Paria, Venezuela and Beryl

THE EDITOR: The headline gives the impression that here is a spicy story of three women.

Instead, it is a script that TT wrote about three traumatic events that were entered in its history.

Do you hear the cries of the lone Paria tragedy survivor Christopher Boodram and the families of the victims for even a charitable compensation so that they too can enjoy their last days on the planet?

A $16 million commission of enquiry, a feeding trough for lawyers, the hands-off attitude of the Prime Minister who refused to identify with a tragedy involving a state-owned enterprise and the couldn’t-care-less activities of the Paria Fuel Trading Company all brought back memories of the biblical Pontius Pilate washing his hands.

Almost three years later at a public consultation to improve the industry standard we are hearing that the tragedy was “unfortunate and avoidable…blame goes across the spectrum and should not be assigned to any one entity.”

Weren’t humans involved and lives lost? The standard did not exist to outlaw half-mask scubas or emphasised that the divers should have had communication with the top-side environment.

There was no up-to-date standard for the local industry. While stakeholders are revising the industry regulations to protect and educate those employed in the sector, they must ensure that everything is done to avoid further loss of lives.

For sure it must address how to compensate survivor(s) and their families in real time. People perished in the performance of duties and a basic formula should have humanitarian content, if only to award loss of income (for a period to be determined).

Boodram and the victims’ families are definitely suffering too long while life goes on as usual for many who the tragedy impacted.

How is the trauma lessened with a timeless police investigation? In the absence of a standard who can they find culpable?

The imbalance of any one-man probe could be subject to unfair influence. The TTPS has a bagful of issues to deal with and the victims of the tragedy will have the agony prolonged for years. TT, have a heart.

They came illegally through our porous borders, but we welcomed them with open arms. They got jobs and accommodation and temporary legal status that they could settle as naturalised Trinis.

Things went so good that they started rejecting the hospitality and many took the TT Government to court using our lawyers and their advice. They won judgements for handsome amounts for the rights we allegedly denied them.

For unlawful detention three Venezuelan children were awarded a total of $1.27 million. One boy was even awarded $2.5 million for "severe trauma and psychological effects suffered.”

Caught after two illegal entries and TT’s unlawful two-month detention, the Venes were detained under quarantine. Their claims: the educational and recreational welfare of the children were neglected.

Who were responsible for designating the heliport as a detention centre? A former minister of national security in Stuart Young and the current minister Fitzgerald Hinds. The bills could have been higher, luckily our slow-coach courts reminded them that the calibre of the centre was not up to what was prescribed by the Immigration Act.

Then, Hurricane Beryl, like a bat out of hell, blew down and thoroughly washed our Caribbean neighbours.

Our Prime Minister without discussion but full of concern and pity for our unfortunate neighbours volunteered to make national assets available to care for the children of families that were affected.

Bring them, we will care for them. From the services of the overwhelmed medical system and archaic educational system they can extract some benefits.

The invitation left me wondering if that was the same prime minister who dissed the people who were suffering because of the Paria tragedy.

LENNOX FRANCIS

via e-mail