Protection for wealthy but not farmers and workers

Stock image source: pxhere.com
Stock image source: pxhere.com

THE EDITOR: Open letter to the Attorney General.

There are 425,000 households in Trinidad and Tobago (National Statistical Office 2020). Fifty per cent of those households (National Survey Nurture Nature 2020) keep animals on their premises and the majority of those households turn to the animal welfare NGOs to help protect them from the scourge of fireworks.

This is the cross-section of the population crying out for protection from fireworks and the Government treats them with total disdain.

The Government puts thousands of low-income earners out of work by closing the scrap iron industry to protect citizens but protects the wealthy suppliers of the fireworks that are harming so many including the farmers. Prioritising fireworks (hurt and harm) over food production, does that make any sense?

This past Old Year’s Night one farmer in east Trinidad lost hundreds of chickens to fireworks and a few years ago another farmer in central lost 1,000 chickens to fireworks and the Government still protects fireworks. Does that make any sense?

We encourage all political parties to motivate a culture of compassion. That is the only way we will move forward as a nation.

The people must develop too and we can hardly achieve that by putting thousands of low-income earners out of work and then protecting the wealthy that are terrorising a broad cross-section of the population. Surely there was a way to police the scrap iron industry so that jobs could be saved.

But we know that there is no way to effectively police fireworks. No need to, however, because the fireworks people, the wealthy, are protected by the Government and given free licence while the rest of the population suffers.

So what are we left to think? Is the only way forward to change the Government?

ROGER MARSHALL

Fireworks Action

Coalition of TT

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"Protection for wealthy but not farmers and workers"

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