PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES SAY “TAKE BACK T&T NOW!”

By David Fraser

Many persons are wondering if the entire Gulf of Mexico and eventually the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans will be covered by a thick layer of crude oil, as a result of the leaking well off the coast of Louisiana in the United States of America USA. While the story is of importance to the world and the serious transnational (international direct neighbours impacted) issues involved this oil story is being milked for what it is worth. If all the drilling in the gulf coast stops then world oil prices will soar.

Maybe OPEC will see this as an ideal opportunity to experience another oil boom which is now needed to support the consumption expenditures and appetites of these natural resource (cursed) based economies, notwithstanding the many corrupt deals and siphoning of state resources that will occur as a result of high oil prices.

The dictators of the third world will continue to be entrenched by high oil prices and never will these countries be able to think beyond the next dollar, apart from the sale of a barrel of oil. Natural resources have been a curse to countries such as Trinidad & Tobago, which created a steep culture of dependence and unproductive pursuits, and the public addicted to enjoying handouts have stopped working and producing for the betterment of the society.

It is a tragedy, the level of madness which have become the norm in Trinidad and Tobago, buttressed by dangerous wealth transfer schemes hatched by Patrick’s dictatorship, which were created to keep power at all costs and support a permanent underclass. As oil revenues increased, so did the arrogance and stupidity of the leadership of the country.

Politicians became arrogant and filled with stupid pride and literally aggravated every world leader and businessman who came to our shores looking to invest. So hubristic was our government, that they turned their backs on deals which could have made us paradise and insulate the society against the draw backs of a Government dominated economy.


Again, we see the vulnerability of hydrocarbon dependence and how windfalls not earned creates tin gods and self proclaimed great doers who cares not one iota about anyone or anything.

Trinidad and Tobago is a society where the middle class and the people who actually produce are targeted by the state for being productive and successful. The middle class and producing groups among the society under the PNM rule were taxed to the hilt, and made to pay for the excess of a tyrannical madman. His was a government obsessed with misleading and brainwashing the ignorant, while crime and terror kept in check a society using fear and violence. The PNM style of rule especially in the past three years saw some of the worst and most brutal acts in recent Caribbean and world history.

This was a country where the people had to endure naked nepotism and illegal and irresponsible give away and transfer programmes to one dominant group in the society; these dangerously ignorant underclass segments among the population were fuelled with smart cards, community development grants and transferred throughout the country via free housing government projects.

Safe communities with their tranquil life styles and traditional village culture, who never knew what it was to sleep with burglar proof windows and iron doors, suddenly became prey for a predatory group of lazy mendicants who were used in a crime revolution to wreak havoc on law abiding and honest citizens.

This was our reward, where disrespected, unproductive and unfit citizens were chosen for enrichment and recognition, as opposed to the upright and diligent among the society. This is what happens with sudden rich rewards from natural resources, and a government does not have to work to earn. It can benefit a nation or destroy a country in the hands of unfit leadership.

The gulf oil tragedy exposes the vulnerability of Trinidad & Tobago to environmental disaster and how our economy can go into a tail spin. We now understand that the HSF, short for Heritage and Stabilization Fund is inadequate to treat with any eventuality. One environmental disaster and we are finished. The US20 Billion dollars set aside by BP to pay for clean up represents three complete national budgets committed, given that we have oil and gas flowing to pay for such cleans ups.

This 20 billion US$ figure does not include what the government of the United States is spending on the problem, so it is important that we diversify away from the dependence on oil and gas.



Let it also be known that the integrity of the pipeline network in Trinidad is questionable, and the former Government had a report given to them on this issue and never acted to do anything. Trinidad is a time bomb waiting to explode, and the biggest culprit may be the Government and hence the reason for not acting on such a problem.

A rupture of our gas pipelines could result in the destruction of forests, thousands of people and the economic well being of Trinidad and Tobago for several decades or perhaps never recover like Jamaica and Haiti.

While everyone argues over more giveaways, we have a society spilt by a dictator and his cohorts of every productive and responsible character of the depressed communities of the east west corridor, central and south. It means that we have a large segment of the society preoccupied with lies, deceit, and most of all just trying to get more from the state without paying for anything, while some productive and law abiding people lose their homes, and families are permanently affected or destroyed and become underclass.

Who looks out for them? No one! This is a society which has created a culture where you are either rich or poor, that’s the only way you can be treated fairly by government. In the middle and you are dead. So the political culture of the past encouraged everyone to famously state “ah poor” which of course justifies continued feeding and free loathing at the trough.

We need to rise up as a conservative voice of stability, sanity and clear thinking, and make Trinidad a better place. But it can only happen if we decide to stay and take on the fight instead of choosing to leave the rabble rousers to continue wreaking havoc in our country. Take back T&T Now! Start the campaign “TAKE BACK T&T NOW” come be part of the Progressive Conservatives.

TAKE IT BACK!