Collet Area Representative: The Streets Tell a Different Story from Government’s Claims on Poverty

Patrick Faber

Faber said that while the government points to an impressive annual growth rate, employment rate and a reduction in poverty levels, the reality on the streets tells a different story. He went over some of the figures that Prime Minister John Briceño presented and said that somehow there’s a disparity in the figures presented and the actual reality. 

Patrick Faber, Area Representative, Collet

“I go back to his line, Madam Speaker of those who seek employment are working so, in other words, if you’re not out there actively on the – the situation is Madam Speaker that some people get very frustrated, after you try and try and try, you apply for a job over and over and over again, so by their calculations, these people aren’t unemployed anymore. If the argument is that there is a growing number of persons who don’t have jobs but are not looking for work, then Madam Speaker, we have a different type of problem and this country might be further up the proverbial creek and we don’t want to admit it. Then he went on, Madam Speaker in his presentation, the Prime Minister, to speak about the government’s claim of reducing poverty. This Madam Speaker warrants some deep investigation. The Prime Minister announced that sixty-eight thousand persons have escaped poverty, which is an extraordinary achievement for our country. If this is true, Madam Speaker, and apparently the S.I.B has claimed the same. I believe that’s your source, if I’m not mistaken, Prime Minister. They have said again that poverty has miraculously gone from fifty-two percent when the UDP was in power to thirty-nine point five percent, just miraculously. And this is why I cautioned Madam Speaker from the start of my presentation, that what you all present in terms of the numbers on paper is a pretty picture, but the reality of there is different.”