Vice President the New Democratic Party (NDP), St Clair Leacock feels that “something is fundamentally wrong in this country” St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The NDP politician shared this view as he spoke on the party’s New Times programme on Wednesday August 24.

Leacock was lamenting the unemployment situation and the difficulties some persons face financially.

“The harsh truth is that a lot, a lot of people in St Vincent and the Grenadines have to prostitute themselves to make ends meet, and to survive in this country,” he declared.

“It is a sad state of affairs, real sad state of affairs,” Leacock said on the programme.

The Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown said the high number of applicants to join the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force is an indication of the level of desperation among the unemployed.

“It tells you that the unemployment situation is dire.

“Something is fundamentally wrong in this country,” Leacock said.

He argued that while the number of persons in the police force has now doubled, there has been no doubling for health service workers or teachers.

The NDP vice president charged that government is blowing people’s minds by quoting the large sums being spent on massive projects locally.
According to Leacock, this is done simply “to make people feel that things are not hard in St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

He also expressed concern about the wages of road workers.

“How do those people live?”
“Can they pay house rent?”
“Can they pay water bill?”
“Can they pay light bill ?”

According to the Central Kingstown MP the agricultural sector should be providing sustained jobs for Vincentians, but this is not the case.
He argued that no money is budgeted for value added activities in agriculture, which would provide daily jobs for many people.

Leacock further observed that the mini vans on the roads are not filled with workers who are going to or coming from a factory.

“You don’t see people leaving Kingstown to go to the Windward to work,” Leacock stressed.