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 farmers and thirty thousand workers.

It represented a “fifty-two week per year economy”. It should not have been classified as a “one-crop economy.”

Farmers were able then to finance the education of their children right up to tertiary level. There are such stories which can be told!

The government would have been in a much stronger position than it is today. They would have been better able to address those elementary functions. One of them which haunts me is, the blatant neglect of the road at the back of the precious properties of the Girls’ High School and the St. Vincent Grammar School. It is disgraceful indeed. How can the administrators expect the people to have faith in their pronouncements on matters when it is so obvious that they are not honouring their obligations on such basic issues? They have squandered their integrity!

The comment from the Editorial of the SEARCHLIGHT of October 4th , 2019 is worth mentioning- “Kingstown our capital city has been the subject of many discussions about its disorganized and ill-disciplined nature. Several have been the promises and attempts to rectify this situation, all to no avail. If we are serious about our tourism thrust, the “RENEWAL AT 40” would have provided an ideal opportunity for a new approached, linking pride in our nation with its appearance, including that of its capital city.”

But then maybe ULP means- “Undeniably little pride.”

Le Roy Providence