Weekly Column

With our small country and vulnerable economy, made all the more so by his boss’ absence and absent policies, facing the most difficult time since Independence we thought he would have his own business to mind.

Why is he not crafting explanations for the Government’s failure to bring relief from the high cost of living? He spent several weeks boring the public with tales of his overseas shopping excursions in a lame attempt to justify the rise in prices everywhere.

Next, the wicket was rolled for the impending arrival of Cost U Less. Since this strategy for rescuing us from high prices appears to have fallen off the chart, we thought he would be searching diligently for a replacement tenant for a certain piece of real estate in St. George.

Why is he not trying to paint a positive picture of the black hole that has become our tourism industry? With reduced airlift capacity from the United States and the United Kingdom contributing to a significant decline in tourism value-added at the height of the winter season, what is his political advice to explain the 8.7% decline in long stay visitor arrivals?

Could not his time be better spent on justifying two consecutive Budgets that gave no impetus to the country’s productive sectors? And whether this omission has contributed to the unemployment figures rising to double digits from a historic low of 6.7% just one month before his government assumed office.

Should he not be trying to explain to Barbadians how charitable donations will substitute for foreign direct investment and what, if any, will be the true cost of this new policy to the country?

Perhaps he might like to focus on the government’s much touted Constituency Councils and why after the ‘hot and sweaty’ rush to pass the legislation through Parliament they still have not seen the light of day?

Is there any truth to the rumour that they are a fanciful expense that the Government cannot now afford? Or the fact that the Government has dismissed a number of persons who have been running summer camps for years without pay – only to replace them with DLP canvassers and supporters who will now be paid. What spin will he bring to the paltry foreign reserves position?

Has he adopted a hands-off approach to the reduced rating by Standard & Poors and the impact this will have on our ability to borrow money in the international marketplace and the threat it imposes on our fixed exchange rate? And what of the stalled Integrity and Freedom of Information Legislation which was the centrepiece of his party’s election campaign? What has happened to transparency and good governance? Have they been abandoned along with the other Hundred Day promises?

What is his plan to appease the hundreds of Barbadians who are being hurt daily by his boss’ new immigration policy? Have his ‘politics of distraction’ suffered an unexpected and nasty backfire both at home and abroad?

It seems to us that he has quite a lot of his own business to mind and only another three years in which to mind it. As the old saying goes, “if it ain’t your tail, don’t wag it.’

We certainly do not need his gratuitous advice and Barbadians need answers and solutions to the hardships they face every day.

What will you do now, Mr. Political Advisor, that your strategy of distracting attention from the real issues has been exposed? What new ways will you devise to sugar coat the truth – that your government is failing and failing spectacularly?
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