Dear Nesta,
Speak de troof an’ speak it evah!
How you? Awright, I hope, aldoh I cyhan say de same t’ing fuh my frien’ Philomena! As you well know, dis is we Crop Over season, an’ yestuhday – Kadooment Day – was “las’ mas” befo’ curtin time! Philomena had all intentions to fine sheself ’pon de road in a ban’, but de Friduh night Foreday Mornin’ jump dat she decide to j’in (she feel she is a “young yam”, y’know) put a stop to anyt’ing else she mighta had in min’! Dat woman always tellin’ evahbody dat age is jes’ a number, but when I see she draggin’ in early Sarrduh mornin’ after jumpin’ out she guts, I was frighten enough she own was up, faif! It put a stop to any intentions she had to be back ’pon de road Kadooment Day – wishful t’inkin’!
I en had no sympat’y a-tall fuh Philomena! One minute I hear she en got no money an’ de nex’ she payin’ down ’pon a expensive costume fuh Kadooment Day! She jes’ like a lotta ethuh Bajans, goin’ all out fuh Crop Over widout a t’ought fuh wuh comin’ nex’. I know full well de Guvment tryin’ to mek we feel dat de situation we now fine weselves in, not as bad as mos’ people sayin’ it is, an’ Crop Over come at jes’ de right time to help duh out, but it now over, an’ dah black cloud o’ de $400 million deficit still hangin’ over we heads.
I got to ’gree wid de Central Bank Guvnor approach to de whole affair, tek de bull by de horns, draw in we belts an’ face de music. Sandy had a big problem years ago an’ he decide – wevver he lose votes or not – to put on de eight per cent salary cut. Bajans was blue but we had to “like it or lump it” an’ “go t’rough de valley”. An’ we come out, right? We din dead from starvation! In fack, I live to hear mo’ dan one body say it was de onlies’ t’ing he could do at de time to save we skins.
We now got anethuh big problem an’ dis time Guvment appear to be dealin’ wid it in a diff’rent way. I onderstan’ de Finance Minister promisin’ nobody gine lose duh job – it would only happen as a “las’ resort”. Dem two words got muh nerviss, ’cause to me, duh lef de door open fuh anyt’ing to happen. A sayin’ I us-ed to hear in my youff, come right to my min’. “Speak de troof an’ speak it evah, cos’ it what it will, he who hides de wrong he does, does de wrong t’ing still”.
My nighber come to muh las’ night wid mo’ depressin’ news. She say one UN body name Economic Commission fuh Latin America an’ de Caribbean report dat all evidence show it “becomin’ increasingly difficult to avoid job losses”. Yuh onderstan’ wuh duh tryin’ to tell we? We cyhan get ’way from job cuts. Well, I know guvment say it en happenin’, so it obvious to me dat in spite o’ wuh all de “economizers” an’ evahbody in de know, sayin’ ’bout dis situation, Guvment know somet’ing nobody else don’ know. Time gine tell.
As ef we din got enough problems to deal wid at de moment, ugly “race talk” mekkin’ de roun’s once agen. Looka, evahbody is Bajan, white, whitish, black, brown, fair skin, yalluh, pink or polka dot, an’ we all belonks to dis islan’. Right now, we lookin’ down de barrel o’ de economic gun, tryin’ to dodge dem bullets, so ’stead o’ tryin’ to stir up onnecessary trouble, leh we live in peace an’ harmony, an’ concentrate ’pon how we gine get outta de mess we now in!
Tek care o’ yuhself,
Yuh frien’, Babsie.
