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Once the jewel of the Caribbean, Kingstown today looks desperate and run down, not worth a state capital let alone a town for a king. It more resembles those grey, crumbling cities we know from communist/socialist countries such as Russia and Venezuela; a few oversize “bragging” govern structures, everything else in shambles.
Here, beggars are lining the sidewalks, vagrants interfering with the few visitors who these days find their way to “Kingstown”. Tourists prefer to go to St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, where lovely pedestrian zones and boardwalks along the sea have been incorporated since long. Visitors like to promenade and sit in cafes along the shoreline, sip a drink and have a snack. Not here. There are no cafes left in the Kingstown. The few such as the Bounty, Time Out and even “high family”-run “Soleil”, located in a most ideal location have closed shop! So have numerous businesses: Sprotts, Centrex and many, many more — even “Save a Lot”, started by the Government “to blow CK out of the water”. Tell me, how to run a country if one can’t even run a cafe or a supermarket?
On chaotic Bay Street, one can observe cruise ship tourists turning back. Clogged up with trucks, push carts and vendors, the latter desperate for a sale are lining the archways left and right. Even a single person has trouble squeezing through. Poor vendors! One can’t blame them for trying to make a living. It’s their only way, although now there are more vendors than buyers. Heaven knows how they are surviving.
While Kingstown is located in one of the finest natural settings one can find, in its sorrowful state; it now scores last when compared to neighboring capitals. Dirty gutters, stench of urine. Cobblestones missing in Middle Street and a “hospital” missing the most basic supplies. High-ranking officials seek treatment abroad. Government buildings such as the “Financial Complex” and Police Headquarters are in dire need of a paint job and repairs. Not to mention crazy traffic, the exhaust of which will make your head spin. A priority totally overlooked should have been a bypass highway linking the Leeward and Windward sides of the island. They couldn’t even build the much-touted Cross Country Road but now are boasting of a “Tunnel under Cane Garden!” LOL! What will happen when the promised thousands of “AIA-generated” tourists bear down on us? That is, if real jumbos, not tiny “mosquito planes” ever land? Millions borrowed to build what is termed “the gateway to Tourism”, not a cent for “Kingstown”! Where is the infrastructure to accommodate visitors, to bring some sense of order to the existing chaos, reduce soaring crime and, most of all, clean up our capital the way it deserves?
“Worldwide Recognition.” Really? Do visitors trust a Government whose closest friends are guys the likes of Gaddafi (mass murderer complete with female “bodyguard”). First state visit, Lukie there 2, lol, what a poor judgment! Berlusconi (sex parties, corruption)! Chavez, Maduro (their economy in ruins)! Assad, (secret meeting in Damascus), bombing the crap out of his people in Syria!
You call that recognition? Show me your friends and I tell you who you are! No wonder we have no tourism left to speak of! Would the world trust a Government saying, “lewd sex tapes don’t matter”?
With 14 years in power and what has become of Kingstown? SVG on the brink of financial collapse, its national bank lost, sold out! Their response: “Our beautiful VISION 2020; The largest, most comprehensive and most visionary Manifesto in CARIBBEAN HISTORY: A NEW city, a NEW tunnel, a NEW port, a NEW cruise ship pier, a NEW second hospital, the completion of a NEW Airport, Vision 2020 mind you. Anyone laughing? Who pays for all of this? Oh, why not a NEW PM too?
“MORE POOR RELIEF” at least makes sense! They say they LOVE YOU? If they love you so much where are the 1,000 jobs promised “three times in a row” to our young people – 70 per cent of them unemployed? So, is there any light at the end of the “Cane Hall Tunnel”? If so, it must be A Loving RED Light and RED LIGHT means STOP! FOOL me once, FOOL me twice, even FOOL me thrice. Don’t try to FOOL me “A FOURTH TIME IN A ROW”!
Disillusioned!
PS: Wake up Opposition! These are the points you should be playing!
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Disillusioned! then why not move … “to St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, where lovely pedestrian zones and boardwalks along the sea have been incorporated since long”, for visitors.
Or if you care about your capital, then you could start a “lets clean up Kingstown” campaign.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, and not for tourists!
According to you Vinciman we should all undo our belts, drop our trousers and let Ralph have his fun. We don’t move to St Lucia (as you would do if you didn’t love to have Ralph up your backside) because we love our country MORE than we love Ralph. You love Ralph, not SVG! We want to see change. We want to see the country reach its full potential instead of Ralph get more wealth and power at the expense of the people and the Private Sector. You are brain-washed in your worship of Ralph.
“Ask not what you can do for your RALPH but what you can do for your COUNTRY”.
Lostpet, search your own backside and you might discover where you left your pet.
Sure I love PM Ralph Gonsalves the peoples three(3) term elected Prime Minister, and I love SVG my country of birth, and I could get to love you too if you would only allow yourself to be loveable, and not be in opposition.
On the other hand, why not tell us what YOU can do better for SVG than what is being done under the ULP government.
Do you believe C.ben David who I find it hard to love; but I could try, that the ULP keep Kingstown as nasty, dirty, stinky, and rundown as it is. I dont! And if so, on the other hand, New York the richest city in the world have some very nasty stinky places too, and so does Canada, and the UK, and a whole lot of other so called developed countries, and the people dont pull down their country, or blame the government for that, and they sometimes pitch in to help clean up. So wey happen to we?
And do you see the NDP taking to the streets to clean up; and are they doing a better job than the government workers?
According to opposition leader Arnhim Eustace if we (SVG) have to look shame we just have to look shame and I will elect him or support him to be Prime Minister of SVG?
He reminds me of C.ben David and yourself!
The truth is that 75-80 percent of Vincentians would leave today for other lands if they could largely because of policies that keep Kingstown as nasty, dirty, stinky, and rundown as it is.
The leader refers to himself as ‘Comrade’, the party’s symbol is a ‘red’ star and they give out gifts (lumber, galvanize, cement, etc) for votes while keeping the masses in poverty and the leadership rich. Sounds like communism to me. This might be the PM’s biggest ‘master stroke’.
Alfred C. What will really shock you is that Ralph does everything the evil dictator Stalin did! Ralph Gonsalves is the reincarnation of Stalin. His policies are about the same. His names: “comrade” and Papa” are the same names as Stalin. The “cult of personality” is the same. The approach to Agriculture is almost the same. […]
Bravo!
Remember the Gonsalves lie when he told us prior to the last election that a big car ferry was about to go into service linking Barbados, Trinidad, Saint Vincent and Saint Lucia. It was to be a regular sailing linking the islands together enabling citizens to travel cheaply and farmers to ship produce cheaply.
That turned out to be simply untrue, I am surprised they have not used that again.
Its not just the beggars its riddled with rats, much more rats than people.