One Nation

It has been some time since I posted, my brain has been in another place. I always felt that this blog was a pressure valve for me. When things seemed unredeemable in the politics or simply in our broken society I would use this medium as my out. Within recent times other things have had me busy thus my tardiness in blogging. What the hell, we all have problems and we always find a way out, which is where I am tonight. Nikki Minaj has pledged support for the victims of the most recent flooding which the country experienced over the last 10 days. This is great news, we have reached the international news. PM Ralph Gonzalves has pledged $40K US as a token for the flood victims. The PMOTT has said that no help is needed and therefore he is not really willing to accept aid from other Caribbean Governments. The Rock has been at the forefront of aid for many island states and rightly so, we could have afforded it at the time. When your neighbor offers to help one should gratefully accept

Tonight, a typical October night, relatively cool but not sure what it is supposed to be. We had a torrential downpour today and it was a bit muggy. This month, like May, is a transition month, from the rainy season into the dry season, even though this will be some months away. The other morning there was a quick shower at about 4.00AM and I thought not a good sign for the upcoming dry season. Rain tends to fall early morning in the dry season, was this notice already of the dry season, I sincerely hope not. Trying to read the Sunday newspapers got me into a foul mood. The headlines were all doom and gloom. Why are we in this position? Why is everything a story, nothing is straight? The people are constantly told of unbridled corruption, yet not a single person has been charged and convicted of stealing from the taxpayer, why? We now have yet another scandal involving the PMOTT. People have come forward accusing and people have come forward defending. Everything is up in the air.

This week was Budget week with the Minister of Finance presenting his Government's fiscal policy for the coming financial year. It is something I guess all countries do, how they present their budgets, I am sure, varies from country to country. We have adopted the old established boring as hell, convoluted, to be understood only by technocrats, Ernst and Young and PWC.  99% of the speech not to be taken on and 1% of it taking up all the news and discussion. Our Minister went on for 3 painful hours and at the end, the only takehome was that he raised the price of super gasoline by $1.00. Ouch! Three hours of Colm? So, I figured I would make my comments in less than five minutes. You can time it, it will be exact. Change the format of the Budget speech making it make sense to all. Account for last years spending. Issue a one-pager of the vital statistics - monies in/monies out/ Ministries budget and Ministries spend for the previous fiscal year/deficit/positive cash flow/ %