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' If I were a carpenter....'


It is Friday night and all seems to be quiet. Not so with some people as it seems that the kidnapping for ransom has reared its very ugly and dangerous head. This happened a number of years ago and was curtailed to a great extent and all of a sudden it has reappeared. Very worrying. I wish our new Commish well and hope that he can deal with the criminal element once and for all.

Sorry to start off this blog like that but it is a real threat. The criminals, the politicians who support the criminals, and the equally corrupt police service all have to be dealt a death blow. Get rid of this scourge once and for all. This island is a rock, compared to other countries, we must be able to shut the crime factories down. Too bad who it affects!

The PMOTT states that he is desperately trying to reign in public expenditure hence the pronouncements this week which we will deal with in a bit. My concern is that the majority of right thinking people support him with his actions but then he allows the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly to purchase a $700K official vehicle. The Assembly does not earn a single dollar, every cent that they spend is from the Treasury. How come the spend? I am not for one minute saying that the Chief Sec. should not have an official vehicle. How about a hybrid, or an all-electric or CNG compact? Surely Tobago trying its best to go green and the Chief Sec. not 'going green' works against them? There are Presidents who go to work in Volkswagen Beetles, Prime Ministers who ride bikes to their office, some take a taxi. The PM of New Zealand rode a bike to the hospital to give birth. Why are we allowing this? Either we are exercising fiscal responsibility for all or not! The Tobago two electoral seats are important, but Tobago, whose economy was destroyed by the PMOTT himself, must understand that it cannot be business as usual. I am sure that no one will be waving to the Chief Secretary as he drives by in his luxury official vehicle, especially those who have lost their jobs and their businesses.

Today was a day of 'Rest and Reflection' by the Rock's trade union movement. The call was for a complete shutdown of the country. Politicians on the opposite side supported the call. The LOTO came out in full support of the same guy who ridiculed, vilified and said the nastiest things about her. The same man who dragged an effigy in the form of a mannequin across the country dressed in yellow. The LOTO obviously had forgotten about all of these antics and embraced the President General. 'Stay home' was the cry.
The PMOTT had confirmed that the Petrotrin refinery would close. Word came out in one of the meetings that a carpenter had earned over $70,000.00 in overtime in one month at Petrotrin. This is the equivalent of a years salary for many people. Were people in support of the 'strike'. The answer is no. It failed miserably. Why would any right thinking person support the carpenter when the taxpayer had to cough up $25 billion to keep the wood specialist in a job? What exactly is a carpenter's job in a refinery to be working all this overtime?  'If I were a carpenter...'
I do not know what the reason for a protest was today. Was it for job security, was it a message being sent that we are not happy with the PMOTT's performance, currently at 45 %, or was it simply political? I was not sure and therefore like so many of us went to work and put in a full day. The bank did not call me and say that they would waive all interest payments for the day hence me reporting for work.
Like everything on the Rock, there is always a lighter side. The Minister of Education reported a slightly less than normal turnout of teachers, 50% as against the regular 70%. Is he serious, only 70% of teachers employed by the Ministry of Education report for work on a daily basis! and this is accepted, shims!

The Rock continues on its path to somewhere, where we do not know? Say what, we will survive!

Good night people of the Rock and good luck!

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