Well, I am not an economist and last week's budget was an economist's budget. Lord knows there are more than enough of them in this Government.?
The UNC, of course (an expression that seems likely to become a byword for them), is a lawyer's wet dream. COP is straight technocrats down the line and we saw this in Mr Dookeran's budget. Mr Dookeran is fast becoming known as "Dooks" and I take this to be an expression of sympathy or even liking for the man, political kindness of a sort, something Trinis are not known for. ?Good, he deserves no less. The budget he presented was like the man himself. For the first time in years, I did not react with incredulity at some of the proposals. There was never any wide-eyed, heart-beating, what ar--ness is this instinctive reaction, except on one occasion (and even that was muted as a sort of "dey come back with that?"). It all seemed very commonsensical, sober and honest, bear with me and we will get out of the mess that the PNM left us type-of-thing.
It is exactly what the country needs at this time, a sense of someone who is not going to go off on some wild-card ego trip but a man willing to stick around, make cautious little changes to this wallowing ship of state, festooned with useless bling as it is, and bring us slowly back on course. Not exciting of course–there it is again–but just what we need, a period of rest and reflection within which we can gather our strength and move forward. ?A cursory review of the last Sunday Guardian reveals so many issues facing the new Government, issues that the PNM left to rot, that it is an understatement to say that it must have been extremely difficult to decide which ones to face first. Forget, if possible, for a moment, the traffic jams; crime; scared jurors; agriculture; education and the economy. Think the cultural sector; maritime laws; the plight of the disabled; unsafe courtrooms; waste management (or "dumps"); "narrow" hospital beds; piracy. Just some of the symbols of larger problems.
Mr Dookeran seems to have decided to try to deal with the economy first. This business of charismatic leadership, of politicians with a "golden or silver tongue," not to mention hair, who can talk like the wind, anal, constipated, full of gas and sterile pomp, has to end. What we need now is sober analysis and hard work and Mr Dookeran is exactly the man for that. When his first budget gets kudos from both business and labour interests, and when the PNM on one hand says there is nothing in the budget and on the other says it is full of PNM initiatives, two statements that are not necessarily inconsistent, he must be doing something right. When, after all the old talk about the minimum wage (six years so far and still gallerying)–some want $10, others want $12, a few madmen want $20–editorials in the newspapers, statements by most businessmen in agreement (there are a few around who believe in keeping workers poor) result in not a single reference to it in the budget and the Labour Minister says nothing, then you know Mr Dookeran is right up in the middle passage. Unless they have some scheme to gain points this week.
As far as health is concerned, what is there to say about six paragraphs in a two-hour plus presentation? Two things spring to mind. One, the four "trauma clinics for abused and neglected children." I await with bated breath to see if this is going to be another Monday morning clinic for three hours with one psychologist and a nurse taking blood pressure or whether it will be a truly comprehensive, national, well co-ordinated, well staffed centre. I fear that "clinics" are not the answer to child abuse. Not even a start. The other issue is the irritating one of the Milk Feeding Programme. I had really thought we had gone past that scene. This is a throw-back to the sixties and seventies, an idea that has been shown to be quite useless. I have spoken enough about the perils of drinking milk (lactose intolerance, allergies, obesity, anemia etc) and will only remind you that contaminated milk was one of the most important causes of the dreadful outbreaks of gastro we used to have 30 and 40 years ago.
In addition to being an anti-nutritional move (rice and peas would be far healthier), it goes against our culture and drains the Treasury of foreign exchange. In the Alexandria Quartet, the author, Lawrence Durrell, talks about "the mutability of truth" and says, "Each fact can have a thousand motivations, all equally valid, and each fact a thousand faces. So many truths which have little to do with fact." There's a long way to go before the country can be said to be back and many corners to be turned, but all in all some cautious optimism is in order.