So it seems that we have been given notice that the starting gun for the election campaign is to be fired shortly. Candidates have been presented by both sides and the tribes are being whipped up into a visceral frenzy in the unfortunately quite realistic hope that ‘feting’ will inspire loyalty, hence votes.
A radio phone-in asked listeners whether Health, Leadership or the Economy was the most important issue. When we asked a sample of youth, the response was unsurprisingly ‘employment.’ All of these are vital (and inter-related) areas, and our candidate leaders need to be reminded of the urgency of long-term commitments and not short-term promises. The public also needs to be reminded that such matters are more important, and more enduring, than the distraction of partying (sandwiched between Christmas partying, New Year partying and Independence partying) and blind loyalty.
G3 would like to suggest 2 issues at least as serious as those above. Two more Es: Environment, and Education. Without a healthy environment, we cannot exist. Without an adequate education system, society cannot exist. There needs to be education about the criteria for choosing members of parliament, and about the environment, which is not something ‘out there’, but is our support system. Without water, soil, air, and without many of our fellow creatures, from bees to bacteria, we simply cease to be.
We cannot individually take on all these problems, but we can elect people who can, and can remind them that they have a job to do. We can inform ourselves, and our politicians, about the perils of pollution and overpopulation, plastics and styrofoam, backyard burning and sand mining. And we can make a belated New Year’s Resolution to do our part by leaving our bit of our planet as clean as, or cleaner than, we find it.
A Happy 2018 to you all.
Grenada Green Group (G3)
