Forty-five minus sixty is less than nothing! You cannot get 60 out of 45, no way! To promote otherwise will be a deception; you will be living a charade. If you have a project that will cost $100.00 and all the money you have is $45.00, you will have to borrow, beg or steal $55.00 in order to complete the project.
Even so, that is only possible if you need help once; but if you have to do that project every year, no one will give or lend to you $55.00 each year. You would be wise to abandon that project. To seek to do otherwise or think that all is well with you, will be a blatant pretense; it will be such a travesty, that even your mother will laugh at you and call you a failure.
The foregoing is all common sense. But some will find a reason to call it nonsense just because it is written in The Montserrat Reporter. Any way, please read on.
The foregoing is the true financial situation of Montserrat. We are living a blatant charade. Montserrat expects to collect this year through its system of tax laws collects only $45million, yet each year it pays $60 million to politicians, pensioners and public servants. Another scenario is that each year Montserrat collects $45 million in revenue but each year it pays out $100 million in recurrent expenses. So in order to survive each fiscal year, Montserrat begs or gets $55 million from British taxpayers money. We beg Britain to pay for our health care, our education, our road maintenance, our social welfare programs and other luxury payments to civil servants and politicians, because one hundred from forty-five result in begging.
Let us be very honest and sincere; the situation here is so full of pretense that it is ridiculous. No one will ever be able to take one hundred from forty-five; neither will the British continue to give $55 million each year to subsidize our lifestyles. The lie of a good life we live on Montserrat is a mere charade. What a travesty! But life, good life and good living, are all about taxation.
Yes taxation! I use word taxation with no ill will or to make mockery of Montserrat politicians. But the reality is that our politicians must be very bold about this subject, because Montserrat needs a very novel way to deal with the burden of taxation and tax arrears if we are to maintain and enjoy social equilibrium in the space called home. Believe me, dangerous and uncertain days are ahead. In fact Montserrat may not survive this decade, socially if we bury our heads in the golden volcanic ash.
Earlier this year I listened to the budget debate and except for the Chief Minister; no other politician mentioned the word taxation. No other legislator concerned himself with the word revenue. Instead I heard grandiose phrases and praises. One of them even beat his chest and demanded his rights from Britain. He intimated that his son has a British passport and therefore his son has as much right as any Englishman to British taxpayers money.
None of them seemed to understood that taxation is way up there on the high echelon of Godly duties expected from earthling men. Imagine our Legislature is jam packed with clergymen, yet none seem to remember that Jesus discussed taxation. Certainly politicians of the cloth must know that Taxation is next to Godliness! Taxation is a Godly duty, and they must speak about taxes much more with the people.
Please do not get me wrong; we have other issues on Montserrat besides taxation and tax arrears. In fact things are not what they seem. We are on the brink of a social collapse.
The ordinary and the needy Montserratians are hurting.
They complain to me; but I am no watchdog! I tell them that I can only write about it for posterity. Still they insist, you must write, they say.
They complain that politicians, some civil servants and some pensioners are doing very well, while the ordinary and the needy are catching hell right here on Montserrat.
They lament over the ‘select few’ aligned beneficially to RUBENOMICS who will always do well while the foolish party stalwarts are falling rapidly off the edge.
They complain that Montserrat is a civil servant’s paradise but a nightmarish hell for the ordinary and the needy.
The private sector complains that members are unable to compete with the civil servants in the few business opportunities offered on the rock. They say the civil servants have no overhead, because they do their private jobs from the government offices, and they pay no rent or utility bills.
Bee the horn blower beep complained that the PS civil servants have taken over the car rental business. He said that the only people who visit Montserrat come on government business, so the ‘Perm nent seck rie tree’ have an advantage to get their vehicles rented.
The electricians complain that the inspector will undercut their contract prices and some have become afraid of him.
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The plumbers complain that MUL has a private plumbing crew plying for work on residential and commercial construction sites.
The needy and the ordinary Montserratian have lost hope. They know that forty-five million dollars in revenue cannot sustain an expense of one hundred million dollars. Yet they want to hold on.
The ordinary and the needy want to hold on even though they know that our politicians and senior public officials exist only to ‘ bus-up’ and share among themselves the taxpayers money. They complain that these officials grant themselves luxury salary payments in the name of Professional and Duty allowances and unnecessary travel and entertainment allowances.
Yet we want to hold on even though we can hear The Swordsman’s warning to all Montserratians…that the Superior Mystical forces of the universe have detailed that Montserrat will not last another decade. Even in the Astral realm it has been heralded that Montserrat will self-destruct socially in the near future, possible within seven years, because the political, social and financial management of Montserrat is a mere charade.
But can we stop the charade? Yes we can! But we must make some serious management adjustments politically, socially and financially. Our revenue collections must accommodate our expenditure and adequate savings. It is stupidity to think that we can extract sixty from forty-five, or that Montserrat can spend one hundred when we collect only forty-five.
