Loiy Rhoiymes with Poiy

In the modern age where we live you would have thought that figuring out the truth would be easier than it used to be. But, as I have noted many times, the pace of technological advance far outstrips humans' ability to understand it. Take a look at a news report in the New York Times this morning, E-Mail Reveals Rove’s Key Role in ’06 Dismissals, now did no one explain to Karl that e-mail leaves a permanent history? Did he hear but not understand that 'Del' just means, put away for future retrieval? Well, now he knows. I can hear him singing "It wasn't me".

But why go to the USA when you have some good old "tell me the truth" story closer to home? We have the recent lovers' spat between LIME and the Barbados Workers Union General Secretary; a classic 'he said, no he said' is brewing. LIME issued a press release at the weekend, accusing the union of trying to tarnish its image over its decision to release 116 workers. No one takes the pith out of LIME. Its release says that it tried to arrange meetings in May-June to get the BWU around the table., but nothing happened till after June 20, when LIME issued notices to notify staff of pending staff cuts from August. Now, unless these attempts are not caught in the files of LIME or in the files of the BWU, you would think there are organizational records to prove this true or not. Who is telling the porkie pie? Who is being economical with the truth? Is someone wasting our and his time with this dance around the mulberry bush? I say, put up the records, and enough of "the dog ate my files".

We do not know if LIME contacted BWU by phone--they could have and were on hold with a jingle for hours then left a voice message, "Roy? Alex here, from LIME. Just want to suggest you pop over so that I can tell about our plan to fire some of your members. Call me back. Ciao." Sir Roy does not know how to use voice mail, let's assume, and leave his secretary to check and control such things, but she could have been the classic ditzy kind. "Mista Roiy. You gotta message from a Mista Aylex, asking if you want to come round for a lime. You wanna go?" Roy, ever the busy fixer of union disputes, might have said, "Tschoupe! Why you wastin' my time wid all dat? No. I don't wan' go. Don' bodda calling."

Well, the BWU man has already jumped on the wagon of confrontation when Sir Roy Trotman called for public protests against LIME. Put on the squeeze, man! He has already trotted out that old chestnut, "...LIME had been built from the blood, sweat and tears of Barbadian worker..." Now where have I heard this line before?

And there you have it. Come on, boys. Stop playing marbles and deal with the realities and sort out what's happening to the people's jobs.