“This is the way to rule the people ..... People are like chickens. If you inflict inordinate pain on them they will follow you for food the rest of their lives.” ... Joseph Stalin
Observing from Marigot
Dear Editor :
In the midst of a global pandemic, dictators around the world have seized on human suffering to consolidate their stranglehold on nations and advance their selfish agenda. In the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin tried to institute legislation that will keep him in power for life. Fortunately a combination of Nature (COVID-19) and Saudi Hegemony over world oil have so far thwarted that effort. Philippines President, documented antisocial narcissist, Rodrigo Duterte, has used the crisis to acquire additional Emergency measures to direct and manipulate public finance and resource to feed his insatiable desire for power. Donald Trump has tried to dominate evening Prime Time and position himself for a second term as US President, but so far it has backfired; we will see how this ends for him. However, none of these guys, and they are all guys, have nothing on the Dominican anti-social narcissistic PM, Roosevelt Skerrit, his labor Party and the hapless upper management of the Dominica Police Services. Contrast the behavior of these men during this pandemic with women leaders like Jacinda Aedern in New Zealand or Angela Merkel in Gemany ... nuff said.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Roosevelt Skerrit and, the messed up minds that surround him, see opportunity. The measures adopted to effectively manage pandemics caused by contagions, including shelter- in-place, quarantine, state-of-emergency and curfew have worked to feed Skerrit's insatiable desire for power and to manipulate a nation that he and his henchmen has impoverished. Over the past 20 years, they have destroyed agriculture, fisheries and small manufacturers to transform this once flourishing island into one that is totally dependent on a single, vulnerable product, tourism. The latter is not a mistake, but provided the perfect opportunity for diversion of Citizenship-by-Investment, CBI, monies to cronies and henchmen and for kickbacks to themselves. In the midst of the pandemic, Skerrit sees an opportunity to pluck more feathers off struggling Dominicans. At the same time, his administration has refused to assist farmers, bus drivers, fishermen, shopkeepers, restaurateurs and others impacted by the hardship wrought by measures instituted to manage the pandemic. In fact, sub-human caricature the 'Deputy PM', Reginald Austrie stated that the government has resources but ...' it is for wet days, like the upcoming 2020 hurricane season ...' Now, under increasing pressure to assist persons affected by the pandemic, Skerrit shows up as Savior saying that there will be a package of financial assistance; .... soon. His government is working on it. This from an administration that has misappropriated more than EC/XCD $2 billion over the past 3 years from this small nation.
Now, after 20 years of promising to build a modern Airport in Dominica, the excuses are resurfacing. At the same time, crumbs are being handed out. Free Housing in Grand Bay and elsewhere, the Marigot Hospital is finally started after 6 years of deliberate mismanagement and there is more on the way. Meanwhile, people on the island are without livelihoods. But, people are happy as they have been deprived for so long that anything is good. In this island, which once generated agricultural products to feed itself and sell to neighbors like Barbadian hoteliers, people in Marie Galante, Guadelope, Montserrat, Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, the British and US Virgin islands, Dominicans are having to buy imported products. Most disappointingly, many Dominicans are dependent on government handouts to survive (free housing, food, clothing etcetera) and they see nothing abnormal about that scenario. But, they love the administration and the PM which have brought them to this era of hardship and suffering. Was paranoid Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin correct?
