Another Cloud

St. Lucia, we love to say, is a blessed country. The Almighty puts His hand out and shields us from hurricanes and other natural disasters, in addition to giving us guidance and inspiration in matters that affect the paths we should take to ensure that life for the majority of us is peaceful and productive.
Flying in the face of those statements however, it would appear that we as a people go to great lengths to seek for means of instigating discord and confrontation among us … for we seem to seldom experience any significant periods of harmony or collaboration among ourselves on a national scale – and that “roro” has become entrenched as a way of life in our Fair Helen.
We go from one patch of trouble to another with a regularity that is disconcerting, to say the least.
No sooner do we solve one problem – like that of the argument between the taxi drivers from the South and the hotels who pick up their clients from Hewanorra airport; or the ongoing confrontation with regard to the privatization of the water supply – than we see another cloud approaching on our horizon: the threat of industrial action by our nation’s teachers.
According to the reports reaching us, negotiations between the teachers and the government’s negotiating team have arrived at a stalemate.
The teachers, having begun the process with a demand for a pay increase of twenty-four percent have moved down to sixteen (percent); and the government stands firm at thirteen and will not budge.

Of course, as is usual in practically all negotiations of this type, that kind of situation is to be expected. But this particular process has to be handled with a huge dose of caution, for once again, it involves the education and care of the children of the nation. Children who have no direct involvement in the confrontation between the union and the government, but who are those who most feel the fallout from the struggle.
So far, no tangible action has been taken, either by one side or the other, but the rumblings of an approaching storm are loud and ominous … the clouds are gathering, thick and dark and we hope that clear heads will prevail; and reason on both sides ensure that they do not burst open and engulf our educational system with torrents that will wash away too much of the days, weeks or months that are so necessary to our children if they are to secure a decent year’s worth of proper schooling.
We should approach the bargaining that is taking place with as little confrontation and antagonism – and political consideration – as possible … and think, first and foremost, of the welfare of our children.
For though they are not the cause – or the instigators – of the storm that will ensue, they will unfortunately be the victims whose futures are eroded and washed away from its effects.