The rewards of TT being independent?

THE EDITOR: So we have behind us 57 years of independence and what have we achieved? Quite a lot of new roads, some going nowhere, and the Government is still at it. Yes, it is planning more highways to even sparsely inhabited areas and surely but sadly destroying the environment.

These structures with their ugly concrete bridges together with many buildings now classified as white elephants have cost the taxpayer an arm and a leg and are still doing with contractors being paid to maintain these badly constructed highways.

Oh yes, in this process of what the politicians call progress we have ended up with many overnight millionaires who still can’t account for their sudden wealth, while many citizens are living in do-it-yourself shacks they call homes. Many of located in traces with poor access, no electricity and limited resources of water and other essential amenities.

While all this building and so-called modernising have been going on, ordinary citizens have been left to wallow in their bad living conditions, some becoming criminals.

Now after all these independent years we are faced with growing poverty, more unemployment, corruption, serious crimes and general lawlessness, including the daily murders.

Ask yourself who is to be blamed for turning this nation into a haven for criminals with a majority of the population lacking morals or respect for authority.

If these are the rewards, the results of being independent, then take me back to the old colonial days when citizens respected authority, had ambition and good morals and showed compassion and cared for their fellow men, and when there was hardly any serious crime or corruption.

GA MARQUES

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