Undeniably little pride (ULP)

Editor: For several years now, I have been endeavouring, as I consider it my responsibility as a citizen to draw the attention of the relevant authorities and that of responsible citizens generally to some of the issues which from the mound on which I sit, are clearly negatively affecting the welfare of the people of our land. But I have been unsuccessful so far.

I however am resolved to continue to do my part, so that my grandchildren and their peers, the generations on whom we will be leaving the burden of the repayments of heavy debts we have incurred, will have a platform which will afford them a reasonable chance of prospering. Indeed, we have enough resources under our authority, to permit our people a much better quality of life.

Our forebears endured much agony to secure for us reason to be hopeful and optimistic. We today must not prove ourselves traitors to that mission. Lets us not continue to accommodate the duplicity of those miscreants who would have us believe that our socio-economic circumstances are bad today because the British left us “crippled”.

While the British will probably be quite soon made to answer for the evil exploitation of the African people, what is intimately impacting us negatively today, is the mismanagement by the people we have given the privilege to lead us.

If we are serious about the welfare of our people, we need to be having serious discussions now, about the approaches we took over the last 25 years, so that we might determine the reasons for the present retrogressions we are suffering today.

A significant factor in our unfortunate circumstance has been the position adopted by the politicians when they boldly declare that we could not depend on agriculture to make a significant contribution to the development of a healthy economy. They declare that we had to concentrate on tourism. That approach exposed our immature leadership who were distinctly not developmental oriented, to the wiles of roguish smart men who presented themselves as well connected business magnates.

They lured our politicians to give them access to our people’s land at very generous terms, so that they could build hotels and employ our people to work with them. That is what they called development. As it has turned out some of these expatriates left our shores owing us quiet a few million dollars.

Had we been guide[ed] properly we should have had in this year 2025 a much more prosperous society.

Farmers should have been able to get to their farms comfortably and earning useful income producing healthy food for our people.

That good food would have been more affordable and healthier for our citizens. The number of unemployed people would have been distinctly lowered. We must not forget that the Banana Industry which was closed down despite the seemingly sincere promises made by Dr. Gonsalves and the ULP in 2001 used to provide regular income for six thousand registered