All This Talk of Sharing The Wealth. Do I Have Any Wealth To Share?

All This Talk of Sharing The Wealth. Do I Have Any Wealth To Share?
Author

Joseph Picklesworth

Release Date

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Share

I logged on to MNI Alive yesterday to read the latest articles and catch up on the news in and around the Caribbean. Thumbing through the digital pages with my trusty mouse at my side I read about the gladiatorial encounter between Premier Meade, Dr Buffonge and the ‘text messages’.

Well, it is great to witness the rise of a proper scandal in Montserrat. But what after ‘Text Gate’ there surely will not be ‘Coconut Gate’ where one politician is accused of watering down coconut water or ‘Carib Gate’ with the stockholding bottles in a warehouse to create a shortage. Or even ‘Farm Gate’ where we see the rise of the agricultural sector on island.

In my flippancy I resumed my browsing and checked out the latest poll for readers to consider.

What is Most Important To You For Montserrat's Elections 2014?
Proclaims the banner at the top of the page. Before I even looked down at the list I had hundreds of answers running through my head: Money, Money, Money, No more Power Outages, Money and.. err Money.

It does appear that MNI Alive does not concur with my ill thought out list and instead gives us all the benefit of choosing one of the following more intellectual options:

A change of Government
Healthcare
Little Bay/Carr's Bay Development
Education
Sharing the wealth
Jobs and Employment

A very sensible and astute list considering. I feel this covers all the bases and provides the relevant areas to formulate a considered choice. Therefore I was slightly intrigued to read the poll count.

33% of votes are allocated to the development of Carr’s and Little Bays. Considering the animosity to this development I hear out and about, this is a surprise.

Running for second place we have, Healthcare, Education, a change in Government and Jobs and Employment. But these are with almost half the votes of the above.

And third (or last) ‘Sharing the Wealth’. But that is OK, because I am not really a big fan of sharing my meagre wealth with anybody.

What does this voting tell me, does it say that we rate physical development over and above health and education? Does it say we will happily develop Little Bay yet make do with a second rate hospital and school?

Interestingly, the development in Little Bay does not include a school, a hospital or from what I can ascertain other essential services such a police and fire station.

Yes granted the development will probably bring employment to the island which in turn will provide more wealth. But how does this help us develop a healthy and educated population? Or do we consider the Healthcare and Education on island to be sufficient and feel this is not an area of required change?

What these results do tell me though, is that we are an intelligent voting public. We all value good Health and Education and Employment equally and there is an opinion that this may only really come with a change in Government. The votes for the development in Little Bay and Carr’s Bay is probably an anomaly in this sense. But let us not take away the pride associated with a new Capital Town.

As we move closer to the election, you and me as intelligent free thinking voters have the chance to make a real difference to the future of our island. The future development of Montserrat has to be successful and to achieve this, not one of the issues listed in the Poll is more important than the other.

Sustainable development (we have heard this phrase so much recently) is the amalgamation of many different factors. Each of those issues above, and more, will provide the foundation for this growth.

Saying that I still refuse to share my wealth with anybody, unless you catch me grabbing a cool one at Moose’s Bar, then maybe I’ll buy you a bottle. But at the moment, I really do not have any wealth to share!

_x000D_

Latest Stories