#BTSpeakingOut – When priorities get crossed

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Hyacinth Greenidge

I listened to a radio call-in programme drag on and on more than 24 hours ago and as I listened, for the first time in my life I started questioning the mooted literacy rate in Barbados.

I also started to have images of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and I saw him marching through our eleven parishes playing his pipe and massive numbers were all dressed like mice, and were following him into nothingness.

The young people of Barbados have been waiting 55 years since independence for an 18-year-old to speak on their behalf in the Senate. Why? Because no one has ever spoken on their behalf before or ever will.

There are currently no agencies, institutions, forums or other places other than the Senate that can give voice to young persons. If not this admirable young BLP loyalist to speak on the youth’s behalf, then God pray tell, who else will? If not now at 18, then pray tell, when?

Why was this intelligent, clean-cut, decent young man thrust into this situation? It seems to be serving political purposes now and for the future. This ought not to have been contrived and possibly become a distraction to his education.

Who needs to be caught up in the hurly-burly and nastiness of the political realm at the senatorial level at age 18?

The young man did not deserve this being done to him. If government wanted to make a constitutional amendment to allow 18-year-olds into the Senate, it should have first gone ahead and attempt to do it as a general policy, rather than associate the move as simply being done just to accommodate this boy.

The politicians have not been fair to him and are deserving of the strongest rebuke.

But true to form, we are getting spin about how hurtful the rejection of the lad has been, when instead the politicians responsible for this mess should be apologizing to him
and his family.

What we are also getting is unfair criticism of Independent senators for being Independent senators. They should be commended. I both heard and read a ‘political gun for hire’ and another who had gained much largesse as a former government consultant, criticise the Independent senators for merely following their conscience and doing what they thought was right after due consideration. Most unfortunate!

But having said all of the above, the irony of the situation is that this debate on whether an 18-year-old should be or not be a senator, and the rejection of the constitutional amendment attempt, at this stage in our history, is as important as deciding whether to mix a red frutee or a coke with coconut water to complement a Sunday afternoon lunch. Here in my humble view is one of the many things that the call-in programmes, and Bajans generally, should be tearing out their hair about.

Government has moved the attainment of maximum pension for new employees entering the public service from 33 and a third years to 40 years.

They have done this in an environment where a politician can do two terms and be entitled to a massive pension.

Let’s give a quick example. Let’s take MP Neil Rowe whose first term ended at three years. Now if the current term of office runs for five years, Mr. Rowe will be entitled to a pension for life on the basis of eight years in the House of Assembly. Another example. Senator John King spent three years in the Lower House as an MP.

For whatever reason, he voluntarily demoted himself to become a senator and will be entitled to a pension after the present term in the Upper Chamber is completed.

If we have another three-year Government, he would be entitled to that huge pension for those six years of public service.

One would have thought that this development would be tugging at the sensibilities of Barbadians, especially those looking for Government employment, but instead we are listening to a pipe and being led into a meaningless debate about a teenager when we have more pressing and damning situations over which to feel aggrieved. Talk about distractions, and we have fallen for it!