Stand together or be banished by disunity

On the one hand, Smith describes misguided patriots who are concerned about crime while insinuating that these “patriots” at the same time encourage cuts in social spending and “demand” that Government rationalises squatting.

I have never read or heard these comments on the lips of those he alleges to hold these positions.

What I have heard in many informed circles is that as a nation we have wasteful, exorbitant, unnecessary expenditure and unsustainable, often padded, recurrent costs and we simply cannot afford to continue to blow away the vanished oil and gas wealth without serious long-term, possibly irreversible, devaluation spirals.

Substantial waste includes rental costs of empty prestige buildings of which there are many vulgar examples.

Why are we renewing rental leases on unoccupied white elephants such as the black-mirrored glass building in El Socorro behind Fujitsu, next to the Maritime roundabout, or #1 Alexandra Place, and at what amounts to $1 million a month per property? The combined rental of those two buildings alone would pay the cost of a properly run Community- based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme for an entire year.

Why are these scandals not headline news? Part of the problem is that as a small post-colonial nation we have inherited distrust of others for all kinds of historical reasons that have no relevance in 2016 and so our comments will probably continue to be shot down and we will be shunned in several circles for completely opposing reasons rather than simply responding to the facts.

Instead of throwing colonies of bacteria at each other, why not come together to exchange ideas and work towards fixing the problem so we can get out of this rut we have created? For instance, what is the current rental portfolio of Government? How does it compare with the square foot rental costs paid for by the private sector? How many rental buildings are fully occupied and how many are unused, are underutilised? Can we give up and save the rent? How much space in the waterfront properties are vacant or underutilised? How can we fund well managed and constructive social or environmental programmes if senior government officials preside over insider rental portfolios to friends and family? Unless we stop the economic haemorrhaging which includes duty-free manufacturers who bottle ketchup and package foreign milk, unless we deflate and compare rental costs, unless we expose the well-known procurement kickback process (from hydrocarbons to helicopters), unless we ensure that fair value is obtained for our national patrimony, unless we stand together as citizens with loyalty to each other regardless of party, race, age, religion or gender, we will be banished like so many before us to the vagaries of our own disunity.

GARY ABOUD Secretary, FFOS