TT’s destiny is with South America

THE EDITOR: With all this talk of Caribbean integration and given its successive failures over the last 40 years or more, one wonders whether the destiny of Trinidad and Tobago does not lie with South America. Trinidad geologically and geographically is part of the South American Continent. If England is part of Europe our case for continental integration is far stronger. Were it not for the spineless short-sighted and misguided blunders of successive governments, Trinidad and Tobago would not only have been bilingual perhaps multi-bilingual (like Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire and St Martin) but decades ago we would have been able to make use of the fantastic resources of the South American Continent in combination with ours. For example, so many of our students could have been able to make use of excellent universities in our backyard and even more of our sportsmen would have been able to benefit from the superb sport training and facilities just a hop away from our door step.

With independence, we continued to be under the control of the British masters and now we are serfs both of the UK and the USA. “Massa day” was never done. “Rum and coca cola” continues to be our anthem for we are still working for the “yankee dollar.” Being aligned with South America does not mean substituting the British and American massas for Latin American massas. No South American country has given up its sovereignty with the possible exception of Columbia. With Guyana it is a different matter, in that it went along with Caricom and in the end has become another mendicant Caricom State depending on handouts from the British and the Americans. So far no local politician has had the vision, foresight or testicular fortitude to consider a South American destiny for our country but coming generations may well damn us in our graves for our cowardice and criminal sins of omission. How little do we care about our children and grandchildren.

M HOTIN
St James