Manning’s dreams — the nation’s inflation nightmare

These shortages have forced the cost of construction to skyrocket. We now import aggregate from Canada, Guyana, St Lucia and the Dominican Republic. We get US contractors for the Brian Lara Stadium, and Malaysian and Chinese labour for office towers, because labour demand exceeds labour supply. Except for Cepep grass-cutters.

The HDC house jumps from $100,000 to $130,000, and the Udecott tower from $150 million to $200 million. The HDC house and the Udecott tower remain the same size and quality, but need more cash. Too many dollars chasing too little resources, has caused massive inflation. But to Manning and his government, money is no problem. They simply dip into the treasury as the oil price rises to unprecedented levels, and the gas just keeps flowing.

Then Jennifer Baptiste and Robert Guiseppi demand 30 and 40% wage increases so their workers and their children can still get three meals a day. But Central Bank governor Ewart Williams advises the old time remedy for inflation, “ban yuh belly, hold strain, get by on two meals per day or eat less”, and Manning chimes in “this is the cost of national development, this is no boom, it will last a long time”.

Government brings in short-term foreign contractors to supplement the locals who are maxed-out. They negotiate juicy contracts to cover mobilisation from Chicago or Shanghai, and comfortable living conditions in Trinidad. They fill the hotels who can mop up local produce at premium rates, and they compete with locals for housing.

Manning’s ill-conceived development policy has devalued our savings by at least 25%. Thousands of families, widows and pensioners, who have been tending their nest eggs at the banks and UTC - to build their dream house, to fix the kitchen floor, or repair the leaking roof, to add the extra room for mother, or the annex in the back for grandfather - have learnt to their dismay, that today’s costs could be 40% higher, and a reliable contractor hard to find.

The HDC and Udecott can pay whatever it costs to boost Manning’s ego with steel and concrete buildings; but you and I, and all Trinis, bear the burden for Manning’s madness. Not only have grocery baskets got lighter and lighter with the same pay packet; our home improvement dreams simply slipped out of reach, as concrete costs doubled, and building materials and labour (if you can find any) have escalated out of reach.

In pursuing a skyscraper skyline in a hurry, Manning merrily pulled the rug from under, and the Prime Minister’s dream is now the people’s nightmare.

Michael J Williams

Port of Spain