Window Dressing

 

 

There is much window dressing

All year round:

In store windows and in Parliament-

By persons renown.

 

I recall going into Bridgetown

With my dad and my siblings

And viewing the Christmas showcases

And this was so exciting. 

 

It cost my dad nothing more

Than a pack of nuts and bus fare

And while we stared at the show window,

No police appeared.

 

 

 

If that went over your head

It means you are quite young,

I am talking about back in the 60’s decade

When you were not around.

 

We seldom got what we saw

But we anticipated the tour

Though as we got older and better off

We did it no more.

 

You see, it held no more appeal

As it did when we were kids

And so, when we became young adults,

Other things did.

 

However, I must confess

Window dressing has returned

Though it’s not the window dressing

For which I once yearned. 

 

It’s not the store windows

But behind Parliament walls

Where MPs paint wonderful pictures

That have us enthralled.

 

Pictures about projects

That never get off the ground

But year after year they get recycled

Like a merry-go-round.

 

Window dressing of the kind

To attract investment

Like the recent legislation to encourage

Free regional movement.

 

  

 

Our west coast and south coast

Are strewn with hotels

And the picture of these coasts shows

Our country is well.

 

 

 

But while seeing is believing

All that glitters is not gold

And all this window dressing is doing

Is creating debt untold.

 

Window dressing in the form

Of importing experts galore

But the myriad of perennial problems

Still vexing us sore.

 

Borrowing to window dress

To prop up foreign reserves

Making the country appear wealthy:

Apparent future preserved.

 

Yes, a healthy environment

But a people grossly sick

Forcing them that are disenfranchised

To be economically slick.

 

Reimagining and reinventing

Window dressing décor

But nothing’s really getting any better

For our indigent poor.

 

Other than window dressing

That smacks of welfarism

That only generates more and more

Social rheumatism. 

 

The facility to climb

The proverbial ladder of success

Appears to be targeting a select few

Leaving most in a mess.

 

 

 

The country of opportunity!

A great window dressing ad

But beyond the window dressing façade

Things are really bad.

 

A renown Prime Minister

Respected worldwide

But the Republic she presides over

Experiences a great divide.

 

Between the rich and the poor

There is mighty wide gap

And often the token assistance given

Is more like a slap.

 

 

Like the window dressing

Of that $300 amount

That in the blink of an eye disappeared

From the poor’s account.

 

Absolutely no trickle down

Reaches the vulnerably poor

While the window dressing politicians

Get more and more.

 

The MPs dress up the window

And invite the poor to look

But these recycled manifesto promises

Produce only a book.

 

 

 

A book for posterity

Given to the poor for free:

“A Window Dressing Guide for Politicians”

Added to a sparse library.

 

A world of window dressers

Politicians have become,

Showcasing their promises to all

But only benefitting some.

 

Yet they are convincing

And for them we vote

Lured by another window dressing:

A politician’s master stroke.

 

Stewart Russell © October 19, 2025

 

Ponzi Scheme

 

 

In any Ponzi Scheme

Who is at the top?

The originator, my dear Watson,

That is his spot.

 

And how does it flow?

Invariably it is up,

Not as a stream would flow

No such luck.

 

So, the further you are

From the actual top

The less proceeds you will get

Until it stops.

 

Some will contribute

And never receive

And they will count their losses,

Forever aggrieved.

 

 

Visualize a pyramid

Or even a simple triangle,

Notice the broad and stable base

Where the most people.

 

 

At the apex sits one

That receives from all

And next they are those immediate

That under him fall.

 

These all benefit

Down to tier number eight

And pretty much after this level

The returns dissipate.

 

Life in Barbados

Is really a Ponzi Scheme,

That the bottom supports the top

Is clearly seen.

 

A little trickle down

But even this goes back up

For giving it back to the benefactor

Is the beneficiary’s luck.

 

It’s like, I give you this

To pay me back

And when the stated time comes

Let there be no lack.

 

At the top sits the PM

With enormous support

From whom the occasional crumb

Will bring false hope.

 

 

Like the $300 sprat

To catch the elusive whale

When all the hoping the poor did

Was to no avail.

 

Ironically the next day

The petrol went up

Whereupon the poor at the bottom

Angrily cheupsed.

 

Out maneuvered

And cleverly out foxed

The poor people of this fair land

Were flummoxed.

 

Selling their only vote

To the highest bidder,

Even the very little that they had

Went to the Pied Piper.

 

No hope of retrieval

What is done is done,

And another Ponzi scheme system

Is having a run.

 

 

The biggest Ponzi Scheme

Is that of a government

With their onerous burden of tax

Bringing great lament.

 

Promises are alluring

But returns are imaginary

And all the poor has for company

Is abject poverty.

 

Stewart Russell © September 2, 2025

 

Trickle Down

 

Two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

Determine how the poor fares:

To eat or stay hungry.

 

Barbados, a two-party system
Now basically one,

With two thirty-love drubbings

One is almost gone.

 

A hand-up recently

Seems not appreciated,

A cross-over appears to be loved

But also hated.

 

Vehemently both ways

And thus, a split,

A cavernous split in my view

Where foes won’t quit.

 

Before the death throes

Of this famous party,

It was an alternate Government,

Hale and hearty.

 

Now it struggles daily

So much from inside

That it seems particularly bent

On political suicide.

 

A mere trickle of life

A defector from the BLP foes,

The second in a real sense

Adding to the DLP woes.

 

 

Double party leaders

Both from the other party:

One just a few years back,

The other recently.

 

A trickle down from the BLP,

A hope for more to follow

But this hope seemingly dashed!

Too much to swallow.

 

A BLP/DLP in the making?

Don’t ask me!

Better ask the Prime Minister:

Mia Amor Mottley.

 

If infiltrators or not

She would probably know

But there is some trickle down,

That’s for sure.

 

 

Talking ‘bout trickle down

It’s an economic strategy,

Practised for a very long time

By the BLP.

 

Take care of the employer

And the employee will eat

Crumbs from the master’s table;

Isn’t this neat?

 

Grantley practised it

And so too, did his son Tom,

Owen halted it for two terms

And then continued on.

 

It was taken up by Mia

Particularly so recently,

Everybody’s against the consumer:

BLPC, the PM and FTC.

 

More than likely, though,

Trickle down will trickle back up,

Under a BLP administration

This is the poor man’s cup.

 

 

Barrow’s DLP was different

That insignia long gone,

Ever since its founding principle

The DLP has moved on.

 

Take care of the poor

And the rich will get their share,

From the rich the poor have to buy

So, the rich won’t have a care.

 

Trickle down trickles back up

It’s so obvious to me,

It was so with Grantley and Tom,

It’s so with PM Mottley.

 

I said two basic strategies

Well, maybe three,

And I guess you are wondering

What that third one be.

 

Well, it is welfare-ism:

Line them up for handouts,

It was revisited during COVID:

A BLP ploy without a doubt.

 

From the masses up

Or, trickle down,

When either is handled poorly

The poor is less strong.

 

Put money in their pockets

Then send the taxes sky high

Or trickle down that doesn’t reach

And they will still die.

 

Two obvious practices

By two distinctive parties,

Now that there is essentially one,

Who will fight fuh we?

 

 

Ronnie versus Ralph

With the BLP running free

Well, except for the Marcia Weekes Show,

Dem fighting fuh we?

 

I wish I could hear

Another nine have crossed,

Twenty-ten would be just right

To temper the boss.

 

A BLP/DLP party?

Anything is better than this,

A vibrant Opposition in Parliament

Is what I miss.

 

A repeat of history

Re a parting from Grantley,

Why can’t we have it again?

This time from Mottley.

 

Stewart Russell © May 13, 2024