CATEGORY:COMMENTARY
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By Mr. Lloyd Noel (local attorney-at-law)



At the pace everything seems to be moving now-a-days - some real and some imaginary, and in the fast and busy World across the Globe, as well as
in our relatively quiet neck of the woods in the CSME Region back here - it is becoming increasingly difficult to plan ahead with much hope and success.And what is even more frustrating, is that the great majority of us can do nothing at all - about any of the outcomes of those movements, as they descend on us with little or no warning.

But even where and when we get some advance notice, by whatever means that may come, so many people have become overly complacent, or just not prepared to be bothered, or take the position that no matter what they say or do, that will not change the price of gasoline - as it has come to pass in fact.

In the papers last week, there were a few references to Democracy in one form or another - but the bottom line of the complaints or observations, was that those with the power and authority were simply taking undue advantage
of all and sundry, and doing so with impunity.

And while I was reading all those complaints, I recall seeing a full page address in the Sunday Express of Trinidad and Tobago of the 24th September, 2006. It was to the people of Trinidad and Tobago by the late Dr. Eric Williams, on the occasion of their Independence Forty odd years ago.
The late Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago said a whole lot in that address, but the parts about Democracy caught my attention. Part of what he said was.... “The first responsibility that devolves upon you is the protection and promotion of your democracy. Democracy means more, much more, than the right to vote and one vote for every man and woman of the prescribed age. Democracy means recognition of the rights of others.Democracy means responsibility of the Government to its Citizens, the protection of the Citizens from the exercise of arbitrary power and the violation of human freedoms and individual rights. Democracy, finally, rests on a higher power than Parliament. It rests on an informed and cultivated and alert public opinion. The members of Parliament are only the representatives of the Citizens. They cannot represent apathy and indifference. They can play the part allotted them only if they represent intelligence and public spiritedness.”

The goodly late Prime Minister said a lot more, but the above partial quotation seems to apply so pointedly to our situation in Grenada for some
time now - and getting much worse with each passing day, and every exposed scandal and gross dereliction of our M.Ps duties to the Citizens, that I reproduced that part for what it is worth to an informed public opinion.

The deplorable state of the economy, and the absence of work for those who want to work to survive and feed their families, and the ever-growing cost of living for basic necessities - are all suffocating the poor and under-privileged and scrunting people since “Ivan and Emily.”And very little has been done to remedy that state of affairs, and the effects and repercussions therefrom are simply showing their ugly faces more
and more with each passing week. And people up and down the country are bawling out for relief, as they enter the shops everyday and come out with less and less of their needs. Yet instead of relief - is more economic pressure.

But then again - what else can we expect? When those in control spending more than they earning on nonsensical projects - they have to get more and more spending money by all means to carry on.

So gasoline price gone up again to over $11.00; and according to the Energy Minister - that will be repeated every eight weeks until a certain level is reached, because Government has to re-coup its $3.00 per gallon Petrol Tax.Needless for me to say, that this gas increase will automatically increase everything else in the shops - not to mention Bus fares, and Trucking
services, and all other Services that have a travelling component built into their costs.

And as if to add gross insult to aggravating injury - in the Peter David Citizenship saga, which was thrown out of Court by Justice Benjamin two or three weeks ago; Mr. Wildman filed two or three Appeals, and sought leave from the same Judge to go ahead with the Appeal - because according to him (Wildman), the Judgment was not Final but “Interlocutory” - that is to say
it dealt with the subject-matter of the action, before the rights of the parties (the Attorney General and Peter David) are finally determined.

The leave application was heard last week Thursday, and Wildman again lost, because under the Constitution only “Final Judgments” can be appealed.The Attorney General now has to pay a further $1000.00 in costs to Peter David, who was represented at the hearing by Dr. Alexis and Ruggles Ferguson.

So in addition to spending scarce dollars on such projects as the propaganda Bill Board - in front the Republic Bank on the Maurice Bishop
Highway at Grand Anse, which is reported to have cost $30,000.00 - the powers-that-be continue to waste the Taxpayers money on groundless Court
cases, and when they lose they proceeding to curse the Judges.

Our democracy is therefore under attack from every side. Those in control do not bother to consult with those who chose them to run their affairs; nor do they ever advise John Public of what they are planning to do, and only admit the done deals (some of them), after they have been discovered and disclosed by others. So that the very basic concept of a truly working democracy - in which the principles of open accountability, and
transparency, and reliability to ground good governance are so very necessary - is always at large.

And whether it is that those in direct authority, who are entrusted with the grave responsibility to provide for and to lead others; or those who are
hangers-on and singing for their suppers; or the usual opportunists who are jumping on any passing bandwagon in the hope of reaching the Promised Land. The end result is always the same, i.e. reckless disregard for the rights, and freedoms, and protection of the majority - and the dishonest promotion and enrichment of the minority, at the expense and on the backs of the poor and under-privileged who refuse to take the easy way out.

In the same frame of mind - of what can we expect, but on the much wider Regional and International front - it looks as though our CARICOM States are
again “flexing their muscles,” in the debate and race for the Security Council Seat at the United Nations, between Venezuela and Guatemala.

I have seen and heard some leaders expounding about their sovereign right to support the country of their choice; as well as showing gratitude to
Venezuela, for its Petro Caribe cheaper short-term Gas and Oil bonanza - among other excuses.

At the same time, I saw a report where some Foreign Ministers from CARICOM were meeting with Dr. Condoleeza Rice of the U.S.A. State Department in New York, and making a plea for bilateral agreements with the U.S. for Caribbean Sugar and Banana.

And bearing in mind, that our longstanding preferential treatment from England and the European Union - for the said two products - is soon coming to an end under the W.T.O regime, and what that would mean for our people in
the Region. I could not help wondering what those Ministers could expect - in the circumstances surrounding the Venezuela President’s attitude and open hostility towards the U.S. President, and the latter’s preference of Guatemala for the seat.

The longstanding disputes between Guatemala and Belize over territorial boundaries, on the one hand, and that of Venezuela and Guyana, on the other hand - are no different in my view, when making a choice to give support. But showing a preference for Hugo Chavez, as against George Bush choice of Guatemala to fill that seat, could really dirty the waters in the diplomatic
Ocean dominated by the U.S.A.

The dependence on the U.S.A. by Caribbean States, for a whole host of assistance and goodies of one kind or another, is beyond contradiction.
Venezuela can never even begin to match the odds on any front.All the rhetoric about so-called Independence and Sovereignty, are nothing more than ole talk.

When the chips are down and push comes around to shove, it is dollars from the U.S. and US AID, food on the table and jobs to earn more dollars, and peace and stability in the Region that we need. Venezuelans would not appreciate the Sun, Sea and Sand that make up our Independence - so as to facilitate our Tourism Sector which is heavily dependent on the U.S. Market.

It is one thing to stand up for principles, and to say to the U.S. President, enough is more than enough in the genocide taking place in Iraq - with the horrendous loss of lives of both Iraqis and Americans, with no end in sight. Even his own Republican Party people are telling him the same thing. It is quite something else, how ever, to support the madness surrounding the behavior and public tantrums of Hugo Chavez - in his personal war of words against the U.S. and its President. That level of display of our Independence - will not gain for us many friends in Washington D.C. Then, what can we really expect?