Editorial – May 26, 2017
Somehow Montserrat for the past three years seemed to have gone through the phase where the strong willed still looks to tomorrow because today does not yet offer any real hope of change.
Wake up!
Ah! The dream. What do these things mean – Diplomacy, Critical philosophy – The necessary condition and the sufficient condition?
“The past must not dictate the future, (but must inform it).” Premier Romeo and his entire government may have completely forgotten the past but instead might be off in the future, without a vision. How many volcanic crises have there been? Does or did each event create another crisis?
May 26, 2017
Premier Romeo in announcing the budget settlement with DFID allowing him to prepare for a budget presentation which he says he will have on June 9, 2017 has somehow displayed an understanding that there has been some hurting reaching heights still unknown in recent times.
When he says, “that’s why it hurts when government does not spend money. I want to deliver a positive result to the ordinary man, the struggling single mother so they can feel tangible results in their pockets,” our question is how ready is his government, how soon will those tangible results become reality?
The time is upon his government to explain why the really hurting ones do not know how much longer before tangible results set in and how that $30 million will bring the results about. Of course, not everyone suffered or felt the hurt. Half of the working force continued to receive their wage/salary, claiming hurt because they have not received a raise so long. Never once did they complain that their relative not in the same boat as they are, do live in a leaky ship that has already sunk, or just about to sink.
Premier Romeo would only say that it is imperative that the capital projects which will be named in the Budget speech get off the ground during this fiscal year.
So now there is the economic team – to lead on the economic growth strategy – opening another area of explanation that needs to be covered to inform the future. Yes Mr. Premier, cabinet, and support workers, understand where you come from and where you are and are going…
Only some of us DFID can tell some seeming realities to invoke sympathy or by way of explanation. Someone tries to explain why the budgetagreement was not forthcoming in a timely manner:
“New Ministers are still getting up to speed with what DFID does and frankly, do not have a good grasp of the nuanced and complex approaches to development or the excellent work that DFID does on underlying root causes of poverty.”
Is this correct? Better not be or better not let the electorate know. That’s one Brexit area of problem.
The reasons flow – Excellent programmes, innovative, cutting edge, transformative and successful one, are from one week to the next, without warning, being stopped/closed and cut. The argument is that the results must be tangible, easy to measure and in line with the manifesto. Again, resulting in poor decisions.
All that said, should not have anything to do with budgetary aid. Capital aid etc, maybe! DFID budget is also under high demand from competing priorities. Nothing to do with the OTs. The OTs need to be removed from the categories described.
These explanations were among others supposed to convince that Montserrat will also feel the impact. That, “the decisions are not personal or specific to the current Montserrat situation.” They should not pertain to Montserrat at all.
So where does the ignorance lie? Does this need a discussion, an explanation or just a correction? Or does it simply lie in ‘good governance’! Which by the way includes those things the CEA speaks about mentioned above and includes ‘confidence’.
