Said Arthur angrily:
There is also absolutely no doubt this was intended to embarrass the persons referenced, after they have been deprived by Thompson of a source of their livelihood.
On this I agree with him. However - boo-hoo, too bad. They were public servants, paid out of the public purse - why should their salaries be private? We're entitled to know. I find Bajans are soooo cagey when it comes to ...well, anything, but especially money matters. Like, with classifieds ads - at least 50% of classified ads that I see for cars and real estate, don't have the price there - WHY would you be cagey about the price of something you're SELLING? There is no good reason except Bajans' ridiculous caginess.
Ok, that was a side-rant, back to the issue at hand.
What I found... interesting was this part:
He said he was most upset about the firing of Victor Hinkson, a research assistant who earned just $1 000 a month, after losing his job at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation after 11 months and lived off a $300 pension because he was ineligible for gratuity.
"He then went home to rest because he is very ill. I paid him $1 000 to help him out, and each of these people were doing something specific...
What has me is that he sounds genuinely indignant about Hinkson's situation. Note that statement - "I paid him $1000 to help him out". Do politicians really get to the point where they genuinely believe the public coffers are their private fund? Because it was not Owen Arthur who paid Hinkson $1000 to "help him out", it was the tax payers of Barbados who paid that. And we might argue that there are lots of us as deserving of help as Hinkson. Is the public purse to be used to 'give someone a bligh' as Jamaicans say? I was amazed at this comment.
Moreover, despite the fact that this happened under Arthur's tenure as PM, was it appropriate for him to unilaterally contact the press and make a statement on this? If the BLP had an issue with these firings, should not a directive have come from the party's senior leadership on how to address the issue? After all, Mia Mottley is the party leader now and the party should speak with one voice. On an issue like this, it should be a senior voice speaking. Arthur is no longer senior - he is not the leader, nor the deputy leader, nor a Shadow Minister on anything. His comments just added fuel to the fire which blazed on the call-in programmes yesterday.
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In other news - yet another one leaves the NCF as today's paper confirmed the rumours that former CEO Ian Estwick has been let go. I know people were annoyed by the way the Nation reported the story last week, making it seem as if everyone left all at once because of the new administration, whereas only the two most recent departures (Marketing officer Carol Roberts was let go over the weekend) could really be attributed directly to the new administration.
But... it does seem like quite a few people have left in recent months. Could it not be that they saw the writing on the wall and jumped before they were pushed? I'm just saying...
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In other, other news - TODAY IS MINI SUPER TUESDAY! Primaries and caucuses in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. Today really should be the day that Hilary Clinton is knocked out of the race for good and Barack Obama is pretty much confirmed as the nominee of the Democrats. However, the damn Clintonistas keep moving the goal posts and it's really starting to piss me off. After saying for the last few weeks that Texas and Ohio were Hilary's firewalls and she would have to win both to stay in the race, they are now suggesting she may stay in anyhow.
Now they are trying to shift the onus to Obama, saying that...get this - if he loses any single primary or caucus today, it is an indication that Hilary should stay in the race.
Say it with me now...big long, dutty stuppsssssse! You know what, this is just a spite thing now. I don't think she has any genuine belief or hope that she can still win the nomination, she is just out to deliberately undermine and divide the party now ahead of Barack's nomination. With the Republicans holding their nose and closing ranks around McCain, she is willing to undermine her own party's chances in the hope that she can get a look-in in four years' time after McCain has become President.
What wickedness. I should be appalled but it's Hilary - I'm no longer surprised.
1 comments:
As well as all that you mentioned it bothers me that Mr. Hinkson's pension or disability payments are so small. He has been a professional for many years and I am wondering when he (or any of us middle aged folks) became too sick to work is that all that NIS pays for permanent disabilities? And if it is not enough dare I suggest that our NIS contributions and benefits may need to be increased. In other words what happens to those of us who become sick or permanently disabled when we are older than 50 but younger than 65 and too young to receive old age pension, yet not old enough nor sick enough to die. What happens? Because today it may be Mr. Hinkson and tomorrow it may be us or or mother or father or husband or wife, and what then? If Mr. Hinkson was experiencing enormous hardship, then there must be many other who are also suffering.
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