propane

Coming down to the end of the year the weather on the rock is just gorgeous. The mornings are a cool 22C, beautiful blue skies during the day, early dusk at 6.00 and beautiful sunsets. With the changing of the season from rainy to dry in the next month or so means either night time rain or early morning showers. Life is good!

I view every experience as a lesson in life on the rock and I listen and learn from it. Today is no different. I go to get my BBQ propane tank refilled at the facility on the Beetham.
There is no road sign to direct you, good thing I got directions from the offspring who cooks otherwise I would have missed it completely. Arrive at my destination, park my car and walk towards the entrance. Of course there are trucks reversing and parking in no organised way so one can only assume that by being a bit disorganised yourself that you are actually doing it right.
Find a place that looks like it is important so I enquire, I am in the right place, get my instructions and we start the simple process of the refilling of a 20lb propane cylinder.
Enter the small office, 2 forms are manually filled out, name is given, the usual 'ah taught it was you', directions are given, 'go outside you go see ah faded yellow line, follow dat and yuh go fine d cashier'. Off I go with my 2 forms, up the stairs, in front the cashier, 'yuh have to go tru dat door first an den come back', I dutifully follow the instructions, sit and wait a couple minutes, 'next', I present my 2 forms, information is entered into a computer with new forms being printed.
Head back to the cashier, present my first 2 forms and now a new batch consisting of maybe 3 copies of the printed computer form.
Head back to my starting point, following the faded yellow line, and lo and behold there is my propane tank waiting for me to pickup. Up the stairs to the small office, present all my forms, the officer hands me back one copy of the computer printed form, pick up my propane tank, let myself out through a closed gate and I am on my way.
The people who served me could not have been nicer, big smiles, some ole talk, good people.
What amazed me though was that it took 6 persons, including the 4 persons mentioned and the forklift driver and propane tank re-filler, 5 pieces of paper to process TT$37.88 worth of business.
Is there someone who actually checks these transactions, 5 pieces of paper, are there 5 different accounts being created for audit purposes?

I have a number of things flying around in my head which I consider part of the overall fix for the rock. I have talked about the throwing away of the present Constitution and have a document that can actually work for the people. Remove the Colonials from the rock and we will have a much better place. There are other things that I would do and as we move along I will just list my ideas, none of it earth shattering but more based on common sense.

Something that I have thought of is how do we bring back national pride to our country? How do we engender into our young people what this rock is and who are the people of the rock. I am proposing as part of a fix, the City Project.
This would take the form of an overall refurbishment, rebuilding and complete restoration of our capital city, Port of Spain and include San Fernando and Arima in the first instance.
It would be structured in a way where the people of the 3 cities actually have first choice as to whether or not they want to be part of the fix.

The City Project

• A special project team would be created to do the project.
• The team would consist of all local professionals.
• The contractors selected would be all local.
• The tradespeople would be all local. A journeyman system would be created in order to train persons in the various building trades.
• The project would consist of the replacement and restoration of all services, roads, pavements, public buildings and public spaces.
• The city planners would be directed to turn each city into a modern living and working space.
• New concepts for managing traffic and parking, with inner city public transportation.
• The establishment of a Conservatory for the Queens Park Savannah, the San Fernando Waterfront, and a space in Arima if still available. The Conservatory will ensure a structured approach to the development and maintenance of public spaces.
• Considering the Project would take years to complete, spanning different Administrations, the composition of the City Project team would have to reflect that.
• Money for the Project could be raised by the issuing of a Sovereign Bond in the billions of TT dollars.
• The City Project could be made law by passing a Bill to ensure its continuity and structure. The project team would then be made to report to the Parliament. 
• The repayment of the Bond could be done through a special tax on properties in the city, additional tax revenues derived from the additional business activity in the City centres.

The City Project would generate thousands of jobs, economic activity in the local industries with  locally produced building materials, work for artists and sculptors, bring new life into our now 'non lived-in cities', create safe, functional spaces for the city dwellers, create all kinds of new economic activity. Most of all, national pride! Imagine thousands of citizens claiming to be part of the Project and rightfully so.

Have you seen the condition of the three cities? It is shameful to want to call anyone of them a city, far less our capital. They are all dumps, horrible, stink, dangerous places. We can change this by being proactive and fix it.

The fix of the rock will come in many different ways and it will happen.

Good night people and good luck!