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Journey towards a united country
Last
January I was fortunate to hear a piece of real politics that
fell into my garden of reality. The political insight came
via an interview with a Caribbean literary icon, George Lamming,
on Gayelle (the channel), conducted by Josanne Leonard that
covered a lot of ground about Caribbean people.
Reacting to an invitation from Josanne to specifically comment
on issues such as race, women and hucksters in the Caribbean,
the following is his response to our so-called racial problem:
“There
are a number of things happening that seem to be vexatious
and uncontrollable. I think particularly of what is called
the racial problem in Trinidad and Guyana. I don’t believe
that the problem in Trinidad especially is a racial problem.
I think the problem in Trinidad is essentially a battle for
getting hold of the instruments of power and it is a battle
being fought by the petty bourgeois of two groups, and that,
essentially, is a political battle.
“What
happens is, if you do not have is vision to bring to people,
you play the ethnic card. The ethnic card is only played when
you do not have a real message to bring, but as political
education develops among masses of people, it is going to
become less and less effective to play that ethnic card.
“And
what I think Trinidad will move to, and has the capacity to
move to, is the creation of an environment in which there
is really a civic nationalism that includes all ethnic definitions
and so on.
“There
is no ethnicity that will not be at home within that civil
nationalism. I think that the capacity for it is there and
I think that it is going to happen and that we are going to
get through this.
“It
is very important that we get through this because it then
becomes a model for how a plural society could in fact work
and we have no way yet on this planet where we see plural
societies working. We have not yet reached any stage where
we are going to war over religion, over language and so on.
We are actually going to war over instruments of power.”
I share Lamming’s objective vision as it is the much
needed political recipe to get rid of this misleading racial
nonsense that is dividing the country and especially the poor
and under-privileged Afro and Indo-Trinidadians-Tobagonians
who are unorganised and remain vulnerable to bourgeois mental
and physical political abuse.
It will be a long journey beyond 2020, because it has a lot
to do with political education and changing of attitudes,
but together with bonding cultural relations among the masses,
we will get there.
On the way we will have to use many vehicles and constitution
reform should be the first vehicle to start its engine for
the journey towards a untied T&T.
Civil society, in its own interest, needs to find its conscience
and play a positive role in demanding that a broad-based constitution
reform commission be appointed now, if we hope to reconstruct
this nation.
Wycliffe Morris
Former Director of Education
NUGFW
Put
counsellors in every school
No
longer can we stand by and watch the rapidly increasing decline
in our country. We are losing our children.
The powers that be continue to plan, in a vacuum, strategies
and programmes that are ill-suited to the needs of our children.
Teachers experience the real-life situations and as such we
must voice our concerns.
To remain oblivious to these problems is an injustice and
then we must hold ourselves responsible for the deterioration
of our youth.
I am calling on TTUTA, a competent authority, one that can
effect meaningful changes, to initiate a move for counsellors
in every school in the country.
At present, the guidance service appears to be incapable of
addressing the needs of our student population. In the short
term, drastic measures must be instituted.
In-service training in guidance and counselling must be embarked
upon in much the same way as courses are done in various subject
areas. At least one teacher from each school can be involved
in the programme, thereby making an impact on the existing
situation in the particular school.
Unless the social problems our students encounter are effectively
dealt with, students will not be able to respond to instructions
and as such will not be able to assimilate what is being taught.
I am advocating that counselling begins at nursery schools.
Several of our young children are thrust into this environment
not always able to make an easy transition, thereby creating
more confusing issues in the minds of some who are already
experiencing serious social problems.
Educators will agree that experiences at the formation level
are certainly influencing behavioural patterns in our society.
Visual and hearing impairment, as well as dyslexia, all invisible
handicaps, present serious challenges and must be addressed.
In the long-term, there is need for every teacher to be properly
trained in guidance and counselling. Our country has the resources
to provide for this.
Support systems must form an important part of this programme.
Parents, some of whom are single parents, strive hard to cope
with the rising cost of living coupled with other social problems
they are unable to deal with. They need assistance and guidance
as well.
As an integral part of this service, at governmental level,
agencies must be set up in every community to allow individuals
to avail themselves of services by caring, competent professionals.
Our human resources remain our greatest and most valuable
assets. Among other factors, the emotional and spiritual well
being of our youth must always remain our primary focus.
Elma Ramsumair
Arima
What’s
really going on, T&T?
As
I read the online news, that famous Marvin Gaye song, What’s
Going On, plays on my mind.
What’s going on with the safety of citizens? What’s
going on with the prices of basic food? What’s going
on with our health service?
What’s going on with young people trying to get on to
the property ladder? What’s going on with our educated
youth who have no jobs to go to? What’s going on with
our crumbling education sector?
What’s going on with all our oil revenues? What’s
going on at the Central Bank where a director holds degree
in literature while having degree in economics cannot even
get you a clerical position?
What’s going on in the Ministry of Education where you
need a degree to teach at the secondary level but have less
than that to be the minister of this portfolio?
Trinidad, can I ask what’s really going on?
Ian Emamdee
London
Via e-mail
Send
for FBI help, Mr PM
OPEN
letter to Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Our national business community has become paralysed by fear
as a consequence of the recent upsurge in the kidnapping of
business people and their children.
As the leader of our nation, I beg you in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to intervene in this horror and use your
office to bring an end to these heinous crimes.
I besiege you to employ the services of two special agents
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation skilled in anti-kidnapping
tactics to work with the dedicated team of Oswyn Allard’s
Anti-Kidnapping Squad to track down, arrest and charge this
gang of kidnappers.
Please, Mr Prime Minister, search your heart and your moral
virtues and see fit to intervene in order to save our business
community, whose members have all become targets as a result
of their hard work, which has made them success stories and
contributors to our nation’s economic development.
Please empathise with Subero and all kidnap victims and their
families and, through the power of your office, send for help
now before it is too late.
John Creese
San Juan
From City Gate to Animal Farm
I
WOULD like to suggest to the Minister of Works and Transport
and the PTSC that they rename City Gate “Animal Farm.”
Why? Because the PTSC management obviously takes pleasure
in seeing Arima commuters climb on one another’s backs
on afternoons as they try to board the maxi-taxis, all at
the same time.
City Gate was built over ten years ago and to date the management
is still operating in the same brainless manner. It appears
no one in the management can come up with an original idea
to improve the service provided to commuters.
The maxis are lined up in the bay and are called in batches
of twos or threes while there are hundreds of people waiting.
When one looks around one can see the stress on the commuters’
faces as they try to get home after a hard day’s work.
As for when it rains, commuters get soaked and there is an
even more inordinate delay in dispatching the maxis.
As a member of the travelling public, I am appealing to the
PTSC to please do something to improve the service and to
have some pride in City Gate by at least having it cleaned.
How about allowing commuters to walk to the bay and board
the maxis at that point? The dispatch will be faster and the
turnaround from Arima to Port-of-Spain even faster.
L Maloney
D’Abadie
Build
highway through swamp
Every
day I commute to Port-of-Spain from San Fernando and recently
it dawned on me that the resources that would be used to build
the interchange could be put to better use by building a highway
through a drained Caroni Swamp.
Surely it could be done by connecting the Caroni flyover directly
with Port-of-Spain, thereby eliminating the congestion that
happens at the Grand Bazaar intersection. Surely such a highway
would cost much less than the interchange.
For the environmentalists who would say it is a bad move,
isn’t the Labasse within the same vicinity of the Caroni
Swamp?
Donny Ramsoondar
Gulf View
Via e-mail
Don’t
blame the teachers
It is quite unfortunate that efforts are being made to place
responsibility for the current state of student indiscipline
at the Tranquillity Government Secondary School on the teachers.
The reality of the situation is that student indiscipline
is a result of a combination of factors, teacher absenteeism
being only one of them and not the most important.
Student behaviour is progressively worsening with possession
of drugs and weapons becoming commonplace. Student gangs are
a feature of school life and the teacher who runs afoul of
any member of a gang, whether male or female, is in for a
torrid time.
The teacher in the classroom is at risk and there are several
reports of student assaults on teachers at school. No job,
other than that of a law enforcement officer, can require
an employee to expose him/herself to personal danger.
The problem is exacerbated by the lack of support systems
for troubled students and to assist in managing student indiscipline.
The ministry has continuously failed to maintain its promises
in this regard so that teachers are sometimes made to pay
for the ministry’s failings.
The irrelevance of the curriculum continues to create its
own demons, leading to students becoming bored and disruptive
in the classrooms and frequently cutting classes.
Any teacher will tell you that student boredom is one of the
greatest contributors to indiscipline and it frequently fosters
an atmosphere of challenging authority.
Imagine a teacher facing a class of 20 or more rambunctious
young adults whose minds and hormones are soaring in realms
outside of the classroom and who have no desire nor intention
to settle down to concentrate on boring stuff like numbers
of formulae, the relevance of which is difficult for them
to understand in the first place. The battle is lost before
it has even started.
The ministry has a responsibility to meet the undertakings
given last year to stakeholders, including teachers, when
the student indiscipline problem had become uncontrollable,
to make a structured intervention with all the tools required
to restore the school to a state of normalcy.
Until that is done in a thorough manner, it is unreasonable
to expect teachers to expose themselves to abuse and possible
injury from students.
Karan Mahabirsingh
Carapichaima
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