For the past week I have been wondering this. Why it is dat a whole eight-week vacation does pass and from the time it done and the children got tuh guh back in tuh school, all of a sudden there does be a big problem?
Next thing ya know is dat the school have tuh be shut, workmen does be called in, children does be sent back home and the poor parents who done got demselves, children and duh work all sorted out tuh suit the school routine, now have tuh be scrambling.
This is something I can’t understand. Ya mean all the time so?
Year after year the same thing does be happening. If it ain’t one school, it is another. If it ain’t one problem, it does be another.
You mean tuh tell me dat from July tuh September nuhbody doan check the various schools, clear and fix up anything dat might need fixing or repairing before school start back in September?
This sort o’ thing so has been happening fuh too long now, though, and for a developing country like Barbados and a country dat does boast ’bout literacy and education, I think dat the people responsible have tuh use a li’l common sense. Then again, as the old people would say: common sense ain’t common.
Okay, dat is the schools, the Ministry of Education and dem kinda people so, but leh we look at another set o’ people.
Sometimes I wonder if I am too simple-minded or doan have enough business sense as some o’ these big shot people who own properties and have dem rented out or even the people from the various lending agencies.
Now evahbody know dat Barbados is going through some serious hard times.
This is the second time dat I know myself dat I experience this sort o’ thing happening; where people have had tuh alter duh lifestyle drastically.
The last time was when Erskine Sandiford was Prime Minister; when real nuff people lost duh homes and some o’ dem up tuh now ain’t recover yet.
What I cahn understand is this. Now a lot o’ people out o’ work, duh cahn go tuh town and spend wha’ duh ain’t got, so the stores gine experience a fall-off in sales and the people who renting the stores ain’t gine be able tuh meet the big lot o’ rents duh does have tuh pay when the month come.
Now tuh me, instead o’ getting nothing when the month come because the tenants cahn pay the high rents, the businesses shut down and the buildings fall intuh disrepair, why can’t these business landlords just lower the rent ’til things ease up, so dat evahbody could survive?
Wha’, tuh me, it gine cost dem a lot more tuh get these buildings back up tuh scratch when things turn around.
The same thing applies tuh the banks, credit unions and other lending agencies that so many people have mortgages wid.
Now cud’dear, some people ain’t got nuh jobs and ain’t got the slightest idea when things gine ease up; so it ain’t dem fault dat duh cahn meet the monthly instalments they agreed tuh but duh willing tuh pay what duh can ’til things pick up again.
My question is this: wouldn’t it make sense tuh allow people tuh pay a little bit when the month come and have somewhere tuh live, than tuh put dem out in the street tuh suffer more and leh the house run tuh ruin?
Wha’ nuhbody cahn afford tuh buy nuh houses nowadays; the same way dem ain’t got nuh job nor nuh money, the body who would like tuh buy a house in the said same boat as dem.
So the house gine have tuh stand pon the market ’til it rot down because you cahn get all o’ you money? Dah make sense?
I have nevah seen suh many people ’pon the breadline. Ya’all see all o’ dem thousands o’ people who turn up fuh dem jobs at Sandals?
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
