2018 – an eventful year

CLYDE WEATHERHEAD

AT THE start of a new year, as is customary, reviews and assessments of the year that was are done. Like the characters in Sing a Song of Sixpence, different roles and perspectives inform the look-back.

Those in the counting houses are counting the bottom-line of the year’s transactions. Those in the palace frame of mind are pondering how much milk and honey they extracted from their parlours of power and privilege. Those in the garden will be recounting their plight and how many had their noses pecked off by the blackbirds controlling industry and commerce.

From wherever one looks, the last 12 months have been a year full of events, good and bad, presenting our society with dangers as well as opportunities. The year 2018 most certainly cannot be described as dull, unremarkable or uninteresting.

In a year in which the first headlines screamed “Bloody start” and “5 killed on day 1,” from the bloodiest month to year-end, with this country recording its second highest ever murder toll, it cannot be said that the outcome is all positive.

Nor can we celebrate the thousands now out of jobs at major state enterprises, educational institutions and elsewhere or those facing the threat of job loss. Nor will those still counting their losses from disasters, natural and man-made, be brimming with merriment as we begin 2019.

The announcement of a modest profit at CAL, of oversubscribed bond issues and prospects of fortune and jobs from projects in various stages of gestation will not motivate the singing of any song of sixpence.

And while we mourn the passing of many of our chantuelles of our collective spirit and resilience, we celebrate their time with us and what they have done and left for our upliftment and encouragement.

Fundamental issues remain to be resolved in our economic management and planning, in our environmental and water management practices, in our strengthening of governance systems to empower the majority and guarantee the needs of all, in our organising to guarantee the safety and security of all, or displacing the atmosphere of anxiety, fear and desperation which pervades.

What we can celebrate is the social response to crisis in whatever form, the caring humanity that is not lost despite the negative pressure of an anti-social agenda seeking to place private-right above public-right, individual or narrow self-serving goals above collective benefit, hate and intolerance instead of unity, and material abundance and consumerism above the freeing up of human capacity.

We must face 2019 with the objective of addressing every problem with opening the road to progress of our society at the forefront.

Moving forward in 2019

The usurpation of procurement by Cabinet, the unfinished business of appointing top officers of the TTPS, or the resolution of the relationship between Tobago and Trinidad, or the lingering cloud of allegations against the top judicial officer and concentration of authority in fewer hands within Cabinet, the failure to reconfigure the economy to achieve sustainability – these are all cause for serious concern.

In 2019, achieving significant advance in the economic, political, social, cultural, environmental and international spheres must occupy our attention and actions.

This is a year in which the politicians are gearing up for three significant elections enthused by the election cycle syndrome, focused on retaining or gaining office while the concerns of the people are relegated to unimportance.

Moving forward for the majority of the society means achieving solutions to problems and issues. Some matters of immediate concern include:

Measures to a create sustainable, diversified economy and development

* Open, transparent project selection and implementation with citizen involvement

* Change from policy of relying on foreign investment to self-reliance

* Expansion of agricultural production for food security and export

* Appropriate tourism expansion that is beneficial and sustainable

Measures for improved governance and elector empowerment

* Implementation of procurement legislation

* Party and campaign finance reform

* Local government reform

* Right of recall, term limits for prime minister

* Promoting unity and halting anti-democratic policies and actions

Guaranteeing safety and security

* From law and order to all-round solutions

Improving the social condition

* Protecting women and children

* Safeguarding social support systems

* Establishing a migrant/asylum structure

Safeguarding the natural environment

* Resolving water management issues with long-term horizon

* Contributing to global climate change solution

Promoting uplifting culture

Acceptance of our condition, of ideas without questioning the fundamentals involved will take us in a negative and dangerous direction.

What we need is a pro-social agenda and action by the people, progress in the direction favourable to sorting out their real concerns and advancing the nation-building project in this 57th year of independence. Otherwise 2019 will pass without a new atmosphere of hope, confidence in the future and release of the creative energies of every individual and collective of human beings in our society.

We the people must remain vigilant and take initiatives in our interest and that of the nation.