And Still I Rise

PM Gonsalves is once again the subject of a Wikileaks exposure. This time Peter Wickham of Cadres is alleged to have said that a "sudden injection of $350,000 in the last two weeks of St Vincent's December 2005 election campaign allowed the ruling ULP to sway voters in a handful of hard fought parliamentary races by helping people pay overdue bills, fix leaking roofs and buy groceries. Additionally, Wickham offered the belief that the ULP flew about 400 people from the USA for the elections. Unsurprisingly, Wickham is quoted as saying that Caribbean political campaigns are awash with money from a variety of sources, particularly wealthy expatriates seeking to influence governments. Most interestingly, given the claims by a purported drug dealer that he gave monies to the ULP campaign; Wickham according to the cable thinks there is some truth to the rumors that certain individuals tied to the drug trade provided funding to Gonsalves's party. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Wickham has since denied ever making these claims to Embassy officials, however I suspect the fall out will be great. In fact Wickham has already been dismissed from his position as CBC's analyst.

I don't know where to start but Caribbean politics being awash with money is stating the obvious. Who funds the tshirts, stickers, fliers, billboards, buttons etc? Some will say the Government's treasury but what about the opposition parties who are just as gaily decked out as the ruling parties? Added to this is the new phenomenon of "free"concerts featuring some of the biggest regional names. Somebody has to be paying for all of this and demanding their pound of flesh in return. However, no questions are asked and parties are not compelled to declare their source of funding so the beat goes on.

Back in the day I've heard the choice of "bribes" was bully beef and galvanise. My Dominican friend Caribbean Man declares that today's bribes are more sophisticated ranging from scholarships to Housing schemes. He may have a point as the idea is to satisfy some needs that will hopefully translate into votes come polling day. I am not a fan of politics by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe I am jaded,cynical or something or the other but politically I believe that the more things change the more they remain the same. So i really do not get excited about these politicians and their parties.That aside if any party wants to buy my vote please leave a message here.

By the way, I'm loving these leaks. Nothing like some good ole "commess"" concerning public officials. PS was Glen Jackson a US spy or I'm totally misreading the newspaper story?