| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13th
Feburary 2010
An
Explosive Football
If
there is one thing we in St. Lucia have
become accustomed and resigned to, it
is the playing of political football with
almost every issue that surfaces among
us.
As a matter of fact, it is the norm that,
no matter what a party in Government proposes
as a solution to resolve a problem, whoever
is in Opposition will automatically instantly
describe the measure as completely incompetent,
ineffective, self-serving, counter-productive
and possibly even dangerous to society
as a whole.
We have experienced that kind of manoeuvring
and game playing for decades, regardless
of who the individuals occupying the seats
in the opposing camps happen to be.
In recent times, the Rochamel Affair,
the Pitons Controversy, even matters as
trivial as the naming of the December
13th festivities (depending on the party
in power, it may be referred to as “Festival
of Renewal” or “Festival of
Lights”) or the employment programme
for the less fortunate (“STEP”
under Labour, “HOPE” under
UWP) … no matter how big or small
the issue, nothing escapes our politicians.
Oppose for opposition’s sake, seems
to be our motto: show up the other guy,
irrespective of whether he is right or
wrong, constructive or destructive, sensible
or idiotic. |
|
|
|
|
|
The
thing is, that no matter how these (past) confrontations
happen to turn out, Life seems to nevertheless
go on for the rest of us, with whoever scored
off the other faction making a big show of his
“victory”, basking in the glory
of the achievement, and storing the incident
in his archives, like a card to play on electoral
platforms whenever the next campaign comes along.
All the protagonist bluster and confrontational
stuff has little effect on the eventual outcome
(whoever is in Government usually just goes
ahead and does as he sees fit anyway) and the
citizenry is generally hardly the worse for
wear as a consequence.
But not this time. Not with the presentissue
on the playing field, that the players on the
two sides have already begun to play games with.
This time, the football is crime and violence.
And unlike the others, this football, if kicked
around for too long without the teams getting
together and implementing a cooperative and
unified game plan, results in the death, wounding
and physical harm of every kind being meted
out to us, the population, the spectators-cum-victims
of the deadly activity.
We stand not to lose tens of millions of dollars
through bad management or misuse of the Consolidated
Fund, we stand to lose our lives.
If our opposing “leaders” continue
to play around with this present issue, the
football will explode in all our faces, countless
lives will be lost and anarchy prevail in our
land.
It is time to stop the partisan political football
game-playing.
Discuss
Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
