‘Piperism’ and 65,000 laptops

THE EDITOR: Not even aware that we were in her focus, on exiting our Massy food store, we entered our vehicle. We settled in and observed a body up to our window.

Closer observation revealed a late 30ish woman, with bright red hair and matching nails. Physically she appeared in good health.

We looked for the piper in her.

She did not disappoint.

She beckoned us to talk to her.

We rolled down our glass and she delivered…

“Ah just asking for a lil 65,000 laptops to help meh with dem school chiren…”.

We looked at each other and immediately reflected on the scene five years ago when we were approached by a skulking character who asked us to help plug a $17 billion hole in the economy. We have given financial and other assistance many times and in greater quantity, but we refused them both!

We doh like the idea of people spending $300 billion in budgets, drawing down the HSF, borrowing loans and on top of that asking us to help with “chiren”! Worse still is that some people only needed a budget of $300 billion to give “chiren” laptops.

And we doh like it more when they tell us hummuch dey want!

We reflected deeply on our bank balances and the recession – a word hardly anyone uses. We thought about the disappearance of foreign investment; how hard it was to obtain foreign exchange, and the constant pilferage in our stores and high security costs. We thought about the precipitous decline in our sales, so low that sometimes we make only a few dollars a day. We thought about poor Franky in the back-seat who had to close his business and all the other businesses that closed down.

We drove away even more depressed than before we entered the supermarket to buy some back and neck for a pelau.

ABBIGAIL AJIM

via e-mail

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"‘Piperism’ and 65,000 laptops"

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