UWI Guild sleeping on job

THE EDITOR: It is strange that throughout the years being a student of the UWI, I have never seen such poor leadership of the Guild of Students as is occurring presently. In 2004 the Commonwealth of Nations are celebrating as their theme “Freedom.” The question is however are we as students of the UWI really free? The freedom to express ourselves or even think has for many of my fellow students been long lost by the flawed education systems which continue to persist to this day. We are constantly bombarded by the ideology of the adult world and continue to have no voice of our own, which can be compared to slavery. Present day slavery in Trinidad and Tobago and in the rest of the Caribbean. There is no wonder why we as a Caribbean institution cannot achieve what is expected of us; the young people of today are practically brainwashed by the system and we are treated worse that lepers by the so called decision-makers in our small nation if we strive to think outside the box.

With the statements of both the Prime Minister and the Principal of the University, the first action of the Guild should have been to call a meeting of the students. The second should have been to begin a silent protest which could take many forms. The most beneficial in my mind, seeing that a) The Prime Minister said that the Government is not responsible for the safety of students on Campus and b) The University is doing all it can with its limited resources as stated by the Campus Principal, The Guild should make the call for all students of the St Augustine Campus to take all their belongings and move on Campus since it may the only place that they are protected. I personally think that 5000 persons living and sleeping in The Quad would definitely draw a response from any quarter.

The President of the Guild and his team are unfortunately sleeping or directed by some unseen political directorate as has been the norm for the past years and do not see the need to show the need for action of this type or it may be that they do not hold the respect of the students which most likely is the case. Thus instead of being seen as being the future leaders of the Caribbean, we are rather an unfortunate set of dysfunctional inbred misfits who aren’t able to hold our own in any forum.

Over 6500 students pay Guild fees and in addition to that over $9000 a year in tuition fees for the right of reading for a degree. It should also be their right to be safe while pursuing their education. It is time for this nonsense of attacks on UWI students to stop and we be protected in our homes, on the street and on campus. In the year 2020 when the present Government’s utopist Vision is supposed to culminate, we would be the ones carrying the torch, but if we are not allowed to do so, many of us will soon leave these shores for a safer abode. It is time to act, a full response by the Guild of Students is warranted. The time is now to begin to think for ourselves and chart a way forward for the young leaders of today.

NISHARD  MOHAMMED
Port-of-Spain