Dear Editor,
We were told we don’t read, so we took up books. We were told we don’t work, yet we are surrounded by exceptional teachers, overworked nurses, and some of the most brilliant intellectual and creative minds this country has produced.
And still, our Prime Minister—apparently brilliant and creative himself—seems either unwilling or unable to grasp a basic truth: construction is a boom-and-bust industry, and an economy built almost entirely on tourism is fragile by design.
Relying solely on tourism has already delivered what it always does—precarious, seasonal, low-wage jobs; a soaring cost of living for locals; and severe environmental degradation.
The result is an economy with little diversification and nothing solid to fall back on when the tide turns.
So perhaps the Prime Minister *does* understand. Perhaps he is fully aware that nurses are leaving—and continue to leave—because their wages cannot support a healthy or dignified life in a tourist destination priced for visitors, not residents.
Perhaps he knows that teachers are dissatisfied with their pay, that schools are now asking parents to fill funding gaps with their own money, and that those same parents are already drowning.
Because truly—how could the ever-present Prime Minister of a $7-billion economy be ignorant of the fact that skilled, degree-holding public-sector workers are earning so little?
That people with 20 or 30 years of service are still scraping by? What is $2,500 in gross pay to someone who has given their entire working life to this country?
Why is it so difficult to understand that these same people are urging their children to seek work that is not back-breaking, not toxic, and not exploitative?
If nothing else, why does the Prime Minister refuse to show compassion—if only by remaining silent—while the population continues to drag this country forward with its blood, sweat, and tears?
Sincerely Antiguan-Barbudan,
Fussy For A Reason
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