COMMENTARY: Fighting for power and wrecking economy

By Alred Frett, Contributor

For more than half-a-year, we have argued that government should ensure insurance companies meet their obligations to clients and we are finally hearing of steps being taken in that direction.

That would be good but it still leaves the price gouging and unfair practices that have been perpetrated by landlords and suppliers on hurricane victims or just about every BVI resident.

Our people are suffering and it is taking much too long. Clearly, our leaders would be better responsive and effective if they were above reproach from corruption and bad-mindedness.

Unfortunately, too many seem hampered by a tendency to participate or support the bad antics of those who regard disasters for others as get rich opportunities and power for themselves.

Fighting for power and wrecking the economy

A few weeks ago, we were rattled by a whiff of chaos within our government by what seemed a no-confidence movement that would have dethroned the Premier while demonstrating no clear plan for continuity.

While my abhorrence for the last ‘snap election’ is no secret, I do not support any schemes that would bring false joy to a few while putting most of our people in jeopardy.

The grievances may be real but no-confidence motions carry wide-ranging effects so leaders must first reason whether the aim is at one person or a whole government and we should be convinced that these intents are pure and not simply a grab for power.

Above all else, the co-lateral effects should not leave the people and country worse off than they were before.

Nothing justifies our self-destruction at a point in time when we have barely begun our recovery.

We should realize that in-house squabbling may be seen as a sign that the proclaimed ‘robust economy’ is really a ‘busted economy’ with frustrated members fighting for the last crumb or beggars influence on relief funds from the UK and other dwindling sources.

No one should fail to realize that any exposed instability in leadership would dry up rather than increase funds from source and subsequently provide impetus for the UK to take managerial control and return us to colonial status.

We have come too far to turn back now but our survival depends on finally understanding the ramifications of the actions of our leaders.

Bad policies by leaders caused us to become endangered in our own country

Even before the hurricanes, our country and people were facing unfair challenges and things have worsened.

Our education system is in shambles with insufficient funds to train our own people.

As a result, our workforce and government have become over-saturated with non-indigenous BVIslanders in substantive positions that are unlikely to ever be returned to locals.

These are inconvenient truths are self-evident so it is hard to imagine any Government willing to implement more policies or so-called regulations that further disenfranchise and threaten the health of our people at a point in time when we are trying to crawl out from under major national disasters.

The future of our children is murky and we continue to lose our identity.

Some claim they wish to make us more like America so they have conveniently forgotten how the US rejected us in our time of need.

This is not a caring society when, their President displayed no compassion in pushing Puerto Rico and other US territories backwards resulting in a mass exodus of medical services that we frequently accessed and took for granted.

Who have ears to hear let them hear

Then again, we may be more like Americans than we realize since every shooting in the BVI is as a result of a proliferation of guns in the US society spurred on by a willful misinterpretation of the Secind Amendment of their Constitution.

Fact is, these weapons not only deliver gun violence to their schools but find their way overseas, across the West Indies and into our country.

Meanwhile, many well-intended politicians have failed to solve this problem so, just as was done with racism and civil rights in their grandparents’ era, school children across the US and World are now marching against these wrongs.

These children need our help and that is why I continue to bring truth to the youth as a voice for the people; believing together we can make it happen.

In this Information age, we should spread the word and never regard knowledge as a national secret especially since prisons and graveyards are populated by more ignorance than knowledge.

Our ears have no flaps so that we may be influenced by sounds around us and in the absence of knowledge, the blind will lead the blind and it’s only a matter of when and where.

Secrecy remains the Hallmark for slavery

Secrecy for slavery was open law for oppressive societies and worsens when representatives seek to keep us in darkness by colluding with foreign emissaries with the rationale that they are keeping secrets about us from us for our own good.

The recent buzz that ‘out of five pages of information given to our leaders, two pages were withheld on the grounds of secrecy’ is troubling.

If true, this sets a dangerous precedent for most BV-Islanders who are descendants of slaves.

It is no secret that the Transatlantic Slave Trade was only possible because African leaders kept the intent of the slave masters secret from their people.

We are back at a point when world leaders openly express a longing for the good old days of slavery. Beware lest history repeats itself.

There may be just one way to skin a cat but many ways for leaders to sell us out so I am deeply troubled since I regard myself as ‘not being for sale’.

The struggle continues and with so much to be done, we need all hands on deck.

Besides, if the ship is sinking, you are better off above than below. The challenges ahead may not be easy but the life you save may be your own.