All good work must be recognised

I find it very difficult and sometimes disheartening, when so many of the remedies prescribed for the current social ills of the society, seem to take a different turn. Here we have a crime and education crisis in Trinidad and Tobago, especially among the grass roots, but every plan is designed for self-centre gratification. Whether the politician or other institutions of social control - the police, those engaged in the humanities etc.

I will like to commend the Deputy Police Commissioner for his consistent and persistent insistence that good policing is dependent on the co-operation of the citizenry. This type of forthrightness is refreshing since so many others believe that it is in themselves the problem can be solved. All must work and all good work must be recognised. In this regard, I hope that Mr Roach has been telling the authorities and other purse-string holders about the wonderful, if not miraculous work done and achieved by the Morvant Laventille Improvement Organisation. (MLIO).

I know that he knows this since I attended the training programme of MLIO with his son. We often would see the deputy commissioner in his well-trimmed uniform. Surely his regular presence at the MLIO facility gave added prestige to the project. I suppose so too was former prime ministers, Mr Robinson and Mr Panday and so did many other dignitaries including the late Randolph Burroughs. The cumulative effect of this strategy deployed by the administrators of the straight and narrow. In other words there was no time to play the fool. We understood loud and clear that much was expected of us and we did deliver. Many of us are either in the police service, the army and in other gainful employment here and abroad. The glory days of MLIO is missing. This is the type of project the government and others should be hungry to implement with the right people. Mr Roach, I am certain with the influence you now have, the programme of MLIO can once again serve the people along the east-west corridor with distinction, and bring crime and delinquency among at-risk youths under control.

Nothing in the budget suggest s that resources verbally targetting vulnerable groups will reach them. The old adage of "plenty talk no walk" seems to be the order of the day.

What is there in this budget to suggest that anything will change? The old people say that doing the same thing over and over does not produce any different result. The same programmes, self-centred party associates will get the lion’s share and those objective minded creative patriots will be frustrated out of contributing. Ultimately lots of money will have been spent with very little to show for it. A desolate TT indeed.

MICHAL STEWART

Laventille