Share TT’s oil wealth

THE EDITOR: The suffering continues in this country with the high cost of living and unemployment with crime escalating furiously, and the oil wealth still not being equally distributed. The Prime Minister was able to get a first hand report about the sufferings that people encounter in their daily lives by all whom he met in his walkabout. The talk about eradicating poverty is just a big farce because nothing is truly being done to help poor workers who are underpaid in many instances.

Years ago when the trade unions were considered, and had a greater say in the bargaining process of the workers in this country the workers were treated with more respect. But now the present regime is not really interested in solving the woes of poor people in this country, hence the reason why so much criminal activity continues to haunt our country. A few years ago workers were being paid COLA, night bonus, double time and triple time. At that time the energy sector was not as prosperous as today, but still these allowances are not returned to the hard workers of this country. Workers now are not shown the respect and gratitude for their efforts, but the evidence of “diplomatic slavery” appears to disgruntled workers who are dissatisfied with this regime. There are some firms that show their workers respect and satisfaction treating them well financially, but there are those who show no regard for their employees.

Although these workers make a great contribution to the success of the company, when the cost of living continues to rise in this country and workers salaries remain stagnant how is the poor man going to survive? The UNC Government made sure not to increase taxes or as a matter of fact facilities were introduced to increase the poor man’s financial resources to meet his commitments, but now this present regime has raised taxes indirectly by increasing the price of fuel. True governance is a technique, and certain people do not have the know-how to execute this commodity for producing a successful nation, but if the governing is not in the right direction we would continue to fail in building a nation. If workers are properly paid in this country we would go a long way in alleviating the crime situation with people being in a position to enjoy a better standard of living. Let us hope that this government would share the wealth to all its citizens making Trinidad the paradise that it used to be three years ago.

HORACE  DESORMEAUX
Maraval