“These people were not his people. They were commercial, shallow, privileged, and false. Their only standards were money and success. But their worst quality was unawareness. They were not only smug, ignorant, unfeeling, but blind. They had no conception of what was going on, what might be coming. They did not even have the wit to be interested in their own preservation.”

—The Lost City by John GuntherI am sitting down in the garden of my house in the middle of what used to be the loveliest valley in the Northern Range and now is an overcrowded, dirty, polluted hodgepodge of concrete, cars and cellular towers, called Diego Martin.

For once, it is a quiet evening, no cars or gunfire, but filled with the cries of birds flying back overhead to their sleeping grounds in the Caroni Swamp, the two aggressive kisskeedees that share the garden with us and the playful grunts of my two dogs as they run and twist and jump and roll on the grass.

It could be paradise except for the concrete and the smoke coming from the bush fires burning on both sides of the hills surrounding John Martin and the Little Valley.

It was a hot day, really hot, so it came as no surprise that on the way home, streams of grey smoke could be seen coming from the hills on both sides of the Diego highway. There seem to be more than two fires and the largest, as usual, started near the highest houses. Gone are the days when we believed in the immaculate conception of bush fires.

Today’s fires are deliberately set, either by uneducated farmers seeking to clear land for their crops or by educated land developers looking for more land to build another fancy house, perched precariously on the hillsides around Port-of-Spain.

How ironic that they can break the law, pollute the environment, sicken my patients, interfere with the right of the citizen to the enjoyment of his property, and get away with it.

This business of locals breaking the law is mirrored by the number of foreign corporations apparently intent on stretching the law to its limits. Like sharks smelling blood, they rush in where they sense money. They will go just as quickly when the money has drained out of T&T. The cell phone companies hurriedly putting up cellular towers all over the country under cover of night head the list.

Last week, Port-of-Spain Mayor Murchison Brown categorically stated that all the cellular towers erected in Port-of-Spain had been put up without the permission of Town and Country and consequently without the approval of his corporation which is responsible for all new structures in Port-of-Spain. They are illegal.

Yesterday, as we walked around one of the many little squares, built by the Spaniards and the English in Port-of-Spain, one had to remark at the obscene amount of those little white boxes that Trinidadians now buy for lunch, filled with greasy fried chicken, dried-out rice and little bits of soggy cucumber and old tomato, onto which you have to slather pepper sauce to get a taste.

Dozens of working Trinidadians now buy junk food, jump into their cars, head for the nearest bit of greenery in town, eat their lunch and throw the bones and cardboard box out of the window.

Look, not even animals mess where they eat. Who do they think is going to pick up their garbage? What happens tomorrow when they return? Don’t they realise that they are killing the bit of green they eagerly seek?

Someone in the lime said, “Dutty Trinis, dutty, dutty, dutty!”

There is a ray of hope. Some people have finally began to be concerned about our problems and the balance is tipping towards solving problems instead of ignoring them. Look at the letters and articles in the papers about the filth that people who camped at the various beaches left behind. A “four-day littering spree” the Guardian called it.

Look at the reaction against the death of Sean Luke and the continued marches in Central by concerned citizens. Look at the number of demonstrations against the cell towers up and down the length and breadth of the country.

Look at the people of Cedros who have decided that enough is enough and they will no longer trust that Alcoa will not destroy their environment and way of life. Look at the actions of the Keith Noel Committee, the Death March, the referendum, the St Ann’s group, Is We Communication Developers and others.

We the people have to decide what we want to do with our money, our progress, our environment and our democracy. The essence of democracy is people involvement. We cannot stand by idly and allow politicians and foreigners to decide how we are going to live.

It is a new day and one of the hills is now burnt down completely. Twenty years to grow back. Ah well, no one said it was going to be easy. With freedom comes pain. That’s the deal.