CRYING KORBAN

If the Government really cares about and for the ordinary people in this country it could and should do something about the ever spiraling and seemingly out of control cost of living. We are being faced with such rising prices in the grocery that it is now becoming extraordinarily expensive just to put food on the table. And, if the news reports are true, we are all about to face a huge rise in our electricity bill. The electricity company (TTEC) says that it is losing money and has applied for a rate increase which the regulatory authority (RIC) appears to be considering favourably. But, wait a minute! In the one reported public hearing nobody from the RIC is reported as commenting on the fact that the very Government and its Sate run entities owes millions (if not billions to TTEC! So? Why should we have to pay for their apparent refusal either to pay or cut down on their use of electricity? Is TTECC going to cut off the Government et al the way we get cut off?

The RIC has rather disingenuously said that most of the proposed increases will fall on the backs of businesses. Really! And just how do they suggest that those businesses on whom the cost of an increased electricity bill will fall pay, their new bills WITHOUT increasing what the ordinary person pays for the goods of those companies? And the silence from the Government (as well as from the Opposition) is so loud that we can't hear them! Do they really think that a grocery, for example, will not have to put up the price of its foods in order to meet the new electricity bills? And what about the suppliers to that grocery store? How will they survive if they don't increase their prices? The list goes on.

This present Government has made a million mistakes, and while it is a given that it is easier to make a mistake than to fix it, we also need to try to start fixing things now rather than later. I am not interested in the mistakes of yesterday, nor am I particularly interested in "who t'ief what" (although I most certainly think that this will need to be addressed).  And I really don't see it as being very productive in criticizing everything. The country needs fixing today! We can argue about whose fault it was later.

My message to the Government is simple: people are really hurting. Fix their hurts - NOW! and if you haven' a clue then say so and quit. Put another way, lead, follow or get out of the way! But don't be like the pharissee who gets rid of his sins at the gate of the temple by crying "KORBAN"!C