By Hudson George
If we understand our Grenadian proverbs handed down to us by our ancestors who were mainly Africans, we will not ask Prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell to redraw the hasty generalised statement he made in a Town Hall meeting in New York, about how employees at the general hospital stealing commodities for their personal needs. We supposed to know that our governments both past and present are guilty of robbing public workers since 1983, when the new Pension Plan Act was passed under Maurice Bishop’s PRG regime.
For example, there is a Grenadian proverb that says: “Where the cow tie, is there it has to graze” and another proverb says: “The dirty water in the kitchen is for the pig in the yard”. So, if employees at the general hospital are stealing commodities for their personal use, I am not doubting the prime minister and accusing him of telling lies. However, I think his timing was wrong for making such statement in the Town Hall meeting in New York.
So, based on our Grenadian proverb that say, where the cow tie, is there it has to graze, it shows that workers at the general hospital and other institutions are stealing valuable products and it is not a new habit. It is an old tradition since during the days of colonial rule.
On the other hand, simple commonsense should tell us that a cattle can only eat grass where the owner tied it. And the only way for the cattle to get food from another place is, if the owner untied the rope/chain and set it free to roam elsewhere and graze.
It is the same situation for a pig that is barricade in its owner’s yard. The pig will always have access to the dirty water leftovers food that the master gives it to eat. It has no other choice but to wait on its masters, to feed it with leftovers food.
However, during the colonial days our fore parents were in a similar situation as the cattle and pigs because they were the lowest class of citizens. However, even though they were the majority population, they were marginalised and poorly paid by their employers in both government and private sector institutions. So, some of them were stealing extra commodities wherever they work to make ends meet and that culture of extra needs becomes a major problem up to this present time.
In addition, there is another Grenadian proverb that says: “Thief, thief, thief and God laugh”. This proverb explain how government politicians are robbing the working people too. For example, Maurice Bishop and his People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) regime robbed public workers of the rightly ownership of a government pension, when they passed the new Pension Plan Act in March 1983.
After the PRG regime collapsed a few months later in October 1983, public workers were still robbed of their rights to receive a government pension. The Herbert Blaize New National Party (NNP) was elected by the Grenadian people to govern the country. Unfortunately for public workers, Belize regime kept the cruel PRG law that denied the public workers their pension. In addition, Blaize passed a new law in parliament to make sure that elected parliamentarians who served two terms in parliament received a government pension.
None of the parliamentarians opposed Blaize for securing their pension, while public workers were robbed of their pension. So, basically Blaize NNP government members of parliament make themselves look like the cow that eating grass where it is tied and pig that enjoying the dirty water food leftovers from the master’s household.
So, it is very important for us to remember that our Grenadian proverbs have valuable meaning, when we unfold them. Furthermore, when we analyses our proverbs, we must always remember that all politicians love power and with the amount of political power Dr. Mitchell has presently in his domain, it will take miracle for him to ever say he is sorry, for his sweeping generalization comments about employees at the general hospital. However, we must remember the motto of politics is: Power!
Please, don’t judged me wrong! I am just a creative minded person. I am not an intellectual. I am not political either. I am just an artist using words as a language to express my art.
