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With a whimper…

Dec 31, 2010 Editorial

There is no doubt that we end the year not with a bang of optimism but with a whimper of despair. What could be more dispiriting than our year-end revelry being dominated by debates and protests over garbage? Garbage in a dump located in the middle of our city.
What does it say about us as a people when the best we can do about our garbage is to shift it from an area adjacent to our national Gymnasium (inappropriately dubbed the “Mandela Dumpsite”) to our national Cemetery. A nation is truly judged by how they treat their ancestors and we certainly haven’t exactly exalted them by literally dumping garbage over their graves.
But what is the imbroglio over garbage other than a microcosm of our national predicament? A sordid story of leaders, high and low – and they most decidedly veer towards the lower end –  that obstinately refuse to do their jobs but resolutely engage in playing the “blame game” even as their hands are stuck firmly in the till. Hasn’t their behaviour been tantamount to dumping garbage over all of us?
What is it but garbage to be told that after making the largest investment the country has ever seen (without any consultation) to turn around our largest industry – and employer – the sugar workers are blamed for its manifest failure?
The workers are castigated for their low turnout during the past week of holidays. Did the leaders show up for work during those holidays after their strenuous round of all-night partying?
The Christmas season traditionally draws out the largest block of shoppers in any one period of the year – especially the ordinary grassroots folks who would have scrimped and saved all year from their meagre wages to eke out some merriment and joy at this time.
Businessmen talk about this being their “best” time of the year as their cash registers ring with more vigour than Santa’s bells. But spare a thought for those poor shoppers, who after having their income taxes already extracted by the government, will have now shelled out an additional 16%VAT on all their purchases.
Some might retort that the leaders and their rich cronies also pay VAT. But what is 16% percent of purchases to those that have squirreled away billions through crony contracts and contacts? It is chickenfeed if not garbage. It simply means that they will inflate next year’s bids by another sixteen percent: easy go, easy come. And the unkindest cut is that these fat cats pay the least amount of taxes into the (national or their private?) coffers. With most of their dealings “off the books” and a rather benevolent tax regime, taxes are the least of their worries.
So to what do the ordinary folks have to look forward? Elections for new leaders? Even in the best of times and circumstances elections are an opportunity to select from an elite, self appointed crew of poseurs. This time around, there is not even a pretence being made to suggest that the pool is going to be widened. Accusations of fixing the presidential candidate process in the PNC are already rampant. Over in the PPP, even though one aspirant claimed that “goat aint bite me” it would appear that some of his erstwhile comrades are more equal than others and are receiving special treatment. It can only lead to more voters staying home.
But the clincher for despair has to be the President’s declaration to “cuss down” those who”cuss down” him. Is this the kind of leadership to give us hope of better things to come? What we do know is that the only riposte to those that disagree with us is to answer them on the merits of their disagreement. This country will go nowhere if we are led by those bereft of vision, not to mention a willingness to lead by example.
A year ago we speculated that there is not much lower that we could fall. Our leaders have proven us wrong. We deserve better.

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