Thousands of years ago God gave a man called Moses the daunting task of rescuing the children of Israel from the insidious clutches of Pharaoh Rameses and the oppression they were suffering in a land called Egypt.

Today God seems to be calling another of his servants to help rescue the people of Grenada from the hands of a corrupt and uncaring government.

This is the thinking of Reverend Ignatius Karl Hood, Pastor of the People’s Church, St. Pauls who is convinced that his decision to get into front line politics is directed by God and he is therefore prepared for whatever the challenges are that go with it.

Pastor Hood will contest the St. George’s South East constituency seat in the next general elections on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and is confident of victory.

However in his thinking it is not all about victory at the polls but in helping to bring some decency and morality back to local politics.

Hood said he is watching the plight of the poor Grenadian masses and he is hurting. He said too many time we sit and wait for God to send someone to fight the cause of the oppressed not thinking that God is probably expecting us to take up the take ourselves.    
Pastor Hood thinks he understands the root of the problem in our country; corruption and lack of vision and if the trends that are evident now are not stopped Grenada will soon become like Haiti in terms of the level of poverty that exists there.

The man of God mentioned the national Stadium as evidence of wastage and putting priority in the wrong place.

He said the first stadium was never filled in the first place yet the Prime Minister and his subordinates insisted on acquiring a bigger one at the expense of many other things that we could have requested form the donor that would benefit the people in a more profound way.

The stadium is now sitting there empty to be maintained and is nothing but a weight around the necks of the taxpayer.
The donor money used to build the stadium could have been used much more effectively to do much more for the country. Instead it was spent for six days of cricket the benefits of which is still to be recognized.

The level of corruption which is obvious among high officials is very worrying for Pastor Hood. To him it makes no logical or economic sense to be giving all these concessions to so called investors without there being kick backs.

He asks “why else would a government give away the country’s natural assets like that without there being any real benefits for the people?”

Why would a government guarantee a loan for someone who comes saying that they are going to invest and has nothing to show as was the case with the Mt. Hartman lands.
In addition to the rampant corruption, hood said he has never seen a time in Grenada when the political divide was so wide and the ruling party has to shoulder the blame for this.

Their policy is that if you are not with them they don’t care if you starve, you won’t get a job or your child a scholarship. He spoke of cases that had been brought to his attention where persons went to the relevant ministry asking for a scholarship for their child who was fully qualified to earn same.

Those persons were advised to go and speak to the Prime Minister who no doubt wanted to verify their political allegiance. The bottom line is if you don’t dance to the music of the political directorate your child cannot get a scholarship and this is what creates the political divide.

The popular and respected man of God said he tries never to touch political topics on the pulpit when he preaches because he does not want his congregation to be branded as being in league with him and therefore be victimized.
However he sees the pressures the people are under, he sees the problems and it hurts him.

His main reason for entering politics is to contribute to a change, to bring back morality and accountability to politics and put an end to what he perceives as large scale corruption taking place within the ruling administration. “I can no longer sit and watch these things and do nothing in a direct way.”

The experienced church leader said the corruption that the Gairy Government was accused is nothing compared with what is happening now and the only reason people are not being physically repressed is because the present government does not have the kind of control over the police force that Gairy had.

Hood said it is obvious that people are frustrated by what is going on but Grenadians have been mentally traumatized by some past experiences and are therefore afraid to protest. They are also afraid of being victimized if they are seen to be protesting the wrongdoings of the government.

Asked whether he was concerned that getting into politics would corrupt his morals, Hood said politics does not corrupt people. People he said act out their heart, you live your values and regardless what claims you make when you are seeking office if your heart is corrupt you will be corrupt in office.

However if you are someone who believes in values, decency and morality no involvement in politics can change that.

The Pastor complained that sometimes people sit and complain that the politicians are corrupt but we are the ones who put them there in the first place. He said too many time we allow people who are corrupt in the first place to enter politics. We need to have people in government who genuinely care about the country.

Reminiscing on the stewardship of former Prime Minister Sir Nicholas Brathwaite, Hood said although Mr. Brathwaite was a civil servant rather than a politician he led with the country at heart. Whenever there was anything within the government that smelled of corruption, he dealt with it harshly.

These days people are employed because of their corrupt tendencies and promoted for incompetence as was the case of former Commissioner of Police Mr. Fitzroy Bedeau. Bedeau failed the nation miserably after the passage of hurricane Ivan but he was removed from the force and given a higher paying job. Now he is being named as a possible candidate for the constituency of St. John’s.

Hood is convinced that this is the worst the plight of the poor man has ever been in the history of Grenada. Ivan destroyed the rural economy and no effort was made to rebuild it. Now there is a growing urban population while bush is reclaiming the abandoned agricultural lands. In the pastor’s view the economy runs much better when the poor man can spend.

All the talk about food security is just that he said, talk. Instead of a concerted, long term
plan for development the government is playing cheap political games now that elections are drawing close, scrambling to fix things and build things and holding all kinds of ceremonies with extensive media coverage to open a little piece of road that had been build or repaired, the very first thing they are elected to do in the first place.

Pastor Hood said Grenadians are under pressure and are being squeezed in a corner but with the help of God and like minded people this culture of corruption in Grenada’s politics will be changed. “The time has come for someone to stand up and say enough is enough”.

Hood has no doubt that the NDC will make a positive change in the country and put it back on the road to national pride and development.
He said the government is trying to use the stigma of the revolution and 1983 over the heads of some of the members of the NDC. However that period is long gone and this is a different dispensation.

Hood said people make mistakes and many time they move on to greatness adding I was not a revolutionary but I have the confidence to stand with them to bring morality back to government.

A person is not defined by what happened years ago hood said, what is important is who they are now and the government’s scare tactics should not be allowed to have any effect

The NDC will bring morality and accountability back to government, Hood said adding saying that the consequences of this not happening is that the country is doomed to economic destruction.

The future government that Hood wants to see and what he anticipates under the NDC will be one of morality, one with a social conscience, one that thinks about the people and not themselves and looks out for all Grenadians and not a selected few.