The Labour Spokesman Editorial
For a rather long time we of this newspaper have been trying to draw the government’s attention to the fact that all is not well in the pricing of consumer goods at the supermarkets and groceries. Between last Friday’s edition and today’s, there has been an increase in the number of complaints reaching this paper. It seems clear that price gouging is being indulged in by the mercantile class, and that they are doing so ruthlessly and brazenly, apparently secure in the knowledge that the government are either unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
Rather than dealing with substantive matters and issues, some members of government are taken with trying to mamaguy those of our people who have some vested interest in keeping them in office. Our people know better, and those who habitually insult in those ways should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
This week we seek to draw from a few stanzas of one of The Mighty Sparrow’s truly great compositions, “Capitalism Gone Mad,” which, even though it pertained to Trinidad and Tobago and dates from the early nineteen eighties, is still current and just as relevant to us here in St Kitts and Nevis. Take for example the lines: “So many bills to pay, there is no conceivable way to save for a rainy day, in this country!” And: “To provide for your family, on your present salary, is an impossibility, in this country!” So relevant is the line “All hopes and dreams elude the poor man, but politicians still expect good work attitudes!” — it is as if The Birdie is living here in this country. Having asked “Why is everything so overpriced?”, Sparrow went on to state emphatically that “Is highway robbery, the price of food!”