Nuff Nuuff Ting Fee Talk

Just over ah year ago de Go-venom-mint came up wid ah great I-dare to clean up de unsightly mess in town, starting wid de Street Vendors outside de Vegetable and Fish Markets, and de side-walks. As part ah de solution Go-venom-mint built two additional Vegetable Markets.

One on de Reclamation site opposite de main market, and de other site is one of de Customs Warehouses opposite C.K. Greaves on Bay Street.

Things looking good foh everybody except de Vendors who feeling de Pressure, sales down, dey can’t pay dey rent. But mouth open and ‘tory jump out. Big headlines in de Searchlight Newspaper two weeks ago dat de Warden of the Kingstown Town Board, Mr. Clear-town Bogging wrote to vendors on Jan. 16, giving them until the following day to address outstanding arrears or “quit their occupancy of markets in the city.” Dat is serious warning, dat only de Big Man could instruct. It was stated dat over seven hundred thousand dollars was outstanding. Lie-Za say de Warden tell she is over ah million dollars. So ah went and check “way ah go on” wid some ah my ole Market Vendor girl-friends. Dey tell me “Fire For Boggin!” Dem ain’t got he fee study, dey waiting wid pay-shuns till Papa come, because in his last In-de-pen-dance ah-dress, he did promise faithfully he was going to give relief to de Market Vendors. And dey challenged me to check out “de Sh…t House” (their words) no privacy, mal-functioning toilets and face-basins. “ We doh have ah decent water fountain, is ah stand pipe wid ah piece ah rubber hose we does drink water from.” And den Lie-Za beg me if me and Clear-town is any kind ah friends, tell him to watch out foh another slap, because de PM is Pee-Eye-double-Est off wid ah Report he read dat somebody from Town Board say dey’ going throw people out ah de Market if they don’t pay, but he done promise dat he was going to give dem relief, Trust me nothing coming out ah dat.

LIE-ZA GIVES SANDALS DE GREEN LIGHT

Darm if yuh do! Darm if yuh don’t! As ah developing Nay-shun we must try and sort out de Investors wid “Good Intent” and those wid “Good Intent-shun”. Sir James was ah man of great vision when it comes to Bread and Butter Development. He acquired 20 acres of de best Lands in Buccament, ah community with great potential foh all kind ah development, fishing including Tri Tri, Agriculture and Hotel. His first pick was to lease to ah group of black Vin-sin-shuns farmers, Rasta men, (no race-is-him, just colour Nay-shun-all-is-him), 2 acre parcels each to grow legal crops,vegetables. De were progressing, but from de time ULP tek over, de slogan was “de days ah Agriculture are over, tour-is-him is de way to go!” To cut ah long story short, de Go-venom-mint led by ah man who described himself as de Blackest Pry-minister, showed buy-us, and ah co-rupt hot-hell investor wid Aims and Objectives dispossessed de local developers. Needless to say Aims was ah disaster way ah cuss-to-do-all sentence waited foh him back home in de UK.

But year after year ULP has been opening ah Chain of Phantom Hotels, ironically most are located in Mount Wind. Seriously, Lie-Za says dat Sandals has been putting dey money way dey mouth dey. Foh de few short years Sandals dey hey, de evidence is clear dat dey are serious Investors. In fact Sandals would have spent more money here in Tour-is-him development, training all level of hotel wukers, building hotel rooms on mainland SVG dan de ULP in its 23 years.

And it is like ah breath ah fresh Air foh ah change, to have an investor in SVG, and ley me nock board, dey has not been any con-front-aye-shun wid wukers. Long may it be so. Nuff ting dey fee talk, maybe nex time. And wid dat is gone ah gone again

One Love Bassy.

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