From a ten­der age, I have been told by el­ders in the so­ci­ety that the prob­lem is not what is said, but how it is said.I am re­fer­ring to the state­ment made re­cent­ly by the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Gary Grif­fith with ref­er­ence to the im­mi­gra­tion and trade dis­pute be­tween T&T and our Ja­maica coun­ter­parts.

Words like "T&T is not a mall" or an "ATM ma­chine for oth­er Caribbean coun­tries" are very in­sult­ing to our West In­di­an fam­i­ly, and al­so to those like me and many oth­ers who are off­spring of oth­er West In­di­an coun­tries.Those of us in high of­fice who rep­re­sent this na­tion ought to be more diplo­mat­ic, and think, be­fore us­ing choice words that can harm re­la­tion­ships and em­bar­rass us in front of the world.Fol­low and study the words of The Black Stal­in (The Caribbean Man). God Bless Our Na­tion.

Athel­ston Clin­ton

Ari­ma