Where exactly do we as a country want to go? this is a very serious question that requires everybody and anybody who professes to believe in democracy needs to answer. I ask this because when I look at what has happened in neighbouring Venezuela some rather serious questions arise in my mind that we are not so slowly heading down the same path that our unfortunate neighbours have gone down much to their collective chagrin. Somewhere in the vicinity of more than six million people (out of some thirty million) have fled Venezuela, most for economic reasons, but a sizable proportion of them fleeing political persecution.
That beautiful country has been ruined by Maburro (and yes, I know; the misspelling is deliberate. The man is a jackass of the highest order) and his good friends, the Cuban thugs who have ruined their own country as well.
But here in good old T&T our Government plays 'palsy-walsy' with the Donkey on the rather specious ground of 'noninterference'. Don't you remember the visit by the Venezuelan Vice President some 18 months ago to discuss "a joint response to Covid?" And if you believe that our Prime Minister and the Venezuelan V.P. really did discuss that then I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell to you.
But the Donkey went and destroyed the Venezuela equivalent of Petrotrin, causing a mass migration of highly qualified oil personnel, which in turn resulted in a catastrophic drop in oil production, which in turn resulted in an equally catastrophic drop in the standard of living for the average Venezuelan, which in turn resulted in a mass migration of persons to (amongst other places) sweet T&T. Can you imagine what it must be like to be so desperate that you believe that it is better to go to another country where they don't want you and where you can't even speak the language leaving every thing (family friends, etc.) behind?
And you think it can't happen here? Have we ever got the real reasons, for example, why Petrotrin was shut down and 10,000 people lost their jobs? Have we ever got the truth about why it was better for us to close down the refinery rather than to upgrade it? What the heck! Can anybody explain in simple terms how we are better off with the closure of Petrotrin? Do you think that we have been told the truth about anything?
And in the meantime guns and drugs are pouring into the country. This, of course, is hardly surprising as the Donkey and his cohorts are making a lot - and I mean A LOT - of money from this trade. But do you think that there is anybody here in T&T benefitting from this terrible trade? If so, who? Do you think that these persons are in positions of any kind of authority ? If so, do you think that the reason why "Mr. Big" has never been caught is because of connections that go all the way up? Don't you think it a little odd that no drug lord, no "Mr. Big", has ever been even arrested and made to stand trial? Or is it because our security services are so very incompetent?
Frankly, I don't believe that our security services are incompetent. My (admittedly very limited) experience with them has led me to believe otherwise. But the alternative is too terrible to even contemplate. Maybe there is another reason? In the meantime, take care of yourselves. The crime in this country is out of control - completely- and is likely to stay that way for some time yet!
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