We knew that after the elections things would change and a lot of measures would be taken to help stabilize our country, but man I did not expect the numbers. Or should I rather say, I knew they were big (that’s what she said), but when you actually hear and see it, it becomes too real.
I wasn’t ,like many others, too interested in politics and too naive to think that it wouldn’t affect me much as individual. All I had to do was vote every 5 years on a good political party and the rest would be taken care of. No, it’s not true.
Politics will follow you everywhere, it affects our surroundings , our jobs , our way of living. I would not get into discussion with people when they talked about it, I’d just nod and listen and at times slowly walk away. But now, even before a new president was chosen, these past 5-10 years I’ve been paying much better attention. And it’s all thanks to bad leadership, mismanagement of our country.
Like many others I was surprised that they would be starting to implement a solidarity levy, or a tax of 10% on our income to help stabilize the country til January 2022.
I was a bit mad about the fact that me as a simple citizen I should help pay for all the mess the previous government did. Why should I give away my hard earned money? They messed up, get your money from them. They’ve stolen, miscalculated, corrupted , deceived, lied and God knows what else. I calmed down because no matter how much you didn’t like it, you’d have to pay eventually.
And here it comes…
It wasn’t until later that afternoon I found out that being mad about 10% tax would only be a start.
When I went later on Facebook I saw lot of people posting statuses and I couldn’t figure out why. What did I miss again in this small country? Another gossip? Car accident? Cheating spouses? No …much worse.
Our new President Chandrikapersad Santhoki held a press conference to update us about the financial crisis were in and presented us with the actual numbers the previous government left us.
3 billion US dollars…$3 billion dollars….. not SRD….US$……that’s a 3 with 9 zeroes!
What the flying F…?
We’re a country with about 600.000 inhabitants give or take, and we have a debt of US$ 3 billion dollars? So everyone owes about $5000 ? Your little kid that can’t even talk yet owes some foreigner $5000? It may not seem like much but the average Surinamese doesn’t even earn $1000, That includes me. Yes…. I make tiny websites a little side-job, but it’s not a consistent source of income. Adding a third will be harder and a being male stripper is out because I’m not that good looking and staying fit is way too exhausting.
Another part of the press conference was that over the passed 10 years our country had an income of $4 billion dollars, but there is no clear administration of where it all went. Most of the projects done were funded from foreign loans. I am no accountant, but 4 billion income, 3 billion in debt? Come on, you don’t even have to graduate from elementary school to know that this does not make sense. And supporters of the previous government have the audacity to say what is this president doing and he’s not even been the president for 2 months! No, I haven’t aligned myself with a political party or something, but to start blaming him? That’s pure idiocy.
And also hiring about 3000 people at the end of your possible term,which would increase the state costs with millions per month (even per weeks)…yes …in the words of president Santhoki…it is sabotage.
Like everyone I would rather see that they get the money from all of our so called previous leaders. Seize their expensive houses and cars which they bought with all of our tax money and sell it. But it wouldn’t be enough though, because everything they touched lost it’s value so it wouldn’t be helping us much. And I’m not a fan of putting them in jail, because that would mean my taxes would still be paying for their food and shelter. They said they worked very hard these past 10 years, well now I’d like to see it. Let them sweep the streets, mow the lawn, trim the hedges, separate paper from plastic. I don’t care, let them work and sweat.
There was much more presented but I won’t go into each of them. but as I see things now..I thought I was mad in the morning…but I was furious in the evening. And after all that, I am now willing to pay that extra 10%. It’s only until January and if it means i will be doing my part in helping to stabilize our country, I would be even glad to do it. It would be small price to pay than seeing our country being relegated to being a default country, with no hopes of having a better future. I will be doing my part.
End rant.
