by Man from Baker Hill
Christmas always comes before the New Year. And indeed, before The Montserrat Reporter Limited (TMR) demands its New Year wish, we must join others and celebrate with them the realization of their Christmas wishes.
First off, we celebrate with the recipients of the Social Security back pay. We are happy for them. For more that one year TMR was inundated with calls and letters from retired civil servants who sought exposure of their perceived suffering. And in their support we published some of the letters and even offered our own solutions, hoping that the government would find a way to pay the SSF. We are very happy that the UK government finally settled the debt owed, on their behalf, to the Social Security Fund (SSF); we share their joy. The Good Book said, joy always cometh after a period of sorrow. And what joy! What a happy Christmas this will be for many retired civil servants. May God continue to bless them with abundance.
Even the Director of the SSF in gleeful animation proudly broadcast that some will receive up to $10,000.00 in back pay. And although some will receive just over $3,000.00, it is still a great windfall for those retired civil servants who will get the SSF age benefit. The Montserrat Reporter wishes all the retired civil servants a merry, merry Christmas and sincerely hopes that they will spend some of the windfall so that further joy and good cheer will spread and ring out at every cash register on Montserrat up to New Year’s Day.
Secondly, TMR celebrates with those who received TAX FORGIVENESS from the tax negotiator. For those forgiven ones, Christmas this year will be a wonderful celebration. How else can it be? To receive debt forgiveness before Christmas day of $500,000.00 or $100,000.00 or even $5,000.00 is a wonderful gift and certainly a great cause for celebrations. Again, the Good Book commands those who receive forgiveness, not only to give forgiveness, but also to join in support of others that seek but cannot afford to take advantage of the debt forgiveness policies.
As shown above, Christmas this year will be great two groups of fortunate Montserratians. But sadly, there will be a small number of Montserratians whose Christmases will be hollow because they cannot celebrate in style. They lack money, the main ingredient to celebrate; their Social Security age pension cheques will still be expectedly smaller than desired. You see, these ordinary non-civil servant age pensioners have gotten accustomed to the meagre benefit; so they never call or write TMR to express their pain and dismay, they suffer in silence. But in their support, TMR has tried to reach the ears of the Legislators to draw attention to the plight of the SSF aged pensioners whose accrued benefits were reduced. But, all our efforts have been seemingly unsuccessfully so far. We feel their agony; may God bless them with deserved abundance especially this Christmas.
Especially this Christmas, TMR begs the retired civil servants to seek to understand the ‘pain of not enough pensions’ and to join their aged peers in the effort to get that Amendment to the SSF Act repealed. A horrible thing happened at SSF in January 2010. Some say it happened because the SSF did not have enough money to pay the retired civil servants pensions. But now that the UK government paid the $17.64 million debt for the civil servants, it is time for somebody to do something to correct that horrible thing. TMR therefore appeals to each retired civil servant to make a special new year wish for the other SSF aged pensioners as they seek justice over the wrong that happened to them.
TMR will continue to fight for the downtrodden; and so we single out the Honourable Easton Taylor Farrell, a good Christian fellow and ardent union man, as the Legislator most equipped to right the wrong at the SSF. In fact, he knows why the horrible action was taken; he was a director of the SSF.
Honourable Taylor, on Christmas Eve before you parcel out your many gifts, seek to understand what a meagre aged pension of only $300.00 can do for a non-civil servant who contributed to the SSF all his working years in perfect accordance with the law. Honourable Taylor, Director Scotland broadcast that you too will get a back pay from the SSF, a Christmas bonus of $10,000.00. Honourable Taylor, you are a retired civil servant; so in addition to your pension, you will also get a monthly aged benefit from the SSF. And even though you never made many or any contributions, because you were born before 1950, your so called accrued benefits were never adjusted downwards. Honourable Taylor, feel the pain and suffering of people in need, please do something before budget day 2012. We know that you can!
And now the rest of the story, The List… ha, ha, ha, TMR’s New Year wish.
TMR in accordance with its responsibility to every Montserratian, fortunate or unfortunate, demands the Government to publish a list of names and amounts of every taxpayer that received forgiveness from the tax negotiator. Yes, The TMR wants the list. We want to know the criteria for forgiveness. We want to examine and publish that list before budget day 2012.
TMR in accordance with its aspiration to seek fairness for all residents of Montserrat and in acknowledgement of the fears of those who could not face the tax negotiator, demands that a list of the tax forgiven be published before one frightened taxpayer is taken to court for failure to pay tax arrears.
Yes before one summons is written to drag anyone to court for inability to find money to pay $5,000.00 in tax arrears, TMR wants to know the reasons why one person was forgiven $500,000.00 in tax arrears and another will be taken to court to pay $1,500.00. TMR wants to know if the poor man uses the roads or the airport more often than the rich man.
Yes we want to know! We want to see the list with the names and amounts of the tax forgiven. This our New Year wish for 2012. That’s all!
