10
October 13 - 19, 2012
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
We welcome letters from all members of the public on a variety of topics Please note that all submissions are subject to editing in keeping with defamation laws and newspaper style. Letters should be accompanied by the author’s full name, location and phone number. Names will be withheld if requested.
Government responsible for new taxes
Dear Editor, As we commence the run down to Election Day and a new and elected government, the state of the economy and the extent of the next government's power to influence it are becoming critical. The introduction of VAT with all its expense should be deferred and
reconsidered when the country has a more settled economic outlook. The TCIBChaa said over and over again that this should be a decision for the newly elected government and we continue to hope it will be. Two important events took place last week affecting both the economy and the issue of VAT.
The first was the implementation of the VAT Regulations. Within a few days the second event took place. The Sun published what appears to have been a leaked internal TCIG document revealing that the TCIG will need substantial additional tax revenue if they are to achieve their self-set deadlines for the country’s loan
Open letter to Frank Morgan Dear Sir, I think there are a few things people like you need to realise when you live in a system where the British Government has handed the country over to their largest political donor. Questions like who owns the Blue Haven Marina are redundant. Because in politics, whether there are campaign finance laws or not, the person who contributes most to an election campaign will get control of whatever domain he desires. The same is true for the TCI where all responsible persons in the TCI must either play dead, pretend what’s happening is not happening so that the spoils of victory can go to the highest bidder. It is irresponsible of you to ask about Blue Haven Marina or in the other extreme case, the hospitals. Some people get offended when it is said that certain British Lord exerts extreme political control over our political system to the point where he actually “owns one of the political parties”.
Because of this, the rest of us must sit idly by and allow the TCI to be sold off to the highest bidder. It is also a game where the Attorney General, must perform extreme acts of slumber on the job while the evidence is all around him but he really cannot do anything because this is the order. In the Kurt Defreitas days, the former AG was totally narcoleptic.This current AG has been put into a deeper state of narcolepsy. As in the days of Governor Tauwhare, the peak of the slumber party, when he said he complained to the FCO about the workings of the MikeMisick’s PNP regime, the FCO told him to “back off”. Ironically, this was when the equal opportunity bribing of government’s Lord’s Party was in opposition and the Labour government was pretending to hold the reins of government in the UK. Really and truly Frank Morgan you are asking what borders on the “ridiculous” when you ask questions like “who is Blue Haven Marina”. The fact of the matter is that we are
not supposed to know and should not be asking these kinds of questions. In a colonial, imperial and political situation like this, our most seasoned and well-worked minds are not really interested in who owns that marina, Leeward Channel, Star Island or anything that would destroy our environment. Imagine Star Island that threatened to drain all of the sand off Grace Bay and our mangrove system in the family islands, went ahead without any protest. It took PRIDE, a private environmental group, the rumblings of the World Wildlife Fund, to apply to the Supreme Court to stop this destruction of the TCI environment. Yet the Attorney General’s Chambers at that time, pre interim government, sat by allowed the National Parks Ordinance to be breached and resolved that it should not be doing anything. Yours, Samsune Taylor, Providenciales
It is time to set the record straight Dear Editor, The terrorist has arisen out of his worm hole/cave where he has been hiding for the past four years while we were left to suffer because of the mess he created. Does this devil have any shame at all? Firstly, Mr.Misick, we are not your brothers and sisters. We were dear people who voted for you and trusted you, only in the end to have you use us for your own personal gain. Family does not use family in the way you used the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. And the only record you have to place at our door step is how you wasted the people’s money like it was your own personal bank account. I know you think we were all born crazy, but fortunately we woke up and discovered that this was not so, and things are still not bigger and better. Now you want us to support your group of misfits who are unable to lead
their own lives, much less out of the gates of hell where you took us just a few short years ago. I would strongly suggest that you seek mental evaluation. Mr.Misick, do you have any shame at all? The only accomplishment you made during your six years in office was to rape the public treasury. Not even Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein did to their people what you did to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Fact Check: when the PNP came into office in 2003, unemployment was NOT high and tourism was NOT struggling. As a matter of fact, many Belongers were holding two jobs. The country’s tourism industry was growing at a sustainable rate, not outgrowing its population, which now have Belongers out-numbered in our own country. What is so disgraceful is that you
SPACE IS LIMITED!
still have not asked us the people for our forgiveness, but rather request that we support your party. A vote for the PNP is a vote for Michael Missick. The trouble we face today is a direct result of your government policy. We have qualified Belongers not working because your government was in the job of selling PRCs and not putting Belongers first. You can call Oswald Skipping this, and you can call him that, but after 30 years no one can call him a thief! So, Michael Misick, on November 9, 2012, the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands will vote for Oswald Skippings and the PDM, rejecting both you and your party’s dream of destroying this country. God knows, I pray for you. I pray that you seek help before it is too late. Yours truly, Jamy Williams, Providenciales
repayment. How unfortunate for Mr McGarelGroves our FCO who claimed on one day that with the introduction of VAT “most prices would remain the same or even fall” and then a few days later was faced by a leaked TCIG document that revealed a truth, of which he must have been aware, that the TCIG’s selfset but unrealistic loan repayment schedule would almost certainly necessitate a hike in tax/VAT in order to cover on-going costs including those of the lamentable hospital contracts. This ends a litany of misleading and inaccurate statements made by Mr McGarel-Groves to the effect that prices would not go up and even suggesting that if they did, it would only be because of sharp practice by the business community. An accusation that following a proper analysis by the TCIBC eventually had to be retracted. So much for the argument that prices will fall. To suggest that VAT will result in lower prices was always absurd. With the benefit of the leaked document it is clear that the government knew very well it would have to raise
more by way of tax revenue. McGarel-Groves protestation that it had gone to great lengths to "make sure that the man in the street is not adversely affected by VAT" can be seen to be meaningless. When a government needs more revenue the tax goes up and the man in the street will be affected. In any event, it is not the level of taxation that determines whether a tax is good or bad. The level of taxation is determined by the tax revenue that is needed to run the country. A tax is good if it is fair in its application and raises money efficiently in other words the collection costs are low. VAT does neither. VAT is a complex tax and one that is expensive to collect. At present the TCI collects its taxes effectively and very efficiently. Why should the Turks and Caicos citizens pay what may be as high as 15 million additional dollars in the first year just to implement and collect VAT? Clive Stanbrook, Chairman, TCIBC
Character matters Dear Editor, The Oxford Dictionary defines character as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual”. When listening to the plans, ideas and issues over the next 30 or so days of campaigning before the November 9 election, remember that character matters. While most will say we have to listen to the issues and not get involved in so called ‘character assassination’, think about this, is it really ‘character assassination’ if what you speak about a person’s character is actually true? Character is just as important as ideas and plans if not more so! One’s character, as manifested over time, indicates whether someone is just all talk and no action or suffers from EBS (Empty Barrel Syndrome). The fact is that a great idea or plan without implementation or follow through is just a pipe dream! We must judge our prospective representatives by not only what they say but also what they have done or demonstrated in their past because results matter. The soon to be defunct Expression Radio Show promo features Robert Hall saying, “Your past is inextricably linked to your present and future.” This is not to say that people cannot change and improve their character traits but at the end of the day it takes time for memories to fade and trust to be built. For example, if someone was a notorious sinner for the majority
of their life, be it a liar, a thief, or a cheat, you can fill in whichever sin you prefer, and then gave their life to the Lord and have been a Christian for the last 12 months, there is no way those 12 months will wipe out a lifetime of sin in the eyes of onlookers. Persons will still be sceptical until this repentant character proves otherwise through his deeds and not just words. Now fast forward 10-15 years down the road and that same person has been living a good Christian life for all those years. The chances are you would have become accustomed to their new improved character and would be more likely to trust them. Other ways to look at a person’s character when deciding if you will cast a vote for the individual in the upcoming elections is to consider how they treat their family, friends and those closest to them. If they can’t or haven’t been able to take care of their family, how can they take care of the affairs of the country? If they haven’t been able to hold down a steady job, how can they help you gain employment? We must require more of our representatives now, much more so than at any other period in our history once we return to elected government, which is why character matters. Yours, Ryan A. Garland, Providenciales
Please keep your letters to a maximum of 450 words or we may not be able publish it.