All SVG’s a stage

I have to repeat what I have often said, that there is never a dull moment in SVG. As I reflect on things, my thoughts go back to literature. First, to Charles Dicken’s “Tale of Two Cities”. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of darkness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity{{more}},it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of darkness…” Maybe someone should try to describe the challenging times facing SVG. What is interesting about this is that there are some of us in this country who will only see the best of times and the spring of hope. Others will see the other side. Sometimes when you hear people talk or you listen to programmes on different radio stations you will think they are talking about different countries.

This leads me to look also at Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” and to adapt it to what is happening in our blessed country. “All SVG’s a Stage, and all the men and women are merely players… And one man in his time plays many parts”. A lot depends on how you interpret play, for there are a lot of play-play things going on here. Our players, of course, play many parts, because when you listen to some people and you look at the reality, you realise that they are just playing and they don’t walk the talk.

Really, we have two countries; one where it is the best of times and the other where it is the worst of times. But, in reality, it is two countries within the confines of one. There are, of course, those who only care about themselves, who only become concerned when things affect them and begin to fall apart for them. If they do not affect them, then things are good and they should remain quiet and pretend that everything is good, while in reality they know that they are living a lie.

I want to remind them also of the poem by Martin Niemoeller, because eventually things will catch up with them. It will be impossible to have things continue the way they are without most of us being at some point engulfed in the mess. The few who might escape would find that they will have to live with a hostile community, with persons doing anything they can to survive. This is not a good state of affairs to contemplate, because in that situation it is difficult to predict how persons would act or react.

So, let us remember Niemoeller: “In Germany they first came for the communists and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a communist; then they came for the Jews and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a Jew: then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; then they came for Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

There is at the moment a lot of confusion around. The Building and Loan issue is only helping to further this confusion, for many of us do not know what is going on. We are genuinely concerned, for we had in recent times the Clico-British American fiasco, the Stanford debacle; the Millenium Bank has melted into thin air and there is still a lot of misspeak about the process that led to the creation of the Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

These are indeed the worst of times and there are many players playing sinister roles, but the mask will fall off for we know who are behind the masks. They have, over the years, revealed themselves by their actions. We believed we had everything before us, but it will soon dawn on many of us, that we will have nothing before us if we continue to play the kind of games we do.

Dr Adrian Fraser is a social

commentator and historian.