What I do allyuh, dog boy were reportedly the last words of 32-year-old Keith Branker before he was shot and killed. Did Keith deserve to be killed in a society where his death becomes just another number? Those words are perhaps echoed in every community in Trinidad & Tobago today. Dog, what did we do to deserve this level of governance dog boy? What did the people of Tobago do to deserve the lukewarm response to an environmental catastrophe. They did not want to hear about first tier and second tier response, they needed pro-active leadership. Someone had to evaluate the situation and take immediate steps to tow the boat to a safe location or if not possible find a way to immediately stop the leak. But putting one’s hand in the air and hoping that an international expert will guide you demonstrates how not ready Trinidad & Tobago are, to deal with disasters.
The lack of immediate action in Tobago reminds one of the deadly failures to act in the Paria diving catastrophe. No one demonstrated the leadership ability to take immediate action that could have saved the lives of the divers. In Trinidad & Tobago, the incompetence and inability of management personnel can lead to economic disaster, and in some cases loss of life.
The closure of the Point A Pierre refinery without a plan for what happens next, the obscene cost of the highway to Point Fortin, the dangerous cable barriers placed in close proximity to high speed traffic, the over engineered Grand bazaar overpass, and many similar decisions indicate a trend of incompetence and lack of advanced thinking that can not only be costly but dangerous.
Perhaps more concerning are decisions that are not made. Why have one of the best underground caves in the western hemisphere and not market it as a world class tourist site with appropriate services and infrastructure. Why not make Eco Tourism a major income earner for Trinidad & Tobago? Why fail to do simple thing to protect citizens from debilitating crime like have state issued number plates for cars, easy access to firearm’s users permits for homeowners with laws restricting use to the home, why not have structured police patrols, why not have the existing camera serviced regularly rather than continually buy new ones?
So much that is wrong with Trinidad & Tobago can be pointed to incompetence and poor management.
The people with the appropriate skills, the knowledge and technical abilities prefer to work in the private sector or abroad as their decisions are many times overridden by politics.
So as Trinidad & Tobago face a possibility of continuing poor political representation, the nations may well be asking “dog, what I do all yuh, dog boy”? All before the demise of whatever structures are still alive in this beautiful country.
Unless there is a collective effort by all our people to look beyond party loyalty and commit to national loyalty, then we may just reap that which we have sown.
God Bless Our Nation.
Steve Alvarez
