Another Haiti in the making?

There is no gainsaying that priority is usually given to the communities most affected.

In the case of inter- island transportation, while the entire population is affected, the business community and inter-island commerce would be immediately affected by chaotic transport managements between both islands. Those who do business between both islands would experience the most immediate effects.

Chaotic transportation arrangements would also negatively impact upon this country’s drive toward enhancing and modernising its tourist industry in the light of a waning GDP and the Government’s call for “economic diversification.” It is all too clear that the present PNM Government takes very lightly, the social and economic impact of its failure to resolve the inter-island transport dilemma. It is a national issue that has nothing to do with the “black man” or the feeling that the PNM is a “black” party and so should show partisan preference to issues affecting that group.

The PNM is a self-proclaimed “nationalist” movement — or so it says.

That apart, the Government’s inability to resolve straightforwardly and expeditiously, the management of a transportation problem bodes terribly for its ability to manage the complex affairs of the wider State. What is most perplexing is its apparent refusal or reluctance to achieve a speedy and successful resolution of the problem.

I seriously doubt that what the Port Authority and the Ministry of Transport have been doing so far authentically reflects the level of management and organisational skills available to them. If my memory serves me correctly, the previous government was able to satisfactorily resolve the identical problem in just six months.

The PNM has chosen, by leasing two additional old boats, to spend annually, $232 million on four boats, instead of $44.3 million on the one — the SF Galicia. This expenditure represents more than it spent on the entire GATE programme every year and which it said had to be cut. So there must be a deeper and darker hidden agenda here.

Here is a government in 2017 that convinced an electorate in 2015 that it could have done “better” than its predecessor and, after holding office for two years, not only cannot point to any area of tangible success but is steering the nation down a path of certain and complete destruction.

This administration cannot resolve a simple transportation problem.

What does that say about its ability to deal with the myriad other and far more complex dilemmas that face this blighted nation? And because many of us “look like them” we are happy to say: “Well, give them a chance.” When will we be prepared to say the PNM Government has squandered its “chance” or that it does not deserve a chance? Will it be when it transforms the country into another Haiti? And what is clouding our ability to judge its incompetence? Is it the bigotry of blind and irrational racism? What is wrong with us? The ignorance of such a position should by now be manifestly clear. The bigots among us who premise support for the present inept administration on “shared ethnic solidarity” despite the PNM’s demonstrable incompetence and its indifference toward them should reflect on the level of regard for “ethnic pride” within the criminal community.

Violent criminals are just as indifferent as those who govern.

Nikki Cosby and Fr Clyde Harvey, if they are honest, would surely attest to this.

So let us get over our childish stupidity already and cease deluding ourselves because of the misfits who incessantly preach “black pride.” Theirs is nothing but an attempt to mentally enslave and abuse the undiscerning among us by brutally dishonest and selfish charlatanism.

STEVE SMITH via emal