Enquiry yes but watch de cost

Ah must write on de Ottley Hall Re-leaf because ah believe that years to come when dem school children studying it in His-story class, dey will be looking foh ah lickle something on it from me. Ole people say when yuh meet ah set ah big stone in front yuh gate that will block yuh from moving forward, tek dem same stones break dem up, mek Road and Bridge and House. NDP blundered big time, and lef ah Quarry ah Big Stones name Ottley Hall that would ah block we from passing foh ah long time. Lickle by lickle de present Guv-ah-mint crush dem boulders and finally clear de way and de Ottley Hall Death as well. As Sir Loose uses to say “ yuh got to give ULP and de Leader ah clap foh dat”! What does make me feel to go toil-it is when ah hear PR, ah former NDP minister who is on record of openly endorsing Sir James, giving him full powers like Chavez got from his Cabinet, to act as de sole bargaining agent foh Cabinet and de Guv-ah-mint on all matters pertaining to Ottley Hall.{{more}} Now is not de same PR piggy-backing on Gonsalves’ successful Death Re-leaf package. Ah would suggest that if any former NDP ministers, who was in Guv-ah-mint at dat time, got anything to say bout Ottley Hall, good, bad or Difference, go to de Enquiry an say all dey want.

As to de Ottley Hall Enquiry, de records will show dat ah was always foh it, ah think it should continue to de final chapter. We need to know de truth about all dis Rip-off, yuh talking hundreds ah millions ah dollars dat was not accounted foh. As ah People we must know we His-story so dat we will never have another Ottley Hall Re-peat foh another Re-leaf. But ah got note ah caution, my fear is dat if we ain’t care-full, we could end up spending dat one hundred and fifty million Death Re-leaf money on de Enquiry in de process ah finding de truth!

JUNIOR BACK-AS HE WAS

Ah don’t know de whole truth behind Junior’s dis-miss-all but Lie-Za say she got it right, he is ah pull-it-tek-all evict-him. Is no secret that from de time Junior and de Prime Minister fell out dat his days at ECGC was numbered. Frank Da Silva been playing ah tape, night after night on his Talk Show Program with him boasting dat he could have Junior fired at any time. But Junior is de son of one Donally Bacchus, deceased, ah very independent, Banana Farmer who ran foh Politics. Donally was his own boss, he never begged nor bowed to anybody foh ah favour, and it always surprised me dat Junior never followed in his father’s footsteps and go on his own like his brother Denzil, one ah de finest Jewellers in de Caribbean. But Junior and Matthew Thomas are hosts to ah very hard hitting Talk Show Program on Monday nights, dey are openly critical of de PM and his Guv-ah-mint, by and large truth, basically exercising dey License foh Free Speech on Radio. Now Ralph Gonsalves is no Milton Cato or James Mitchell when it comes to criticize-him and heckle, even though Sir James did shut down de Searchlight Program, he later free-up de Air waves by granting Lie-sins foh six FM Radio Stations. So if yuh don’t like what Gonsalves does, blame yuh self foh being untutored and ignorant. But very important, don’t ever voice yuh disapproval, not if yuh want ah Guv-ah-mint handout or hold yuh wuk!

De thing about Politics, it is not necessarily de one-dah-ful projects and big successes that will keep ah Guv-ah-mint in office all de time, sometimes is de lickle things we do or fail to do that brings about downfall. People find it easier to pile up small bits ah wrong doings and unleash dem when de time comes. Ole people say “what goes round, bound to come back round”! My fears are dismissed with de fact dat : “God is de presence dat mek all de wickedness dat going on, seems less frightening”! Thank yuh Jesus.

SIR BATS HANG UP HIS BAT

He taught us de Class of 55, Maths in Form 2 and Biology in Forms 4 and 5. He was ah fair-foh it among us students. He played ah great game ah Soccer foh de School as well as SVG, in our books he was de Best Dressed Master. But is de style-E walks he had dat was even more punctuated when he strolled across de school grounds with de lady we had adjudged as de most beautiful black woman in SVG, Noreen Anderson, Miriam Makiba’s double who later became his wife. But dis is about Sir Bats, de young man, maybe twenty or so, who left his homeland Grenada fifty plus years ago and never left us, except when he went off to do his Bachelors and later Masters. Sir Bats was equally quiet as he was shy, yuh should ah see him blush in Biology class when he had to explain Reproduction. My better encounters with him was after school, once when ah tried to mek Golden Apple wine and it turned out ah Vingar, ah went to him foh add-vice and he reminded me dat de main ingredients in alcohol was sugar and yeast. Ah went back and made ah Passion Fruit wine and won ah first prize at de agricultural exhibition in 1968. And again in 1971 when we laid ah turf wicket at Arnos Vale, but couldn’t find de right soil with a sandy-clayey loam. Talk was in de air to import soil from Bo-bathe-us or Guyana, but Frankie Thomas de man who in many ways made Arnos Vale Playing Field ah reality, assigned me de task of finding dis type of soil in SVG. So back ah went to Sir Bats who was de soil expert in de Min. of Agriculture. He pulled out de soil map and there was Turf wicket soil all over SVG. Stump Mc Kie, Tall Boy, Shorty and to ah less extent yours truly laid down de wicket and it was ah dream pitch to play on.

Sir Bats walked and mixed with Princes, well he was married to ah Queen Noreen, but his best friends would have been among de poor, de Bottom Town Folks with whom he lived and who gave him de Love and Respect dat we never took time out to offer him. But dat is we all over, dey say yuh judge ah people de way dey treat dey Senior Citizens, and judge yuh friend de way he treats his Dog! May Sir Bats find de perfect peace with de Lord. And with dat, is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.