Rick Lowe
On October 8, 2010, I bumped into a high ranking Cabinet Minister at a social function and for some reason he brought up the brouhaha over Mr. Earl Deavaux's helicopter ride and how silly it all was, and I agreed.
Furthermore, I believe Mr. Deveaux, the Minister of the Environment is above reproach. At least a helicopter ride to help him attend a function for the Friends of the Environment in Abaco and visit the investors property in Exuma to see the site of the proposed excavation of 3,800 feet for access to his property would not be enough to "pollute" him, if you'd pardon the pun.
The point I tried to make to the Minister was these things will continue to happen until conflict of interest is clearly defined in statute law.
His response was that they could never cover every eventuality.
Of course when a legislator makes that point with me I argue that they can find the time and paper to legislate against all and sundry yet keep giving themselves a pass.
That made the rest of the conversation uneasy, in fact it ended because I walked away when it became obvious he did not want to discuss it any longer.
I stand to be corrected, but until parliament establishes binding rules/legislation on conflict of interest, the press and bloggers will continue to take them to task. It will also alleviate the petty politics that surrounds these issues.
While they're at it they should implement a freedom of information act.
By the way, Canada has some useful legislation on the books that cover both matters and could easily be adapted for our use. I realise it's not from Barbados like everything else, but it just might help. All they need do is Google it.
But what am I running on about, If they did that, what would they talk about in Parliament and on radio? That's a rhetorical question of course.They might just have to pay better attention to the affairs of state.
