Independent senator: We need more social workers than police

If Government is going to tweak the budget, give half a billion dollars more to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs in order to prevent antisocial behaviour says Independent Senator Hugh Russell Stuart.

During the budget debate which ended in the Senate yesterday, Stuart said billions of dollars were spent on the Ministry of National Security but the ministry has not been able to grapple with the crime situation.

“A lot of the money is geared towards the end product of trying to fix rather than prevent.”

He said he has been an advocate for spending money on the social services in terms of strengthening the family and schools.

“Probably, we should be having more social workers than policemen at this time because certainly policemen are not doing a good job in keeping banditry down,” he said.

Urging the Ministry of Finance to give more to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, Stuart said, he noted in the budget, plans to generate revenue in the area of sports through sports services, sporting events, and sporting infrastructure.

However, he said, the Hasely Crawford Stadium and Jean Pierre Complex are in a woefully dilapidated state, yet large numbers of young people from schools and the wider community go to the facility to practice their sports.

While boasting about new infrastructure, he said the older ones are forgotten when they could be refurbished, re-equipped and put back in proper use.

He said, he had been asking four years ago about the elevator at the Hasely Crawford Stadium which has not been repaired since.

The gym for elite athletes, he said, is full of mould and people can fall ill. “I was told recently that it would take about $100,000 to clean and refurbish it,” he said.

“These things are low hanging fruits, they do not require gigantic pledges. Is it apathy. Is it indifference?

He has tried to speak with the Sports Minister, he said, but has been unsuccessful.

He sees him taking pictures with athletes when they return to the country with gold medals, Stuart said, but he would like to see in the stadium with somebody working.

When citizens travel abroad, he said, “they don’t ask who is the prime minister or minister of sport, they ask who is about Brain Lara, Dwight Yorke, Ato Boldon.”

Once he said, he was stopped by police in a foreign country for a traffic offence. When the cop asked about his strange accent and he said he was from Trinidad and Tobago, the cop said, “Dwight Yorke? Brian Lara? That got me away from getting a ticket.”

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