Future depends on choice of leaders

THE EDITOR: Would you travel on an airplane if the person flying it was the beautiful, pleasant customer representative instead of the trained pilot? You will not. The average person has little or no interest in the four strokes of an internal combustion engine or the engineering that causes an airplane to fly. Such details and information are not only boring but nowhere as juicy as the bacchanal that makes the news.

The fundamental details of engineering, health, agriculture, finance and a plethora of sciences are necessary for our survival. We depend on the medical scientists to look after the health of the world, our mechanics, electricians and technicians for transport, housing and the infrastructure that supports life on Earth.

The personnel that dedicate their lives to these disciplines that preserve life for mankind are not the jesters, the people who can attract your attention with bacchanalia. They are the people who see it as their responsibility to make the sacrifices necessary to arrive at new ways for humans to feed themselves, to travel, to explore space, to house themselves and to live in peace with each other. These are serious people whose existence is what offers us the quality of life we experience.

It ought to be noticeably clear to most of us that if we were to replace our engineers with the security guard because he or she is a good talker and is charismatic, our basics like electricity, transportation, water distribution and housing will fail. If we were to remove our farmers and replace them with the exotic dancer because that person is more attractive, we will highly likely run out of food.

The same can be said for doctors, accountants and the many other professionals. Competence cannot be sacrificed on the altar of popularity. Yet in politics, especially in TT, competence is ignored.

Recently, I sent to the media a 100-point document about a new governance model for TT. It was not shared on social media or published. If however, I wrote some disparaging remarks about the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, then more people would have likely shared the post. Why our obsession with issues that contribute nothing to our development?

Our popular social commentators are usually the ones who use obscenities and spread disinformation. Many of our popular labour leaders, party leaders, political commentators and activists contribute nothing progressive to our nation except rhetoric and old talk. Regardless of their popularity, these individuals cannot be the ones to offer a better quality of life for our citizens. They may be sincere in their endeavours, but put simply, they do not possess the competencies necessary to take us where we need to be.

Our challenges are serious, our economy requires the best and brightest from among us, our tourism sector requires the energy of youth, the vision of the gifted and our security requires the courage and commitment of the patriot. We need to embrace the competence and energy of our young people rather than read of their successes in other countries. We need to elect managers based on their ability rather than their popularity. We need to love our country, our family and ourselves enough to reject the popular activists and politicians whose ineptitude borders on the imbecilic.

STEVE ALVAREZ

via e-mail