Friday, May 22, 2020

DO WE REALLY SUBSCRIBE TO DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES?



With so much going on right now, sometimes it is possible to lose track of everything that has happened over the last almost five years and forget things that were upsetting or hadn't properly been answered or explained away. So, in an effort to keep things in perspective, and in no particular order, here is a list of ten things that have been in the news since the last general election. This list is by no means a complete list, nor is it meant to be a list of the ten most important things that have been questioned and not answered satisfactorily. It's just a list of things which have never been satisfactorily answered with the understanding that there are many other matters that could classify for this listing:

  - the $143,000 cash deposit by Camille Robinson-Regis into her bank account
  - the Delcy Rodriguez visit ostensibly to discuss COVID-19 with no health officials present
  - the 150,000 barrels of gasoline that supposedly went to Aruba but where the tanker mysteriously
     disappeared  for four weeks with the gasoline
  - the Prime Minister calling the Leader of the Opposition a traitor because she wrote to the
    American Embassy about this fuel deal
  - not allowing the stranded cruise ship passengers in Barbados to return home while allowing Delcy
    Rodriguez and her party to come in
  - the lack of clear and credible information about COVID-19 and the lack of testing
  - the covering up of the Daryll Smith matter involving $150,000 of public money and a claim of
    sexual harassment
  - the $500 million repair bill for the Red House
  - the closing down of Petrotrin
  - the lack of transparency concerning the country's finances (e.g., how much has been taken ... and
    put back into the Heritage and Stabilization Fund?)

I could go on, but hopefully, you've got the point. Any one of the above matters requires a complete answer. And while there may be complete answers to all of them, we have never been given those answers.

Now, it is either we live in a democracy or we don't. And it is either that a democracy requires that the people are told the WHOLE truth about everything or it doesn't. And if the whole truth is to be hidden from the people then can we really call what we have a democracy?

4 comments:

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  3. "This list is by no means a complete list, nor is it meant to be a list of the ten most important things that have been questioned and not answered satisfactorily. It's just a list of things which have never been satisfactorily answered with the understanding that there are many other matters that could classify for this listing"

    Answered to whose satisfaction, Mr. Montano? Yours? Mine? Yuh UNC pardner dong de road and he PNM cousin up by de rum shop? Obviously no answer or explanation will ever satisfy everyone, and certainly not those with political biases and agendas who do not want to be satisfied and who would never be satisfied, whatever the Government's answer/explanation.

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  4. "Now, it is either we live in a democracy or we don't. And it is either that a democracy requires that the people are told the WHOLE truth about everything or it doesn't. And if the whole truth is to be hidden from the people then can we really call what we have a democracy?"

    We live in an over democratized democracy where the concept of democracy and its dynamics are taken to absurd lengths.

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