Are we better today?

AH WAS TELLING Lie-Za dat 60 years ago, our first Chief Minister, de late ET Joshua, made ah bold step and leased Young Island for 99 years to Mr Houser, ah Far-reign Investor, it was at ah pepper corn rent!

Ah whole island wid two ole board houses, Dat was considered ah Give-Away and Josh got nuff Pull-ittek- all licks. But what else could he have done? Dey was no Tie-One-Ease to borrow money to bill Hotel, and invite Far-reign-ah to operate. So Houser developed Young Island wid its unique character and it still standing, waiting foh Marry-at to tek over.

Proud of himself, Josh did it again. He leased Prune (Palm) Island, den ah swamp, to Caldwell foh ah lickle more dan pepper corn rent. Same arrangement; he gave dem land to develop and dey spend dey own cash to construct buildings. Josh even made sure and got 20 percent share of de Palm Island development foh SVG.

Josh Again, made de same deal wid Petit Sin-Vin-sin, dat time wid ah developer named Hailes Richardson ah Far-rainer as well. As far as I know all three give aways are still around, struggling to survive maybe, maybe not.

Sir James came 30 years later wid no difference dan Josh, same give away price, he sold two-thirds ah Can-One, 1,200 acres to far-reign Developers who are funding dey investment. . De ULP Go-venom-mint is at ah cross roads. De Airport dat was supposed to attract Hotel Investors from all over including de Oil Rich countries, ain’t happening fast enough.

Wid our kind ah Divisive and Dutty politics, Crime and Corrupt-shun, Investors fraid to put money into projects dat dey might have to pack up and leave. We are we own NME. So ULP is now into Real Estate Business. De Go-venom-mint will borrow money from Tie-One, build hotels, den hand dem over to Investors to Run. Lie-Za asking what ah mean by “Giving dem to Run?” Run up deaths!

Run Down de property!

Or Run Awayfrom deaths!

Remember Buccama. She begging foh trouble, she say she would like to see de Con-dish-shun written on these Con-tricks oops, these Con-track foh Marry-at.

We are not taking care of de small things like our beaches. Hotel Infestors looking foh good clean beach! Do we have dat to offer? When last any minister of Go-venommint tek ah swim on any beach in front of any Hotel on mainland SVG? What about unsightly Kingstown de capital? We can create ah model, replacing dem same rusty looking shops

and counters. All de Statistics about Poverty ah-leave-yeh-shun is false. If poverty is not rampant, how do we explain on every street block yuh pass in town, ah vagrant or beggar, unemployed young men and woe-men waiting to harass yuh foh ah $5.00.

Unemployment foh lower income people is ah see-rust problem. Everybody trying to get on de Poor Relief Program, no wuk nah dey. Imagine last month Go-venom-mint making big announcement, dat dey was going to be two weeks of work, foh Road Cleaners to get extra money to buy school books. What happened to de other 50 weeks in de year? Gone are de days when every daily paid wuker wid Go-venommint would have qualified foh between 7 and 14 days vacation leave ah year. Dat was like Christmas Bonus.

Now we hearing two weeks wuk, not vacation, foh de year. Lie-Za heard de PM saying he was happy to see so many female wukers in de Road Cleaning Gangs.

Dat he knows dat de ladies will spend de money wisely. And everybody is cool about dat.

MISS MOLLY MADE MY VILLAGE

My sympathy goes out to Speaker of de House, Jomo and his siblings on de passing of Miss Molly, their dear Mom. We thank God foh de life of mothers like Miss Molly. She was my Villager and close near-bah. I would have shared one ah two pleasantries about Miss Molly when Jomo was sworn to de Bar. In Murray Village however, everybody was humble; some felt de pinch more dan others.

But Miss Miolly wid her eight mouths to feed, kept her head high, dat’s why her children, everyone can be proud of dey Mom. We tend to use quotes like “it takes ah Village to raise ah Child,” I too was ah child raised in ah good village, and Miss Molly made my Village. She gone to receive her well earned rest with her Saviour. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.