Blame IMF medicine for illegal drugs


THE EDITOR: In 1989 when the Trade Union Movement brought out near to 20,000 persons on the streets, of Port-of-Spain, in a massive show of strength against World Bank and IMF austerity measures, the very said organisers of the October 22 ‘Death March’ labelled the movement as dinosaurs and leftists who were out of touch with reality. Back then, the Labour Movement raised very serious economic issues which were key to maintaining the social stability of our national community, eg the retrenchment of over 7,000 DEWD regular workers, the impending closure of the PTSC and the sending home of 3,000 plus workers, the decimation of the Port and the displacing of over 6,000 permanent employees, in addition to job cuts at WASA, TELCO, TTEC, the Public Sector etc, in short the pauperisation of our already depressed communities.


These ‘astute’ businessmen together with their friends in the then NAR Government boasted that these World Bank and IMF administered medications were necessary to cure us of our chronic economic diseases. They and the Government didn’t listen, but went ahead with their plans. They began to sell off our State Enterprises left, right and centre, offering workers VSEP in the process. They took away the buses and the bus passes from the young and the elderly. They took away book grants and discontinued the school feeding programme. They introduced trade liberalisation and refused to put any legal mechanism in place to protect local producers from unfair trade practices. Our country soon became the dumping ground for inferior second-rated foreign manufactured goods. So the job losses spread to the local manufacturing sector and have continued unabated since.


Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP) forced thousands of decent law abiding citizens to switch to illegal activities to survive. Port-of-Spain experienced a ground swell of illegal vending; hustlers selling any and everything. SAP created a large army of illegal drug sellers across our national landscape. SAP also created a rich class of drugs importers and gun runners. The existence and mode of operations of this underworld mafia is not as untenable as the Ministry of National Security will like to have us believe. It is the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) who a few years ago publicly stated that the drug trade in the Caribbean is valued at US $55 Billion per year.


It is the said people, who have destroyed large sectors of our formal economy who are today telling us about ‘a Death March’ to rid our country of drug related criminal activities. They can no longer boast about SAP because they now realise the destruction it has brought to our shores. They are afraid to talk about globalisation because two World Trade Organisations (WTO) conferences have failed recently, and developing countries are now demanding that European Countries and the US stop subsidising agriculture and their livestock industry, while they penalise third world countries for doing the same.


The murder and crime rate in Trinidad and Tobago are inextricably linked to the drug trade. Young people in depressed communities, whose parents or guardians were the victims of SAP have turned to illegal underworld activities as a means of earning a living.


It follows then, that to curb the crime problem we must deal head on with the drug trade and the lucrative spin of activity of gun running. We must also create decent alternative and sustainable means of livelihood.


MALCOLM KERNAHAN


Belmont

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"Blame IMF medicine for illegal drugs"

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