I am tired of hearing that everything is okay in Trinidad and Tobago.
We have heard advice that people should cook on a coal pot, ride a bicycle, or eat macaroni pie once a month to survive. That may have been said two years ago, but today the reality facing ordinary citizens is very different.
Take something as simple as going to a restaurant. For three people to have a decent meal today, one may have to walk with close to $3,000. How many of the 99% can afford that?
But the real measure of hardship is not the price of a restaurant meal. It is what I am seeing at people’s doorsteps, young people, ashamed and frightened, asking for tin food.
That hurts.
When citizens lose the ability to feed themselves and their families with dignity, something has gone seriously wrong.
There has also been much discussion about CEPEP, contractors and the actions taken against them. But when contractors were punished or operations were closed, innocent families were also affected. Many lost their means of survival. Up to today, the question remains: have these actions really been justified when ordinary families were left to suffer?
People were complaining before, yes, but many were surviving.
Today, survival itself has become the challenge.
I love the people of Trinidad and Tobago, and that is why I cannot remain silent while the dignity of so many citizens is being taken away.
Government must stop telling people that everything is okay and start confronting the reality facing families.
And I have one serious question that deserves an honest answer:
ARE SOME OF THESE POLICIES BEING INFLUENCED BY A WORLD BANK AGENDA, AND IF SO, WHAT DOES THAT AGENDA MEAN FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO?
The people deserve answers, not slogans, not political cajoling and certainly not lectures on how to survive on less.
A country cannot claim that everything is okay while its people are standing at doorsteps asking for food.
Gordon Laughlin.
Westmoorings
