Marginalising the poor

It appears that in the government’s quest to fulfill a vision of first world status by 2020, it is hell bent on a process of “deepening pauperisation” and broadening the gap between the haves and the haves-not. While the intention of the developed world is to make as much of their population part of the middle class, the Manning administration seems to be doing the opposite (nurturing a low poor class). Foolishly claiming the developed nation status is an imperative. How can it be an imperative without the mass of the population on board, far less to understand the concept? Enough of that! What are the indictments against the Government on its anti-poverty stance? The action can be likened to genocide and ethnic cleansing. The Manning administration can by culpable of “impoverish-cleansing” ostracism of the poor.

This is obvious when one looks at: The pussyfooting on rebuilding the people’s mall; the arbitrary and intimidatory process being used to move residents of South-East Port-of-Spain; demolition and/or destruction of squatter homes; forced retrenchment of port and daily paid workers in state enterprises (NHA) for example; rising inflation, higher cost of food, but URP and CEPEP pay not raised (though these programmes by themselves are a disrespect to the poor); community groups are not funded, while big shot ones are; more police and more police in poor areas to address crime, instead of using local knowledge/expertise to implement social intervention projects within communities as best way to deal with the criminal elements; unattractive/exploitative wages/stipend in HYPE, YAPA, Citizen Conservation Corps, GAP, MUST etc for poor youths; NEDCO and BDC insistence on punitive pre-condition to access small business credit.

Every poor man can tell of the difficulty faced to spread small money for food, clothing, school and shelter. I am sure there will be unanimity and agreement that the Manning administration is engaged in cosmetic support of the poor, merely to maintain power. Those so-called affordable houses being constructed cannot be afforded by the majority of the poor. Roads and drains in our area left in ruin. Cost of utilities will soon be prohibitive for many. Where is the love and care for the poor Mr Manning? Give us a break!