My wish for the new year

THE EDITOR: As the new year begins I feel obliged to engage a seemingly innocuous day-to-day occurrence in our beloved country, viz the proliferation of huge potholes in the nation’s roadways. Not as a subject in itself so much but as a symptom of a deeper malaise in our society. More specifically, in the management structure which has do with looking after the basic infrastructural needs of our people.

There was a time when we were willing to suffer the inconvenience of the old truck with the tar barrel and hot mix patching the holes, the messy looking guy twirling the bucket often accidentally smearing our tyres in the process. But we didn’t really mind, for we knew that he would always be there for us, recognising his usefulness to the nation’s drivers, and probably doing what his boss in the county council would have wanted him to do out of the latter’s own sense of duty to those who drive on the roads.

Now the potholes are bigger and more widespread and a clear and present danger for drivers, especially at nights on unfamiliar roads, with the prospect of serious injury to life and limb.

Why has it come to this? Is it that the moral sense of right and wrong, specifically duty, that gave life to the work ethic is now at its lowest ebb with those responsible not caring a jot about the people whom they are supposed to serve?

Is this lack of a sense of duty, so evident in so many areas of our national life, a spinoff from the nature of our politics, race-based as it is and devolving around patronage and privilege, with our politicians seeing no need to account on issues involving serving the people and such disinclination towards accountability spilling over into the workplace as to become almost cultural?

Or is it a matter of the lack of money which is the perennial cry of the regional corporations against the Government? But how do you reconcile this “lack” with the huge sums of money spent on lavish entertainment of late for official functions?

Is this the deeper malaise I spoke of earlier which is a reflection not only of the indifference of fulfilling a basic responsibility such as fixing the nation’s roads, but of finding permanent solutions to our myriad problems, infrastructural et al?

Can plans not be put in place, for example, for the perennial flooding in Debe and Penal and elsewhere, installing the necessary pumps, but more significantly, doing the infrastructural work and passing legislation for land use and development that would ensure no recurrence? And as an extension, can the excess water not be used to fill retention ponds that can be developed as permanent reservoirs for the oncoming drought?

Infrastructure aside, in addition to the head-on collision with the criminals, can we not also look for long-term solutions by getting into the heads of our young people through education to instill values which are antithetical to the mindset of the would-be criminal?

All that is needed is the political will of those who lead us, and it is my wish for this new year that our politicians develop the character to set the example for a good work ethic on behalf of the people, and that the people themselves follow such an example.

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

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