“Bit by bit our freedom is being taken away, under our gaze but beneath our notice while we run around to the UN, CARICOM and to whomever has two ears to make the BVIs case for independence.

The only place we seem uninterested in making that case is in BVI.  We have not studied the costs, obligations and responsibilities of independence.  We want the people to make the decision in anger and in ignorance perhaps without even the benefit of a referendum.

Surely the people do not want independence to be a cloak for wrongdoing?  They understand that the Territory has no infrastructure of note; The roads are an embarrassment; Squalor is knocking on the doors of state; And the mishandling of assistance grants funds hurts us all.

The airport was closed twice in as many months on issues, it seems, of remuneration for workers and if the fourth estate holds credibility, major departments of government were poised to join the queue.

Crime is having a field day.

But if a stray bullet touches the wrong person, a tourist, the better half of the economy will vaporize before our very eyes.

What will we be, then, if Guyana, on the upward swing of its pendulum, does not take us in?

It is clear that the UK is interested in the COI.  It is very clear that they are interested in Belonger Status, the Windrush debacle aside.  

It is not so clear that they are bullish about their national security responsibilities; That they are prepared to use their authority, technology and resources to make the streets of BVI safe for everyone.

Thursday’s press conference with the Governor, the Premier and the Police Commissioner was a positive step in the right direction.  If that trio continues to work together and hold a united front against crime, we may yet arrest the decadent slide of the Territory.

But other steps must also be taken.  The House of Assembly has yet to debate any checks and balances to curb the lawless and or dictatorial appetites of elected representatives.  By their silence, they swept 28 April 2022 under the rug.  

And we must help the elderly in the community.  They depended on assistance grants from their representatives and a man came from the UK who did not understand how the Territory works and has stripped our elderly of vital support.

Now, he has gone back home to continue to enjoy the social safety net that his government provides for its citizens, including their elderly, while ours remain impoverished.

Hon Dr Dawson is correct in saying that the absence of that discretionary fund hurts a number of the folks we meant to help.

So how do we not throw out the baby with the bath water especially since Social Development is not the avenue that most of the elderly will take?

The elderly are already at a disadvantage.  For those who earn pensions, the trifling amounts are no match for the astronomical costs of living of the modern day BVI.

If a government cannot protect its most vulnerable citizens, what is its role?  Why does it exist?

We were once the envy of the subregion but no longer.  We have plummeted.  

But rising from the ashes calls for discipline and selflessness, two attributes that have become foreign to us over the years.

But, at least, we have Fridays to ponder these things in our hearts.

Happy Friday!”

*The Friday Sage…