“St. Vincent (SVG) is not only open for business; there’s a fire sale taking place. Yes, St. Vincent is up for sale, and it’s a fire sale. Lawyer Jomo Thomas. A fire sale refers to the selling of a security or other product at a price that is well below market value.
While Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ famous words “hook in the national gill” continue to be discussed in almost every medium, former politician and outspoken attorney Jomo Thomas stated last week on BOOM FM that St. Vincent is for sale, and it’s a fire sale. According to Thomas, the country is being sold at “bargain basement prices,” and soon “you, me, the youth, and future generations will be struggling to find a place in this slice of paradise we call home.”
“I’m not sure if people understand that St. Vincent has a debt of $2.5 billion, 577 million of which is to Taiwan. What is worse is that Gonsalves admitted in his conscious policy of enslavement to Taiwan that whereas it took 42 years for us to borrow $100 million from Taiwan, we have now borrowed upwards of $400 million from Taiwan in the last year”.
Thomas stated that he does not understand why, even though SVG borrows money from Taiwan, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines would tell the people that the borrowing relationship, the loan that SVG receives from Taiwan, is a hook in the national gill.
“We have borrowed $400 million in the last year, and he’s admitting that this is a ‘hook in the national gill’, that no leader in the future would dare think of breaking relations with Taiwan. Is this the way a national leader speaks? If this man were a leader of Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, or Guyana and he had said anything like that, they would have chased him out of town”, Thomas stated.
Thomas stated that with all the borrowed money, the government has a virtual chokehold on the nation, its future, and its youth, and he does not understand how Gonsalves gets away with these things week after week.
“A few months ago, when they were trying to give away the 59 acres of land at Richmond, he said, Ah, no big deal. St. Vincent is a big stone with good soil, and we accepted that description of St. Vincent. When I broke the story about them giving Aecon a permit to dredge just off the international airport with all of the environmental difficulties, he said this was not happening, and last week he turned around and said, Well, you know, we had an exchange of letters, and we are now going to get $20 million instead of $4 million. For a few dollars more and like a cheap whore, we decided to give Aecon the go ahead”.
According to Thomas, there should be an audit of where the money is going.
“$700 million for the international airport. We have received hundreds of millions from the Petrocaribe Fund; all of this money has been spent. We need to have an audit because only by having an audit could we know if the money is being spent properly and if it’s being spent the way in which it’s been earmarked”, Thomas said.
