Dems’ strategy of trying to divert attention from their dreary performance in economic matters to the encouragement of lusty performances in intimate matters, paid off in multiples.
Once again, those willing to be hypnotised into believing that all the economy needed was more consumers and VAT payers a few years down the road could return to their comas with more ribald images than sheep jumping over fences.
Having been told during election time that the party that was going to keep every Government worker employed, the Stuart Administration has now sent home nearly 3 000 workers, by the IMF’s count, based on what it said were Government sources. And from everything I am hearing, more cuts are on the way. They have no choice if they want to get the lending institutions to take on Barbados.
This from the party that placed an ad responding to the idea of privatisation with the slogan “Don’t put your future at risk . . . . Stick with the Dems.”
The genius of the edict to “go forth and multiply” (GFM) is that when this policy is faithfully undertaken, we will finally be able to sell off all those little box houses at Coverley. Not to mention at the soon-to-be-coveted Villages at Bushy Park.
Remember when Mr Lashley said: “I can confirm now that we have the Bushy Park complex about to come on stream, and that will be a mini-town in the east with 2 000 houses . . . . It will have a supermarket, gas station and all the other amenities associated with a town?”
Try to imagine the waiting line for those units after “Go Forth and Multiply” is successfully implemented. It may not be possible.
Better still, remember that these proposed new Villages at Bushy Park would cost the taxpayers “not one cent in cash”. The developer, one SRL Ltd, would be putting up the money. “We will provide the land and the developer would provide everything else,” Mr Lashley said at the time. Another BOLT in Barbados’ economic coffin or the best of both worlds?
Look at it on the bright side: No money up front and in the meantime, the creation (literally) of potential consumers to buy the unsold units down the road. I suppose that after buying up Coverley and Bushy Park, these new Bajan consumers – 25 years’ hence – will be making a Dee-line for those blue and yellow boxes along the eastern side of Highway 2A.