DON’T APOLOGISE to a fella, Denis!
That’s my advice to the Member of Parliament for St Lucy, Denis Kellman, in response to the criticism he has been receiving for his decision to allow his staff to open his Moon Town business last Wednesday when the island was under a shutdown “order”.
Here’s something else you should do: drive over to the Ministry of Agriculture and tell Minister of Water Resource Management Dr David Estwick: “Do like me, take the plight of poor, suffering Barbadians personally and make sure they get some water.”
I know there are many Barbadians who do not agree with me, including some who work beside me in the NATION newsroom, and I respect their position. But I believe too many who want to skin the St Lucy MP alive for opening before the all-clear was given do not have a genuine appreciation for how a significant number of Barbadians live.
So often we move up in life and somehow convince ourselves that the rest of the world has moved with us. Well, here’s a newsflash: All across Barbados there are hundreds, even thousands of poor people who can only afford to buy enough biscuits, sardines, mackerel, rice, English potatoes, macaroni, onions, cooking oil – the very basics – to cook for that day. To purchase a week’s supply of groceries would be a luxury for them.
Many of us can speak to how often someone we know has had to swallow their last bit of pride and borrow a $50 which you knew they would probably “smell hell” to repay, but you gave it willingly recognising it would allow the pot to boil for that entire household.
They were not the ones emptying the shelves of Massy, Jordan’s, Popular or Tri-Mart on Tuesday, or topping up their cars at gas stations up to Tuesday night. Instead they depend on the village shop each morning to gather whatever they will cook.
If I have a problem with Kellman it is the manner in which he responded to the critics. He could have made his point with greater humility and moved on.
When I drove to work during the shutdown last Wednesday morning there was a small supermarket in Baxter’s Road doing a brisk trade, and there was not a car parked on the street. That suggested to me there was no one from the heights or terraces picking up necessities, but the poor people who live in surrounding areas – New Orleans, Westbury Road, Passage Road, Lakes Folly, Emmerton, etc. That was an operator who understood the needs of his or her clients.
A politician
I don’t hear anyone calling for the head of the owner of Young’s. I don’t think those who are screaming for Kellman’s head care who else was open. He is a politician, he is a minister and he is a member of the current Government. On those three grounds he should be convicted and hanged.
Our middle- and upper-class snobbishness has really shown through in this matter.
I will not speak about A-One and Andrew Bynoe. He has the wherewithal to defend himself. What I will say is that because we have the capacity to comment on something does not make us right and everyone else wrong. I do not believe that the act of opening a business in and of itself automatically means that staff have been exposed to danger.
Every business operator ought to know his employees – who to call on in the event of unusual circumstances. He should know which of his staff members live close by, for example, and what would be involved in getting them to and from work.
And in any event, there is no law being broken, as far as I am aware, when a business remains open during such circumstances.
One of the most popular “village restaurants” in this country opened all day last Wednesday and supplied meals to scores who wanted the option. Who’s keeping noise about that? But then again, it’s not operated by a politician.
If we want a cause, a genuine cause to raise hell over, flood the Internet with indignation over the fact that thousands of Barbadians are living in worse circumstances in 2016 than they were in 1980 because of the abysmal performance of the Barbados Water Authority. Complain that hundreds of households could not store a drop of water for the storm because their taps were dry and the water truck was missing in action.
Join me when I post my disgust with the statutory corporation because a member of my staff had to tell her daughter to come to the office after school and get a bath in the showers here because if she went home she was sure to find dry taps for the umpteenth day straight.
Join me
Join me when I am tempted to post a question on Facebook asking why in 2016 a member of my staff from St Peter, with a water tank at her home, was without running water for so long it ran dry, and when she enquired with family in St James about taking a shower there, they too were out of water. Their tank was also dry. So as not to miss work I suggested she come to the office “musty” and shower in the gym.
If you want something to fight for, follow my tweet that the first thing I did yesterday morning, even before I reached my desk, was to drop by the CEO’s office and suggest that he issues a company-wide invitation to staff to feel free to use the showers if they have no water at home so they don’t feel like they are sneaking to do something that contravenes the rules.
Shout that that is what we have descended to on the eve of celebrating our 50th anniversary of Independence, and ease up on the righteous indignation being directed at Denis Kellman.
Kellman calls Moon Town a mall, with a sign that tells the world there is a supermarket, hardware store, bakery, restaurant, Internet Café, sports bar, meat shop etc. Reality, Denis, it’s just a village shop. Yes, it provides some vital services to the people of St Lucy, but it is a village shop. Maybe the people who are complaining believe your “mall” talk and think you have a Sheraton Centre in St Lucy. It is just a village shop with an extra door.
