And Still I Rise

Recently, stories of theft at government agencies have been making the news. The Inland Revenue Dept hit the headlines when it was reported that a young lady had defrauded the Property Tax collections by upwards of $200,000 ECD. As if they loved the spotlight the Dept was again in the news when it was revealed that MV licence stickers were in the hands of an unauthorised person. From all appearances this man was doing a roaring trade of selling these stickers to willing clientele.Worse was to come when we learnt of monies that had disappeared from the IADC( the company that is in administrative charge of the proposed International airport). Every Vincentian, whether or not they support the building of the airport knows that is a tremendous struggle to procure funding.So it was very shocking-at least to me that workers who are aware of the financial difficulties in completing this project would callously dip their hands in the till.

I find these stories to be worrying on at least two counts. I am saddened that young people are so caught up in materialism that they see stealing as the pathway to expensive clothes, electronics and motor vehicles. These misguided people have bought into the notion that self worth is defined by outward trappings and does emanate from within. They have also chosen to take the "easy" road towards fulfilling their desires. They want what they want and they want it now. Waiting, saving and prioritising are seemingly foreign words. So they dip their hands over and over into the till until their "luck" runs out.

And have you noticed how these thieves or white collar criminals as they prefer to call them manage to skip the island? By the time you hear someone has stolen from a banking institution almost in the same breath you are told they not on the island. And for those who are not quick enough to elude the law their conviction rate is almost non existent. We go through the criminal proceedings but then it gets cloudy and bogged down with technicalities only to be dismissed i.e assuming it even gets that far. Not so with the small person on the street who may have stolen a cell phone, some clothes,fruits etc. No sirree, off to jail they go for the petty crimes while the big league thieves strut about the place as happy as could be. Something has got to be wrong with that picture!