The Internet, newspapers and airwaves have been inundated over the last few days with images and calls highlighting the behaviour of our school children on public service vehicles. No less than three Ministers of Government have weighed in on the issue, each one threatening to take more severe action on the owners than the next.

We have come to expect this knee jerk reaction from this Government that at first blush appears to be solving a problem, but which in the long run is likely to create even further comess.

It is noteworthy that both Morris Lee and Judy Forde have said that they have been trying to sit down with the government to find a solution to the problems in their industry, but have been ignored.

In fairness to Mr. Lee, he has been proactive in encouraging his membership to attend courses at the Polytechnic specially geared for PSV operators and seems genuine in his pursuit of raising standards in the industry.

On the other hand, the Government - led by no less a person than the Prime Minister, has sought to lay the blame for the anti-social, wayward behavior exhibited by some of our young people on what we Bajans call the ‘minibus culture.’

You cannot legislate decorum and good manners. They have to be taught. And what of the rest of society? Does it have a role to play in reporting unacceptable behavior to head teachers and the police? Is this not what our grandparents would have done?

These are issues that have been raised in several fora by our leader Mia Amor Mottley - the need to re-build the blocks of civility, civic responsibility and self-confidence on which our communities were founded.

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Mia Mottley is on record as predicting an overall decline in long stay arrivals of 12% for this year. When you add the decline in 2008 you begin to get a better picture of just where our tourism industry is heading.

It is time that the Prime Minister comes to the stark realisation that tourism under Richard Sealy is trending in the wrong direction – downwards. Sealy does not seem to understand that marketing, particularly in times of economic recession, needs to be concentrated in the markets where we have proven success.

Our chief foreign exchange earner is limping along and is in need of an urgent rescue plan if it is going to do its part in pulling us out of the recession.

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At our Party’s recently concluded Annual Conference, our Leader Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P., - laid out her vision for Barbados over the next two decades.

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PRESS STATEMENT RE: DOWNGRADE OF BARBADOS’ ECONOMIC OUTLOOK BY STANDARD & POORS THE HON. MIA AMOR MOTTLEY Q.C., M.P. LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION POLITICAL LEADER, BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY

Late Saturday afternoon, November 14, 2009, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley released this statement to the media.

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Yesterday’s news report of a further downgrade from a stable outlook to a negative outlook from Standard & Poors is regrettable but not unexpected.

There have now been two downgrades of our credit rating in two years of this Government.

This government is devaluing our international credit standing at a record pace.

If we are downgraded again we will be one step away from being officially classified as Junk, making borrowing more difficult and the cost more expensive.

We will then have gone from the star credit in the region just a few years ago to Junk Bond Status in two budgets.

This is the cost of this government’s fiscal incompetence and lack of imagination of how to deal with economic problems that are worsening by responses that are plenty of talk and little action.

Barbados cannot afford to be downgraded by international investors twice in two years while the Guyana economy reports this week 2.7% growth for the year so far.

It becomes clearer every day that the Government is at a loss as to how to manage the recession and is so lacking in confidence that it will not come to Barbadians with the truth.
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