From rags to riches in reverse

Maybe somebody close to Sir James, whom he respects, should let him know dat going on radio, bad mouthing de NDP which he founded, and Arm-in whom he hand-picked, blessed and presented to us as his replacement, is doing neither de party nor he Sir James any good. Ah prefer Sir James to stay in retirement, enjoy de fruits of his tenure. If however he is concerned about de way things are or are not, den he could lament de fact dat when he handed over Go-venom-mint to Ralph, he left money in de Treasury to correct ah lot ah hysterical wrongs.{{more}} Pay off our death at UWI, lend Dominica money, share out Back-pay to Orange Hill workers, refurbish all schools, happily we were shipping Bananas to de UK den, but now???. Money was not ah problem. Suddenly de lights went off and in de dark, NCB was first to be raped followed by de NIS, and de raping of de Grenadines continued. Maybe if Sir James himself could do ah full interview on Boom Radio on dat topic?

Since Sir James left, we see de final demise ah Bananas, de employments figures went up and de Poor Relief statistics doubled, now probably tripled. De worsening Poverty sit-yuh-hear-shun gave entry to ah Poverty Alleviation Project. Speaker ah de House, Jomo Thomas headed dat Unit, did his best and got his throat cut. No sooner we were told dat de Poverty level in SVG was down to its lowest, we were confronted wid de first cousin of Poverty, Hunger! So our latest project is Eradicating Hunger! Ah did not say Eradicating Unemployment; it’s Hunger. I-fan Own-heel keep talking bout PM Gonsalves and his Beggar Bowl. Look way sweet Sin-Vin-Sin come too.

I doubt if Arm-in will respond to Sir James, ah hope he does not. While he has failed to form go-venom-mint, he has not failed those who believed in him foh his Decency, Integrity and Principle (DIP). When we hear rumors about Vin-sent-shun polly-trickans being involved in conducts dat would bring de country’s good name into disrepute, we know dat Arm-in’s name will not be dey. I think he knows dat de December ninth Elections was his last, and he will hand over de leadership of de NDP in ah much stronger pull-it-tek-all position dan when he received it. Nuff said about dat.

BRING DIS, BRING DAT

Lie-Za say when Min Calm-Low Gonsalves was addressing de audience in New York, she thought he was singing ah new version of De Man Age’s Kaiso, “Send Dis Send Dat!” He was asking de gathering when nex dey coming home to “Bring dis, Bring dat, bring ah pair ah all-forgat!” den he encouraged dem to bring nice things, no ole throw down pair-ah-shoes. Lie-Za asking if dey’s ah NEMO office at Calliaqua, she heard Calm-Low directing New Yorkers when dey come to drop off de items at his constituency office in Calliaqua.

FLOW SOUR LIKE LIME

While consumers ah come-plain bout de Flow sour like Lime merger , let me just reprint what ah wrote last year February: “Lie-Za is adamant dat dis Lime to Flow proposed merger is ah “money-pulley,” ….. she say it smacks of disaster foh us in de region, and one way or de other, it should be blocked. She pre-dick dat soon after de merger is sealed, hundreds ah wukers across de Caribbean will be out ah wuk. And foh those of us who ah come-plain bout de service presently, hold all yuh breath, de wuss is yet to come. Dey’ll be less wukers on de wuk, therefore de quality ah de service will tek ah slow dive. Ah did not hear any men-shun about reduced rates, trust me we will eventually pay more foh ah service dat will not necessarily improve. ……… Right now Go-venom-men’t seems bought hook, line and sinker, de signals emanating is dat if we put up ah fight and block de merger, de rest ah de world will take off and de region will shut down foh-ever; Noncents! Man, ten years ago, not many people gave Digicel ah chance ah survival when dey first came. Lime was allowed to jam dem hands down. Today, after ten short years, Digicel got Lime scampering foh ah money-pulley in order to Flow.

Lime’s last bastion of profit is in de Caribbean. We and not dem should be calling de shots. And Lime has reaped more dan it has planted hey. Show me in SVG any significant monument marked “Lime, be it ah Playing Field, or ah synthetic athletic track, or ah swimming pool, or ah tennis facility, or whatever!”

We should be paying much, much less foh telephone, internet service and Cable TV services. Man right now in SVG, is over one hundred and fifty thousand cell phones, land line phones and Kay-blue TV connect-shuns dat grossing over two million dollars ah day, and close to ah billion dollars collected ah year. People paying thru dey mouth foh dey mouth. Ah love how I-fan Owe-Neal puts it in his Green Party TV Ad, “It is time foh Lime to Flow, pack up dey bags and Go back way dey come from!” Written ah year ago. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

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