Poverty down!!! But is prostitution up???

De Headlines in last week’s papers said nuff about de Poverty Survey, interesting if not frightening, one headline was: “Poverty Down”! Another: “Women prepared to do anything for money”! Ah next one: “Nearly 50 percent of Vincy women become pregnant as teens”. And it goes on to explain dat many of these girls get pregnant under de age ah fifteen, while half ah de women population dat get pregnant do so between de ages 15 and 19 years. Listen to dis one: “Some ah de women have made it clear dat dey are prepared to do anyting, even having sex foh money, to provide foh dey children”.{{more}} It went on to say: “Teenage girls become pregnant foh older men and mothers appear to approve or encourage this type of activity in order to supplement the household income”. Nicely written “to supplement de household income”, it is more dan household income, it is sex foh money to buy Boutique Clothes! sex foh money to buy Blackberry, Cell Phones and Phone Cards! In simple ABC language, de girls and dem living from dey ass-sit, Prostitution is very much alive and kicking in SVG and every-buddy knows dat!. Sad to say dat we, yes all ah we got de blood stain pon we hands. We shut we eye, give ah sin-ache-call smile and turn we face de other way, our silence has given vice and acceptance to dis sinful way of living dat has become ah normal way of life and an accepted source ah income.

Dr Frank Henry in his Report was kind to us but not totally silent on dis sex foh cash trade, he talk what de eye could see, so he stressed more pon de young girls who get pregnant, but ole people uses to say, yuh never know how much yuh girl chile into sex until she get catch, pregnant. If Dr Frank did only ask dem de real question, he would ah find out what percentage ah de young, as well as adult female population does go to de offices ah politicians, business-men and senior Guv-ah-mint officials to sell off dey bodies. Had he done dat, den de result ah dat Report would ah been ah different story dat would ah remain ah secret doc-yuh-meant. Dey say Poverty Down but I say Prostitution Up and dat needs ah study by itself.

LIE-ZA IS AH PASS-DE-TRUTH

If Lie-Za catch Dr Henry, she will skin him alive foh putting false ting in his Report bout young girls in SVG into sex foh ah livlihood. She says dat she is no Prostitute, she and Lie-Owe is fren foh years, is de only fellar dat know if she is ah man or woman, Lie-Owe does pay all her bills, de fridge, de stove, de TV is Lie-Owe money. Ah butt in and ask she wha’ bout de bed dah Lie-Nil did break down, she tell me ah too fast and malicious, is she bedroom business ah want to know. She sware is Lie-Owe who insists dat she remain ah stay-at-home lady-friend and ask me if dat could mek she ah Prostitute. She boast how she is registered wid de NIS and does pay up her subscription. In shock ah asked her how could she register wid NIS and she ain’t wuking no way. She say is she friend of Reggie Thomas, de big-man by NIS who tell she to come in and sign up, she and Reggie went school together. How she was stuck in filling out de form, when she reach de part dat ask foh Employment, Reggie remind she how in school, nobody could ah get de Truth out ah her, she uses to tell plenty Lie, “well put ‘Lie down’ sorry put down Lie as yuh wuk”, so she write down “ ah Pass-de-truth”!

OH LIAT AH TIRED

LIAT is one ah dem Pull-it-tek-all Games dat dey should ban because it is cruel to de players. Is ah Tree Card Game, Antigua, Bo-bathe-us and SVG, but de only card on de table is LIAT. Allen Stanford’s Caribbean Star made ah brief appearance and threatened to wipe out LIAT, so in order to save LIAT de Guv-ah-mints wuk out ah merger, dey had no money to buy out Caribbean Star so Stanford tun round and lend dem fifty sum-ting million US Dollars. LIAT ended up wid ah monopoly and ah lot ah Caribbean Star wukers, more weight pon massah King sugar. LIAT fares doubled since de fuel cry-sis, but oil prices gone down nearly ah year now, yet LIAT fares remain de same high. Going into Bo-bathe-us is murder, yuh pay ah 5 percent SVG Guv-ah-mint tax, plus ah B’dos Airport development tax, ah Airport authority tax and ah departure tax. De taxes going into B’dos. T’n’T and St Lucia is higher dan de cost ah de plane ticket. Local Hoteliers are complaining dat guests could fly from My-Army to T’n’T foh US $ 200 and from T’n’T to SVG is US $ 300 wid LIAT. As ah result ah lot ah hotel bookings have been cancelled.

But Vincentian taxpayers pay twice to travel; remember is Tax Payers money thru de Guv-ah-mints dat paying foh LIAT’s mismanagement, and den de same Taxpayers got to pay ah second time foh ah ticket when dey travel.

Ah smile when de Prime Minister talk bout having successful meeting wid LIAT Pilots, he mean Pull-it-tek-all success. De Arbitration between LIAT Pilots and Management might solve de Pilots problem, but not de problem of air travel in SVG. Ah will bet when it is over, one ting will happen foh sure, LIAT fares will go up again.

We talk bout Carry Come and CSME and what not, but if our Carry Come partners don’t free up wid all dis Airport taxes, two tings will happen, one is LIAT will fly out ah de sky and two, Ah lot ah Hotels will close, our Hotel tourism will die. In de meantime ah little competition foh LIAT could mek ah lot ah difference. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

Happy Birthday PMC, your presence dis past year made ah difference.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.