One developer blocks 80,000 residents

THE EDITOR: On Saturday October 18, 2003 a certain real estate “developer,” his family and his brothers started laying their private sewer line under St Lucien Road. We may want to believe that this “developer” knowing what he wanted to do would have considered properly what the dig so entailed and would have planned and coordinated the efforts around the dig so as not to inconvenience 80,000 plus residents and business people living and commuting in and around the many communities that comprise this northern end of Diego Martin. We may want to believe that this real estate “developer” would have recognised the fiasco he caused the last time he engaged in “development” without first notifying all the residents, business people and commuters who were affected.

It is this selfishness, disregard and disrespect for your neighbours and the public that lends itself to the lawlessness in this country. It starts from the poor examples that some of the people with money set for all others in this country. Some of the people “without money” take from these poor examples shown them that “if money talks and bobbol walks” is the real way that things get done, then they must look out for themselves no matter who they disregard, disrespect, hurt or kill in the process. We don’t know from whom you got the clearance to lay your sewer lines, but no one gave you the right to inconvenience the people in the many communities that comprise the northern end of Diego Martin — in/on St Lucien road, Blue Range, River Estate, Patna, North Post Road, Bagatelle the many streets off Diego Martin Main Road, Diamond Vale, Sierra Leone and Petit Valley.

On Saturday October 18, 2003 80,000 plus people were inconvenienced and their personal resources and time were needlessly wasted for more than eight hours. Plus one and a half hours past the “supposed” agreed deadline time of 6 pm due to your selfishness, flagrant disregard, utter disrespect and absolutely poor planning. Not to mention the needless waste of gasoline, late daily meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), personal plans for the day, meetings, doctor, dentist appointments, visits to see loved ones and friends, business transactions and shopping that were botched. Do you know that the more than eight hours of traffic you caused blocked anyone getting out in the event of an emergency? Do you even care? It is possible that this certain real estate “developer” while not having the foresight (to plan his business properly) and the intelligence (to learn from his mistakes when he did work on the access road leading to his current development on the eastern hillside of St Lucien Road) has no sincere regard or respect for his neighbours. And due to this lack of regard and respect was easily able to inconvenience us, the residents, business people and commuters again on Saturday October 18, 2003 for more than eight hours. Is it that you respect money more? If this be the case then please start by compensating us with $1.6M in gasoline you owe us (being 80,000 x $20.00 each) and pay us for our time costs as well. For starters this will be $3.4M for at least 3000 professionals at an average cost of $120 an hour for eight hours plus all the other residents’, business traders’ and commuters’ time costs you wasted!!!

Do you lack intelligence or is it that you are foolish or rather just plain selfish? What insanity brought you to the feeling that Saturday was the best time to lay your private sewer line under St Lucien Road? We the people of Diego Martin work during the week, so it is reasonable to expect that Saturday is the day that we will use to take care of our personal business. As such the roads on Saturday will see many drivers and the flow of traffic will be at its highest!!! Saturday is at no time the right time for you to lay your private sewer line. What were you thinking? Were you thinking at all? This kind of work should have been done at nighttime say after 9 pm when the traffic flow would have been light. For your private sewer line you should have to bear the costs of night work. We did not buy into your “development” so we should not have to bear any inconvenience related to your costs. Having due consideration for us, notice of this proposed work should have been broadcast on all TV and radio stations and printed in all the newspapers for at least a week before work was begun. Thereby allowing us to rearrange our schedules and possibly change our routes so that our time and personal resources would not have been needlessly wasted for your personal aggrandisement. We know that while Trinidad may be backward (due to the actions of people like yourselves) we do live in the “Information Age.” And knowing that money is earned and saved by the receipt of the right information at the right time, the needless waste of our time and resources could so easily have been avoided simply by sharing information and having due regard and respect for us.

And would you believe Diego Martin that this selfish real estate “developer” had the gall to make these ludicrous remarks while overseeing the work on St Lucien road:
To a passing driver:
The driver: “This is pressure!!! What it is you doing here?”
The “developer”: “What you can’t do.”
And later when the traffic on St Lucien Road finally started to move on one lane of the road after more than eight hours of bumper to bumper traffic from 9 am to 6 pm he is overheard saying “...see I getting the traffic to move.”
We did not give you the right!!! Beware we can sue.

JOHN PURCELL
Diego Martin