‘Don’t talk about people of this Caribbean civilization like that’

Former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell has come in for a tongue lashing from Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves in relation to a comment Mitchell made at his party’s convention on Sunday.{{more}}

Mitchell was telling New Democratic Party (NDP) supporters about the conditions in 1984 when his administration came to office when he said:

“Remember there was a shortage of water all about. And many people working in Kingstown – in the Civil Service, in the police, and teachers elsewhere – all had to go to work without bathing – couldn’t get water.”

But Gonsalves, during a press briefing on Tuesday, slammed Mitchell, calling him “totally rude and out of order … fresh and out of place”.

“I never met public servants, police, teachers, who, as Mitchell say, don’t bathe,” Gonsalves said in a tirade against Mitchell.

“[You are] out of your place, James Mitchell, talking about people in 1984 weren’t bathing: teachers, public servants, policemen, students. Don’t talk about people of this Caribbean civilization like that, James Mitchell. Never!” Gonsalves said.

Gonsalves said Vincentians bathe at least once per day, unlike the concept of a “bath night” on Fridays he encountered when he visited England in 1971.

He said it was true that when the NDP came to office in 1984 only 50 to 55 per cent of Vincentians had pipe borne water directly in their houses.

That figure had increased to 70 to 72 per cent when his Unity Labour Party (ULP) came to office in 2001 and now stands at around 98 to 99 per cent, Gonsalves said.

“Can I go and say that because in 2001 there was only 70 per cent, that people never used to bathe? I mean what kind of rubbish, what kind of senility we are getting from James Mitchell?” Gonsalves said.