Trin | Surviving life in Trinidad and Tobago

Letters: Shame on us for not yet being angry.

Are we angry yet? The Prime Minister told Parliament on Tuesday that $10 million has been missing for years and is pointing a finger at his former deputy and Cabinet colleague, Keith Rowley.

So how come Patrick Manning sat on this “corruption” for years and is only now talking about it?

By his own admission Manning has indicted his PNM administration in corruption. “Where it gone?” he asked Rowley. But shouldn’t the nation be asking Manning the same question?

Manning stated clearly that there was a $10 million discrepancy in a housing contract while Rowley was in charge of housing and he is hoping that the former minister could shed some light on the matter and clarify things.

Well, what’s to clarify? Why didn’t he ask when Rowley was sitting in Cabinet? And why is he now asking after so many years? Is it because he now wants to paint Rowley as corrupt?

As captain of the ship, Manning must take responsibility for it. Manning should be asking himself “where it gone?” Because in the final analysis, $10 million of taxpayers’ money just vanished and Manning is still making like a saint.

And the tragedy of it is that we are not angry yet. Shame on us!

Capil Bissoon
Letters, Guardian Thur Oct 2nd, 2008

Letters: The growing PNM cult in Trinidad and Tobago

Why PNM now seems to be a cult

PNM must now be a cult. It has dogma—its Vision 2020 ideology. It has mentally blind followers willing to support and protect the movement regardless of circumstances.

The movement believes itself to be immortal: “Great is the PNM and it shall prevail.” Its leader believes he is divinely selected to rule. It locks other groups and individuals out of the governance system. It hears its own views only.

One commonality of cults is that they place their survival over and above that of mainstream social interest. Isn’t that what the PNM is about, placing its survival over that of the nation?

Consider the policies on crime, inflation, health, infrastructure development, land and marine farming, housing and urbanisation, transportation, energy monetisation and utilisation, local and central government reform. Are these pursued through national consensus? Are the majority benefiting?

B Joseph

Via e-mail

Guardian Letters Sep25th, 2008

A letter from a legendary writer - Merle Hodge on the PNM's rally

Every Trinbagonian child has had an encounter with the work of Merle Hodge. Her notorious book Crick, Crack Monkey is a permanent fixture in the childhood memories of people throughout our country. We were extremely happy to find a letter from Merle in the recent newspapers. Her letter brought tears of relief to our eyes. We no longer needed to write our commentary about the ridiculous behaviour of the PNM leaders on September 12th 2008 during the Motion of No Confidence against Prime Minister Patrick Manning, or our grief at the way the PNM continues to use and abuse those poor destitute Cepep and URP workers for their demented political whims. She eloquently said everything we wanted to convey, and so here is the letter by our legendary writer Merle Hodge. She truly is one of Trinidad's great thinkers, one of our great leaders.

Govt cannot be trusted after Friday’s PNM rally

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How can we ever again trust anything that comes out of the mouths of those who govern us? What confidence can we now place in their utterances? 

For days we had government ministers and high public officials looking us in the eye and denying that there was a mass event planned for Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain, on September 12. 

One minister swore blind that it was a “spontaneous” response from PNM supporters, angry that their leader was under attack. It was the same minister who swore blind for weeks that there was no dengue outbreak. 

How edifying this has been for our young people, especially the members of the PNM Youth League who might have been directly involved in the mobilisation taking place for three weeks before the event—the printing and distribution of jerseys, flags and banners; the expensive structures going up in Woodford Square; then on the day, the Prime Minister stepping out of the Parliament, wearing a Bible, to hype up the non-existent rally.

 How inspired our children must be when they match up all of this with the bare-faced denials of significant public figures.

 Officials in charge of giving permission for mass public demonstrations, and for the use of Woodford Square, could not remember any application for a PNM rally to be held in the square that day.

 So now any group can spontaneously do its thing in the square, on any day of the year, including Fridays when Parliament is sitting, without asking anybody’s permission. If the ruling party could break the law, who is we?

 Then the Cepep and URP workers who, innocently, in front of television cameras, spoke the truth—that they had been ordered to come to the square, and would be paid for the day.

 No wonder the Government is not interested in any ideas about developing sustainable employment.

Unstable, off-and-on employment, doled out as patronage, allows you to keep people on a short tether, beholden to you for their precarious livelihood.

Then you can call them up whenever you need a show of force to deal with those who don’t agree with you. This is the way to build a private army of potential Tonton (and Tantan) Macoutes.

 Nobody won in that vote of confidence exercise.

 The opposition lost, as it fully expected to, inside the Parliament.

 Across the road, with the spectacle in the square after days of strong denial, the ruling party lost the respect of even more citizens, including some PNM supporters.

 But the biggest loser is the country. The “little rivers” spoken of by ANR Robinson have become a mighty dirty flood, and we are drowning in it, sinking lower and lower.

 Merle Hodge, St Augustine

Letters: Develop Trinidad and Tobago ahead of the rest of the Caribbean

Develop country ahead of region

The Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC) expresses its shock and amazement with the statement made by Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, Minister Housing and Planning Development, in Chaguanas.

ITEC is totally appalled by the statement, given the obscene funding by Prime Minister Patrick Manning to our Caribbean neighbours following the natural disasters in the Caribbean. Only recently the Prime Minister gave $27 million to Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica following their calamity.
We recall also that the Government has helped people of Grenada after the hurricane, as well as the people of Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.

We now find it passing strange that predominantly Indian areas of central and south Trinidad are being actively lobbied by the Government to be self-sufficient in their own aid and recovery, with marginal or no governmental support.

Dick-Forde at the meeting appealed to the central corporate sector to extend its resources to the needy. Dick-Forde asked businessmen to assist in constructing a home for two needy families in Couva North. The Government can assist families in Grenada, Cuba, Jamaica, and St Vincent but cannot assist nationals of T&T.

This abandonment of central and south Trinidad comes on the backdrop of million-dollar overruns on several government projects such as E-Tec, Udecott, the Toruba stadium and others. The neglect has to be described as discrimination by a government against its own people.

ITEC calls on the business and corporate sector to ignore the call of the Government and demand that the Manning administration focuses on putting internal infrastructural development ahead of regional development.

Devant Maharaj
Chairman, ITEC
Guardian Letters Monday Sep 15, 2008

Is this an example of the PNM's plan to punish, marginalize, neglect and frustrate ordinary citizens who the PNM cartel feel are unworthy of having any improvement in their standards of living? Just take a drive from West Trinidad eastward - the difference in the development of the towns and cities as you start heading East and then South onto Central and South Trinidad is obvious.

Under the PNM millions of dollars have been wasted on mega projects such as Tarouba. Is Manning only interested in forming alliances that will help him to maintain his power, and financially rewarding those that tow the PNM party line?

It is sad indeed that everyday we have to fight to get help to make our lives a little better when we are only asking for equal treatment for all trinis!

Yet still monthly Manning and the PNM are spending $6.5 million TT monthly (for a total of $10 Million US$) to build St. Vincent's airport.  Sad and friggin' unbelievable that the PNM is still hellbent on excluding non-PNM supporters from the benefits of new infrastructure.

Letters: Only when the last tree has died.

Buy and throw away, hoard your wealth, greed blinds you, we are such a wealthy nation, yet so many of us are still going hungry, so many neglected and struggling - parents who cannot afford healthcare for themselves and their children, single mothers who have to work two jobs to support their families, young adults with no one to parent them, policemen and women risking their lives to protect us in their run down stations, with their scarce equipment and half-assed training. Are you really doing the best you can Prime Minister? Is your regional integration crusade really the best thing for the people of Trinidad and Tobago? Was it really necessary for you to waste so much of our money with your greed induced plan for power? Eric Williams would be ashamed of you. Our families continue to suffer because of your greed and we wish you would just leave and appoint someone more capable and more caring to take your place. We are sick of you Patrick Manning.

Amy, Letters

Letters: Employ professionals to help police officers

The Prime Minister spent $18 Million on travel in 2007, no wonder he has no clue about the common man's daily stress from living in Trinidad. He has just donated $26 Million to neighboring countries affected by hurricane Gustav. What if Manning decided it was urgent to spend $26 Million fixing our roads and bridges and clearing our drains to prevent the flood disasters of last week? Imagine the cost of damage if a hurricane hit us? What if he thought it was important enough to spend $18 Million on improving the police force? Ah to dare to dream...

Rev Dr Michael Friday writes:
A middle-management police officer shoots a non-violent citizen to death. A woman is enraged to find her police officer spouse in a compromising situation with another female in a police station/office.                  
These two recent incidents are among the many that constantly remind us that all is not well within our Police Service. The service is crying out for urgent intervention, both of a spiritual and psychological nature.

Many police departments all over the world employ the services of either chaplains or psychologists. Some do both, as in the case of neighbouring Jamaica. Their Police Chaplaincy Unit has been of              invaluable assistance in developing standards for professional behaviour, personal development, stress management, debriefing and other procedures after shootings of any kind, recruitment, training, promotion and, generally, the development of a new culture within the force.
            
If T&T is supposedly on track to be a developed, first world nation by 2020, we can by no means achieve this with police personnel who ape caveman behaviour. We cannot go on with reactive responses to intrigue within the service. It is high time for the full-time employment of professionals who would help the service rid itself of its potentially dangerous miscreants, and help the many good ones become better professionals and greater people.            

Rev Dr Michael Friday            
Former assistant chaplain-psychologist            
Jamaica Constabulary Force      

Trinidad Guardian, Saturday September 6th, 2008

Depressed at crime and lack of change in Trinidad.

An unprincipled Prime Minister, who turns his back on his common people will continue to alienate Trinidad's citizens. These disenchantment of our citizens has already been widely demonstrated by the lack of support for the proposed new constitution and the alarm and outrage at Manning's proposed Caribbean integration.

One reader wrote:

"Do we live in a political void Trinidad and Tobago?  A great writer once referred to the political process in his fragmented country by saying "during elections, it was out of a desire for self-punishment that they voted for the most wretched parties". Has our devastating history as a nation blindsided us to the extent that we no longer have the energy to demand or create change?

When will Patrick Manning feel shame at his ongoing lavish lifestyle of private jets and island tours while we suffer? Which leader has ever been more out of touch with the people than him, especially the poorest black people who repeatedly support him? It appears that the criminal element feels "material envy" only toward the Indian business owners, as demonstrated by the ongoing kidnappings, under the watch of a wasteful leader. How does one explain this contradiction? Is material envy limited to race alone, with the Prime Minister's lifestyle condoned by the poorest slum dweller while the wealthy Indian population is labeled elitist and deserving of hate crimes and kidnapping?

Don't all hard working people, whatever their race, deserve to reap the benefits of their work without fear of victimization or hate crimes? Are we a country of racist hypocrites? Trinidad and Tobago, when will you ever learn to respect one another?"

Letters: Racism and cronyism

I believe in nothing if not action” - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

One reader writes:
"We are a small and diverse country - we can in no way accept liars, bigots and racists with a political agenda. Our present leader does not care about black people - young black men are killing one another, dying in poverty, living in a hellish existence in our oil rich country run by a black leader that predominantly black voters re-elected. For what? Because some people can't support a candidate that is different from them, even if their own leader don't give one shit about them and watchin' them die everyday from the bay windows of his brand new mansion in St Ann's."

Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends AND family members (like maybe yuh wife) , especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications.

Cronyism exists in our country because our Prime Minister know well that no matter how spectacularly he fails as a leader, he will be rewarded with votes by those people who are just too racist to vote for any other candidate at election time, even though any other candidate would take a genuine interest in the quality of life our people, instead of building a personal empire. Cronyism exists where racism exists. The only way to get rid of one is to get rid of the other.

Cronyism results in inefficient leadership, protects the well connected, keeps power within specific criminal and financial circles and makes any effort to create transparency in our Government impossible so your tax dollars are wasted at the whim of the PNM, and communities are left in poverty generation after generation. Certain communities are completely prevented from every making it into leadership positions in the Government unless they kiss the crony-network-ass.

Do you want yourself (and every other person in our country) to have a fair chance to one day try to make our lives better, or do you want to support the same buffoons and kiss old-crony-ass while our country becomes more unbearable with each passing day? Then you need to make a choice to say racism is wrong. It is not OK that our leaders allow innocent people to get hurt just so that they can hold on to their little shreds of power.

Demand higher standards from your representatives - better moral standards, better manners, better work ethic, more accountability.

Listen carefully to what any member of parliament or any community leader has to say and ask yourself - is this person making a racist statement? Is this person making an intelligent statement, speaking the truth?

Search for the facts. Take an interest in the political details - do your own investigation, decided for yourself. Is this person helping or hurting us? Were we ever a respectful people - what de heck happened? Some leaders and media personalities choose to use their little shreds of power for hate-mongering.

Saying no to racism means you must show respect for every single one of your fellow Trinidadians and Tobagonians no matter their skin colour, name, weight, hair style, education level, job, home town, political affiliation or religion.

We all have to live together, and with the right encouragement we can all work together to make our country what is was before the PNM ruined everything.

If you can't detox your brain, then pucker up and enjoy your continued crony-ass-kissing and deteriorating quality of life.

Falling behind with technology?

Today I realized that we're missing a big part of our 20-20 development goals. It's as if our government didn't realize the Internet age arrived. Construction and development is prominently visible everywhere you drive in Trinidad, but the corresponding ease of implementing technology capable of making our Government work more efficiently is missing. I can only imagine how much safer our lives would be if our police and army personnel had access to:

1) A database of license plates for people charged with speeding and drunk driving.
2) A database for child-sex offenders.

If we only had a greater police presence on the roads and in our communities, we could save one more innocent driver. If an astute officer noticed a car driving recklessly he could  punch in the license plate of the car into a database connected to his police car to see if the person was a repeat offender. He would not only be able to pull over and charge the idiot before he crashed into some poor driver, he would have grounds to impound the car and suspend the offender's license.

Imagine if there were names and pictures of sex offenders accessible to all of us - if we knew where these people lived, where they were last seen and to be on the lookout for some wanted criminal, maybe we could save one more child here in Trinidad and Tobago.

Have you thought about immigration?

Are you afraid of achieving any measure of success in Trinidad? Have you thought about immigration? Would another country value your hard work and education?

Trinidad is a black hole of negativity sucking up all aspirations.

Together we do not aspire. Trinidadians have simple needs - a safe place to raise their families, an honest police force, a means of justice, a leader who actually cares about improving the quality of life for all our people.

A glass ceiling has cut us off from our Prime Minister, Leader of the Caribbean God's chosen Patrick Manning and his confederation of dumb dumbs and they're gravely and at top speed continuing to f*ck up the country for every single one of us.

Last week God told him to delegate himself to the task of uniting the Caribbean region and continue neglecting any serious problems we are having in Trinidad.

Today a village was flooded after heavy rains and last week a bridge broke and a man died, while murders reached an all time high - 2 to 3 killed per day, but God's chosen leader Patrick Manning flies around on a private jet while the little people bicker and point fingers and no one dares to kick that jackass out of power.

No one in power cares about our aspirations - only those in power and those with criminal connections dare to aspire, the rest of us live quietly in constant fear hoping no one notices that we too dared to achieve.

We are always looking over our shoulder with dread. I didn't know working so hard would be such a problem, that studying further, to have careers and to work relentlessly to achieve personal success would be such a scary achievement and the reason I might eventually be driven out of my homeland.

Now we live in the shadows, under the radar, afraid to call attention to ourselves, hoping no one will notice that we are successful, that no one will hurt us for working too hard in Trinidad and Tobago. (The above photo is copyright despair Inc.)

Who has lost out on an education in Trinidad?

The PNM won six consecutive elections and held power from 1956 to 1986 and from December 2001 until today. Can you tell?

PNM leaders, you should be ashamed of the way you have kept your supporters in the lowest levels of our society, ashamed you did not provide proper guidance to your supporters, ashamed that you encourage mediocrity, ashamed that you never publicly  discouraged racism and ashamed that you ignored the crime problem for as long as you did. After so many decades under PNM control, you should be ashamed that your supporters are among the poorest most uneducated people in our country, the young men dying daily from gang warfare.

Tony Blair says "Education, education, education". Why so afraid of advocating education among your supporters, Patrick Manning?

Do you doubt they are endowed with the ability for excellence so you pin them into massive welfare programs instead?

What is the problem with us?

Leaders are only as powerful as the many who give them power. What would you do differently?

Responsible media: Advertising

Does responsible advertising exist in TnT? Nope. Have you seen the proliferation of advertising for alcohol and tobacco products? How about those billboards along the Churchill-Roosevelt highway of the almost naked woman (or worse just a pic of some woman's body parts) suggestively posing with a bottle of booze?

How about a little respect for the women of TnT the next time you plan a sexist irresponsible ad campaign, huh you alcohol -advertising companies? What message do you think you're sending to young boys and girls in TnT who drive by those billboards and see those pictures often?

Hmm, how about "young women, you need to have alcohol to be desirable" or "young men, you need to drink to get female attention". Why don't you mention that impotent is what he's gonna be after all them years of alcohol and cigarettes, or the link between alcohol and depression, or between alcohol and cancer or alcohol and heart disease - because these diseases are widespread in Trinidad and Tobago but who cares about our health! Big-Media, I'd love to know what the heck you were thinking when you put those pictures into production.

Letters: How to build Community

One reader sent us this pic, we liked it so much we decided to share it with you.

The How To Build Community poster reads:
Turn off your TV.
Leave your house.
Know your neighbors, Look up when you are walking;
Greet people;
Sit on your stoop;
Plant flowers;
Use your library;
Play together;
Buy from local merchants;
Share what you have;
Help a lost dog;
Take children to the park;
Garden together;
Support neighborhood schools;
Fix it even if you didn't break it;
Have pot lucks;
Honor elders;
Pick up litter;
Read storeis aloud;
Dance in the street;
Talk to the mail carrier;
Listen to the birds;
Put up a swing;
Help carry something heavy;
Barter for your goods;
Start a tradition;
Ask a question;
Hire young people for odd jobs;
Organize a block party;
Bake extra and share;
Ask for help when you need it;
Open your shades;
Sing together;
Share your skills;
Take back the night;
Turn up the music;
Turn down the music;
Listen before you react to anger;
Mediate a conflict;
Seek to understand;
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles;
Know that no one is silent athough many are not heard.
Work to change this.