EDITOR: Just a quick note to draw attention again to five recurring issues that are noted in media reporting, but seemingly draw little public attention or criticism — but which warrant such.

1.)    What St Vincent purports to have is a “Labour” Government, yet the Government radio station, unlike the BBC in England, PBS or NPR in the USA, restricts any programming that criticizes Government policies, either by unions or individuals. How come?

2.)    It is noteworthy that at least one judge has expressed annoyance and dissatisfaction with cases being brought before him/her time and again needing to be postponed or rescheduled, due to police ineptitude: evidence not yet ready for presentation, file not available, witnesses and/or police officers unavailable to testify, prosecution not being prepared to present evidence, etc. This is now resulting in an increasing number of the accused being set free, to recommit the same or similar crimes.

3.)    The wealthiest woman in Venezuela and one of, if not THE richest woman in the Caribbean, is Maria Gabriela Chavez, Hugo Chavez’s daughter. Did Gonsalves’ late best friend’s daughter get rich from a father who was born poor and championed a revolution for the downtrodden, or did money fall out of the sky into her bank account?

4.)    Mother’s retribution for son’s bullying: this is purely anecdotal and not meant to defend or dismiss similar parental behaviours… but.

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, a couple of bullies decided they would beat me up after school, and told me so. At lunch time, I called my mother and asked her if she could pick me up after school, instead of my taking the bus home, as I had been threatened. My mother showed up at the school, exit door and as I was being pushed out, grabbed both boys by the scruff of the neck, dragged them back to my teacher and told her that if anything like that ever happened again there would be hell to pay and the teacher would lose her job. The teacher was young and relatively new and was aware of the bullying, but had done nothing about it. I experienced no recurrence of bullying.

5.)    An older St Vincent gentleman’s centennial birthday was celebrated in the press last week. It was noted that he had three children by his wife, but 15 in total, attributed to his having served in the police force in St Vincent and having been frequently reposted. This proliferation of children was noted as not uncommon in situations of frequent reassignments. Is it still common? And still accepted? Just wondering.

 Reed Hadley