Hazel, Rahael tie for Minister of the Year

"Improvement works are on at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and at the San Fernando General Hospital where a new wing is being constructed, adding needed capacity, and as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon Patrick Manning, announced in his Budget Speech on September 28, "work is going on at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex." In addition, a new teaching hospital is to be constructed on land opposite to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, stretching from Charlotte Street to Frederick Street. The clear emphasis is on greater availability of and better health care.

"Meanwhile, the national prevention, control and reduction of HIV/AIDS remain a major priority of Mr Rahael and already there has been a reduction in the number of new cases reported, as more persons react positively to the discouraging of casual sex. In turn, there are increased facilities for testing HIV/AIDS.

"Minister of Education, Senator Hazel Manning’s well placed emphasis on the building and staffing of Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) centres, the introduction of school boards at secondary schools, and the plan to further expand the number of counsellors, all of them needed intervention strategies, should see in the medium and long term a movement away from the several negatives plaguing Trinidad and Tobago today. But for Mrs Manning’s initiatives to be successful as clearly she hopes, there must be the fullest possible cooperation, admittedly at all Ministerial levels, a demonstration of the will to deal effectively, with those responsible for the murder and/or degradation of the nation’s youths — the major drug importers and distributors — who continue to prey on the culturally deprived, the misguided and the insecure.

"Hazel Manning’s is a long needed initiative to effect positive change in the society. And while, as I stated in the preceding paragraph, this will be in the medium and long term, an appreciable portion will, nonetheless, begin to bear fruit in the short term. But what must matter is that there will be the eventual achievement of both a whittling down of negative behaviour and the strengthening of the self esteem of many. Meanwhile, even as Mrs Manning focuses on the construction and staffing of Early Childhood Care Education centres she should insist on the involvement of parents of children attending these centres being active members of Parent-Teacher Associations organised at the centres.

"In addition, there should be optimum utilisation of the centres, in which they double as adult learning institutions for any educationally deprived mothers and fathers of the ECCE pre-schoolers. It is upon the success of these pre-schools, along with the Government and Government-Assisted primary and secondary schools, the commitment of the teachers and the involvement of the children’s parents will depend in large measure the hope and future of our twin island home.

"I have examined long and hard the initiatives and follow through actions of the above Ministers to arrive at the person to receive my award for the Minister of the Year 2005, and I have come up with two persons tying for the award — Senator Hazel Manning, Minister of Education, and Mr John Rahael, Minister of Health. I now name Mrs Manning and Mr Rahael as the joint recipients of my award for Minister of the Year 2005. I wish my readers a Happy, increasingly safe and prosperous New Year."

GEORGE F ALLEYNE

St Anns