The irrepressible pragmatism of the Barbadian citizen is far too infrequently sharpened into a savage barb that must jab the side of the State, e.g.: “Wunna got Republic but I can’t get back my taxes”. To the citizen, the State’s inertia, incompetence in the provision of basic services cuts them to the core.  Every insistence on the adequate supply and even distribution of that for which they have paid up front in the form of taxes on everything from bread to wages is too often met with an assault from a vocal minority that condemns those who ask as mendicant. No one lobbied for, voted for or paid taxes to get cash handouts from the State for doing their duty to save this nation from the ravages of a pandemic. They did, however, pay for the buses they ride on and the roads they ride on, just as they have paid upfront for free education, health care and social services at the point of delivery, clean waters, shores and skies, and the security of person and commons against violence, robbery, toxins and menaces.  This, then, is not about bread and circuses but the very purpose and promise of the government to ensure its citizens are equal before the law. There can be no other point in a country’s history, when it has achieved full republican status, that this should be more evident. More later on the relative failure of the Barbadian state to meet such needs but for now, we call on the Government’s attention to a singular example among many - the heavily lopsided approach to the maintenance of our dense road network, the thickest that can be found on any island anywhere on Earth. It is because we acknowledge this fact of density that we expect systemic solutions for the repair and care of roads, urban, suburban and rural.