The Editor: It was interesting to read that the Roman Catholic Archbishop has discovered that people are leaving his church. I can think of nothing that would make me want to leave the church into which I was born and the one in which I hope to die, but there are many reasons for the current fallout. I would like to give some of my observations.

When we were growing up we went to Sunday Mass with our parents and when I say went to Mass, I mean we went into the church and participated in the eucharist. Today young people come to church in groups, the same way they go to the Library to “lime”. They stand at the door or outside on the grounds and talk and generally carry-on. Just as most of our children today have no idea what a “library” is about or for what purpose, they don’t know what Mass is about because their parents are not with them.

The sad part is that no one in the church, from priest to lay minister does anything about stopping the liming. Secondly when I was a child I made my first communion and confirmation at the age of seven years – on the same day! Now I know that one must move with the times and I have no problem with accepting that the rules with respect to confirmation needed to be changed and that perhaps 7 years was too young. Now confirmation is in the teens at a time when children are taking examinations. In addition it now takes two years to prepare for confirmation and is done at parish level rather than through Catholic schools. Why so long?  The church must also face the reality that parents today – at least those who care about the welfare of their children – are fearful of the dangers that teenagers face and may be reluctant to allow them to go to and from confirmation classes on their own, particularly when they see for themselves what teenagers are allowed to do outside the church at weekend services.

There may be many other reasons why people are leaving the church, but I believe the authorities must consider the points I have raised, plus the fact that many preachers bore the congregation to tears! Mass now takes two hours and in one church that I know, baptisms are conducted in the middle of Mass which means that Sunday Mass takes hours. Is this what we really want in the Catholic Church?  If it is then the Archbishop has the answer why people are leaving in droves.

Mathilda James
San Fernando

THE EDITOR: I see that the government Ministers are now speaking of drainage problems and possible flooding in the rainy season. I wish that they will act now to prevent flooding. I know of a situation that is sure to cause flooding in Montrose and Longdenville. This is because of the bottle neck in the Marchen River caused by a land owner who has built a hardware over the river by covering over the river with a paved platform, where this river crosses the Southern Main Road in Lendore Village. It seems that nobody is willing to do anything.

A little lower down adjacent to Tobago Road, individuals have filled the Marchen river basin to appropriate land for building. The river is now narrowed to a width of 1 metre, from 10 metres. Another individual in the area has filled up a public drain and built over the drain. Even without these restrictions there were floods in the area, now we can expect a lot more. The authorities such as drainage and the EMA seem, content to remain in office until the floods go down, they will not act to prevent floods in Central.

PRAMSU LAL
Charlieville

THE EDITOR: The THA has announced its intention to acquire Pigeon Point Estate. Pigeon Point now has the only properly maintained beach facility in Tobago. Will the THA acquire it and allow it to degenerate as the other beaches and beach facilities in Tobago while at the same time talk of increasing tourism? Store Bay is now taken over by dogs all over the beach. They leave their excreta on the sand. At Store Bay as in some other beaches people take dogs in their numbers to swim in the water where persons are bathing. Is this what will become of Pigeon Point?

We cannot be serious about standards in this country or about tourism. Until the THA shows that it can maintain proper standards on the beaches and facilities it should not acquire Pigeon Point. Why are we stifling private sector enterprise and initiative? Are we sending the correct signals to investors? Pigeon Point could be one of the best tourism investments in Tobago. Why are we burying our heads in the sand?

JOSEPH WARNER
Mt Lambert

THE EDITOR: I refer to Gregory Sloane-Seale’s letter to the editor “Sexual Hangups in Adults” Newsday 16/05/03, page 40. I note that Mr Sloane-Seale carries a lot of big words after his name — National Youth Outreach Director, YMCA of Trinidad and Tobago, Executive Member, TT Coalition on the Rights of the Child (TTCRC).

I wonder if Mr Sloane-Seale has all those big words tattooed on his chest as he struts his vocal rubbish full of sound and fury signifying nothing? Is Mr Sloane-Seale married, with teenage daughters, and will he hand out condoms to them or allow a strange man to hand out condoms to them in front of their school? As an executive member — TT Coalition on the Rights of the Child — does Mr Sloane-Seale know that it is an infringement of a child’s rights to hand them condoms or advise them on sexual matters without their parents’ consent?

Has anyone — beside only blaming the media in all its forms for the upsurge in sexual activity — ever looked at the following causes for such increased sexual activity? Years ago children had to work at home in addition to going to school — there was no bus, taxi, private car to transport them to and fro on their journeys from home. They had to walk or ride a bike and tote parcels. They thus learned to be responsible and their physical efforts burnt up their sexual hormones.

Today, our young people are bone idle, couch potatoes, eating three square meals of rich food  with no outlet for their sexual energy, and they are lazy, selfish and self-centred. Every thing is me, me, me. What Mr Sloane-Seale and others are doing is simple — if you are doing something wrong and we advise you not to do it and you refuse we will just sigh and say if we cannot change you we will encourage you in your wrongdoing. Mr Sloane-Seale is taking the easy way out — the hard way is to lecture to the young about responsibility, self-esteem and self-worth and on being a role model of a parent when one becomes a parent. Handing a condom and bad sexual advice to the young is to insult, demean and misguide them. Think again Mr Sloane-Seale.

JACK LEARMOND CRIQUI
Diego Martin

THE EDITOR: The most blatant attempt at house padding is currently taking place in the constituency of St Joseph which is  represented in the parliament by the United National Congress. I refer to the St Joseph farm as an example in question. On May 2, 2003, agents of the National Housing Authority went onto agricultural lands that have been tilled by farmers for over forty years and destroyed valuable short and long term crops. Bodi, paw-paw, cabbage, peas, and other produce were destroyed in one fell swoop. No notice was given and I am sure that no compensation will be forthcoming. This is the action of a government that cares!

The irony behind the whole incident is that this government preaches on a daily basis that it has an agricultural policy that will be beneficial for the national community. Yet, it bulldozes some of the most fertile agricultural lands in Trinidad and Tobago to build houses. What sense does this make? It is good to see the National Food Crop Farmers Association and the Curepe Farmers Association come together with the residents of Curepe and Valsayn North to oppose the government on this issue. Besides being a desecration to the land, the authorities will encounter logistical difficulties in terms of pollution, waste disposal, traffic management, and in the longer term, social disintegration. Curepe is a community that is already highly saturated.  One wonders how the government intends to absorb all these new families into the health, education and social systems within the area. Of course, I am yet to make mention of the effect this new settlement will have on the environment. This government has given nothing but lip service to the environment.

As one of my farmer friends said recently, “Vision 20/20 is no vision without agriculture.” It has become evident that this government needs to rethink its policy with respect to this new housing settlement in Ramgoolie Trace, Curepe. Sacrificing the good of the community and the nation for political expediency is unacceptable. As the spokesperson for the National Food Crop Farmers Association and the Curepe Farmers Association, I am calling on the government to bring an immediate halt to the bulldozing taking place on the St Joseph farmlands in Ramgoolie Trace. I am inviting the Environment Management Agency to conduct an environmental impact study on the site, coupled with public consultation, before a determination is made on this matter. It is not to late to stop this pillage of such fertile land. We ask the government to have compassion and mercy on the farmers in the Curepe area.

A ANDERSON  MORRIS
Public Relations Specialist
National Food Crop Farmers Association
Curepe Farmers Association

THE EDITOR: I read with utter amazement and distress for my fellow citizens, the front and third pages of the Newsday of Tuesday May 20, 2003 as it relates to the potential finger printing and taking of photographs of nationals of Trinidad and Tobago on entry to the United States of America from January 1, 2004. These proposed actions are similar to that undergone by persons arrested and charged for criminal offences. They are surely not the kind of treatment that law abiding, hard working citizens of this nation expect, nor should they tolerate, on embarking on a business trip or a well earned vacation.

It is degrading, and dehumanising to say the least, for our nationals to be subjected to such treatment while their nationals just waltz in to Trinidad and Tobago with a driver’s permit. It is observed with curious interest that these measures are designed to prevent terrorism and are only targetted at persons who are visa carriers. This effectively means that citizens of member states of the European Community would not be subjected to such degrading and humiliating treatment, as the holders of European passports are not required to carry a visa to enter the United States.

Interestingly, many terrorist acts perpetrated against the United States have been by their very own home-grown psychopaths or from those nation states enjoying cosy relationships with the United States. In this regard, the Caricom Community should join together and impose stiffer entrance requirements from US nationals, who it has shown, are capable of acts of terrorism against US interests and it is well known how well US interests are served in the Caricom region. The leaders of the American people have definitely allowed their right wing fundamentalist values to go too far. This policy is clearly designed to further discriminate against nations that are predominantly made up of persons of non-European ancestry. American insular thinking has now made it feel that its citizens alone are potential targets for terrorism in the whole wide world.

It would be a sad day for us and other small island States sitting at the US’s doorstep, if the government of Trinidad and Tobago allows such an insulting requirement to go un-objected. After all, this regime has already allowed Marli Street to be “acquired” in order that our citizens be herded like animals to participate in the same visa application process.

GARVIN  NICHOLAS
Attorney-at-Law

THE EDITOR: I had my first opportunity to visit the brand new library downtown Port-of-Spain, and what an experience it was; the day in question — Friday May 9, 2003. First, let me say what a beautiful and majestic building it is. On entering the compound, scores of school children greeted me, not in a friendly and welcoming manner; all along my entry into the library, I was swarmed by school children. Not a pleasant sight, but the majority of them were seen liming outside, indulging in chit chat and conversation. My reason for going to the library was to renew my old library card. At the front entrance I was directed to the second floor, on the first floor was the Children’s Library quite empty.

When I got to the Adult Library, a hub of activity was taking place, two library attendants were attending to about ten to fifteen persons at one time, how sad!  As I looked around I saw more children in school uniform than adults, although it was the adult section. A security guard was at the entrance of the adult library, but how did secondary school students enter this section, because there is a section for young adults, how strange! I spent approximately twenty minutes waiting before I was attended to. I did not feel encouraged to stay any longer because I was already frustrated with the wait, and to see such a beautiful building not put to proper use. What is the purpose of a library?

A library is a place where one seeks information, reads, gathers knowledge, and is usually silent, but my observations were different. This brand new national library is a hang-out spot, a pick-up joint, a place to recreate, to lime, to meet and greet, to look for anything else except books. Most of the school children who were on the compound did not go to the library to read, but had other thoughts on their minds. On TV6’s evening news Friday May 16, a group of secondary school students were asked their reason for coming to the library; one boy said, “We come here to look for girls, and girls come here to look for boys” was the response/reply, how sad.

As I am writing this letter, a newspaper headline of May 17 reads, “Condoms distribution at library.” Mr Mikki-Grant is at it again, and from the photograph eager and curious students are seen accepting condoms, a condom is even being demonstrated with the use of a banana, how sad!

I say no more, and that come September 2003, the new school term, sexual education will be introduced to high school students, but isn’t this idea a bit too late? Secondary school students are already engaging in sexual activity. Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, the National Library; can we do something please to save the library? I am saddened by the fact that the library is not being used for its sole purpose of educating. These school children have a different agenda. Please help save the library!

KEN SMITH
Woodbrook

THE EDITOR: Where are all our religious leaders? Put aside politics. Put aside religion. Get together and have a prayer vigil. All the big name pastors like Pastor Vernon Duncan, Bishop Gary George, Pastor Laymouth Sandy, Pastor Terrance Baynes, Rev Lealand Henry, Sis Margaret Elcock, please get together and call a nationwide prayer service for our country.

The United States of America is thousands of times bigger and more populated than Trinidad and Tobago but our crime is not thousands of times less than theirs. Something is wrong. People of God, let’s make it right with the help of the Almighty, please.

NATASHA MARCEUIL
Plaisance Park
Pointe-a-Pierre

THE EDITOR: Ken Valley has been put firmly in his place. Take that, bro! Too much fat talk will land you in the doghouse, so mind your manners. Yuh see, Ken, I is de borse and don’t you forget it! What did a former Prime Minister say — when I talk no damn dog bark! How demeaning that a Minister makes a statement and is slapped down, and no one dares to question why. How sad! It is just accepted as another political decision over which the citizens have no influence, and we stand helplessly by and observe the antics of the politicians. Some commentators are deliberately distorting the issue and focusing on the salary being paid to the executive chairman of Petrotrin, when the issue really has to do with procedures that should have been followed.

Even the Prime Minister acknowledges that the recommendations of the Cabinet Committee on Public Sector Salaries must be laid before Cabinet when he says that the matter was in fact discussed in Cabinet in Mr Valley’s absence. Does the government expect us to believe that the salary increase for the CEO of WASA required Ministerial approval but the setting of a salary for the executive chairman of Petrotrin did not? It is easy to determine what was discussed at Cabinet meetings by reviewing the notes brought to the meeting and the Minutes which certify decisions taken.

Further, there is the small matter of when the decision was taken and when payment of the salary commenced. Was the salary only paid after Cabinet gave its approval, or was Mr Jones already in receipt of the salary before the matter came to Cabinet? If it ever did, that is. The Prime Minister knows that he must be like Caesar’s wife, above reproach, so when it comes to employing his best friend he has to be scrupulously careful to ensure that there is no room for doubt. The procedures have to be even more stringent than if it were a member of the public. Manning is walking the same road as his predecessor, refusing to recognise that he is dealing with an intelligent citizenry that will not accept the excuses of the past, ethnicity notwithstanding.

KARAN MAHABIRSINGH
Carapichaima

THE EDITOR: It is unfortunate to see young people who are gullible being misled by friends and strangers. They fail to realise the importance of choosing proper friends. Man is a social animal so the love of company is only natural to man. Aristotle once said, “One who loves solitude is a wild beast or a god.” Everyone needs company in both good and bad times. It is particularly the young who feel the need of companions. The choice of proper companions is a great necessity in life. “Tell me your friend and I will tell you what you are,” is a popular saying.  Of everything, our life is influenced by the company in which we spend it.

Children are not judicious enough to choose their friends. It is therefore the duty of parents and teachers to guide children and see that they eschew bad company. Youth is the most impressionable period of life. During youth-hood tendency to imitate is the strongest. The impressions gained last permanently. It is highly recommended and also necessary that both parents and teachers introduce youth into good company and create in them the love of the good. When a child becomes older his power of discretion develops. This is the ideal and proper time for the choice of good companions. A young person must avoid the company of people who are ready to swear, use improper and abusive language, who are dishonest and who indulge in immoral acts. Very often in life evil is more attractive than good; bad company is more charming than good. It is the duty of young people to resist the temptation of evil. Jesus did warn people in His prayer when He uttered, “Lead us not into temptation.” He said this because he knew the frailty of the human race.

AHAMAD  KHAYYAM
Curepe