Shall we practise what we preach

No honest and fair minded Vincentian would want to downplay P. M. Gonsalves’ bold and commendable effort in making an International Airport a reality foh dis country.

His divisive style of meking dis pickme of his, is ah different story, but give de man his due. It is de first time ah could say ah seeing in black and white, ah break-down on de project.{{more}} Ah now know how much de acquired properties cost, de earth works, etc, etc.

Ah might ah missed it in de addresses, but ah didn’t hear what is de total amount done spend so far, or how much ah way done spend come from de Coalition Of Willing ( COW), better still how much each member ah de COW group contributed. Ah got dat ah-crow-name, COW from Anesto Cooke, matches wid our Tie-One milking COW! Answers to them questions would shut-up all dem ‘modern day Sam-bawl-at and Toe-buy-us of de Ammonites who wish de project to fail’.

Sam-bawl-at or not, I too feel it is important to know, because Sen. Francis did say in Par-liar-mint dat at de end ah de day: “De Argyle International Airport will not cost Vincentian tax-payers ah Red cent”! Ah also have concerns wid de way de estimated cost continue to increase every two years, is like ah progression: In 2007 de original estimate was $480 million; in 2009 de revised estimate was $589 million and now ah further update in 2011 it’s $ 652 million, trust me, it ain’t done.

Lie-Za say if she dead, ants go bring de news, but expect de final figures foh de Argyle Airport to be sum-wear near to $ 1 billion.

But last Sun-dey, PM Gonsalves except foh brief moments when he dropped to his usual low level attacking his critics calling dem two “Fool”, was at his Rye-chest and Theological best. Dey he was again making parallel comparison of his efforts to build ah Airport wid dat of de Temple dat Solomon built foh de Lord. Lie-Za say every time she hear de PM telling his supporters dat King David did not complete his work on earth, was his son Solomon who had to finish it, she feel he meking ah plug foh his son, Camillo to succeed him. Or just maybe, Chavez’s latest humbling situation and open repentance, is slowly but surely getting thru to de PM dat we are all mortals and could go at any time.

“Let him be like king David if he so desires”, she says, however she hopes he knows dat David had lots of repenting to do, and what fah? Dah’s another topic foh another occasion, what is now important is dat, whether we like or don’t like Ralph’s divisive style, at de end ah de day, whether planes fly dey or not as in de case ah de J.F. Mitchell Airport in Bequia, no David name going dey, de name Ralph Gonsalves International Airport at Argyle will be ah reality. And like Ottley Hall, another mill-stone will remain locked around de necks ah generations born and unborn.



BUILDING AH TOWER



Ah dare not write and not big-up Mr Airport himself, Dr Rudy Math-high-as. Ah bright and committed young man with ah vision light years ahead ah our time, he even got ah tunnel vision thru Cane Garden sorry, ah vision foh ah Tunnel thru Cane Garden.

His ambitions foh Argyle and Arnos Vale city are out ah sight! Promising to re-create sites, mini sugar factory and de full wuks. Not ah bad I-dare, not impossible mind yuh, but highly improbable. Now dat Dr Rudy would have heard de PM’s biblical analogy ah de Airport, ah want him to tek ah lickle time out and go to de same Bible, Genesis Chapter 10 and 11 which gives an account of another ambitious project, dis time one by de Babylonians who were pagans. Maybe like David and Solomon, dey too respected ah Divinity and wanted to reach Heaven; and attempted to do so by building de Tower of Babel.

Babel was de brain child ah de Babylonian King, Nimrod. One version ah King Nimrod was dat he was de great-grandson of Noah, ah Black man, de first king of Babylon who reigned foh 60 years.

He was ah great warrior and hunter, de subject of innumerable legends, had engineering skills and in Iraq, he built ah lot ah canals and towers with temples at the top; de Babylonians were very advanced in astrology and astronomy, and are given credit foh having developed de theory ah de Zodiac Signs.

However, another version of Nimrod written by de Jews is scary and damning; it suggests dat Nimrod was de unmatchable in evilness and blackness (race-is-him of course); de first homosexual, ah sex pervert who practiced bestiality. He has been used to curse and brand a people and is de devil’s agent of all corruption and power dat have ever been unleashed upon de earth. Nimrod’s name is associated with today’s dictators, rivaled only by Hitler. De final straw was when he started to mess wid God and attempted to build ah Tower to reach Heaven. De story concludes with God getting angry wid Nimrod’s presumptuousness and mockery (de-mockery-see) and confused all dey efforts and wisdom, suddenly every wuk-man started speaking ah different language.

Needless to say dat on one hand dis miraculous confusion of tongues demon-eyes de project, but on de other hand up to today, remains de only meaningful explanation foh de phenomena of human languages, another COW, de Coalition Of Words. De Babel project collapsed, was ah failure! Let us be truly repentant and sincere, no lip service, when we lay these big claims of following God’s words; let us put aside de Spite, Hatred and Victim-I-say-shun and forgive those dat trespass ‘gainst us.

And wid dat, ah gone again!

One Love Bassy

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