Not so taxing

Not surprisingly, politicians on both sides missed another opportunity to elevate the level of national discourse, and channel our culture of chaos more constructively.

On the one hand, information about the tax was not communicated to the society in a timely manner, providing fodder for the idea to be “ripped apart.” We continue to confuse political street theatre with good governance. I guess that is why artists always recommend that politicians leave the performing to us.

Globally, property taxes are collected for the enhancement of communities — schools, parks, roads, basketball courts. I imagine that this would be the priority for the tax as well? I’m not sure, another serious flaw in the communication about what the money will be used for.

I listened to Ministry of Finance representatives and reviewed the calculations. In my view, the payments are not onerous if you have one property. So, I imagine the people who are having difficulties with paying are those with numerous obligations? Or, indeed, those people who own agricultural land, but are using it for industrial purposes? Or people like the ones I watched as I grew up transform a home in a residential area into an emporium with dancing girls, mechanic shop, Lotto booth and sundry other dealings — I imagine people like that would have a problem with someone looking deeper into the specifics of their ownership.

But our culture is so hypocritical.

I was not aware that a property tax existed even before independence, until all these fake protests started.

Further, we complain that we want our society to improve. We see our neighbours in the Caribbean and smaller, less wealthy nations around the world doing well, with not even quarter the talent we have just walking down Frederick Street.

How do we get there? We must become more structured, more disciplined, honest and focused on building our communities.

The discourse must now centre on one core goal. Given that the tax is coming anyway, how do we use people power to ensure that monies collected are used to fix our communities and not to pay for other types of government bills and responsibilities.

All over our nation, neighbourhoods need to be fixed, organised and run properly. Simple things.

Repairing broken street lights, installing street signs, and painting yellow lines to deal with wrecker lust and driver ignorance. We need green spaces, clean villages, cycling lanes, pedestrianised towns and cities, roads without potholes, cafes.

Our blue passport entitles us to enjoy the bounty of our country.

And yes, our elected officials are accountable to us. But we seem to have missed the point that we still have a responsibility to make sure that our society is functional, ordered and equitable.

I get it. After all the taxes and after all the oil, natural gas, pitch, cocoa, breadfruit, coconuts, flying fish, scorpion pepper, Carnival, pan, kaiso, chutney — after all of it, we still cannot feed ourselves.

Meanwhile, the world watches on as citizens burn tyres to get water and roads so they can go about their daily lives in comfort.

I think the real test of our citizenship is yet to come. Will we allow people with agendas other than country to confuse us, or will we see this as a chance to quiet our chaotic existence and improve quality of life for all? For me, the choice is really not that taxing after all.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e a HE PROPERTY tax brought out the worst in us this week. I like to think that Mother Nature sent us a little rain, perhaps as her way of telling us to “cool it,” literally and figuratively.

Not surprisingly, politicians on both sides missed another opportunity to elevate the level of national discourse, and channel our culture of chaos more constructively.

On the one hand, information about the tax was not communicated to the society in a timely manner, providing fodder for the idea to be “ripped apart.” We continue to confuse political street theatre with good governance. I guess that is why artists always recommend that politicians leave the performing to us.

Globally, property taxes are collected for the enhancement of communities — schools, parks, roads, basketball courts. I imagine that this would be the priority for the tax as well? I’m not sure, another serious flaw in the communication about what the money will be used for.

I listened to Ministry of Finance representatives and reviewed the calculations. In my view, the payments are not onerous if you have one property. So, I imagine the people who are having difficulties with paying are those with numerous obligations? Or, indeed, those people who own agricultural land, but are using it for industrial purposes? Or people like the ones I watched as I grew up transform a home in a residential area into an emporium with dancing girls, mechanic shop, Lotto booth and sundry other dealings — I imagine people like that would have a problem with someone looking deeper into the specifics of their ownership.

But our culture is so hypocritical.

I was not aware that a property tax existed even before independence, until all these fake protests started.

Further, we complain that we want our society to improve. We see our neighbours in the Caribbean and smaller, less wealthy nations around the world doing well, with not even quarter the talent we have just walking down Frederick Street.

How do we get there? We must become more structured, more disciplined, honest and focused on building our communities.

The discourse must now centre on one core goal. Given that the tax is coming anyway, how do we use people power to ensure that monies collected are used to fix our communities and not to pay for other types of government bills and responsibilities.

All over our nation, neighbourhoods need to be fixed, organised and run properly. Simple things.

Repairing broken street lights, installing street signs, and painting yellow lines to deal with wrecker lust and driver ignorance. We need green spaces, clean villages, cycling lanes, pedestrianised towns and cities, roads without potholes, cafes.

Our blue passport entitles us to enjoy the bounty of our country.

And yes, our elected officials are accountable to us. But we seem to have missed the point that we still have a responsibility to make sure that our society is functional, ordered and equitable.

I get it. After all the taxes and after all the oil, natural gas, pitch, cocoa, breadfruit, coconuts, flying fish, scorpion pepper, Carnival, pan, kaiso, chutney — after all of it, we still cannot feed ourselves.

Meanwhile, the world watches on as citizens burn tyres to get water and roads so they can go about their daily lives in comfort.

I think the real test of our citizenship is yet to come. Will we allow people with agendas other than country to confuse us, or will we see this as a chance to quiet our chaotic existence and improve quality of life for all? For me, the choice is really not that taxing after all.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Ne twork – ICAN rtist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Ne twork – ICAN