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It is amazing the things that make you go “yippee” every so often. Take for example the estimated 36 million pounds sterling, nearly 100 million Barbados dollars worth of publicity that this country received from the hosting of that celebrity polo match a few weeks ago.
There are those, including the Leader of the Opposition, who criticized the BDS$1 million contribution to the cause by the Barbados Tourism Authority. I used the word “contribution” because it is a bit tidier when used in this capacity, but we all know that it was an investment on the part of the BTA, and when it is juxtaposed against the value of what Barbados got in return, it was well worth the effort. I was a bit embarrassed for HRH the Prince of England when he slid off the horse during the game at Waterhall, but that single incident has been played more times on American and European television than the crowning of Miss Universe or any of the 30 second commercials that were in the Super Bowl a few days ago. This is the sort of thinking, outside of the box, that Barbados requires at this stage.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Miss
Mottley say at the St. Patricks meeting that “I ain’t got nothing
against the two Princes but I am not sure Barbados could afford the $1
million that was spent on that polo match”. This was supposed to be a
big expose on something that had gone wrong. The BTA did not make
public that it had invested in the tournament but Mottley announced it
in such a manner as to suggest that there was an attempt at cover up.
As Deputy Prime Minister she was not against the hundreds of millions
that they spent on huge delegations flying all over the world and
bringing back nothing to Barbados, neither did she criticize the $350
million and counting that was spent on Kensington Oval for Cricket
World Cup. But because another administration spent $1 million on a
celebrity polo match; aspects of which were viewed by scores of
millions around the world, she has added it to her list of blotches
against the government. Well, too bad for her!
The same can be said of her criticism of the decision by the David
Thompson government to write off the debt of the Barbados Turf Club.
Horse Racing is a popular sport in Barbados and it needed both a
lifeline and a new lease on life. Leaving it strangling with that debt
made absolutely no sense. There is vast potential in the revival of
horse racing and I, for one, am very excited about the prospect of the
introduction of night racing in Barbados. A paper debt that would
probably never have been repaid was of absolutely no net worth to the
average citizen of Barbados, but prospects of employment and economic
opportunities as a result of this infusion of new hope and optimism,
are immense. I really cannot understand why a Leader of the Opposition
would want to go on record as criticizing such a life-saving gesture
for local horse racing. It is almost as ridiculous as her criticism of
the evening parade in honor of our National Independence Celebrations.
Equally disgusting was the criticism from that very Labour Party
platform of this government’s support for the resuscitation of the
so-called Four Season’s project. When the initial venture went under so
abruptly there was the common view that whatever could be done had to
be done to ‘bring back’ this project. Now the government came up with a
brilliant way of supporting the venture with minimum upfront costs to
taxpayers, you are hearing, from no lesser a place than the BLP’s
platform, that government should not get involved in hotel developments
and that the sovereign guarantee offered by local authorities was too
much. This penchant for criticizing for the sake of criticizing, and
saying “no”, merely because you are in opposition, is foreign to the
political culture of Barbados. We are simply not accustomed to such
“spoilt brat” behavior.
And what of the persistent criticisms of summer camps? What is wrong
with a government setting aside a couple of dollars every holiday to
bring relief to parents and a little excitement to children? What is
wrong if a few hundred dollars are paid to a nice old lady in the
village to cook some food for the children of the village? Shouldn’t
poor people handle government cheques as well? You had no difficulty
paying a single individual double what others were offering to supply a
sanitation truck, a fire engine or second hand bulldozer proffered as
new, but $350 to cook for 25 children for a whole week is too much for
ordinary folks from Hillaby, College Savannah and Ellerton. Well, tough
luck for those who oppose and “yippee” for those who get a chance to do
something worthwhile for their community and make ‘a few coppers’ in
the process.
The same applies to the Constituency Councils. It was okay and well for
million dollar contracts to be awarded party supporters for projects
that were always beyond their capacity, but to get a committee of 12 to
oversee the spending of a couple hundred thousand dollars is an
abomination. How do you explain that houses paid for by the UDC and RDC
can to this day not be found? How can you justify road projects, paid
for in full, hardly started or left abandoned for this new government
to finish? Yet, the thought of priests, retired teachers, senior public
officers and ordinary Joe The Plumbers overseeing a few community
projects is so revolting that it has to be mentioned, in a derogatory
manner, every few weeks. Well to those ordinary people now shaping
their community’s destiny, I say “yippee”.
Finally, I am told a huge ceremony is planned for the handing over of
keys to new homeowners at Marchfield in St. Philip and henceforth at
all the new housing developments sponsored by this government across
Barbados. I am happy for those hundreds of Barbadians who are getting a
chance to own a piece of the rock. There is no greater feeling than
knowing that the roof over your head is yours. Formally receiving the
key to your first home is tear-jerking for many. Yet, I saw a headline
in the papers recently where “The Party of No” was suggesting that this
government had done nothing significant in the area of housing and that
all these developments were inconsequential. Well, they may be
inconsequential to persons born in Sandy Lane, but for us who were born
and bred in villages and in houses along cart roads, it’s a phenomenal
feeling that cannot be described in words.
I go “yippee” whenever I drive around the countryside and stumble on
to one of those work sites of the National Housing Corporation or any
of the public-private sector housing developments. I hear the heart
wrenching stories of those who have been waiting for in excess of 30
years for a house and I say to myself ‘thank God for Michael Lashley
and this DLP administration’.
Hartley Henry is a Regional Political Strategist. He can be reached at
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