Deception in the works?

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything.  I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency.  This makes me forever ineligible for any public office."

--H. L. Menken

 

I am sorry to say that the level of trust I have in our present government decreases as time goes on.  A perfect example is the review of the first quarter tourism numbers I recently did in which I ultimately posed a very simple question:  Does the definition of visitor equal that of tourist in the government's statistics or does it not? 

Somehow this has been deemed as an "unfair" question because these questions apparently wern't asked when the previous government was in power and suddenly because of this I'm supposed to obsolve the current government of any responsibility.  Perhaps I'm simply too idealistic to sit back and accept this form of reasoning but for me this goes against the very nature of common sense.  I believe it is a fair and reasonable question.  I even went so far as to pose it on the PLP's own blog to which I have still recieved no answer.

I'd like to take a moment to get something straight with regards to any who believe I am anti-PLP, which would somehow automatically sideline me into the UBP camp.  Due to age limits on the right to vote, I was born into a UBP government which I did not choose and was not ever of age to have any say during their reign in office.  Subsequently I have never voted UBP and furthermore the arguement that just because they may have been a terrible government gives no justification for me to blindly accept the continuation of any form of terrible government, should one be deemed as so.  Very simply I don't buy into such pretentious arguements for I am no yes man which likely will make me forever ineligible for public office.  I'm going to tell it as I see it or say nothing, plain and simple.  If that means I stand alone because I stand behind my principles then so be it and by that I'll remind you that it is by your own choice that you read my blog.

The longer my question goes unanswered the more I wonder if the reason is dishonesty and deception as opposed to the alternatives.  What is the harm of admitting if the numbers indeed do not represent tourists specifically unless you're intentionally trying to inflate the perception of how well we're doing?  By either not answering my concerns or trying to quell them with rhetoric that I simply don't buy, it causes me to wonder if it's really about deception more than it is about honest government that has our people's best interests in mind.  I had the same issue when the budget was released. 

Last year's budget was in a beautiful tabulated form that was easy to read and contained data covering 3 years worth of numbers.  This year's budget was a sham in comparison containing no tabular structure and for the most part hiding the real numbers.  Did it come as any surprise when it was announced that there is now $520 million unaccounted for?  Do you realize that when divided by 65000 people that works out to some $8000 per person?  If the bank came to you and told you that $8000 was misteriously missing from your account, would you not feel concerned?  Of course the unaccounted for money came as no surprise given the odd change in the structure of how the budget is presented that helped hide the fact that many of the numbers wern't in.

I ask the hard questions and I do so because I hope that my questions can be defended with justifications that will convince me that our country is headed in the right direction.  If they cannot, then I must wonder if we are indeed headed in the right direction.  Using rhetoric to try to sway my opinion does little as I refuse to be decieved into following like I've got blinders on.  I'm simply too tired of poor government to accept previous poor government as an excuse for present.  I have done my part to point out areas where our present government is doing good things along with even submitted many constructive ideas, just as I shall point out things I disagree with and would like more information on.

The constant deception used by political parties throughout history simply to decieve the public at election time is tiring and too much to bear.  All too often it is more about getting reelected than solving the long term issues that our country has to deal with, for this is how we've ended up in the predicament we're in.  However, that may be  less of a fault of either party then it is a fault of the structure of our political system as a whole.  Ultimately deception is a large part of the game of politics no matter where you are.  One can only hope that in the end the true ideals filter through so that Bermudians out there like I still have a future worth looking forward to forward to.

Comments

[J Starling]

I saw your original post and the later one at the PM blog. I admit I have not really looked at it in depth, but also was of the belief that the best person to answer it would have been the Minister in question. It is correct to say that overall arrivals is up, right? So the question really is whether they are increased tourists of business travellers, right? As I've said, I haven't really looked at it, so I'll go over it again. Cheers.

[De Onion]

Corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.