Our cemeteries are appalling

Mr Patrick Manning — Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Ronald Boynes - Chairman of the Regional Office Sangre Grande and Mrs Indra Omar Maharaj - Parliamentary Representative for Sangre Grande.

My dear servants of the people it is with great disgust I write this letter. This past August I had to bury my father at the Foster Road Cemetery in Sangre Grande. As I entered the cemetery to show the grave digger the family plot I was appalled by the height of the bush, dilapidated fence, and the several pot holes in the road. As we came to the burial plot the grass around the tomb was about three to four feet high. The grave digger immediately told me he could not dig the hole unless the grass was cut on the site. I had to now look for a “swiper man” on a Friday evening after 4 pm. There was none to be found, but I did get a “wacker woman”. I went back to the cemetery and I was informed by the young lady who was also astonished by the height of the bush. She works with one of the special gangs and she mentioned to me that a prominent gentleman was buried the week before in Turure and the cemetery was cut and cleaned for that burial. She also mentioned the deceased had sons big in the PNM party. My answer to her was that my father paid his taxes faithfully and he served his community via the Lion’s Club and he deserves the same treatment as the other guy.

The “wacker woman” took approximately two hours to cut the bush and she had to change the thickest nylon several times. She even had to cut the sides of the road because it was also overgrown with tall grass and vines. Although the “wacker woman” sympathised with me I still had to pay her.

My good people, you boast to the nation and to the world that Trinidad and Tobago will be a developed county by 2020, what a joke? If you cannot keep a cemetery less than an acre in size trimmed, roads patched and maintained and paint a fence, how can you meet your 2020 goal? You have CEPEP/URP gangs painting stones and tree trunks, well add this to their list of jobs. I want to recommend that you employ permanent gangs to maintain the cemeteries in each county. The country has the money, so let us put it to good use.

Mrs Elmena Clarke Allen, parliamentarian and Minister of Housing for several years is buried in this same dilapidated cemetery as my father. She must be turning in her grave because of this disrespect and utter neglect of her final resting place and the final home for our loved ones.

ALAN GEORGE

via e-mail