Mother Trinidad & Tobago is crying - by Steve Alvarez

Citizens of Trinidad & Tobago seem to be oblivious to the possible depletion of our nation’s wealth.

We ought to ask our government why it is that there seems to be a concerted effort to give preference to foreigners, in effect send our wealth abroad. Are we to have a similar experience like that of the 1970’s where it was stated that our wealth went through Trinidad & Tobago like "a dose of salts"?

Let us examine the following:

• There seem to be an influx of foreign workers (Spanish speaking workers in our stores and offices, Africans in our security firms, Chinese in our construction industry and English & Americans in our Industrial Sector)
• All of this while unemployment locally is on the rise
• Major construction projects like the Maracas Beach upgrade are given to foreign contractors while local contractors are finding it difficult to stay in business
• Our appetite for foreign purchases continues unabated while the economic situation nationally worsens; billions of dollars for helicopters, millions for the rental of cruise ships, millions for boats and millions for foreign consultants

Every citizen of Trinidad & Tobago is affected by the government’s preference for foreign rather than local. CEPEP, URP and other crumbs that fall of the table prepared for our Colonial Masters seem to be what we are left to fight over.

This cannot be right, I cannot believe that The Democratic Party of Trinidad and Tobago (DPTT) is the only political party that seems to notice that all we have worked for is slowly been taken away from us.

Over time we have come to accept daily murders as normal, we have accepted as the norm, water in our taps one or two days a week; we think it is OK to pay a bribe to public officers to perform their duty and we have accepted that when it rains flooding is automatic.

There continues to be a decline in our standard of living and we have come to accept the decline as status quo.

Consider the following we have allowed ourselves to accept:

• Failure to update our traffic laws to allow for the use of the breathalyser, speed guns and special moulded license plates
• Failure to implement stiffer penalties for gun possession
• Failure to enact legislation to deal with repeat criminal offenders
• Failure to upgrade our health and education system to first world standards
• Failure to maintain our roads and highways to first world status
• Failure to decentralize many government services
• Failure to hold local government elections and many more failures

In spite of these failures, our focus seems to be on silly fights within the political parties opposed to the ruling political party and other trivialities.

The increase of foreign influence in our economy, governance and communities is one thing we cannot afford to overlook. Where is the outcry from our labour unions, our religious bodies, our social groups and other political parties?

Are we so caught up in the fight for the crumbs that we are afraid to stand up for our country? Mother Trinidad & Tobago is calling on her children to look after Trinidad & Tobago; are we listening?

Steve Alvarez | Political Leader of The Democratic Party of Trinidad & Tobago