Potholes a symptom of a deeper malaise

THE EDITOR: Ian Green of Couva, writing on bad roads in the newspapers, beat me to it, for even as I rarely comment on infrastructure in my letters, I have been driven to writing on this subject because of the real challenge it is to drive on the nation’s roads.

And I refer not to speeding and the like, but having to negotiate huge potholes on the roads which takes away from your normal focus of looking ahead or behind or on the side, not wanting to veer off the road when you suddenly hit a pothole or burst a tyre with the same effect, or damage your car.

The resulting danger of continuously attempting to avoid potholes or hitting one unavoidably is no less than having to deal with errant drivers, and even as there is a tolerance level for this, one wonders at the sudden upsurge.

Green has given many examples of this, but mine’s are the one on the road adjacent to Camden in Couva and that on the road next to the old Ste Madeleine Police Station, selected because of the extraordinary neglect which surrounds both, and I am sure there are many others like these.

I am writing on this subject because it is baffling that in a civilised society such as ours basic infrastructure such as this is allowed to deteriorate to such an extent. The sight of the truck and the guy with the tar bucket seems a thing of the past and there is no evidence of any planned government policy on the problem.

But this letter is not really about potholes per se for the issue of money to solve this problem can hardly be the issue. Instead the negligence surrounding potholes seems a symptom of a deeper malaise in the society having to do with the politics, for leaders do not feel they have to account to anyone for anything, least of all potholes, because the tribe is always there for them no matter what negligence they may be guilty of, and the tribe in turn is never willing to question their leaders for negligence of this kind to avoid jeopardising the perks to be had for their unquestioning loyalty.

So potholes would continue to get larger, and I leave it to your better judgment to determine the extent to which this vicious cycle of “you scratch my back and I yours” is the root cause of much of the chronic negligence that impacts our every-day lives.

It is instructive that the runaway Donald Trump in the US is now being made to answer to the House of Representatives through the voice of the people in the recent midterm. Will we ever escape the tribal politics that allows our leaders to have free rein and never having to account for their stewardship, even as a people we continue to participate in our own subordination for a “mess of pottage?”

DR ERROL BENJAMIN via e-mail