Douglas Wheatley (left) stated that talk show hosts and columnists were being ignored by government. Also in picture are talk show hosts Natalio Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru (centre) and Cromwell Smith aka Edju Enka. Photo: VINO/File

My talk show colleagues as well as columnists to the newspapers have been talking for some time now on problems affecting the Territory and have been providing solutions, remedies etcetera, to improve the welfare of the people of the Territory. He alleged that, sadly, in almost one hundred percent of instances, the powers that be do not respond. L-R Donald E. deCastro, Dickson Igwe, Alred C. Frett Photo: VINO/File

Television talk show hosts (L-R) Richard Courtney deCastro, Julio S. Henry and Edmund Maduro. Photo: VINO/File

“Does it take only a matter that was raised in the House of Assembly for Heads of Departments or other persons in government to pay attention and take notice of something that is of importance to the entire Territory?” Wheatley asked.

“My talk show colleagues as well as columnists to the newspapers have been talking for some time now on problems affecting the Territory and have been providing solutions, remedies etcetera, to improve the welfare of the people of the Territory,” Wheatley stated on his 3D radio show aired July 5, 2013.

He alleged that, sadly, in almost one hundred percent of instances, the powers that be do not respond. He said it leads them to think that their works and efforts were being ignored to the detriment of society and Territory as a whole.

He described an experience of being told to ‘shut up and go home’ by a resident, since no one in government was listening to talk show hosts. According to Wheatley, he told his detractor that he was simply on the radio trying to educate and assist in ventilating issues and felt quite satisfied in doing so.

The commentator stated that he didn’t host his show for any political reason or in the hope that he would be elected, “That’s not my motivation,” he expressed.

In a written piece titled ‘Is anybody listening’, Wheatley sought to highlight a number of initiatives and ideas he had expressed over the years that he hoped the powers that be would have picked up on but never did.

Among these, he listed a call for a manpower study that would help determine required civil service positions and a provisional employment programme for persons wishing to enter the prison service or police force among others.

Wheatley was particularly perturbed about a situation where a youth approached two legislators last year, namely Hon. Alvera Maduro-Caines and Hon. Myron V. Walwyn, about being unable to secure a job within the police force and had his concerns addressed by the Commissioner of Police after the issue was raised in the House of Assembly by Hon. Walwyn.

“Does it take only a matter that was raised in the House of Assembly for Heads of Departments or other persons in government to pay attention and take notice of something that is of importance to the entire Territory?” he asked.

Wheatley said he has raised the idea on the radio along with Dr. Karl Dawson for many years and was completely ignored previously. This prompted him to state, “A good idea is a good idea, and if we want this country to progress, we must take the best of the ideas that are put out regardless of what the source is.”

He said Heads of Departments and others should pay attention at all times and not only when Members of the House of Assembly raise an issue. “Maybe if I asked Hon. Myron Walwyn or Hon. Maduro-Caines to raise [an issue] in the House of Assembly and they were to raise it with passion, maybe somebody would then pay attention to it, but that shouldn’t be the only way,” he argued.

One caller to the programme said that Wheatley and others were being ignored because they did not have money and were not well connected. “We the people in this country, they aren’t going to hear us, we’re poor,” the caller said, “they aren’t going to hear a poor man talking. If England has an idea, they will hear it.”