Lie-za done-ate Ten Thousand

When every Tom, Dick ‘n’ Harry voted foh de first time in 1951, ah fellar name Morgan won de Marriaqua seat, dey say he my-great and never took up his seat,. Dat Lie-in girl, Lie-Za say ah strange ting happen, ah pretty lady got pregnant de same time de “naughty boy” ran away to Scot-land. She Lie-Za will pay foh she mouth one day. Morgan left and Levi Latham who won de buy-election, was like ah father figure and soon became affectionately known as “Papa Late-tea”, actually he turned out to be ah good pull-’late-tea’-call representah.{{more}} Of course he had some money, ah fat pocket wid ah soft heart, not de best combination foh Vincy politics. Today de criteria foh Vincy politics change to ‘ah hard heart and ah thin and MT pocket’! Yuh go into office owe-in foh every-ting: house, car, furniture, even wife sometime, and in no time, every-ting paid off and who ain’t buy small estate, dey into some Pan-Z scheme.

Ah not being disrespectful, but in de ole-den days ah Joshua and Charles, among de crop was ah few uneducated politicians whom yuh couldn’t fault foh honesty and common-cents, and dey heart was in de right place, wid de people: Mammy Joshua and Papa Late-tea would ah tie foh first place, Mammy getting de slight edge foh charm and affection.

But ah uses to wuk foh Papa Late-tea cutting up his lands, he was my friend in Cabinet and used his influence to ensure de group of us who studied in Canada got our Licence. Ah always looked forward foh when Papa Late-tea came to pay me. First he’d tell me one ah his many interesting anecdote before getting down to de money matters. In one pocket he would have a roll ah $100.00’s; in ah next pocket, $20.00’s; $5.00’s in de next and so on down to ah quarter. When ah asked him foh de reason, he said to me: “dey’s cents in non-cents, never put all yuh eggs in one basket, When ah person beg yuh foh ah raise, yuh know exactly which pocket to go to, wid-out exposing all yuh money”.

Papa Late-tea will be remembered foh de Medical Clinic at Marriaqua, “The Levi Latham Health Centre”, ah small Hospital dat he built thru ah ting he introduced when he was Minister of Housing called “Self Help”. De whole community was involved, who didn’t put in dey sack ah cement and dey two cents, put in labour, de Sunday worshippers worked on Sat-dey and de Sat-dey worshippers (SDA) wuk pon Sunday. Today is no more Self Help, who into polly-ticks, in dey foh Help (dey) Self, dey friend and famo-lee and dat is why ting cant go right, too much corrupt-shun!

Last week ah had to remember Papa Late-tea when ah saw de Prime Minster on TV putting ah proposal to Vin-cent-shuns to donate way we could afford to de Argyle Airport, ah Self Help ting. Ah must add-myth dat ah confuse, first ah thought it was I-fan Own-heel of de Green Party, because early o-clock, I-fan did say to open ah Airport Bank Account and ask Vin-cent-shuns to donate to de Argyle project as well as ask each Vin-cent-shun to donate ah sack ah cement. Man ah sure ah did hear de PM saying ah time, dat de Airport will now be built buy donors whom he referred to as “de coalition ah de willing”, ah hope dis is not ah case of Coalition turn Collision.

Ley me clear de ear, ah intend to put my two-scent bit in de Airport, it’s ah civic duty, but not wid-out venting my HURT. From de time dey started to play polly-ticks wid de Airport, it did HURT me. Ah could still picture de heavy equipment dat came from Venezuela to excavate de soil foh de Airport, parading thru Kingstown, dey had all de vehicles draped in ULP colours, not de national colours, but Red flag, Red banners and blasting loud music to de Soca tune: “Who he Hurt he Hurt”! Dat did really HURT me belly. Den dey went pon Radio giving special invitation to ULP supporters to come dress-up in dey Party Red T-shirt foh de grand official opening at Argyle, it was like ah ULP Rally, dat too HURT ah lot ah people. Right now Vincentians are about to feel de real HURT, and dat is in we pockets. At dat same Rally, de Cheerman ah de project, Dr Rude-he Ma-tie-us was N-2-Z-ah-stick, over opt-to-mistake, bubbling and over-flowing, he gave “ah speech and ah half”, every body hard him loud and clear when he said “We have de money to build de Airport”! Ah hope de PM organizing ah Motorcade and Rally, and inviting dem same thousands ah ULP supporters to put on dey Party Red T-shirt again and come town, dis time to go to de Bank and put in de two-scent bit.

Ah say ah will contribute but ah airing me HURT first. Yes, money to build de Airport is not as forth-coming from de “Collision ah de Willing” as dey had expected or as dey would ah want us to believe, so de PM and de ULP turning to de people to show de world dat de nation is in full solidarity ah de Airport. Shouldn’t I be asking foh an account ah how much money was raised and spent so far, before ah mek me doh-nay-shun? Ah think so. And ah should be asking foh ah copy ah de Wind Study too.

Lie-Za came by waving ah cheque foh ten thousand, dat will be her doh-nay-shun. She say de PM say if yuh donate ah thousand, yuh name will be placed on ah plaque, so foh her ten thousand she want her name write down ten times. When ah took ah close look at de cheque it was in Venezuelan currency. So ah phone de Bank to find out how much value is de Venezuelan currency, ah nearly faint, de Banker told me dat Lie-Za’s cheque foh ten thousand Venezuelan Bolivars is equal to one Vincy dollar. Will somebody tell Dr Care-not John dat Tri Tri is due in September, but de signs are dey for ah lickle Tri tri dis weekend, if none come, don’t hold me to run-some. And wid dat, is gone I gone again!

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.