By SEAN DOUGLAS Wednesday, July 4 2012

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BLANKED: Donna Cox...

LAVENTILLE East/Morvant MP Donna Cox has expressed disgust at not being invited, as MP for the area, to the launch of the Hoops of Life anti-crime basketball project last Saturday at the Beetham Estate by Minister of National Security Jack Warner.

The event saw retired US basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, lift Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar bodily as she slam dunked a basketball through a hoop.

“I was not invited...not apprised as to what the programme was about,” said a hurt sounding Cox, as she lamented what she said was an apparent breach of protocol that a sitting MP - even from the Opposition - should be invited to ministerial functions taking place within that MP’s constituency.

Cox added, “They should have tried to get ‘buy in’ from the local MP for the benefit of constituents. I can’t support a programme that I don’t know anything about.” She said the local councillor for the area had likewise been disrespected by not being invited.

Asked what she thought of the use of $10 million to run the project, Cox gave a mixed answer. “They need to take that money and improve infrastructure and quality of life of Beetham residents, such as drainage. Address drainage problems and fixing roads and doing work on residents’ homes,” she said.

While not giving her support for this initiative because she was not invited to attend and was not given details of the project, Cox — a former netball and basketball player - said she is a strong advocate of sports, but not the way the Hoops of Life was organised.

“They have to stop the public relations gimmickry and the showing-off and the politics and come with sustainable crime-fighting initiatives in the community,” said Cox.

She said that because crime affects the entire nation, everyone must be involved in efforts to curb it, but she saw this latest event by Government as showing disrespect to her.

Saying the event had been planned for a long time, with scheduling and rescheduling, she chided, “It’s clear I was deliberately left out.”