We here at NEWSCO take this opportunity to wish all Antiguans and Barbudans a most delightful and blessed Christmas, and a happy and rewarding 2022. As we look back at the past twelve months, and cross the threshold into another year, we can say like the writer, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us!”We are grateful!
Of course, the new year will bring a whole host of fresh challenges, but by ‘pulling together,’ and ‘not to pieces,’ and with the help of the Almighty, we will be able to meet and overcome those things that wouldst fain beset and hinder us. We are equal to the tasks at hand.
Sadly, for many of us, this year ends on a sour note. Our dreadful water woes continue to be the source of much angst and vexation of spirit, as does the awful Social Security situation. Many of our senior citizens will not be able to give a grandchild or some other loved one a decent gift for Christmas on account of the continuing penury at the Social Security Department. As has been the case for much of this year, like Old Mother Hubbard, we have gone to the cupboards to fetch our poor dogs a bone, but the cupboards are bare. It is the curse of our time under this pathetic administration.
The perplexing decision by our good Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to further hound the United Progressive Party (UPP) trio in the silly bus case has also left a sour taste in the mouths of all men and women of goodwill. There is a thinking in the minds of many that he is responding to a dog-whistle, much as did Don Quioxte to his delusions of grandeur.
Meanwhile, this year was also marked by much cursing of the citizenry from he of a high place. His foul mouth and twisted thinking needs to be properly cleansed with soap, as Grandma would say. It is difficult, in these modern times, to find a leader who has been more dismissive and disparaging of his people. May this new year be the one in which we are freed of him and those of like ilk. We are better than that! We deserve better than that! We are not masochists, gluttons for abuse and punishment. As the late great Tim Hector would have said, “Enough has become too much, and up with it we cannot put!” May we act accordingly! May we do that which we must to preserve our dignity and self-respect.
Apart from his filthy and disgusting tirades, there is the matter of the ineffective leadership from he of a high place. Seems, those deep-pocketed investors around the world are hardly impressed with our poor excuse for a leader. We just cannot seem to attract anybody of any substance to do business with us here in our fair State. From YIDA, to WISEZ (Western Imperial Special Economic Zone), to the Stem Cell Research Centre, to the wonderful developments at Fort James, to the dis and the dat, this administration has made a virtue out of what Shakespeare once called, “Much ado about nothing!”A rainmaker, our dear and wonderful leader is manifestly not! Talk about impotence! (no pun intended)
Consider, if you will, this damning account from the pages of Social Media, entitled,ABLP FAILURES: PROJECTS PROMISED SINCE 2014, BUT NEVER HAPPENED. First, there’s the Callalloo Quay Resort, followed by the Half Moon Bay Hotel, the Beaches Hotel, the Best Western Hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the Rendezvous Bay Project, the aforementioned YIDA Project (A big waste), the Paradise Found Project, the Marriott Hotel, the Valley Church Beach Resort, the Willoughby Bay Project, the Marble Hill Business Hotel, the Sunny Hill Group Bethesda Project, the Dulcina Hotel, and so on and so forth. What a litany of failure! It is not easy to imagine another administration in the Caribbean with such feeble execution.
We do not often agree with our late former Prime Minister(PM), Sir Lester Bird, but we find that in his denunciation of this Antigua Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) and its pitiable performance, he is spot-on. Said the good former PM, “We’ve had groundbreaking after groundbreaking and nothing to show for it! At least finish one!” Ouch! Sadly, for this laughable administration, that is a bridge too far!
Clearly, the time for change has come here in Antigua and Barbuda. We understand that the next general election will be called in this year, 2022, and we certainly trust that the good citizens of this fair State will do the right thing. All the tricks and gimmicks of these past two general elections will no longer suffice. There’s no way that we will continue being taken for granted and bully-ragged and ‘cussed’ and bamboozled by this uninspiring and lacklustre band of constituency representatives. They, the entire lot of them, have been “weighed in the balance and found woefully wanting.”
As the new year dawns, our hearts are filled with hope for a brighter tomorrow – a tomorrow in which our leader treats us with respect and delivers on his promises. We are looking for a leader who conducts himself like a gentleman, and not one who behaves like a common street thug. We owe it to ourselves and our children.
Again, here’s to a bright and prosperous 2022. We thank all our loyal listeners, readers, advertisers, and subscribers for standing beside us, and we look forward to your continued support throughout the year. We promise that we will continue ‘shining a light in the dark corners,’ and being your trusted news, information and entertainment source.
And as Clement Clarke Moore once wrote in A VISIT FROM ST NICK, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” THE DAILY OBSERVERwillsee you next year on January 4.
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