What in the name of the living Christ is going on in Trinidad and Tobago? I definitely can’t be the only one who sees this.
I went to our National Library in Port of Spain recently, and it was a depressing experience. I remember when it was first opened. It was a bee-hive of activity. It had facilities and services frequent library users had never seen or used before.
There were several computerized search catalogues, numerous workstations linked to the internet, and copy services. Today, and for quite some time now, it is a shadow of its former self. Nothing is maintained in Trinidad and Tobago. Everything is allowed just to fall apart.
I went to the section offering books on computer technology, and it reflects the mindset which is so pervasive throughout this country and characteristic of the leadership we have been saddled with for over 50 years. All the material was out of date and irrelevant.
We are in 2017, so why in the name of the living Christ am I seeing computer books on offer as far back as 2000? This technology has long since been replaced by more advanced and newer IT systems. Unfortunately, this is typical of all sections in the library. How can our children and students of Trinidad and Tobago position themselves to be competitive in today’s world, when the texts on our library shelves are over a decade out of date?
Our education system, like everything else in our country, is stagnant and irrelevant to the times we are living in. Our teachers are not trained to nurture thinkers. Rather, they teach for the test. New ideas will never find a place in Trinidad and Tobago, because our leaders are not concerned about such things.
If you care about you country’s future, in the face of globalization and advancing technologies, you have to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure that our children have what they need to succeed. However, I have observed a disturbing pattern regarding all government projects. They are mechanisms for large-scale fraud and theft. How do I know this? Because they are always grossly over budget and are never maintained.
When the library computers with internet access were functioning, it was less likely that members of the general public would have to pay an internet café for the same service. When the copy machines were working, I am sure the copy centres didn’t make as much money. Now, that neither of these services are working as they should, I know these businesses are much happier.
This is a nefarious trend. Public services, in my opinion, are being purposefully sabotaged to ensure that private entities offering the same services can flourish.
Some communities in Trinidad and Tobago will never see a pipe-borne supply of potable water, because the millions of dollars being paid in contracts to deliver water to these areas would come to an end.
Our public transportation system will never improve, because the numerous public servants who own more than the legal number of maxi taxis will go out of business.
Public hospitals will never provide the level of “care” that private nursing homes offer, because many of them will no longer exist.
If the police service of Trinidad and Tobago did in fact “protect and serve”, there wouldn’t be a need for so many private security firms run by so many former police officers.
Tobagonians will never see a decrease in the cost of getting basic goods and services to the island, because someone is making money from their hardship.
Therefore, when our politicians promise improvements in government services to our citizens, they are all lying. They know they are not going to change anything, because they and their financiers have a stake in all of the private entities which are supplanting public services.
As a result of the privatization of our public services, we end up paying more. This is a system designed to syphon off money from our treasury into the pockets of those who fund the campaigns of our politicians.
It is time for citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to put the “public” back into public service and get rid of these rapacious politicians and their cronies.