Trinidad: A state in collapse

THE EDITOR; I was born here in 1938 and, apart from two years away studying in the mid-sixties, have lived and worked here my whole life.

In 1963 I was one of the very few people of my background who supported the idea of independence. Through the seventies and beyond I was a bit of an activist for causes of fair play and national uplifting.

But what a waste of time and conscience. I watch our country collapse before my eyes and with our government hapless or just unwilling to do anything to stem our current dilemmas.

It is quite clear that the Government can do nothing to provide the vital commodity of water to much of our country – our home in Cascade included. And our hapless government has no real problem with this ongoing disaster. Every day the situation will be "normalised" and every day we have the ongoing failure.

And of course it is not just the water supply. Much of the country is under flood water because all of our "drainage" is clogged with uncut grasses, many of our rural roads are impassable because of landslips and subsidence. Our infrastructure is in a state of collapse everywhere. Drainage on the Lady Young Road (let us change this name – but not to any local politician) is clogged by landslips, from the "shanty mall" at the summit down both slopes. Eventually the road will wash away.

Our government ministers have no idea, as they ride hidden in the deep back seats of police-escorted limos. The Minister of Works was rejected by voters in elections, but still was appointed minister, and while he turns up to look at some flood or landslip, he fixes nothing.

The police service is in disarray and cannot control the burgeoning crime. Our legal service cannot win a case as it too struggles to serve the nation. Our pathetically angry Prime Minister believes solutions lie in insulting us the citizens while doing nothing to solve all the problems he has brought.

We were once – and quite recently too – a burgeoning industrial/petroleum nation, but all that has been closed down as policy, or just allowed to fade away.

Can we save ourselves? Indeed do we want to? My wish for today, however, is that water flows into our tanks. We pray for rain, our only hope!

PETER O'CONNOR

Cascade