TOUGH CITY SIDEWALKS

LIFE IN THE CITY is not easy for the disabled. But instead of lodging yet another complaint, Boneta Phillips, president of the Barbados Council for the Disabled, chose to take Minister of Social Transformation Trevor Prescod and Minister of Public Works Gline Clarke on a City tour to assess how difficult it really was for the disabled. Prescod got a feel of it by wheeling Phillips in her wheelchair for most of the journey. He found out how hard it was to get up and down the sidewalks, how bumpy it was because of the cracks, and how dangerous the grills in sidewalks are for visually impaired people using canes.
Clarke said he was "shocked" by what he saw and promised that something would be done soon. (DS) Source: NationNews.com

*Silver Bells Tune* - "City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, killing disabled folk".
Something will be done soon nuh? hmph! Talk big, perform small, thats the name of the political bedroom game. De man reason he was shocked. Well I suppose I would be shocked too. A wheel chair user finding it difficult climb over a 6 inch side walk?? How could that be? That ranks right up there with an elephant riding a bicycle on a tight rope, these things just dont happen. But as usual, this gine plague the news for the next few days, nuff pictures, nuff talk and 3 months from now they will print: Disabled lady stuck on Broad Street....waiting for Minister's promise, ask Oba what I talking 'bout. But I like this woman Boneta... YOU come and push de chair for the whole day. She should make him do it every week. After going up and down 300 side walks, HE gine end up in a wheel chair, and yuh gine see how fast B'town becomes disabled friendly. The thing that got me is that the whole of Swan Street get paved, but a few little ramps and patches to assist the disasbled couldn't get sorted out. They might as well say.. Mr. Disabled boy... we dont give to wuk-ups bout you, but now that we get put on the spot, we gine talk sweet. But dont look for anything too soon, *insert colgate smile here*.
What I would like to see now is an actual time table... March 25th: Ramps. April 10th: Change Sidewalk Grills. April 25th: Seal Cracks in Sidewalks. But these open ended promises does disappear into thin air.. dem gine wait til a blind person drop in a hole and a wheel chair user end up under a truck before dem do something.

*After reading this post, 482 disabled persons will find it difficult to get around in Bridgetown... incidentally, 481 of them find it difficult to get around at home. Go figure.