THE YEAR 2017 started well, with a proactive group debushing the St Bernard’s school grounds rather than waiting for government to do it.
If we’re to get out of the hole we’re in, we must realise we can’t leave everything to the government. In fact, part of the reason we’re in this position is because of too much entitlement over the years.
Other groups must also be lauded for their contributions. The Future Centre Trust and other non-governmental organisations do a good job of beach clean-ups.
The Adopt a Kilometre project has positively impacted the tidiness of the highways, and some communities have beautified their surroundings with murals and small parks. Private companies sponsor the landscaping of many of our public roundabouts.
Let’s hope the Roundabout Beautification Competition hosted by the Barbados Horticultural Society, with sponsorship from the Peter Moores Trust, will result in further beautification of these roundabouts and possibly sponsorship of additional ones.
On the other hand, there are some people who refuse to remove weeds growing by the roadside outside their homes “because that’s government’s job”. Similarly, some parents refuse to contribute stationery to the schools their children attend, even though they pay no school fees. Then there are those who don’t pay the one dollar per week for the children’s school meals.
We’re of course not happy to be paying increased road taxes and still have roads riddled in pot holes, but the Aron and Christina Truss Foundation should be lauded for their efforts to attract contributions to repair roads in our west coast tourist area.
My optimism turned to despair when I listened to the MPs at the first parliamentary session since the Christmas break. It reminded me of students returning to school after the long summer holidays. They seem to have forgotten all their “lines” and the country was exposed, via the electronic media, to much fumbling and uncertainty. Some even forgot their vocabulary.
Talking about vocabulary and English language generally, I questioned a young relative about the assignment he was working on for his homework. He said he was given a sentence and had to elaborate on it without changing its meaning. How odd.
When I was at school we were taught precis so we could condense a statement into its shortest possible form, in the interest of using time efficiently. The only conclusion I can come to is that schools nowadays are preparing students to become MPs who continue to amaze me how convoluted they manage to make their presentations.
Of course, we’ve recently been treated to various outrageous “pothole remarks” by the Prime Minister and Ministers Kellman and Jones. But the award for the most ludicrous must go to Minister Sinckler for his statement that there’s not going to be any devaluation of the Barbados dollar under the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration, and in fact he would resign if that did occur. This elicited a comment from a youngster that “if anything good could come out of devaluation, it would be Sinckler’s resignation”.
But does the minister think his statement makes him appear noble? I would describe it as cowardly since he seems to be saying that after his government has brought us to the brink of devaluation, he would bail out if it did happen. Wouldn’t it have been more noble to resign long ago and give someone else a chance at handling our financial affairs?
Now to agriculture. I’m mesmerised and disappointed by Sir Frank Alleyne’s reported statements about the sugar industry. Hopefully, he was misquoted since the rambling utterances aren’t characteristic of him.
How can he single out private farmers who produce 60 per cent of the total cane production for blame and not mention the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (bamc), which produces only 40 per cent from about the same acreage? Has Sir Frank ever compared the condition of the private lands vs the BAMC lands?
How can he say that little research is going into developing new strains of cane when new varieties bred by the West Indies Sugar Cane Breeding Station and tested by the Agronomic Research and Variety Testing Unit are released every year?
In fact, cane growers currently have about 15 varieties to choose from – many more than some larger countries. He’s spot-on, though, when he laments the lack of communication between government and the growers!
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former Independent senator. Email: [email protected]
