Motorists suffer from politician’s neglect

THE EDITOR: Can I return to the subject of the vexing (by being missing these many years) interchange at the junction of the Churchill Roosevelt and Uriah Butler Highways? (Three gentlemen who should be spinning in their graves in having their names associated with continued atrocious negligence!) When the UNC was newly in power and the Minister of Works, Sadiq Baksh, was variously taking helicopter rides to see what highway traffic jams were, taking weekend walkabouts in the Never Dirty district, and having water tanks on top John John decorated like a baby’s nursery, I was the only letter-writer constantly asking for this vital overpass to be provided, both to return sanity to commuting and to enhance productivity (ha! ha! ha! which politician cares about that? I was wasting ink and time!) Be that as it may, the UNC Government (aka the Panday Regime), in its wisdom, promoted the needs of the international jet set above us lowly voter-commuters and began to get itself mired in the miasma of the ever notorious Piarco Project about which ‘nuff said for now. Later, when the wheels to the bandwagon fell off, the co-driver and conductors having long jumped off and the driver unable or unwilling to control the mutiny/desertion, himself losing control, and we were handed back, there being no other choice excepting Hobson’s, to the mercies, of the PNM, then, suddenly a slew of irate readers’ letters appeared like a rash, all appealing, as if in one  voice, for the overpass!

This was stunning! Where were their voices before, when mine seemed the lone one? And where are they now? Has the urgent need for this Interchange suddenly vanished? Surely, with the vast sums spent in raking dirt, whitewashing stones and bricks, prettifying waste lots and, generally, indulging in activities similar to the aforementioned John John water tanks, this sorely needed interchange could be a reality today? If God is, in reality, a Trinidadian, he must have a sardonic sense of humour to have us, these past few years, under the control of an alphabet soup of political parties who, (in 20 years!) Have failed to provide more than traffic lights where the country’s two major North-South and East-West Highways intersect! Is there another country in the world where such a situation exists or where the politicians, of whatever perceived persuasion, could blithely ignore the gross inconvenience and suffering casually inflicted daily on thousands by their, the politicians’, neglect and unconcern? All those adversely affected should vote with their feet and stay away from the Polling Stations in the upcoming Local Government Elections, (being conspicuous by their absence), and showing these lame duck politicians that until they show concern for our quality of life, starting with travelling convenience to and from our daily jobs, they can do without our support. Is anyone listening?

GEOFF  HUDSON
Port-of-Spain