Gardenia, you put into words what most of the population would like to.

Its not that we have anything against the Prime Minister, but his high handed approach to us, his employers, is now typical of him. I saw the news story last night where he brushed off the media to attend a "more important" meeting. I guess when he needs the media again he'll be nice to them.

http://dsaltsman.blogspot.com/

Gardenia, bulls's eye. You have surgically zeroed in straight to the heart of the problem. When a leader contracts megalomania, gravitas and hubris, as this one has been diagnosed to be inflicted with, you become disdainful of and impatient with your loyal subjects. Unless treated swiftly, such personality disorders which lead to delusions can have fatal consequences, including political death.

The building looks nice, but will it last? Not so long ago some structure in China came tumbling down killing innocent children. I believe the contractors had utilised cheap substandard steel in the construction. Better pray that this lot has been using better quality materials and that some kind of quality control has been in place to supervise and monitor the various stages.

But the quality aspect is just another side issue. The central issue is Udecott, mismanagement, suspected bobol and corruption, lack of transparency in awards of mega-contracts etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's good to have some modern buildings like this one. But management of a country requires making choices in your expenditure to match your income, hence the need for your annual budget within the framework of your short-term, medium-term and long-term development plans, and these need to be reviewed regularly as circumstances dictate. The point is whether these mega-structures should be undertaken in a recession the end of which is still uncertain. And don't tell me that the signs and conditions of inflation were not looming large long before it really began to bite.

My approach to this kind of capital development would be to proceed with it in parallel with normal infrastructural development that would satisfy the basic needs of the population. This may sound simplistic, but just after the last oil boom dollars ran out, I was on a visit to Jamaica and I was struck by the number of impressive buildings I saw there, remembering the very handful we managed to build here, like ISCOTT, the Twin Towers, the Hall of Justice and maybe a couple others.

For that kind of money, Jamaica, a far less rich country at the time of our boom, must have constructed at least 20 similar buildings for the same money. Then, as now, you have to ask the question: way the money gorne? In those days we were taken for a ride by all sorts of foreign contractors. One example I know of personally was the British company Kier International. In fact, the local CEO was a Jamaican national who should have known how to provide good value for money. Kier was able to bring in semi-skilled workers from England and pass them off as highly paid engineers. And the other companies were no different. And many local sub-contractors made a fortune for themselves as well.

Money was no problem, the then PM said. But in my view money was a problem. I said then and have been saying again that flooding the country with money creates lots of problems like inflation, devaluation, laziness, poor standards, boom and bust cycles etc etc. And here we have Manning trying hard to be a clone of the original father of the nation and trying to outstrip him.

But I don't think it is fair to compare the two, it's like chalk and cheese. In the case of Williams, he genuinely thought he was serving his people. He was even prepared to live in an old rundown house in La Fantasie Gardens in St Anns. He could have spent some of the millions in those days to build himself a Palace like this Emperor has done. But misguided as he was, he still firmly held that these legacies would be held in trust by Corporation Sole to be later divested to the people as their rightful patrimony. Not so with this megalomaniac.

And now history repeats itself. If ever we were to have a third windfall, would we blow it a third time around? We will if this Dictator or his dynasty is still around.

Personally, I'm fed up with politicians. Nothing personal against them, just their actions and/or inaction sometimes. Honourable PM, respectfully and with utmost deference, are you still playing that first cricket match down at Tarouba with your CHOGM chums?
ajfyzabadbutlertown

Patriot 11 - Thank you for your commentary today. Interesting reading - Vast amount of info of substance in such a short commentary.

T&T is a multi-racial - 'rainbow' country and our gov't should and must reflect same. No tokenism appointment to give the impression of inclusion should be tolerated. We are too smart to allow this practice to continue. This divide is like a sore that would not heal and raises its ugly head expecially during our most chaotic times.

In terms of "multi-economic" I think I have an idea of what you may be trying to pass on to us, but can you take some of your valuable time and give us short summary of what it is and how it will be beneficial to this country. I am sure other readers may be interested also. Would be appreciated.
Thank you, Gardenia

GOV'T CHANGE -

Follow the money. To win elections in T&T you must have the right business people backing you. PNM normally have the backing of the Business Community. The only time they lost was to other BIG MONEY.

1) NAR won on support of Neal and Massey.
2) UNC only won when Maritime, CLICO , Ish, Steve and Brian moved their support from PNM to UNC.

That is why I laugh when I hear PNM boasting that UNC corrupt. I suppose Ish, Steve and Brian were not corrupt in PNM only UNC. They were only better protected because you were in power. Just like Calder Hart is protected now.

Lady (Go)Diva,thank you for the quote. Beautiful, just like the lady riding on horesback in Coventry! Brings back a lot of memories. Many, many years ago in the good old romantic days, a dear friend gave me a copy of "Le Petit Prince", but sadly I passed it on without ever getting around to reading it. Maybe one of these good days, I might yet set mine eyes upon a copy.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). Tsk, tsk, tsk. Let it not be said I have been guilty of plagiarism, although I hear it's no longer considered an intellectual sin these days. There are even plagiarism checkers and other software to check on people abusing cut and paste reproductions, I understand.

Le Prince

Zide, you have put forward information that should force us to take another look at what's going on aound us.

Concerns such as this has been raised in the past few weeks.
If we go back to an article written by ATTILLAH SPRINGER on Sept. 19th entitled THE STENCH OF PROGRESS, it may wake us up. Have a read again!

Thanks, Gardenia

The workers have been airbrushed from the picture. We don't want the ILO to see them.

These people are very skilled and talented from what we saw of the recently hosted Olympics. A hard act for London to follow. The presentations at the opening and closing were spectacular. It was unfortunate that they thought it necessary for a beautiful girl to mimic the singing voice of another who was less beautiful.

The Chinese Government have been accused by the West of unfair competition with the use of free prison labour employed in export products. Could some of these workers be from prison camps you might wonder? After all Australia was colonised a by convicts and French Guiana was a penal enclave.