There are no saviours out there

THE EDITOR: TT and many islands of the Caribbean were not ready to manage themselves after independence. But the reality is that no one will come in and rescue us. We must learn fast, act quickly and wise, and create a nation to meet the challenges of a changing world. It is on our watch and there can be no excuse for just watching and doing nothing.

Who ever heard of a country closing their railway instead of upgrading it? Furthermore, we then rip up the lines and used many of them for fence posts. Then to make the situation worse, allowed squatters to occupy the rail lines.

We destroyed our agricultural sector and moved from an exporter of cocoa, coffee, citrus products, coconuts and sugar to an importer.

We failed to upgrade our water supply and distribution system and instead pay millions to access desalinated water. This is despite having six months of heavy rainfall each year.

We closed our community courts, community warden offices, decommissioned local registration of births and deaths, and centralised our water distribution authority.

With rising crime and youth delinquency, we fail to build new sporting facilities, we built new schools without any sporting facilities, and we failed to claim our steelpan, allowing foreigners to hold the patent for the instrument. We have failed to have community police patrols, made gun ownership for citizens extremely complicated and difficult.

Meanwhile we allowed vehicles to be heavily tinted so that no one can see the occupants, we fail to have state-issued licence plates, we have very low fines and prison time for illegal gun owners, and we now take years for justice before the courts.

Our tourism plan is a failure, our infrastructure is failing and there are no strategic plans for economic recovery and growth.

We know the ills. But we also know the solutions. The management of the country must change. We must elect our best personnel to guide us into the future. Sitting and watching the country’s demise is not an option. This is happening on our watch, and it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to make the country better. Now is time for everyone of us to wake up and organise circles of hope in every community.

Every town and village, every community group, every sector of society must come together and rescue our nation. No one else cares and no one else will fix our country for us. Unite and fix our nation now – or continue to record our demise.

STEVE ALVAREZ

via e-mail