"Accept something: Notwithstanding all the bleating coming
from every helpless, hapless sector, the government is not
going to help you, far less save our Nation. Not this
government, not the last, not ones with which we have ever
been cursed, and assuredly, there is none on the horizon
–anywhere."
Peter, iN the scheme of things these utterances are about as lame as the citizens whining nad gnashing teeth in rum shops
"In order not to dwell in negativity, I commend our Minister of
Education for his outspokenness on schools violence, and our
Prime Minister for his stated commitment to our built heritage
and the purchase of the Cazabon art collection."
---------------this is an interesting article as I wake up to an inbox asking me if i want to be part of a group ostensibly to force some changes by this present government. i tried to be diplomatic, but i saw two things. One, the group i wish to be a part of is one with radical revolutionary burn what needs to be burned down people. Lawyers, Auditors, Project and National Planners, Strategists, Economists, Management Professionals, and Organizational Experts.
Yeah. I know, half of those people dont even exist in trinidad.
But the other thing I saw and realized, brought to me by Peter's article, which I commented on all day Friday...is that we keep doing the same things over and over, ad nauseum, never telling ourselves that the approach is not working, and never checking ourselves to ask ourselves why. When you try to get people to see this, they tell you you have ego, or you are being critical or not positive. The irony is that they are projecting. they are the ones on ego, if they werent they would realize they are totally inadequate to the tasks at hand.
It gets me/it got me to a clarity. The group I wish to be a part of, and the one that will make me get up is one who is willing to enter a long term hard core program of several tranches. That integrates, law and legal pursuits, at the height of magnitude and volume, economic construction, building a new financial structure, securing successes, win and building an endowment to the likes of a billion dollars. And implementing a national diverse economic and financial venture initiative. That then is replicated, throughout the world, thus giving us licenses, and franchise of what is a new citizen world empowerment model. the first ever that integrates inextricably politics and economics.
And what i see is, I am being told enough, as infrequent as it happens, by idiots, that I am on shit, and all these pieces just serve to further refine and perfect the plan.
-------- SO WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?
By Peter O’Connor, for publication Sunday 20th March 2016.
What do you think it would take to make you sit up and
become active in this country of ours? Start to pull your
colleagues, your professions, your associations – your Country,
together to turn away from the disaster we are hurtling
towards?
Accept something: Notwithstanding all the bleating coming
from every helpless, hapless sector, the government is not
going to help you, far less save our Nation. Not this
government, not the last, not ones with which we have ever
been cursed, and assuredly, there is none on the horizon
–anywhere.
If I were in any professional organization, from law, to
medicine, engineering, business; or in trade unions, religions,
NGOs and the like, I would expect to be summoned into
consultation on the State of our Nation. Maybe I should say
Sate of our Society, because that is where we are failing, at
“societal” level, and it is killing our Nation.
What will it take to make you summon your colleagues to a
meeting, a series of meetings, gatherings where the condition
of our country is the Agenda. Beyond your whining and
complaining at cocktail parties, liming on Friday, at your various
gatherings and shout-ins, in your churches, wherever you
gather, what do you think you should do to help turn our
country away from the bottomless pit into which we are
staring?
You, especially the business community, are going to wait until
the government does its “half-term review” in April? Oh, we
will see what they might tell us, and see if anyone in
government came up with an idea to reduce crime, especially in
schools, pay the government’s legitimate debts, provide water,
health care and the like, increase productivity in our work
force, and clean up our filthy country.
You all wait for that, after all, it is “not my job to run the
country”, right? You will get nothing but platitudes, promises
and excuses, and you damned well know this. But it gives you at
least another month to do nothing but complain, because that
is all we can do, all we are able to do. We are the epitome of
Bob Marley’s Mental Slavery. The world has changed, and we
are still living deep in our colonial past. The rich have only
changed their faces, not their attitudes, but the poor remain
the same, in their servile attitude towards their new masters,
the people now in charge.
Back in the mid 1980s, when we were going through our first
oil price disaster, the business community actually came
together in an organization called ABICOTT (The Association of
Business, Industry, and Commercial Organizations of T&T), not
only to defend business interests, but to work for solutions to
our very serious problems. The Trade Union Movement (I think
it was one Organization then, not too sure?) also began to work
towards solutions and even the then government realized that
the situation required a Tripartite approach, and began to meet
with other Estates, in open and sometimes meaningful
discussions.
On the Civic Issues agenda, we were able to stop the wasteful
building of the Caroni Race Track, and the Joint Consultative
Council stopped the equally wasteful “Government to
Government” building contracts—the Mount Hope Hospital
was the last of these financial disasters. Lengthy Tripartite
Discussions were held –Government, Labour and Business—to
discuss and draft what became the Redundancy and Severance
Benefits Act.
And in the meantime, businesses were being closed down,
Alstons-McEnearney, Kirpalani, little O’Connor Construction
Ltd. and many more. My workers benefited from the Severance
Pay Act, even if my creditors and my company did not. But we,
as persons, and country survived, even if the companies are no
more.
So I suggest that we find our strength, retrieve our composure,
and begin to find innovative ways to pull back from disaster.
Black Stalin sang in those dark days of the 1980s: “We can make
it if we try”, so instead of whining, let us try. Let us make
money out of garbage, let us sell the beauty and potential of
our natural beauty and environment, nothing to build here, we
just need to awaken to its tourism potential. If you claim you
cannot get US$ to stock your grocery shelves, then stop
importing the high-end “boutique food” and improve the
nation’s health while saving foreign exchange.
Our imperative is to identify and develop opportunities and
work together to begin healing our wounded society. If enough
of us do this, the people and the governments will follow, so
please stop whining and begin shining!
In order not to dwell in negativity, I commend our Minister of
Education for his outspokenness on schools violence, and our
Prime Minister for his stated commitment to our built heritage
and the purchase of the Cazabon art collection.
What are you going to do?
By Peter O’Connor, for publication Sunday 20th March 2016.
What do you think it would take to make you sit up and
become active in this country of ours? Start to pull your
colleagues, your professions, your associations – your Country,
together to turn away from the disaster we are hurtling
towards?
Accept something: Notwithstanding all the bleating coming
from every helpless, hapless sector, the government is not
going to help you, far less save our Nation. Not this
government, not the last, not ones with which we have ever
been cursed, and assuredly, there is none on the horizon
–anywhere.
If I were in any professional organization, from law, to
medicine, engineering, business; or in trade unions, religions,
NGOs and the like, I would expect to be summoned into
consultation on the State of our Nation. Maybe I should say
Sate of our Society, because that is where we are failing, at
“societal” level, and it is killing our Nation.
What will it take to make you summon your colleagues to a
meeting, a series of meetings, gatherings where the condition
of our country is the Agenda. Beyond your whining and
complaining at cocktail parties, liming on Friday, at your various
gatherings and shout-ins, in your churches, wherever you
gather, what do you think you should do to help turn our
country away from the bottomless pit into which we are
staring?
You, especially the business community, are going to wait until
the government does its “half-term review” in April? Oh, we
will see what they might tell us, and see if anyone in
government came up with an idea to reduce crime, especially in
schools, pay the government’s legitimate debts, provide water,
health care and the like, increase productivity in our work
force, and clean up our filthy country.
You all wait for that, after all, it is “not my job to run the
country”, right? You will get nothing but platitudes, promises
and excuses, and you damned well know this. But it gives you at
least another month to do nothing but complain, because that
is all we can do, all we are able to do. We are the epitome of
Bob Marley’s Mental Slavery. The world has changed, and we
are still living deep in our colonial past. The rich have only
changed their faces, not their attitudes, but the poor remain
the same, in their servile attitude towards their new masters,
the people now in charge.
Back in the mid 1980s, when we were going through our first
oil price disaster, the business community actually came
together in an organization called ABICOTT (The Association of
Business, Industry, and Commercial Organizations of T&T), not
only to defend business interests, but to work for solutions to
our very serious problems. The Trade Union Movement (I think
it was one Organization then, not too sure?) also began to work
towards solutions and even the then government realized that
the situation required a Tripartite approach, and began to meet
with other Estates, in open and sometimes meaningful
discussions.
On the Civic Issues agenda, we were able to stop the wasteful
building of the Caroni Race Track, and the Joint Consultative
Council stopped the equally wasteful “Government to
Government” building contracts—the Mount Hope Hospital
was the last of these financial disasters. Lengthy Tripartite
Discussions were held –Government, Labour and Business—to
discuss and draft what became the Redundancy and Severance
Benefits Act.
And in the meantime, businesses were being closed down,
Alstons-McEnearney, Kirpalani, little O’Connor Construction
Ltd. and many more. My workers benefited from the Severance
Pay Act, even if my creditors and my company did not. But we,
as persons, and country survived, even if the companies are no
more.
So I suggest that we find our strength, retrieve our composure,
and begin to find innovative ways to pull back from disaster.
Black Stalin sang in those dark days of the 1980s: “We can make
it if we try”, so instead of whining, let us try. Let us make
money out of garbage, let us sell the beauty and potential of
our natural beauty and environment, nothing to build here, we
just need to awaken to its tourism potential. If you claim you
cannot get US$ to stock your grocery shelves, then stop
importing the high-end “boutique food” and improve the
nation’s health while saving foreign exchange.
Our imperative is to identify and develop opportunities and
work together to begin healing our wounded society. If enough
of us do this, the people and the governments will follow, so
please stop whining and begin shining!
In order not to dwell in negativity, I commend our Minister of
Education for his outspokenness on schools violence, and our
Prime Minister for his stated commitment to our built heritage
and the purchase of the Cazabon art collection.
What are you going to do?
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