Assemblyman: Tobagonians not lazy

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Assistant Secretary, Community Development, Enterprise Development and Labour Shomari Hector says not all young men in Tobago are lazy. He was speaking on Tuesday night at a PNM meeting at the Bethel Community Centre.

“As a young man, I have heard criticisms about the behaviour of young men and I want to champion the notion that not all young men are lazy, unindustrious and prefer to be a ‘zesser’ as opposed to being responsible and a contributing members of the society,” he said.

As the youngest assemblyman in the Kelvin Charles administration, Hector said he has often been compared to his predecessors in the Bethel/Mt Irvine electoral district. He regarded such comparisons as unfair.

“Young people have been held to a standard based on the history and the standards of those who have gone before and often times we are measured unfairly.” Hector said while attending to projects in his area, he has been compared to former representative Whitney Alfred.

However, he said the resources which Alfred had at his disposal, some years ago, far surpassed what exists today.

Hector said: “The society at large wants to hold us up as equals because they think the two of us are serving in the same arena, without recognising there are differences in terms of availability of resources.”

Hector then referred briefly to Sanatan Dharma secretary general Sat Maharaj’s recent controversial statement that Tobago men are lazy and interested only in goat and crab running.

“I want to defend young people, this evening, and say that young people, especially those on the island of Tobago are not a lazy people, Sat, are not an unindustrious people, Sat, are not a disengaged people, Sat. Are not a crazy people, Sat.”

The assemblyman said young Tobagonians must seek to build a future which they can inherit afterwards. “We are the ones for whom we have been waiting.”

Hector said men, in particular, must not settle for mediocrity but strive for excellence.

“I would be a hypocrite if I did not hold the men, in particular, to excellence, that while we are on the journey of building ourselves and our families, the national community, we have to be prepared to give out a little more.”