Happy New Year

Attempted to venture to a function on the North Coast today. Not being one to be overly concerned about driving conditions, today's drive was scary. There was water coming down from everywhere on to the roadway. Trees were hanging over the road with a couple trees actually fallen but held up by the telephone cables. The water from the hill side came on to the road creating a river like situation. I had to turn back after being caught in a traffic jam caused by a major landslide just before the Maracas Bay lookout. The Maracas Road/ North Coast Road was built by the American Armed Forces during their stint here during WW2. The area would have been serviced by the Old Paria Main Rd which was basically a mule track.
The North Coast Road is one of the most picturesque drives in the Caribbean where one can see way up the rugged coast eastwards and then right down in the west to Venezuela. During my time in Government I had proposed declaring the road a 'Scenic Drive' whereby the entire drive would be maintained under a particular ordinance. The drive is getting a bit dodgy and we need to be mindful of the dangers of unplanned development and poor maintenance.
The vistas are spectacular!

The year is about to close and many of us use this time as a period of reflection. How do we change who we actually are, change our diets, give up unacceptable behaviour, become saints and plan to save the world. Some of it works, most of the time it fails because we are who we are. Give up smoking? I'll wait until Carnival or my birthday or when I come back from vacation. I gave up smoking by going 'cold turkey'. I grew up in a house where my mother smoked, (after 8 kids she should have been on the weed,) and I guess I simply graduated. I had taken a decision to quit smoking as soon as our first child was born because I did not want any of our kids growing up in a house with cigarettes. Luckily none of our 3 kids, nor spouses, smoke.

Living on an island or rock as I call it because compared to the rest of the world we are a rock. Anyway, one would have thought that the life would have been idyllic, like a Jimmy Buffet song. Sadly the life on the rock is not all that it's supposed to be. It's not the weather or any other natural phenomenon it's the dumb politics. How can we screw up a country for so many years and not understand what it is we have done? Make no mistake we are not alone with the screw up. Our sisters Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and many of the Caribbean islands have suffered because of bad politics. The Jamaican dollar at one time was on par with the USD ( J$0.77- US$1.00,1969),  Guyana is the second wealthiest country in the Western Hemisphere per capita compared to natural resources - this before the discovery of oil, Barbados is one of the oldest tourism industries in the world yet is catching it's nen nen. We are very much aware of our own situation here on the rock. Hate saying it but Singapore was made independent in August of 1965 and for some unknown reason has become a world leader. We however are still struggling. There are common denominators and there are very glaring differences between the countries. I would venture that the only difference is the politics.

Maybe in the New Year the people of the rock will finally wake up and take a decision to throw out the politics of the day. We have spent 3 generations trying to find ourselves, this is it. There can be no more time trying to experiment with different styles of governance. We are of age, making excuses that we are a young nation is no longer valid. The people of the rock must take charge. This country has natural resources, a bright, creative people, what more could a nation want? Simple answer, leaders who really care about the country and not themselves and their egos.

So how about a New Years commitment, get rid of the scum, the corrupt, the lying, deceiving nastiness that portrays itself as leadership. People of the rock let us give ourselves a new beginning and not simply accept what is there as leadership, on all sides.

Happy New Year people! Commit to a New Rock!

Good night and good luck!