Why I’m starting to no longer feel like a ‘Proud Lucian’

I am a born-Lucian, but I must say I am beginning to feel like I can no longer be proud of where I’m from. There is no longer reason for me to celebrate, be cheerful or contented.

What I see is growing suffering. I see a kind of false achievement, one with plenty of cars and big homes, concrete and steel development, while the state neglects the real wants and needs of the people.

Since the advent of the COVID pandemic more people have had to strive for survival. More people are out of work and the prices of all goods and services have gone Sky High. Granted, more people are trying to help themselves, trying to eke out a living in whatever way they can, but they are left on their own to figure out how to make ends meet.

Everybody has made something from nothing, every other person has become a manufacturer overnight, but the state has not seen the light to create a manufacturing base or culture. Instead, it’s all about going back to school, but to the same curriculum, no new innovations, or thinking outside the box, they just keep doing things as per usual, so those who earn from the teaching profession remain employed regardless.

The state has become crime-oriented, criminals roam our country like they own it, guns have become the new sought-out item for the young and the police remain clueless about how to deal with the problem.

Many more people are planting crops but no new marketing outlets have emerged and more people are waiting to steal their produce and crops to sell on the black market.

The jail house remains the breeding-ground for a criminal culture and the Legal System still has most incarcerated without a fair trial.

How can I be happy and celebrate our 43rd Anniversary of our so-called independence when most people are still so dependent on handouts to make a living?

Despite our lack of monies, rather than taking the visual path using technological means to promote ourselves and our country, we are still sending huge contingents overseas on so-called promotional trips, further draining our coffers and claiming it to be about “selling ourselves overseas” and that our artistes and manufacturers are the ones benefitting from these trips.

As the saying goes, the more things change the more it remains the same. The Last Regime ensured that some major buildings in the city remained non-functional and abandoned, such as the Court House and the Printery, but rather than transforming them to some usable institutions –like museums, or Halls of Fame, the preference is to rent private property to have the courts and government printing become another private sector-affair.

When will we stop spinning top in mud? When will we see our realities? Now we have the fisheries complex closed down due to bad political decisions. Our fisher folk now strive on their own, from North to South, and all have to try to sell their daily catch at a higher price than usual because of the additional cost of transportation.

All these things I see, yet you think that we should be proud and celebrate our island home. Really, tell me what is there to celebrate or be thankful for?

The underground business is what keeps this economy buoyant, hence the reason that criminality is alive and well.  We talk about the new IT age and heading to teach through the use of technology, yet that proposed system is under-funded and have not taken root, or thought-out with a precise plan.

The administration of the day needs to wake up and smell the coffee, because rather than rising we are being battered to the depths of poverty and tomorrow looks grim.

Next on the agenda, I am told, is Vaxx Mas (Carnival), not as a street festival for the masses to enjoy but via a bubble, a special one for a selective few: and all just in the name of giving vaccinated people rights to jump-up and punish the unvaccinated.

Now we’re getting ready and being prepared for ‘Bacchanal in a Bubble!’

Wow! What a way to go!