Camille Clarke

Chi­napoo vil­lagers in Mor­vant yes­ter­day staged a protest against the lack of em­ploy­ment in their area and poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion by their MP. Lennox Smith, leader of the Laven­tille Out-reach for Ver­ti­cal En­rich­ment, said the Gov­ern­ment re­cent­ly pro­posed to spend $300 mil­lion on Laven­tille but Mor­vant al­so would like to ben­e­fit. "There are con­trac­tors com­ing here from out­side but there are con­trac­tors here that can work. One (URP) gang with sev­en peo­ple for this area isn't enough," Smith said.

He claimed the com­mu­ni­ty was dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed and the youths were un­em­ployed. "The youths here need con­tin­u­ous work. Ten peo­ple can­not get work here alone," he said. Smith said the toi­let fa­cil­i­ties in the sport­ing com­plex were not opened to the pub­lic. "The sport­ing fa­cil­i­ty was re­fur­bished three years ago but the toi­lets are locked up," Smith said. Vil­lager Lance Eti­enne said he was not sup­port­ing the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment any longer. That ges­ture was quick­ly fol­lowed by many of the men at the protest.

He added: "The man who run the Prime Min­is­ter in San Juan should get a medal. Be­cause Mor­vant al­ways sup­ports the PNM doesn't mean we don't get any­thing. We are not do­ing that any­more. "The Gov­ern­ment pays $2 mil­lion for a flag and peo­ple here suf­fer­ing. I could have done that for $1,500." The youths start­ed to laugh. Eti­enne said a drain in the com­mu­ni­ty al­so took the lives of five men. "Five men drowned here in the rainy sea­son be­cause the drains are open. So what they say­ing? Leave it like that so more can drown?" he said. He al­so spoke about the lack of side­walks in the area.