THE EMPEROR HAS TURNED HIMSELF IN FOR SERVICE . . . BUT IS THIS THE ANWSER?

The Emperor talks too much, acts too little and he is always too late; but at this late stage of the game, talking is not the answer and will not help either. His government has been St. Lucia’s biggest five year talk-shop with so many different mouthpieces “talking the talk” but with the Emperor “not walking the walk”. And now, with his new Talks Shop series  (At Your Service), he has brought himself in "for service", saturating the nation with even more Talk backed up with little or no action.

Ossie Boy talks everyday on every talk show, making a fool of himself most of the time. The Emperor’s Incredible Hulk (Darnley Labourne), former Mr Universe (Rick Wayne), the Leprechaun (Timothy Poleon) and Gwan Djòl-Pat Fin (Sam flood) fill our heads with talk, talk and more talk - day after day, week after week and month after month. We are now “talk-weary” and now we have the "Emperor in the Pack" bringing himself in for servicing at the “ At Your Service” talk garage for still more talk. Mr emperor! We want no more talk. We want action on the Bar de L’Isle, Bexon, Columbette, Fond St. Jacques, Gertrine, Saltibus and Daban. We want action on unemployment. We want action on Rufus Bousquet and Richard Frederick etc etc.

Is there a correlation between the "amount of talk'" that the Emperor does and the the number of "cut and paste" speechwriters he has? There is a general perception in the country that the Emperor has too many speech writers. Some pontificate on economic recession and others pontificate on economic growth, confusing the emperor.  Some even plagiarise, as was the case on Tuesday night when within the first two minutes of his “At Your Service” speech, an excerpt from a speech delivered as part of an Economic Overview by a guest speaker at the SLPYO Retreat was recited.

For 4 ¾ years, the Emperor sang the “sanngki” of economic recession; but as we approach the general elections, he has changed to a happy “soca” of prosperity boasting that our economy has grown so much that we have now overtaken Antigua as the largest economy in the OECS.

While the Emperor is on the stage singing his happy “Soca” song, someone backstage is applauding him for the brand new clothes he is wearing; but the sorry truth is the Emperor has no clothes on and he does not seem to have the “presence of mind and being” to understand his dilemma before the national audience. So regardless of his doom, the emperor reads merrily along, not even aware of his imminent demise being crafted by his own circle of speechwriters who are themselves used to nude performances.

While the ECCU is predicting a slowdown which is truly reflective of the recession, the emperor is painting a bright picture of economic growth as if to suggest that St. Lucia does not belong to the ECCU. In 2011, the World Bank and IFC ranked St. Lucia 42; in 2012, we slipped 11 places down to 53; in the 5-year period, we  slipped 26 places (from 27 to 53), with the biggest slide recorded between 2011 and 2012. Yet, the emperor glorified our present rankings, proclaiming that we are now ranked number 1 in the Caribbean, suggesting that we were – more or less - recession-proof.

How can we experience growth when so many people are unemployed and losing their jobs? How do we reconcile St. Lucia’s record unemployment figures with the emperor’s impressive economic figures? Where are the indicators of that growth? Where is the physical evidence of that growth?

Beneath the World Bank rankings, there is an obvious story of economic decline and perhaps even failure as indicated by the positively skewed distribution of rankings. St. Lucia may be number 1 in the OECS; but she only achieved that by a precipitous nosedive from 27 in 2006 to 53 in 2012 in the world rankings. Can we rationally equate that nosedive with success? Yes, it can be success only when you butcher the statistics and make them lie.

The World Bank “Ease-of-Doing business” rankings can be compared to the results of a test administered to an “F class” where every single member in that class has failed the test. The ranking therefore will only be a ranking of the failed members of the class and will have nothing to do with success. In fact, if you look at our graphs, you will see that St. Lucia performed way below the Latin America/Caribbean average for all the indicators and this is what the WB/IFC report said about us:

“St. Lucia’s overall Doing Business 2011 ranking has declined this year, reflecting lower scores in all the indicators.”

Yet, the Emperor reported that St. Lucia is “number one” in the Caribbean for 2012.

The emperor also said that the economy grew by 4.4% growth; because that growth was the result of statistical re-engineering (rebasing) of the GDP, it is therefore intellectually dishonest to compare the “rebase” figure (of 4.4%) with it the figures for previous years unless we “normalize” them.

We can butcher statistics and make them tell any story – as King is currently doing with the GDP statistics (and the dishonest Ossie Boy would wish the Department of Statistics do with the unemployment figures); but what matters is the reality on the ground – how people feel it in their pockets, in the gas pumps, in their bank accounts, in their bellies etc.

The Labour Party is indeed correct when it said “what they (the King Government) have not succeeded in accomplishing over nearly five years, will not be achieved in five speeches between now and General Elections”.

Too much talk and spin and too little action by the Emperor! The crankshaft of Government has a serious bearing knock and servicing the engine with five speeches will not solve the problem; we need a brand new engine.