No free rides

THE EDITOR: The silence of grassroots-based institutions such as the Morvant Laventille Improvement Organisation (MLIO) has been deafeningly conspicuous in 2005. One wonders if these institutions, which became the “mouthpiece” and spokes-element for the poor have been bought by the Government. We no longer hear the fiery and incisive commentaries of the Council of Elders of Laventille or those of the Spree Simon Organisation, SEPOS, CRY, Malick Development Committee, Beetham Gardens Committee etc. These groups have grown to be the defenders of civil liberty and vociferously provided a platform from which serious grassroots community concerns were ventilated. It will be a tragedy if these institutions are silenced because of cowardice, intimidation or share frustration.

In an objective view of the social infrastructure in Laventille and behind-the-bridge, one will conclude that there is much still to be done. In fact one can also surmise that the Government has not done justice to this politically faithful community. Granted these communities must do their part to be so deserving of any special consideration. Nonetheless, it is the role and Herculean responsibility taken on by the various community institutions aforementioned, which will ensure all is not lost in Laventille. To adopt a silent posture, is to further the deep psycho-social wound that already exist.

There should be no surrender. The community is depending and relies on the sober and unadulterated articulations of these indigenous entities. The PNM (or any political party seeking office for that matter) must not, and cannot be allowed to have a free ride to Government without properly accounting for the state Laventille has found itself. The enormous levels of expenditure and prosperity that now bless our land must make them more vigilant and inquiring. Maybe this prosperity is the “curse of the 70’s revisited”. I for one refuse to believe in such a fatalistic disposition. I believe that community institutions and icons such as Mohamed Shabbaz, Thunderbolt Williams, Archbishop Barbara Burke, Lennox Smith, Joan Latapy (Russell’s mother), Patricia Herry, Woodly, Timothy, Westfield, Lawrence Clark, Terrence Bannister and the dozen or so others not-here-mentioned must continue their advocacy for a just, fair and reasonable piece of the national pie.

ALRIC CLARK
Beetham