Scuttling of fisheries training institute

THE EDITOR: I sit in my office and contemplate the future. It scares me. I am not scared for myself but for the young men and women who would like the opportunity to have a job on a boat or on a ship.

I spent 30 years at sea and left it in 2005 (taking a huge pay cut) to teach the youth in this country seamanship and navigation.

I am old now and should probably retire. But (and that’s a big but) I know that the Caribbean Fisheries Training and Development Institute (CFTDI) is important, so before I go I will try, in my way, to stop it from sinking.

There seems to be a conspiracy to destroy this old educational institute that has served this country so well for almost 50 years.

Ships, like businesses or schools, can sink for many reasons but when you sink it on purpose that is called “scuttling.” Someone is trying to scuttle the CFTDI.

My hope is that the people who wish to see this place closed down are not successful. They are trying hard to do it. It is happening right now.

I understand that the land that the CFTDI sits on is very desirable. This may be the main reason they want to see this place fail.

Of course, it did not help when the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) raised the rent from $8,000 to $80,000 a month. But we held on.

They fired our principal five years ago. That was the beginning of the end. The board of directors took over and things got a lot worse.

Course costs rose and our pay froze. No money was used to fix up this old place.

The board started to shut things down. Why would money be spent on a school that some wanted to destroy.

The board was dismissed last July. (Please don’t bring it back.) There is nobody running things and it is not looking good.

Part-time lecturers have not been paid since July. Quite a few of the staff are on yearly contracts.

As their contracts expire they are gone because no one can renew those contracts. Everyone on a contract will be gone by July.

None of them have received the gratuities they were supposed to get at the end of their contracts. That’s not right.

There is no money for even the littlest of things. For example, the lights are out in the men's bathroom. It won’t be fixed because there’s no money for that. There is no toilet paper.

There is no ink in my printer. There hasn’t been for months. There surely is no money for that.

We need new rope for the lifeboat and to teach splicing. There’s no money for that either. That’s just not right.

Mr Prime Minister, the permanent secretary, the Minister of Agriculture, I ask you to step up. No excuses this time. We hear lots of excuses why things are not done properly.

A common excuse is "this is Trinidad.” Don’t use that expression any more. No more excuses. It is your obligation. It is not someone else’s fault. It is yours.

Capt RONALD WILD

via e-mail