EDITOR: We Vincentians are decidedly not at the stage of development which we ought to have achieved after 44 years of being an independent state. It almost appears that we are not on the same road we thought we had set out on in October of 1979.

With the resources we have had at our command over the years, we should not have been experiencing these agonising conditions which are making the day to day existence of our people so burdensome to cope with.

The blame for this retardation of our development falls snugly in the laps of our politicians. They expressed their desire to lead and their intellectual status seemed to suggest that they were appropriately equipped for the job. The people, a predominantly agricultural community, made up primarily of the progeny of ex-slaves, appointed them via the democratic process of elections. The politicians were thus empowered to “GOVERN’.

It was quite early seen, that what our local administrators were focused on, was the exercise of powers as was demonstrated in 1975, when respectable individuals in the Teaching Service took to the streets to peacefully show their dissatisfaction with the way they were being treated by the authorities, they were arrested and thrown into prison cells which had been faecally polluted. Francis Gibson (Mrs) a patriot, a lady who had been recognized for her social work whenever she had resided, was one of the teachers who suffered that ignominy at the hands of the police.

The same disposition relative to administration still persists today.

Interestingly, it was considered honourable and very patriotic, when in 2000, widespread and disruptive demonstrations led to the shortening of the James Mitchell-NDP term in Government. But recently when citizens took to the streets protesting certain actions that were negatively affecting them, they were treated as villains and received hostile treatment by armed policemen and the condemnation from the Government.

The results of this cloud of pollution in our society are:

High unemployment rate
High Crime rate.
Heavy indebtedness.
High Food Import Bill.

This cannot be the Road we had set out on, we need to retrace our steps and start anew. Those who have the light must lead the way!

Leroy Providence