THE EDITOR:
LAST night I thought of writing about the hypocrisy and misinformation which the Christian Churches have been indulging in for the past 2000 years and are still getting away with, because of mental laziness of the masses.

However, I have abandoned that for another time, as there are more pressing things to talk about.

The authorities here in TnT have no cojones or testicular fortitude. As a result, the country is being ripped off right and left, while the politicians are only interested in staying in power at the expense of the people.

Why should money be spent and yet we can’t get value.

Travel around the country and we see material and “workmen” but no productivity.

A project which should take a couple of weeks or months lasting for years; supervisors are only names without any authority, and there is no accountability to the Ministries, so the Ministers are left in the dark or claim they are, as no financial statements can be produced for years.

Yet, money is being handed out.

If the politicians were honest about their jobs and the country and not about just staying in office, they would do as Mayor Juliani did in New York and fire every man jack when projects drag on and last way over the projected time.

Then, TnT would be a better place.

Politicians are selling out TnT to foreigners for their own gain, while the country gets little in return.

Why should this country have so much poverty and no proper services, yet we boast of mineral wealth?

We need leaders with back bones and not long tongues.

We are supposed to be independent.

Why should our protective services be unable to protect and as a result the country is under siege from the wrongdoers and fire?

The time for talk and promises should have ended the day after the election; we should have been seeing action from then onwards.

Because of our Carnival and fete mentality, the people haven’t taken to the streets.

But, maybe that time will arrive when our politicians would have to deliver or be run out of office.

Voting for Party before country is the reason for our predicament and that must stop.

THE EDITOR:
PICTURE this.

You are a 16-year-old Black teen living in Laventille.

You have just achieved three subjects at CXC.

On exiting the O’level system, you’re now looking for options. Where do you go from here? UWI is out, but what about a craft course at John S. Donaldson Technical Institute (JSDTI)?

You enter JSDTI and spend one year doing a craft course and you are successful.

Maybe, you could proceed to be a mechanic, depending on what craft course you completed, or maybe you could move on and complete a Technician Diploma.

You choose the latter and after a couple years you receive a Technician’s Diploma and in so doing made yourself very marketable.

Now to my point.

Suppose this craft course wasn’t available when you came out of high school, what would have been your options?

Imagine after six months, nothing.

After one year, nothing.

Maybe some odd work here and there.

But this is not what you want in life.

You want something better for yourself.

You want to achieve more for yourself, but as you see it there is no one willing to give you a chance because, after all, you are from Laventille.

Well, Prime Minister, this is reality.

Do you know by converting JSDTI and San Fernando Technical Institute (SFTI), to the University of Trinidad and Tobago you have automatically alienated a lot of youths.

By converting these Institutes to only offer degree courses, you are eliminating many people who could make a contribution to society. Youths who can make something of themselves, you are throwing them by the wayside.

Money is being spent on education, but you are leaving out a very crucial sector of society.

The weaker students.

I remember as a young graduate teaching at JSDTI in the early 70s, I had students from the Beetham, Morvant and Laventille.

I always thought people from these areas were not academically inclined.

I was dead wrong because some of my best students came from these areas.

They had a point to prove and they did it.

I will sometimes meet past students and one thing they would all agree on, was how much JSDTI did for them.
I could never understand why mess with something that is working. Technical Education is not perfect, but it’s getting the job done. Maybe, a review of the syllabus would be a step in the right direction.

But other than that, why eliminate the students with two and three subjects from the education system?

UTT has a transition programme.

Is anyone aware of the kind of students who are accepted for these courses?

Students with six and seven subjects.

Again, there is no room for the weaker students.

If it’s one thing nobody could beat Dr. Eric Williams for, was his insight on education.

Recently, it came to my attention that two previous principals from SFTI were products of Technical Education?

Imagine that.

And you want to throw away this?

We sit and wonder what must be done to control crime, and everyone has their two cents to put in.

But I’m making a prediction, if we don’t get this right and now, very soon we’ll be praying for the days when there was one murder per day.

THE EDITOR:
RANK does have its’ privileges, but it should never be seen as a means to covertly subvert the law.

I look on in bewilderment as the list of applicants for exemption keeps growing; it began with Judges and Magistrates, then Independent Senators and most recently Directors and Chairmen of State Boards.

Aren’t these the same individuals who would have us believe that they are law-abiding, of impeccable character; model citizens.

How else can the validity of their claims be proven true, if there’s no willingness on their part to subject themselves to scrutiny?

By what other means can we combat the scourge of money laundering, drug trafficking and tax evasion?

Legislators can ill-afford to continue to give credence to lobbyists who hold fast to ideologies that promote class segregation in society.

Laws are meant to maintain order, ensuring good governance of all and none should be perceived as being above the law; to do so would cause others to become deluded, easily swayed, to lose respect and confidence in the law and those appointed to enforce it.

Instead, a lot more effort would be spent to create the means by which they can be part of the sector of society rather than seek to benefit from manipulation of the loopholes of the same law.

They no longer see the need to subscribe when you can manipulate.

There are similar scenarios that occur daily, involving some of these same manipulators; when faced with traffic congestions on other roadways they issue themselves bus route passes, others use this carriage way because the model car they drive and the single, double or triple digit number plate it carries affords them little or no suspicion.

Faced with congestion here as well, they seek to limit the use of this roadway by maxi-taxis.

When using other roadways during peak hours, they implore the use of sirens and out-riders, drive on the wrong side of the road, run red lights, contravening traffic regulations, endangering the lives of others.

In roadblocks, these said vehicles and others similar in appearance are spared the inconvenience of being stopped or searched; they are never perceived as suspects.

In the city, towns and boroughs the same mentality is exercised with parking.

If there’s need to go back to the Parliament to amend this law it should be to strengthen the ability of the said legislation to encapsulate everyone, no exemptions!

The law when applied with equity and fairness works!