This finger pointing has to stop now!

Editor: In justifying our unwillingness to take up our own beds and walk, we have become proficient in the art of using an escape route. We will never admit to this, instead we say ‘Education is needed.’ Might the day ever dawn when Vincentians will back away from that pretentious excuse and admit that we are not prepared to invest the required TIME in the process of application of the enormous amount of education that we have taken in over the years?{{more}} In fact, it is perhaps fair to say that in many areas we may well be over-educated, something comparable to the excessive intake of the vital vitamin D which is said to cause a condition called hypa-vitaminosis D.

Could this in fact be the reason why the St.Vincent Marketing Corporation (SMC) is importing into St.Vincent hot peppers (Scotch pepper) from Trinidad and retailing them at $27.99 per pound. With National Heros’ Day just around the corner, it would seem that the management of the SMC is qualified for recognition.

So much for this wholesale perforation of the bedrock of our country’s economic survival. It is high time that we plant it deep in our minds that agriculture and fishing stand today as the single and only lasting sustainable option that we have in our economic armory. A very serious and equally urgent decision needs to be made as far as the above options are concerned. This has to be ‘Curtains-time’ on the present direction as it relates to agriculture (banana) and fishing.

This call is for the operation of the St.Vincent Marketing Corporation and all the fish markets to be operated by a cooperative of Vincentian farmers (including bananas), fishing and perhaps livestock.

The heads, hearts, bodies and souls of Vincentian have to work in harmony. One is very aware that achieving that is our unfortunate legacy. The finger pointing has to stop. We must look in to the mirror at our own selves, face the realities of the times in which we find ourselves. There is no other way. S.M.Quammie