Same same ole kha-key pants

De Budget Debate going on right now, hopefully it will be over and forgotten by Fry-dey. I asked Lie-Za what’s new in de Budget, and she said absolutely nothing, except de price of all-co-haul going up, strong rum is excluded; apart from dat: “Food and groceries still de same, petrol and cooking gas de same; water and telephone is de same; everything is de same is like “de same ole Kha-key pants”.{{more}}

Dey’s promise of ah brighter day wid Electricity, we heard familiar wretch-ah-wreck, not foh de first time, from de Pry-minister about alternative N-ah-G: wind and solar, and G-Owe-turmoil; dat G-owe-Turmoil rings ah bell, didn’t we hear about tapping N-ah-G from de Volcano when de ULP first took office?

Dey had even contracted ah Research company, paid out thousands ah dollars, only to discover dat de Researchers were ah bunch ah fraud-stars, dat was Scam No 1! Dat now leaking out de bucket, yuh see why ah can’t beat up pon Come-me-shun-her Mr Me-Law wid his lickle ten thousand Scam.

Ah longing to hear ah Budget dat promises ah sliver ah hope, jobs or job training foh de unemployed, especially de “Youths on de Blocks.” Market foh our foods and fish and so on; did ah hear somebody say dat we importing carrots from Bo-bathe-us?

listening to de Budget is depressing, de same ole wretch-or-wreck and repetition, our E-con-nah-me is like ah recurring decimal wid de Awe-position insisting dat we now into four years ah “negative growth,” and de country is propped-up on ah “deficit budget” wid ah national death of one point three billion dollars. And of course de Guv-ah-mint is brushing dat aside as trivia, unimportant.

Dat is de same Guv-ah-mint dat tried to convince de SVGTU (Teachers) dat de Guv-ah-mint’s seven percent offer was more dan de ten percent de Teachers were asking; is de same Guv-ah-mint dat told us dat our E-con-nah-me was well structured to cushion de effects ah any “E-con-nah-mek down-tun;” now dat back-fire, ours is an “E-con-ah-mek tun-down!” De Awe-position argues dat de sale ah de NCB was ah disaster, but de Guv-ah-mint keep boasting dat de sale ah de NCB foh forty-five million dollars, was ah master stroke, notwithstanding de facts dat our share capital in de bank is less dan by half, and in order to have effected de sale, we had to tek ah loan ah one hundred million dollars to clear all ah we bad deaths wid de bank.

Our Woes continue. De Black Sick-ah-tore-her disease continues to win de battle as we try to save Bananas, money seems to be de problem getting de field sprayed. Ah say it once ah go say it twice, after sixty years planting Bananas, wid all dat weed-aside, pest-aside being applied to de soil and plants, crop after crop, de soil is saturated wid toxin, gee Banana ah break, it needs ah long vacation, plant grass in de land and ley-go cattle and sheep. According to de figures in relation to Agricultural production read by de Awe-position leader, seems like we badly under producing. And our Tour-is-him is not booming as it should.

Talk is dat dis country has no money available to embark on de real income generating projects.

What do yuh expect after such ah master stroke, dey’s no NCB, no money chest!

But wid all fairness to de Guv-ah-mint, dey have been able to keep hope alive constructing de Argyle Airport dat will cost close to ah billion dollars; dey have also been able to pay monthly public servants promptly, dey have not been any lay-offs within de public service; no pay-cuts, in fact Guv-ah-mint was able to meet ah part of ah ole salary increase dat was promised to public servants. All dis is commendable.

Going back to Lie-Za, ah asker her what would be de most humor-us part ah de Bidget. She said de Pry-Minister had her in stitches, he gone beyond de Carry-Beyond Civil-lies-say-shum, dat prior to his assent to Guv-an-ants in 2001, SVG was M-T and had no Form, Darkness covered de region, back to create-shun, and it was at dat point, time and events began, he name brand it ah “Compelling Narrative.”

So ah asked her what did Arm-In had to say about dat, she said Arm-In say he nasty and sick, he Nasty-Sick , she obviously meant “Narcistic” meaning ‘excessive self-love’.

And wid dat, is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

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