THE RISING COST OF LIVING

 I had looked forward to what was probably the last budget of T&T's present Minister of Finance before the next elections due  by September of next year. I had wanted to know how exactly he was going to try to protect us from the ravages of worldwide inflation and the consequential rise of living worldwide. Frankly, being the Minister of Finance these days is  a very unwelcome task; it appears to me that there is not much that he can do. (Probably, the only task more difficult than his is that of Minister of National Security.) Everything is going up rapidly. We have two dogs and the cost of their food since the beginning of this year has gone up by about 30 percent! Even dog food has gone up!

Having said that, I more than half expected the Minister of Finance to be like the pharisee at the gates of the temple getting rid of his sins by crying "Korban". But he didn't do that! To be fair, he acknowledged that things were going to be difficult, but he believed that we will weather our present difficulties  and that things would improve  if it weren't for the pesky Opposition (who he blamed for all of our problems from flooding to a lack of foreign exchange and everything in between) conveniently forgetting that he has been in charge of our money and finances for the last nine years.

I suppose that his budget speech was 'par for the course' for a politician, but is that what we need right now? Is it really too much to hope that our politicians on BOTH sides remember that we put them in office to make OUR lives better rather than theirs?

Everything is costing more these days. Everything! I thought that the Opposition's collective response was weak - almost timid - and did not address the underlying problem that we as a nation are facing: the cost of living is rising and seems to be out of control. The politicians (on both sides) seem to have forgotten the one cardinal rule: there is only one rule for politics - only one rule for Government: to make life better for the people! Full stop! With the obvious (few) exceptions, none of us are better off. And what do you think that they are going to do about it?

CLIMATE CHANGE

 After seeing the devastation caused by two hurricanes, one after the other, in Florida, it is only a completely unread person or one who willfully buries his head in the sand in the hope of getting some personal gain (like former President Trump) who will not confess that he/she is (or ought to be) concerned about climate change. 

All the experts are saying that a major contributor of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels. And those experts are also saying that while the United States is a big contributor to this, every little contribution to prevent climate change helps.

Which comes to T&T and our contributions to this problem - which I understand to be a big fat zero! I say this because I haven't seen one locally written article about the danger that we are facing in the world about climate change. I say this because I haven't heard one politician of any party raise this issue . I say this because there seems to be a total unawareness of the problem in this country. I say this because all of our electricity is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. The attitude seems to be "we are too small to make any meaningful difference", which, of course, is nonsense. Every little bit helps but most people in this country are blissfully unaware of the problem facing the world as a whole , and T&T in particular.

Leadership is not always about taking popular positions on any particular matter, but also about trying to influence thought. Climate change is going to affect us soon - probably sooner rather than later. It will affect amongst other things, global food production, and temperatures that will be most unpleasant to put up with. It will affect rainfall -either too much or too little - and it will affect our children's ability to have a good life. Heck! It might even affect whether we or our children are able to stay alive!

No. the sooner that we start to make our own little contributions and sacrifices, the better. Climate change is a whole world problem, and the last time that I looked we were part of this world and not only affected by the problem, but have been actively contributing to it. The worst part is that not only do we seem to be doing nothing about it, but we seem to be totally and completely unaware of it.

IS T&T IN THE THROES OF A BRAIN DRAIN?

 My 22 year old son recently returned from Canada and asked me why there were so few young people his age in T&T. He said that he had noticed that there were very few young people his age in the country while there were a lot of kids aged zero to about 18. After he had told me this I decided to conduct my usual very unscientific survey and discovered that he was right; there is a dearth of young people here in T&T from about 18 to about 35.

While it is probably true that a lot of them have gone away to study, it is also probably true that a lot of these young people are simply not returning home preferring to take the cold and living far away from their families because they believe that they will be better off in, say Canada, then here at home in T&T. Put another way, it is likely that they believe that they will have more opportunities with a higher standard of living throughout, than here at home.

Now, if my analysis is correct then the logical conclusion is that we are in the throes of a devastating brain drain that will adversely affect the country because the best and the brightest of our young people are simply not coming back. We can't afford to keep losing our young people like this.