Manning taking credit for wrong thing

THE EDITOR: I listened to Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s New Year’s message and got the impression that he was taking credit for the wealth generated in the country over the past four years. I would advise that he take no such credit. The credit is due solely to the OPEC oil cartel that controls oil prices in the world. He is simply riding the waves of the oil and gas boom now being experienced here. Thanks to OPEC and the various oil conglomerates eager to exploit the gas and oil reserves available. What Mr Manning and his PNM Government can take credit for is the monumental wastage of the oil revenue like the $1 million a day expenditure on CEPEP and URP being used to make millionaires of PNM stalwarts and the crime bosses in the country.

HE can take credit for the 1,037 murders in the country since the PNM was returned to office on December 24, 2001 as well as the 210 kidnappings and 259 road deaths in 2005. Yes, he can take credit for the collapse of the public services such as the lack of pipe-borne water, lack of street lights, bad road conditions and the flooding that destroyed houses, crops and livestock because of a bad drainage system. He can take credit for the deteriorating health service, the failing education system, the moribund agricultural sector and the flourishing illegal drug trade. Oh yes, Mr Manning, you can take credit for the 26 percent rise in the price of food and the concomitant increase in poverty in this country when oil is over US$60 a barrel and over 300,000 citizens living below the poverty line of US$2 a day. That is the PNM legacy after four years of robust oil prices.

HORACE WILSON
Fonrose Village
Poole