Skills training, another promise for Laventille

THE EDITOR: Sir, as a stakeholder and member of the South-East Port-of-Spain Community, I attended the “Stone Unveiling Ceremony” to mark the official start of construction of the long awaited Skills Training Facility at the burnt out Rum Bond on the Eastern Main Road, a promise first made by the UNC Administration and now being fulfilled by this Government.

While I view the effort as commendable, I however have several concerns, the first of which is the fact that the community has to wait another year before it can access this facility. The question is, what is to be done with those youths who need training now, and for whom it is alleged the project was designed as part of the fight against crime and youth delinquency in Laventille and environs? While I understand the politics of it, I am bewildered that any Government, given the volatile social conditions in the area, will have the belly to come into Laventille and make what is essentially another promise. But there it is again. A year from now we will have an institution that will assist in addressing the serious educational deficit that plagues Laventille, the repercussions of which are reflected in the cacophony of social, moral and value problems being experienced. Then in the midst of the speech by the National Energy Skills Centre’s Chairman, Professor Ken Julien, community persons in the know were “steupsing” that they were not part of the decision to name the facility The Laventille Technology And Continuing Education Centre (LTCEC), as the Professor claimed. It might have been better to wait until completion before raising the community’s hopes again, in a seemingly perpetual waiting vacuum.

I also take issue with three other matters as they relate to the Stone Unveiling Ceremony. The first was the choice of the word “booty,” which punctuated the address by the Parliamentary Representative for Laventille East Morvant, Mr. Fitzgerald Hinds, in reference to what existed at the Rum Bond immediately after the fire, and that which the Community will have access to on completion of the Training Centre. I will agree with him that the stuff that remained in the Rum Bond after fire guttered it, which some residents accessed illegally can be described as “booty.” I cannot see any place for the term “booty,’ however, in relation to the services that will be provided after Construction of the Training Centre on the same site. The dictionary says “booty” means loot, plunder, pillage, spoils, seizure and the like. So to use that word in the context of positive development for Laventille, comes across as an insult, whether used figuratively or otherwise in relation to the new facility’s offerings. Maybe simple words such as “benefits, opportunities or even new-dispensation,” would have been more appropriate in the circumstances. The second matter with  which I take issue is the argument of Parliamentary Representative for Port-of-Spain South, Mr. Eric Williams. In attempting to make a case for Government’s good performance, he referred to persons who now reside outside of Laventille and have done well in terms of improving their socio-economic circumstances. Suggesting that those who remained in Laventille did not make use of the opportunities provided by Govern-ment, and therein lies the line of demarcation. More-over, he advanced this erroneous analysis as a measure for Government’s performance.

The Honourable Parliamentarian may not know that there were many who left Laventille and are not better off than many who have remained (Maloney, La Horquetta etc). There are also some in Laventille, a small portion, that live in middle-class circumstances; just check Paris Boulevard, Park Street in Morvant, parts of Malick and so on. The final observation came from the address of the Honourable Prime Minister, Mr Patrick Manning, himself. In his address he seemed to have taken issue of “promises” to another level. This time, apart from the promise of a Training Facility one year hence, he made promises that he will not disclose. So there we have it, on top of promises made, we now have a new brand of promise which is a “non-existence-promise promise”. He merely disclosed that on another occasion, on the non-existence-promise promise “more will be revealed.’’ No utterance was made on the “Rock City Pilot Project Evaluation,” which many expected to hear and hoped for its replication in other parts of Laventille. May be the “pilot” ejected! At the end of the exercise which was intended to provide a positive in the sea of negatives that has beleaguered our community, we are left more confused and in wonderment as to whether the exercise was a hasty response to the very successful Crime Reduction Initiative of the “Ad Hoc Committee For The Eradication of Crime In Laventille (ACECL)” or was it a genuine attempt to empower and transform Laventille? In the mean- time we wait, hopefully not like Bob Marley!

STEPHENSON BROWNE
South East Port-of-Spain