I call "bullshit"

In yesterday’s newspaper SURE paid for a two-page advertisement which basically told the people how wonderful SURE is and how committed it is to serving the people of St Helena.

As the phrase goes, “I call bullshit”.

Imagine a visitor who arrives at the Airport on a Saturday. His friend is not there to pick him up and he doesn’t have his friend’s number, so he calls Directory Enquiries and hears a recorded message saying that the service is only available from 8am to 4pm, Mondays to Fridays (excepting public holidays).

This being St Helena, of course, he does not have to wait for his friend to remember him, or the 43 hours until SURE next operates, he just asks somebody for help and probably ends up getting a free lift to his friend’s place – but that is not the point.  Our visitor’s first impression of St Helena is that it makes a 3^rd world country look sophisticated.

If your Internet fails or your telephone goes crackly at 2pm on a Saturday you cannot even report the fault until 8am on Monday (or Tuesday of Monday is a public holiday).  In the “real world” two days without Internet access would be considered a crime – here it is a fact of life, often experienced.

I could site many other examples.

If SURE wants the people of St Helena to believe it is committed to improving their lives it should start by providing a reasonable standard of service at the times when it is required (which is, by the way, 24/7).

(PS I am well aware that, as a result of my posting this, my telephone/Internet will mysteriously develop a fault at about 2pm tomorrow.  That’s the price I must pay for telling the truth.)