Beetham residents will have to fend for themselves

The affected communities are in the dark on details, as the housing company is inaugurated. The line Minister talked of bulldozing the area to make way for high-rise accommodation and improving the aesthetics to the entry of the capital city. The possible negative fall-out of this ambition are many. Firstly the so-called "decanting centres" referred to by the Minister sounds like a place where illegal immigrants are kept in preparation for deportation. Something short of a Nazi concentration camp. Clearly this matter of affordability to the existing residents on completion of the renewal exercise is of deep concern to us. Many will not be able to afford the resultant rent/mortgage/prices/s. Therein lies the "sting in the tail" of this proposed plan. Nice as it sounds, the possibility of a new and different type of resident will now occupy this prime spot is quite logical. So the physical, demographic and economic grouping will change? For those concerned with the present unacceptable social conditions of these areas and its negative impact on Port-of-Spain, will be pleased indeed. But the displaced will have to live and survive somewhere in this land.

Wherever they settle, you can bet the community will deteriorate, as has happened with La Horquetta and Maloney.

No one can doubt that these areas are mainly a transplantation of Laventille and environs, and have now taken away the innocence of Arima. The problem being experienced at the Arima Secondary School and further up the corridor is symptomatic of this mass state managed sociological transplantation, but in this case it will be worse since current residents will have to fend for themselves.

The Government may well be advised to as far as possible, prevent the migration of residents from Beetham, John John, etc. A more poignant reality is current gang and murderous situations in squatter communities in the foothills of the northern range, created during the late 80’s. Anyone in the know and understands the historic antecedent will quickly draw a relationship with the crime situation of Carenage, Diego Martin, Arima, Sangre Grande and now Tobago with Laventille and the free-for-all squatting rampage of that period. Causing the displacement of current generations of Laventillians will certainly exacerbate the situation.

ALVIN AUTHOR

Beetham