CAL profit? Wait a minute!

RUDY CHATO PAUL, SR

ADMITTEDLY, I am no maths genius. However, I do have a relatively good memory. So when I read on Jan 20 in one of the dailies that Caribbean Airlines (CAL) reported a significant profit, I was like, “Wait a bleeping minute!”

See, I recall earlier this month, as reported in another daily, that CAL had "written off" $205 million. Given this regime’s history with maths, combined with the current Finance Minister’s accounting skills, alarms immediately went off. Apparently write-offs are not considered a loss, as defined and determined by a TT government/cabinet.

How else does a company get a write-off of $205 million, only to turn around and claim that the same company generated a profit of $36 million in less than two weeks? Sounds like another case of “playing smart with foolishness.” But I could be wrong. And I am quite certain that the highly paid spin doctors at Balisier House would be able to argue that I am indeed wrong. Or at least suggest that I am misinformed.

My concerns are relevant as the PNM has tried to convince us that funds to construct Balisier House were generated by the raffling off two BMWs, which were just “donated.” Most of us know how much two low-end BMWs cost to import, tax-free, etc.

Additional questions received responses like “the money was raised from cake sales.” Another time we were told that “each member donated a block.” Sadly, they are yet to explain labour costs. And who donated the steel beams? Perhaps they are remnants of the NAR days?

I speak for many when I say they have no confidence in the Minister of Finance, who has run nothing but budget deficits every year since occupying that position, despite several increases in fuel prices, and having reduced forex to the average citizen to zero, thereby facilitating a thriving black market on US currency.

This is the same genius who sold TT on the idea that he had a plan to catch money launderers. All he had to do is change the currency. I remain amazed that the US, Colombia, Mexico and other nations have not been able to take a page from Balisier House and change their currencies too, if only to catch money launderers.

We the public were never told how much money was taken off the market and how much was put into the economy. We never knew how much there was in circulation, to begin with. I know from where I sit, as a retired person with plenty time on my hands who loves reading with both a critical eye and mind, that if it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck…

We do know that the currency exchange was done with much urgency that defied both logic and common sense. The timing of the currency exchange also conveniently coincided with the pandemic. And many of our elderly citizens were victims of this exchange via robberies. But CAL’s “profit” is nothing short of amazing in two weeks.

This batch of political parasites has yet to come to terms with the fact that the world in which they operated, during the days of Eric Williams and Johnny O, no longer exist. While many came from that era and have long outlived their usefulness, they remain stuck in said era, mentally. Their thinking remains in the 60s and 70s. They are yet to fully adjust and adapt to the idea that whatever is said today is readily available on the internet to anyone with the ability to source it and refer to it.

Some of us read with a critical eye because, given our nation’s history, we have no confidence in anyone in government doing the right thing simple for the sake of doing the right thing.