Ran away to the beautiful island of St Lucia for a couple days. One can never tire looking at the Pitons. The days spent in St Lucia and how the people view tourism tells you how far away we are from even starting to create a real sustainable tourism industry here in T&T. But of course as usual it's not rocket science it's the simple will to understand the economic benefits and put the industry high on the agenda.
A couple things that I noticed on my trip. First, the immediate past PM of St. Lucia was on the out bound flight, he travelled by himself, toted his own bags, sat in the very back of the aircraft and on arrival he stood in line with everyone else. On a field trip yesterday my taxi had to pull to the side of the road as an official motorcade of SLG registered vehicles flew past us, with two ambulances as part of the entourage. This happened coming and going. The contrast was epic. The official entourage did nothing to impress any international visitor and my taxi driver just mumbled, 'why deh en tek d helicopter'.
The name 'Hewanorra,' (the international airport in St. Lucia) is an Amerindian word meaning- the land of the iguanas. Strangely enough the land of the iguanas is no more, as the native St Lucia reptiles are now seriously endangered, near extinction. We still have four months of unregulated hunting, BAN HUNTING.
And so the ferry fiasco continues unabated, and so it should. The Joint Select Committee of the Parliament will look at all aspects of the current ferry situation. Finally our democracy is coming of age where the Parliament will look into issues of public expenditure, procurement and the process. We can only await the outcome of this particular issue.
In the meantime the businesses in Tobago continue to reel under a debt load that would have been catered for by a successful August tourism season. This did not happen and unless things are put into place immediately the next season will fail and that would probably be the death knell for Tobago and it's tourism. No amount of officialdom, similar to the St Lucia motorcade, will save the private investors in the Tobago economy. To further compound the matter if it is that Central Government is lamenting the fact that it is struggling to meet payroll then it is highly unlikely that it is in a position to lend any support to Tobago business.
We are coming up to this administration's two year anniversary. Can we start listing what exactly has this government done. I am not talking about what we expect any government to do, fixing potholes and providing potable water amongst a hundred other things.
- What about the new initiatives to grow the economy
- New ways of dealing with crime and the elimination of the narco state
- Maintaining the investment grade of the economy
- Direct foreign investment
- Local investment
- Pursuing the corrupt deals and bringing people before the courts
- Jobs created
- Reduction in the food import bill
- Overhaul of the health sector and the efficient provision of health services
- Fixing all the ills of the education system
That should be a good start for the first 24 months work. As soon as we can deal with what exactly did we achieve then of course we move on to the next 24 months and the continued fix. Let us be factual, if we did achieve a positive result then lets say so, if not give them a 'fail' grade.
Returning to the rock this evening as we were about to disembark an announcement that we were required to sit in any seat available as the cabin crew forgot to spray the aircraft. This process is known as ' disinfection' which is carried out either by spraying whilst passengers are onboard or though the residual method without passengers. Guyana, Grenada and T&T are the only Caribbean countries that require the spraying of the aircraft cabins whilst passengers are onboard. There are thirteen international destinations that still require this method of 'disinfection'. A good question would be is this still necessary?
No Cabinet media conference this afternoon means that there was nothing of import to report. On this rock, I doubt that!
Good night and good luck!
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