TT — Country of the year

THE EDITOR: TT — Country of the Year. This was the energy-related award recently bestowed on our problem riddled twin-island nation by the Offshore Technology Conference in Texas, USA. Reports indicated that the award was based on this country’s stability, business ethics, judicial system, sanctity of contracts and the perceived safety of US citizens living in TT. This accomplishment was quite a surprise for many nationals — a joke for some and a shock for me. Let’s see why.

Surveys have revealed that support for the PNM Government comes largely from citizens of African descent while the UNC Opposition finds its core support from the East Indian population. This political division often threatens to undermine the residual racial harmony left in the nation — a situation most evident at election time. Additionally, the Government’s mismanagement and complacency regarding major issues like escalating crime, public health/education inadequacies and perennial traffic jams, to name a few, have pushed decent folks to their limits.

Stress and frustration are now endemic factors that add to gang warfare, drugs and kidnappings which make up the crime matrix. After recent brazen daylight murders in Port-of-Spain, many believe that chaos is imminent — a distinct probability that sharply contradicts stability. Recently, charges of impropriety have been levelled at the Energy and Works Ministers, Mr Eric Williams and Mr Franklin Khan respectively. Although the allegations have since been retracted, there are ongoing investigations and Mr Khan has resigned until his name is cleared. At this point many of us don’t know who or what to believe.

We also have a flawed judicial system. Cases take much too long before reaching trial status. Our convict population has long outgrown prison accommodations, and so, prisons are crammed, filthy and unfit for incarceration. As a result, we have no adult correctional facilities in TT, only punishment centres — an aberration that lends merit to the perception that convicts “come out worse than when they went in.” The anomalies are so bad that the Chief Justice has time and time again lobbied for judiciary reform, citing dilapidated courtrooms and appalling working conditions in which judges, magistrates, lawyers and other court personnel perform daily. All this in a land blessed with significant natural resources.

With regard to the safety of US nationals here in TT, I must say hats off to the highly sensitive US authorities who are forever on terrorists alerts and who suddenly and strangely see no security issue with regards to US nationals here. As a patriot of TT, I naturally revel when my country is praised and awarded at an international level because this means that despite the odds, we as a people, can achieve. Still, I can relate to the man in the street asking, “TT is Country of the Year? How come boy?”

DEXTER J RIGSBY
Mt Lambert