Our National Carnival 2017/18 has received mixed reviews, with the negatives greatly exceeding the positives. It is the popular view that the chairman of the festival is unfit to hold that office, an assessment which has obtained from his very first year in office.

Indeed, to any person of average intelligence, it is clear that the individual is singularly lacking in leadership and organisational skills, and his all too obvious reliance on partisan politics and connections only serves to make bad matters worse.

We heartily congratulate our first woman champion of calypso and wish her a long and successful reign. We also congratulate all those who competed and achieved success in in any event.

By and large the general conduct of our revelers was of an acceptable nature, and it seems as though the police did not have to intervene in that many instances. We congratulate and thank our people for their behaviour and restraint at a time when the temptation to indulge in public abandonment is always high.

Rather unfortunately, we find ourselves constrained to address a very unpleasant aspect of the festivities, namely the most outrageous behaviour of some persons who quite literally indulged in overt acts of sexual misconduct. To put it quite bluntly, some individuals were, it is reported, observed having sex publicly, and in plain view of children.

The fact that those persons may have been under the influence of alcohol or narcotics is NO excuse whatsoever. To the contrary it makes bad matters worse.

Some time ago information reached this newspaper to the effect that members of a carnival troupe of Kittitians misconducted themselves in a similar manner while taking part in a festival in Anguilla. So disgusting was their behaviour that the Premier felt himself compelled to put a stop to it.

In all of this, we are not hearing a word from any of those who, just a few years ago, described themselves as “The Conscience of The Nation”. Of course that was when they were most desperately trying to remove The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and The Nevis Reformation Part from office.

What does The Christian Council and The Evangelical Association have to say about any of this? What about The Chamber of Industry and Commerce? What about THE TEACHERS UNION? Where, oh where are the ‘Prayer Warriors’? Have they dropped off the face of the earth? When can the nation expect to hear from any of you?

As we opined before we reiterate that, having succeeded in removing Labour and The NRP, and having installed the incumbents, those groups immediately succumbed to a case of acute laryngitis.

Or, is it the case that, having experienced a rather rude awakening as to the true nature of the ‘monster’ which they ‘used’ to achieve their political goal, they are now living in the grip of fear, worrying on a daily basis about their personal safety and that of their loved ones?

Yet another example of the capricious nature of that ‘creature’ called EXPEDIENCE!
The embarrassment brought upon us in Anguilla (of all places) is symptomatic of our nation having been returned to the days of ‘Devil’s Island’ and other international scandals of the 1980s and early 1990s, and it is as if the ‘unity’ lot (PAM, CCM and the other entity) could not wait to take us right back there.

But we, the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, have only ourselves to blame. We chose to ignore numerous warnings, for whatever reasons, and this is where we are at this point in time.
The signs were always there. For example, who amongst us could have really forgotten the international newspaper scandals involving a minister who, in the presence of his officials, acted in one manner with some international journalists, then invited them to lunch afterward and acted in another? Note well, he invited them, and, having been caught red-handed and exposed internationally, tried to use his minions to claim that he had been entrapped!

How could highly educated, rational and sensible people choose to disregard such warnings? Obviously it was all a matter of ‘expedience’, be it political or otherwise.
One could easily opine that they, having feathered their nests, must now lie in it, and perhaps deservedly so. However it is not just the few who are suffering, but the many. Indeed, it is the nation as a whole which has been yet again brought into ignominy (public shame and disgrace) on an international scale.

The matter of the so-called herpes experiments on humans has now attracted the attention of The United States Senate.One can well imagine that certain individuals in our government have suddenly began to experience a sharp increase in their bowel movements.

In time we shall all find out just who were in any way involved and to what extent, as well as what monies were passed, how much, from which person or institution, and to whom. Without a doubt this one is going to be huge, and our country will have on its hands a long and tough fight to regain our standing in the international community.

We of this newspaper hope that when it all ‘comes out in the wash’ there will be many lessons which you, our people, will learn and always remember.

The hypocritical behaviour in which the SCHEME UNITY lot indulged, over many years and leading up to the last general elections, has left many of our people dumbfounded. So many are still finding it impossible to believe that their fellow human beings can be so deceitful, so wicked, and so cold hearted. But that is who most of them are, dear people, and that is how most of them will forever remain.

Now that they have been in office for nigh on three years we have all had some time in which to assess their competence and true intentions. By now it should be clear to most everyone that the SCHEME UNITY lot are not well intentioned, neither are they able. Indeed one would be inclined to describe them as a group of persons masquerading as a government, but to do so would be a most grievous insult to our masquerades who the genuine article.

In order to describe them accurately one has to reach back a little to find the most appropriate term, and that word is GAMMICK, a localisation of the English word ‘gimmick’, which The Oxford English Dictionary describes as being “A trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade”. How apt a description of what UNITIM is and has always been. The dictionary then goes on to illustrate gimmick thus: ‘it is not so much a programme to improve services as a gimmick to gain votes’. Wow! Is there any way in which to more accurately describe and explain the ongoing traffic lights fiasco?

While this government bombastically makes all sorts of specious claims about how well they are doing, reputable international organisations have been assessing and placing us amongst the top tiers of the world’s most highly indebted nations, and those with the highest murder rates, and, as our Comrade Chairperson recently pointed out, we are still feeling the squeeze. Indeed, as we shop for our goods it is plain to see that merchants are increasing the price of goods on a weekly basis.

Yes, dear people, as we continue our preparations to take back your government we need to realise the depths to which we have been taken by this shameful, vindictive and heartless GAMMICK government. We will have much to consider and take into account, a great deal to plan for, and lots of hard work to do in order to regain our country’s forward thrust and our standing internationally.

Let us take heart and resolve to bring to end this business of ‘Government by Gimmickry’.