In the spirit of the season, I take this opportunity to offer “best wishes” to my old friend Chris Sinckler – our embattled Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.
The governance experts will tell us that our Constitution speaks only to two Cabinet positions, those of Prime Minister and Attorney General, but when all is stripped away, in today’s world all roads lead to the Minister of Finance.
It is the one job I don’t believe I would ever wish to have. It is thankless. In bad times you take a beating for what you can’t do, or don’t do, and in good times you are pilloried for what you failed to do. If you doubt me, ask Owen Arthur.
I choose to offer public best wishes because the success – or failure – of the dreams and aspirations of countless Barbadians are tied up in the decisions the Minister of Finance will make as the new year opens.
And since the season tends to somehow leave people feeling more charitable, I am hoping the minister will take a “small bit” of advice from me, if for no other reason than that I have been in the communications business for three-and-a-half decades and might have learnt a thing or two along the way.
Personally, I do not believe there are any Barbadians out there who want to see harm come to the country, not even for political reasons. That’s not the nature of the Bajan. I also believe that when we disagree, even venomously, on what steps should be taken to get the economy back on track, it is only because we hold strongly to differing perspectives.
That’s why we have to talk more, and I hope Minister Sinckler will heed my advice and engage the country – and the media – perhaps quarterly during 2015. Talking almost always leads to greater understanding.
In fact, I would dare to suggest that if there had been more frequent and open dialogue during this year when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the island last weekend, it would have been much easier to Bajans to say: “You know what? I am comfortable with the route my Minister of Finance and my Prime Minister are taking. They are talking to me and keeping me up to date and I trust them.”
That’s all Mr Sinckler, and I wish you a merry Christmas.
Simple tax maths:
Oh, sorry Mr Minister, the spirit of giving that is so synonymous with Christmas seems to have infected my secretary as well. Young Tracey Gibson sent me an email asking that I include it in my column this week. I believe it should have been directed to you, but here goes:
“As the Government now owes thousands of people income tax returns and thousands in turn are yet to pay the solid waste tax, why doesn’t the Government deduct the SWT from the ITR and issue the balance. Of course the opposite would also apply in that if we, the people, owe them after the deduction is done, then the balance would be paid by us.”
There you go, Sir, another suggestion from an ordinary Bajan with no political motives.
Never seen a Bobcat move so fast:
Also in the spirit of the season I wish on behalf of some fortunate person living in Farmers, St Thomas, to thank the Freundel Stuart Government for its tremendous generosity in these tough economic times.
Last Friday when the island’s main shopping centres were jammed with Bajans taking advantage of the last weekend before Christmas, I came across a truck and tractor bearing the colours of a certain Government department engaged in a serious clean-up operation – the kind of work not usually associated with that department.
It is unlikely the occupant of the house would send the minister or permanent secretary a Christmas card or a note of thanks for saving them a few hundred dollars, so I take the opportunity to do it on their behalf.
But I suspect that the truck and tractor drivers “smell a rat”, so to speak, because by the time I had turned around and returned to find out from them if they wanted me to include their names in the “thank you” note so it would be more personal, they had disappeared. Until last Friday, I did not know a Bobcat could move so fast.
The unwritten codes of ZR drivers:
Maybe we are not noticing the deterioration because their conduct has become so commonplace for so long, but daily I am being reinforced in the view that the conduct of our ZR and minibus drivers is at its worst ever.
It now appears that there is an unwritten code among them that makes it an offence to pull into a bus lay-by. It used to be that they did this to prevent competing operators from getting ahead, but now it is routine in heavy or light traffic, even if there is no other van for miles around. They block anything behind them, and if there is a similar idiot travelling in the opposite direction all traffic comes to a halt.
And the Eagle Hall area is now the scene of absolute chaos anytime – morning, noon or night. These operators stop anywhere between the “triangle” at the junction with President Kennedy Drive and the lights next to Mapp’s Shop.
But it gets worse, because anytime you are in the left lane outside the shop waiting to turn left to go in the direction of Black Rock or straight ahead to Tudor Bridge, you had better look out for the minibus in the right lane, which is for turning right toward Bank Hall. This new trend is designed to put them ahead of all other route taxis and minibuses waiting in the left lane, but it means they have to be constantly revving the engine while they wait in the right lane and “scratching off” as the lights prepare to turn green so they can cut left across you.
If you are the type who is easily frustrated and you use Cheapside often, then keep a bottle of cool refreshment in your car because if you happen to be behind a ZR van travelling from the area of the General Post Office toward Broad Street, prepare to stop every ten metres as the driver stops beside everyone who is walking – on either side of the street – to enquire if they want a van.
The really disrespectful take it even further. They actually stop in the middle of the junction between Lower and Upper Broad Street, block all traffic behind them, while the conductor beckons anyone walking down Broad Street.
We really do need to do something about this growing madness.
