I read where the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, no doubt with tax pay­er's mon­ey, has launched a na­tion­al cam­paign to stop the sale of scratch bombs and il­le­gal fire­works in T&T with an ap­peal to cit­i­zens to "de­vel­op a cul­ture of care for their neigh­bours and el­der­ly."

The Min­istry's re­lease goes on to state the terms and con­di­tions un­der the law for which fire­works and the like can be used. The con­di­tions are quite clear and state that with­out the writ­ten per­mis­sion with­in a spe­cif­ic time frame, from the au­thor­i­ties, it is il­le­gal to use or set off fire­works with­in any town which in­cludes the cities and Bor­oughs and "every part of the area with­in two miles of the bound­aries of such city or of ei­ther of such Bor­oughs, and al­so any place or area de­clared by the min­is­ter, by or­der, to be a town or to be deemed to be in­clud­ed with­in a town for the pur­pose of the said sec­tion."

And it goes on, "Any per­son who throws, casts, set fire to, or lets off any fire­works in­to, in, or up­on any street not be­ing in any town, or in­to, in, or up­on any place be­ing with­in 60 feet of the cen­tre of any such street, is li­able to a fine of $400.

So here is a Gov­ern­ment min­istry ask­ing cit­i­zens, by ex­plain­ing the con­di­tions un­der which fire­works and the like can legal­ly be used, "to de­vel­op a cul­ture of care for their neigh­bours and el­der­ly."

In fact what they should be say­ing, in sim­ple terms, is that it is il­le­gal to use fire­works etc, with­out writ­ten per­mis­sion and su­per­vi­sion as spec­i­fied in the act, and that the law will be en­forced.

Is there any won­der that we find our­selves in the law­less state of af­fairs we are in to­day when the pow­ers that be don't seem able to im­ple­ment a sim­ple law to reg­u­late the use of fire­works.

C Pe­ters