OPINION: Even worse in 2017 if things don’t change

By Alred C Frett, Contributor

Addressing the miseries of 2016

The year 2016 has been terrible – not just with international wars and conflicts and the selection of Brexit and election of Trump, but even here in our little corner of the pond.

We have suffered the inception pains of the original NHI, the destruction of our high school education system, the cancellation of Farmers Week, hidden taxes and fees, massive failures of local businesses, frequent armed robberies, violent and untimely deaths of our young people, and the passing of many local heroes. Whenever we think it’s done the list of sadness goes on.

December has been a brutal month and there is no regret to have watched it leave. The death of a loved one is a tragedy beyond words and I certainly appear to have been hit harder than most – my Joycie passed away on the first of that month, I was born on the fourth, she was buried on the 17^th, the 23^rd was our anniversary, and the 28^th was her birthday. Nonetheless this is no time for self-pity.

With four funerals on the day of her burial, the level of sadness in the Territory was at a maximum.  I thank those who have tried to lessen our grief and express my condolences to all those who share this experience. We are all our brothers keepers and I apologize that I could not be with you on that day. However, we must struggle on because there is still much to be done and time is short.

Joycie never coveted anything and carried nothing with her but as most of you have said ‘many are better off because of what she did while she was still with us’ and we must now decide the roles we play. As promised, B&F Medical Complex provided discounts and subsidies on all our services during her birthday, Dec 28 – some considerations will continue up until January 4, 2017.

Most importantly, as we continue to respect and honour her life’s contributions, the best way to do this is by moving forward rather than being chained to the past. For years, she tried her best to make me less blunt in the name of peace and even held me back from addressing the prolonged injustices of the squatters land issue and the halting of Pasea’s B&F Medical Complex building.

Things are likely to change because it is one thing to make peace but when wrong is accepted as right, peace is never found and injustices plague the world locally and internationally. The fact is, records within the land registry leave no doubt that the Huntum Ghut property was not eligible for squatters take-over and should never had been a case for consideration in that context.

As regards the fabricated claims against the Pasea’s B&F Medical project and property, the public can clearly see from conditions of the area, that all their arguments were false, malicious and an abuse of the court system. Joycie sought to avoid conflict and they more than likely mistook her kindness for my weakness. It is too long since the people have been deprived and this must end.

Our universal willingness to accept that which we know is wrong have fostered Brexit’s and Trumps, and Russia’s hacking along with conflicts and corruption in the Middle East and West Indies. As a result, we now face a Future of hopelessness in a world on the brink of despair. As usual, religion, politics and courts will dismiss the weak and poor while accepting white and might as right.

Once again, in desperation, we will ignore reality as we pretend that we and our country are so special and different that some great white god will rescue us from ourselves and reward us with justice and prosperity long after we are dead. In the process, we look at the horrors and evil done to man by man and we excuse it as the fulfillment of prophecy instead as the actions of the wicked.

The writings of warning are on the wall and my message is based on the simple principle that you deserve better. Unfortunately, this can never be achieved by practicing ignorance, excusing those who will harm you in their own interest and the failure to love yourself. This blindness have us view bad as good so when stock markets soar and schools are closed we think it’s good.

We fail to realize that the stock market is a mere gambling pool where the greedy and corrupt base their prosperity on the backs of the less fortunate. Real wisdom reveals the closing of schools is a ploy to save money for the rich while ensuring that the poor remains in ignorance. Of course, these can only succeed by practicing slavery in this present world – difficult, but they will try.

Those in power subscribe to this mentality and we accept it as prosperity without perceiving the consequences. As a result, our little Territory is already suffering from the same shootings and robberies that we look down on in other countries. However, these problems did not create themselves and what we deserve are leaders capable of grasping and processing knowledge.

Unfortunately, we are often stuck with those who believe that because we were foolish enough to elect them they are suddenly endowed with great wisdom. Unfortunately, we indulge them without reasoning that, no one can invent truth and pigs in the palace grunt and squeal exactly like pigs in the pen so,unless and until we accept reality we will all become their victims of circumstance.

It is no secret that the bulk of our problem results from a mentality which renders groups of greed as parties of parasites with the propensity to equate their progress with the ability to drain the pockets of the poor and turn honest people into beggars and criminals. None of this is necessary when the solutions are so easy to find. I have personally revealed many of these publicly.

Perhaps the failure to use these solutions may be their fear of offending special interest followers at detriment to the masses. Consequently, their own mismanagement results in frustrations they seek to pass on to others via repeated increases in fees, fines, NHI, visas, work permits and police harassment of the innocent. Of course, none of these create solutions; just problems.

Wise leaders would recognize the people’s pain and realize their political solutions is seen as state robbery; fostering anti-society. Instead they panic after spending themselves into a corner and seem ready to destroy citizens and local businesses to pay for their political errors. Perhaps, instead of pushing from behind like masters, they should lead from in front by example.

In today’s climate of uncertainty, wise leaders should understand that it is in their own best interest to make it easy for its people to be productive and this does not happen by destroying workers and companies in order to create positions of power and wages for waste. We cannot go on overlooking that wealth may not bring happiness but poverty is accompanied by pain.

We are all in this together so I have no problem giving them two more simple solutions that would ease the pain of the People: No.1 – Reduce their own salaries and allowances that are far beyond their productivity – politics must not be a game of people poaching and it is unfair for the poor to be unable to feed their children so the rich and powerful could squander his blood, sweat, and tears.

No.2 – Apply a transportation or vehicle tax to those of us owning more than one personal vehicle and for using the public streets as our designated parking spaces and car washes. We cannot drive more than one car at a time and whenever we obstruct or abuse the use of public roads, we create risk and obstruction. This may not be popular but even the violators know it is fair.

The year 2016 has been a terrible year and unless we can correct the trend, 2017 will be even worse.