What kind of people are we?

There were about eight unfinished structures and piles of dirt stacked over 20 feet high.

As a contractor with over 30 years of experience in the field, I concluded that these structures could not have cost more than $4 million at best. I wondered what was the cost to date? When will construction ever be completed? I spoke to the residents and they complained about the wind-blown dust and the poor drainage in the area. I stood in my shoes and I wondered.

What kind of people are we? What kind of people tolerate and defend the waste of our nation’s resources on inflated contracts and incomplete projects? What kind of people allow their agricultural lands to be abandoned while they use their declining foreign exchange to import food? What kind of people allow their courts to become so inefficient that their citizens turn to vigilante and retributive justice rather than the nation’s courts? What kind of people support inept leaders simply because they share the same ethnicity and not much else? TT is quickly rushing towards the precipice of social and economic disaster with veils over their eyes and ear phones blasting soca and chutney.

The highway to Point Fortin is on hold, the Couva Hospital is not in use, the motor vehicles building in Caroni is not used while the Licensing head office closes early every day due to alleged poor building condition.

Not much is being done to ensure that TT gets value for money. There are no long-term strategic plans for the development and sustainability of the economy.

As long as the two major political parties continue to be blindly supported by the masses simply based on ethnicity, one would continue to ask these questions. One wonders what can be done to lift the veil.

Steve Alvarez via email