I would like to add my two cents to the escalating discourse on bleachers; I thank you for affording me space in your newspaper.
It certainly does not matter if Junkanoo this season made money or not; it does not matter whether those (stupid, borrowed that adjective from King Eric) bleachers were filled to capacity on Boxing Day and New Year’s; it does not matter that the Prime Minister praised publicly the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture. It does not matter!
What does matter to me and a burgeoning number of taxpayers is why those bleachers were rented for more than they could have been bought for.
This has got to be asininity at its finest!
When the Minister first announced that the bleachers were coming, he said that they were procured just about free of charge … the Ministry only had to pay the freight on them from Canada.
From that time, just about every other day, there was some announcement on the bleachers – the price and terms, however, kept changing.
Finally the country is stuck with a bill for one fat million dollars… and I’m sure when the final figure is given it will be much more than a million.
This wanton waste is at a time when there is a reported shortfall in revenue of 200 million dollars; at a time when the country needs to practice austerity; at a time when there is uncertainty in the world – the looming U.S. war with Iraq – is certain to further negatively impact on our economy.
I am not against Junkanoo; it’s our pride and joy – Minister Wisdom, though, showed no wisdom at all in spending more than a million dollars to rent bleachers for Junkanoo – our prime cultural festival that Bahamians prefer enjoying just milling around – swinging and swaying to that good Junkanoo music, if you please – not perched on a bleach as if one was watching a baseball game or a movie at the theater.
This is certainly a bad start for the Christie government, and this could very well be the scandal of the year.
Bahamians should cry out en mass; Wisdom should be fired before January 15; an independent investigation should be carried out.
Bahamians would not let this one be swept under the carpet. It’s too blatant – I smell a rat!
Yours etc.,
Yvonne Green
Letter To The Editor, The Nassau Guardian
