Last week I wrote about the poor work ethic from which we all suffer, although we “suffer” this by choice.
I harbour a hope that some of you might have accepted what I had suggested (many thanks to those who wrote or called to say they agreed with me), but I know you will defer until “after carnival”.
Today, I want to stay on this theme, but to direct my comments to the top: to our government.
Prime Minister, Members of Cabinet, it is time to stop flying, stop feteing, and to get back to work. And it is time to stop dwelling on the sins of the PNM, and get moving with your own agendas.
I know the difficulty you face with Rowley barking at every shadow and demanding corrections to the ills he and his cohorts created and exploited and left for you. But you, as Prime Minister and cabinet ministers have work to do, and you cannot waste your time and ours by taking on the likes of Rowley, Hinds and Al Rawi. I told you, Prime Minister, back in September 2010 that “I have your back” in this regard.
I, and others like me, who care for the country and the truth, will not allow that barking to go “unpelted”.
I, and others like me, who care for the country and the truth, will not allow that barking to go “unpelted”.
Rowley, Imbert, Manning (yes Manning too- his unfortunate stroke has not cleansed him of his sins against this country) and company must not be allowed to distract you by shouting, condemning and abusing you for every decision you try to implement. Hopefully, the Attorney General’s suit against Rowley will soon put him back in his kennel, muzzled.
But you have work to do, and you are not doing it. Indeed, for all the wrong reasons you are trying to prevent needed work from being done. On the issues of crime, infrastructure, health, public utilities and basic transparency, you are faltering badly. And no amount of overseas trips or anniversary parties are going to stop crime, fix roads or deliver water.
There are too many areas of critical importance which require more attention than your current celebration—to which you are well entitled, by the way!
But you have work to do, and you are not doing it. Indeed, for all the wrong reasons you are trying to prevent needed work from being done. On the issues of crime, infrastructure, health, public utilities and basic transparency, you are faltering badly. And no amount of overseas trips or anniversary parties are going to stop crime, fix roads or deliver water.
There are too many areas of critical importance which require more attention than your current celebration—to which you are well entitled, by the way!
But the truly important celebration was when you won—nay swept—the national election. And back then, you did not pause to celebrate and posture! You donned rubber boots and headed out into a bleak and flooded countryside, and you won our admiration and respect for that.
But now you seem to have forgotten that mode of governing, becoming absorbed in the trappings of the office. I know that the role of PR people is to wrap their “subjects” in frills and finery, rather than present them as effective achievers. The reason for this is simple: The frills and finery reflect favourably upon the spin doctors, while the true achievers shine in their own light. And that, I might remind you, is the story of the Emperor’s Clothes.
With so much needing correction and direction, I have to pick one topic at a time, and today I am going to deal with the landslips and collapsing bridges, especially in the Blanchisseuse and the Toco- Matelot regions. This therefore brings Jack Warner into the picture, and of course he is a friend of mine—so let me declare that “conflict of interest” from the start.
Prime Minister, you have the right and the authority to remove Jack Warner as Minister, and you are not required to give any reason for this.
You do not have the right however, to put thousands of citizens lives in jeopardy and gross inconvenience while you have someone (an unknown entity or person to date) chase shadows which you and no one else will define.
But now you seem to have forgotten that mode of governing, becoming absorbed in the trappings of the office. I know that the role of PR people is to wrap their “subjects” in frills and finery, rather than present them as effective achievers. The reason for this is simple: The frills and finery reflect favourably upon the spin doctors, while the true achievers shine in their own light. And that, I might remind you, is the story of the Emperor’s Clothes.
With so much needing correction and direction, I have to pick one topic at a time, and today I am going to deal with the landslips and collapsing bridges, especially in the Blanchisseuse and the Toco- Matelot regions. This therefore brings Jack Warner into the picture, and of course he is a friend of mine—so let me declare that “conflict of interest” from the start.
Prime Minister, you have the right and the authority to remove Jack Warner as Minister, and you are not required to give any reason for this.
You do not have the right however, to put thousands of citizens lives in jeopardy and gross inconvenience while you have someone (an unknown entity or person to date) chase shadows which you and no one else will define.
The condition of the roads “behind God’s back” in Blanchisseuse and Matelot are a threat to life and limb, as well as being a tremendous and hostile inconvenience to already disadvantaged citizens of the country you govern.
Should a bus or maxi carrying school children slip off one of these roads, what will your advisers tell you to say to us about halting the programme meant to conduct the needed repairs?
Stopping the urgently required maintenance projects to investigate alleged prior irregularities is tantamount to preventing people from bailing a sinking boat because there is a question on the purchase of the calabash (for the “sophisticated”—calabash was what we used to bail our pirogues)
It is time to get back to work, Prime Minister, and there is no one, regardless of other issues, more qualified to lead you back to the people’s issues than Jack.
Stopping the urgently required maintenance projects to investigate alleged prior irregularities is tantamount to preventing people from bailing a sinking boat because there is a question on the purchase of the calabash (for the “sophisticated”—calabash was what we used to bail our pirogues)
It is time to get back to work, Prime Minister, and there is no one, regardless of other issues, more qualified to lead you back to the people’s issues than Jack.
You really do not need that bunch of sycophant advisors sweeping the floor ahead of your footsteps in India, Australia or China. That is for their egos, not for you, nor for our country’s needs.
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