FRENCH REFORMER St Bernard of Clairvaux is said to have written, just before he died in 1153: “L’enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs.” When liberally translated, that sentence means, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
We find the St Bernard pronouncement particularly apposite, given that the Barbados Government recently made very high-sounding promises on a number of public works that have come virtually to naught.
These include the assurance of an islandwide repair of roads and highways and of large-scale debushing over a period of five months, starting last September.
An even more appropriate alternative English interpretation of that French proverb is that “hellis full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works”.
By themselves, either the road repair exertionor the debushing effort would earn top marks for its expressed meaning, but the joint shortcoming of both in the eyes of the population would hardly earn the responsible Government ministers any habitation among the celestial.
We recognise that the highly publicised filling of potholes was self-heralded for its valuable impact on road users. Then the rains came and most of the holes reappeared because the state of our roads is such that plasters alone will only mask the severity of the problem.
Road maintenance has been too long neglected for our streets to be salvaged by shovels and hot asphalt.
Now that the Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley has awakened to the reality and said if it became necessary his ministry would put new road construction on the back burner for the next six to eight months and concentrate all resources on bringing existing roads to an acceptable standard, we say “hooray”. It is necessary, sir. Absolutely necessary. No road is paved with merely good intentions. We no longer need good messages; we need good works.
Similarly, we were promised by the Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, during this year’s Budget in August, that $5 million would be set aside for a national clean-up campaign. Referring to his novel National Social Responsibility Levy that is mooted to deliver $142.1 million in annual revenues, he said: “Not only are we going to use part of the resources from this levy to bring relief to the capital needs of the agencies, we will also set aside at least $5 million to go towards the initiation of a national clean-up and debushing programme to be implemented over the next five months to clean this country up.”
Where is the evidence of a national clean-up? Not even the rodent population has detected it – and is thrilled.
Spasmodic efforts were made in the lead-up to the recent visit to Barbados of His Royal Highness Prince Harry to spruce up certain designated areas, but there is no evidence of any serious impact on the betterment of our areas of overgrown grass and bush. In fact, with the recent rains, scores of road signs are now completely hidden from public view.
Last weekend one MP, Cynthia Forde of St Thomas, mobilised citizens for their own safety, to clear areas where commuters wait on public transport.
This comes three years after Minister Sinckler promised in his 2103 Budget that Government, working on a public-private partnership, would create a $125 million “Special Roads and Bridges Package” to run for 18 months.
But there has been no hot asphalt. Just hot talk.
So much around us points to just good intentions and the road to hell.