21 Million Dollar Man

Once again the 25% of hard working Jamaicans pay is being used to fund the elaborate lifestyle of members of the Jamaican government. The Sunday Gleaner published Sunday July 31 had the frontpage story "Living Large? 21m in travel over four years. Yes or primeminister managed to rack up 21 million of tax payers money in travel! According to the article "Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has managed to rack up a bill of more than $21 million in expenditure on overseas travel in the last four years...And that figure does not include the cost attached to his travelling delegation, or costs contained in other documents which may have been missed during access to information searches."

I'm not saying that the PM should not travel in some luxury or stay at hotels befitting the status of dignitaries, after all he is a PM. But what gets to me is the fact that the government a bawl how dem nuh have no money fi fix the roads, provide proper education, decent health care and fi pay them workers. With all the hardship most Jamaicans face, the article says "on an official three-day trip to Cuba, the Prime Minister had the services of a special assistant, a press secretary and two butlers." Wah one man a do wid two butlers? How can the government expect to tell the civil services: the police, the firefighters, the hard working teachers, the nurses that they can't get any raise of pay, but yet they can afford such luxury?

This carries me to another sour issue. The National Solid Waste Commission scandal. This is a typical example of how hard working taxpayers money is wasted and subjected to highway robbery and no one is held accountable! No baddy nuh gone a jail! And why is it that when the government pays a Jamaican contractor to do work, di work nuh start yet, but yuh hear seh di contactor need more money and di work caan done?

Is the government squandering taxpayers hard earned money or is there some other logical explanation? Tell me, what you tink, eeh?