By Mshaka
I have long had mixed feelings about the dictate: “Listen to the Message… not to the Messenger.” One of the reasons that I have struggled with this dictate is that it really says that you should not listen to the messenger. Why did I struggle? Well… if you don’t listen to the messenger – how can you hear the message?
So… OK… I will admit that underlying this dictate is the notion that the message is important … not the messenger… and so we should not focus on the messenger. But, I have struggled with that also.
Today… I struggle no longer… at least when it comes to messages from certain politicians. “Don’t listen to the messenger.”
Don’t listen to the messenger!
For example, I tried to listen to politicians from the red party as they charged that UPP politicians and ministers were involved in corrupt practices. Now… without judging the merit of their charges… I was flabbergasted… dumbfounded… stunned… not necessarily by the charges but by who was leveling the charges.
A member on the red side… known to have taken money from that a so-called investor… known to have used that money to develop their own personal housing projects… known to have enriched themselves with money from a disgraced con-man and Pirate. Known. No guessing. The disgraced Pirate said that he gave them the money…. and tendered a minimum amount that he had given.
This individual – on public radio – had the gall to charge UPP politicians with the same crimes that he is guilty of.
Certified corrupt! I tried to listen to him… and said to myself… this is crazy… somewhere between borderline, histrionic or narcissistic – certainly there is need for a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis!
Another member on the red side… known to have failed in his leadership… known to have failed to pay civil servants… known to have emptied the coffers of State Insurance and Social Security and other statutory bodies such that those companies don’t have the money to fulfill their obligations to the people of Antigua and Barbuda.
A failed leader…. pompous in his obvious failure… has the audacity to ask us to forget his failures… with the audacity to question the leadership of the current Prime Minister.
A certified failed leader who long before the current global financial crisis… almost ran our country bankrupt by his inept, incompetent, pompous and bombastic leadership.
The audacity of these people… asking us to forget their massive failures of leadership over twenty-eight years.
I will not hear their message because I will not listen to them.
