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Following up on yesterday's post I am pleased to announce that my 'Ready to Rent' Certificate was renewed today as I had my plumbing checked out and all is well. I think the prep is worse than the actual examination. Clear soup made from ingredients that seem more suited for army rations and water for 1 1/2 days is not exactly the catch of the day. Anyway's, done, finish, moving on!

I agree that no incarceration facility on the rock is considered high security, including the one actually on the rock. The debacle surrounding the walking out of a prison facility by an accused person and the immediate disclaimers being put out by both the prison, court and police authorities says that this could be another one of those things that take years and years to determine what happened with no one ever being held responsible. What always amazes me is the fact that no one in a supervisory role or management is ever fired for incompetence. There will always be persons in senior positions on shift at least we would like to think so. How many inmates have jumped the fence or literally walked out the gate and who has been held responsible? None, it is business as usual.

This attitude to your job and how you view things is what has us in the position we are today. When I speak about WASA and the number of leaks compared to the number of senior Government officials and WASA personnel driving over the leak and no one thinks it their responsibility to report the matter and ensure that it is dealt with. The same way the Port Authority has once again, this is now number (4) tender being cancelled, not been able to do what in normal circumstances would be a simple commercial transaction is indicative of where we are.

  • PMOTT not responsible for the Board appointments, 
  • Line Minister not responsible for the inaction by the Board,
  • The Board not responsible for anything, 
  • The Management not taking responsibility, far less blame, for any indecision. 


But guess what at the end of the day who is responsible? Like the 'walk in walk out' prison facility some low end employee, the watchman, will be found guilty of dereliction of duty, be fired, he will then take the State to court citing wrongful dismissal, win his case, get awarded a sum of money and life goes on.

To me it comes down to the fact that it is not your money, meaning taxpayers funds, it is the Government money so what exactly is your problem?
Taxpayers money and Government money are and never will be the same. Government money is separate and apart from taxpayers money. If a person hijacks a truck load of gravel from a publicly funded project and has it delivered to his own personal building site he not for one minute thinks that he is doing anything wrong. It could be gravel or any other item, medicine, writing pads, copy paper, tires, oil, understand the psyche of the people of the rock, it is the Government own therefore that translates to 'my own'.

Unless we can rid ourselves of this completely warped mindset it is going to be very difficult to fix the rock. We as a nation must understand what is required of each and everyone of us to make the rock the success that it should be. I heard a Trade Union leader talking about shutting down the country once again. I read what he is saying and it makes absolutely no sense. Besides berating the Government for not doing what they are supposed to be doing out of the blue he asks for a boycott of the 1%. What the hell does the Government's failure have to do with the 1%? I guess he had nothing else to say and probably thought by throwing in the 1% it sounded good. Not even the Trade Union movement has any semblance of an answer to our woes.

Leadership Leadership Leadership! Therein lies the answer to the Hoy Grail, the Utopia we all seek and I am sorry to admit at the rate we are going both will be as difficult to find as would a new ferry for Tobago.

Good night all you leaders who have aspirations, good night to the people of the rock who await the Messiah, good night to all of us who simply want to get on with our lives and be able to live comfortably, in safety and provide for our children and gran children, good night all and good luck!

Big up the rock!

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