Caribbean lickey lickey
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THE EDITOR, Madam:
I know some women and men who have been taken care of by their fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, and in-laws throughout their life, all the while proclaiming that they were on a quest for independence. As Shakespeare equally declared: methinks you doth protest too much.
You probably know someone like this. It is, unfortunately, common.
In many cases, they simply steal from the family or company or country cash box.
There are many parallels of this scenario in your neighbourhood, town, city, and country among a diverse set of persons, men and women alike, pseudo professionals, politicians, private sector, public sector, and even agriculture. The benchmark on being a Lickey Jockey is easily discernible among those who profess non-existent ability, invisible profit, unexplained wealth, absent proficiency, all the while seeking government, private or family support, grants, loans, and allowances.
The impatient simply takes, and if caught, purposely languish for years in a failed legal system.
While others struggle through a life founded on meritocracy, others skate by on connections, nepotism, family, secret brotherhood, and the like. After a lifetime of hard labour as a prisoner of an unfair system, the normal and ignored are consigned to a diminishing pension. Others, far in the reaches of gerontocracy, are renewed regularly in a system of faux support with zero performance.
Unbelievable as it would appear, many people never earn a legitimate dollar throughout their life but spend millions.
The young will have to abide or learn the trade of lickey, lickey, or not.
Governments who fail to make a declaration of regular succession, even resignation while in office or power, to make room for the young and able, should be left with no doubt that they will be punished at the local and national ballot box. A cursory review of ages in Parliament or on boards will give the impression that many countries are teetering on the abyss of aged thought and absent, modern ideas.
Just look at the age of leadership. Time to change.
Declarations, or, more importantly, resignations, can put the Caribbean on a new path, perhaps a new CARICOM.
There is a profusion of young people - able, intelligent and qualified in all areas - just sitting in the wings as Caribbean countries languish in limited economies amid a desert of modern thought and implementation.
Are we all to end up prancing on the beaches to serve visitors in a dystopian nightmare without end?
We have a few, older Caribbean members who sit on international bodies. We could have more.
Push the young forward.
PETER POLACK