#BTSpeakingOut- Things continue to annoy me

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

by John Goddard

Many years ago, The Right Excellent Errol Barrow expressed deep concern about women toiling in cane fields without toilet facilities.
Today, the same is true, with the workers having to look hither and thither for somewhere to answer the call of nature.

Recently, government hired a number of persons to remove volcanic ash and cut grass and bush at the sides of roads.

I salute the authorities for providing opportunities for unemployed Bajans to earn some money. However, what peeves me is that, like the plantation owners, government has provided no toilet facilities for its workers.

I was not surprised when a few days ago, a young woman, seeking a place to ease herself, accidentally fell into a 25 ft well. How in

Twenty-first century Barbados can we be satisfied with such conditions! And not one word from unions who often speak of decent work!

Too many low income public employees have to complain about not being paid on time. Why the long delay in preparing wages and other benefits so that disadvantaged workers can receive their monies in a timely manner? Computerisation seems to have done little to expedite the process, and it is only when workers take to the call-in shows or the press, or down tools that there is any response to their plight.

There are many platitudes spouted about the “small man” without the accompanying urgency to meet his legitimate demands. It cannot be acceptable for workers to have to wait months to receive what is rightfully theirs, whether we are talking about wages, severance or unemployment benefits.

Anyone who shops or has to go to the gas station cannot help but notice the continuing rise in prices. Pensioners and others on fixed incomes as well as lower and middle class Barbadians are finding it very hard to survive in the current environment.

Everybody seems reconciled to the view that price control is not the way to go, but can nothing be done to make the cost of living more bearable? For example, must government place import duties on the CIF value of products whenever there is an increase in cost, freight and insurance of goods entering our market?

Might it not be wise to decide to charge on a predetermined figure so that the price to the wholesaler, retailer and eventually the consumer can be lower? Take oil, for example. Instead of applying taxes to the latest landing cost of the fuel, could customs not be instructed to apply them based on the previous month’s cost? Government would collect the same revenue as the previous month, and consumers would benefit.

These difficult times call for creative and innovative strategies which would redound to government, businesses and consumers. If more and more money is taken from the pockets of ordinary citizens, all of us will lose.

More disposable income in the hands of consumers means that they will spend more, and, of course, government should collect more VAT. I used “should” advisedly because I am fully aware that some companies do not always meet their VAT obligations, and government has, in the not too distant past, encouraged them by cancelling their arrears.

If it is true that “all of us are in this together”, poor Barbadians cannot be the only ones bearing the brunt of the economic crisis we are facing. Government, private enterprise and labour must share in the joys and sorrows of society.