THE EDITOR:
With all due respect, Mr. Editor, how much more dialogue do we need to tell us what is wrong with our economy and society?
Didn’t the PM and Minister of Finance say there was dialogue in the preparation of the budget?
Aren’t there debates in Parliament and in the Senate every month on our many societal and economic woes?
Are there not reams upon reams of reports from National Economic Councils and from the IMF, World Bank and CDB over the past 25 years with tons of policy recommendations that have not been implemented?
Have we not been told time and time again that:
* we need to change the culture and system of governance to allow ALL Saint Lucians regardless of political affiliation to contribute to the development of our country?
* we are not a rich country; that we should stop behaving as if we are and start living within our means?
* that our domestic economy is too small and our markets too thin to give us the economies-of-scale we need and that the only effective way of overcoming these constraints is through a Caribbean Single Market and Economy?
* our workforce is generally neither efficient nor productive and that our education system is not producing the skills we need to compete in a 21st century global economy?
* our private sector is too dependent on government and does not have what is needed to become the engine of sustained economic growth?
* economic growth will not come in the absence of smart public sector investments that target export-led growth?
No Mr. Editor! We have had ENOUGH of the dialogue! What we need is ACTION.
– Anon