2017 sets the future of TT

My New Year’s wish is that we invest aggressively rather than be conservative and attempt to hold on to the little we still have. My wish list is as follows: • Immediately outline a new economic plan that envisages multiple avenues for earning foreign exchange. Among the avenues should be investment in upgrading the tourism package to international standards, investing in food production by utilizing the Caroni lands and encouraging farmers to produce specific crops geared to export.

• Restructure local government to allow for community policing, community government services, community health care and scheduled maintenance of waterways and roads.

• New gun laws that incorporates a gun court, a gun amnesty and mandatory imprisonment for the illegal possession of a firearm.

• A new network of roads that opens the country to development and a rail system to immediately reduce the traffic congestion on the roadway.

• Reduce the number of State-controlled companies and enter a strategic partnership with the business community to ensure a secure future for the corporations that are at present under State control.

My greatest wish however, is for unity among our people. As leader of the DPTT, I will gladly give up politics if the two major political parties were sincerely dedicated to unity and to rebuilding our nation through embracing the contributions of the many talented people in Trinidad and Tobago.

We cannot go forward opposing for the sake of opposition, dividing our people and encouraging the hatred that has resulted in a politically divided nation anchored not by ideology but by ethnicity. I fully endorse President Obama’s statement that “we cannot change the history we inherited, but we can change the history yet to be written”.

Let us in 2017 start writing a story of unity, prosperity and hope.

May God Richly Bless Trinidad and Tobago and fill us with wisdom in 2017.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email