Corporate manslaughter

The poet describes a culture of investment that encourages highend housing, without commensurate efforts to resolve the pressing need to provide living spaces for the less wealthy; and budget cuts to a beautification project that saw the elimination of life-saving fire alarms and water sprinklers.

The net result was the apparently preventable death of probably as many as 79 people. A tale, he said, much like that of the 1912 Titanic disaster when more than a thousand lives were lost because there were only enough lifeboats to save first class passengers. The neglect of fairness for governance of the few.

Neglect of fairness in governance is by no means unique to the British nation’s wealthiest borough, the mighty city of London.

It’s a global phenomena with particularly impactful implications in places rich with diversity.

It is often argued, by economists and politicians in particular, that wealth creation ultimately improves the lives of many.

At a recent meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein argued strongly against ignoring the neglect of fairness in the search for economic growth. He said the injustice of underdevelopment of some was a structural violation of human rights that benefited a few.

Furthermore, he pointed out, systemic underdevelopment of some is not accidental, or even a matter of collateral damage for the greater good of the development of the nation. Directing resources towards the wealthy is a strategy perpetuated by those with the power to do so.

The Grenfell Tower fire has at least brought out the best of humanity, as these disasters often do. Not necessarily from politicians, but in amongst Londoners of all walks of life, such as the young spoken-word poet mentioned above.

In a recent article, a resident from a nearby wealthier neighbourhood returned a tax rebate he received from the State, describing it as “blood money.” Apparently the borough council, boasting “careful management of its finances and a successful efficiency drive,” had given community members a rebate on their taxes. The only people who were not entitled to a rebate were those already receiving support.

A direct result of the rebate gesture by the council was the successful local government election for the Conservatives, despite complaints of huge underspending by the borough council.

The article read, “As the toxic ash of Grenfell Tower’s vanity cladding falls over the neighbouring streets, we are left with acrid truth in our throats; regeneration in the royal borough is in fact a crime of greed and selfishness.” This neglect of fairness in the interest of governance for the few, we know it well in Trinidad and Tobago even if we would like to pretend otherwise. We would do well to raise our insular heads from time to time to look above the parapet of the politicking that consumes us, to draw parallels with what is happening elsewhere in the world.

Furthermore, it is also not useful or healthy to simply discredit when the “world,” like Al Jazeera and CNN (Anthony Bourdain for example), express their views on how “complicated” Trinidad and Tobago is. We could argue that no one can know this country the way we do.

Or we could take a step back and try to see what they are seeing. This is no paradise.