‘Arguably the first act of contemptuousness was raising fuel prices without providing any solutions to deal with the inevitable increase in the cost of living’
By Alicia Chamely
THE word of the week is Contempt!
Contempt (noun): the feeling that a person or thing is worthless or undeserving of consideration, example: “The Government spoke to and treated their citizens with contempt these past few days, as though they have forgotten that it is these citizens that gave them jobs.”
Coal pots, bicycles, traffic, flooding and sacrifices. Never more have felt so insulted and disregarded by a government.
Arguably the first act of contemptuousness was raising fuel prices without providing any solutions to deal with the inevitable increase in the cost of living. Most Government figures would have understood peoples’ concerns and tried not to aggravate an already aggravated crowd. But not Government MP Keith Scotland, nope not this guy.
Instead of providing any intelligent solutions, he implored citizens to save on gas by cooking on a coal pot. Not particularly a bad idea you might think, there are many families in T&T that use coal pots to cook. However, asking people to give up the most basic of household luxuries in order to offset a big old economic mess made by successive Governments is incredibly insulting. Scotland may be ready to use a coal pot but, are his Red House cohorts? Yeah, I literally cannot picture Colm Imbert or Roodal Moonilal standing in the rain or blazing sun roasting meat on a coal pot.
Scotland continued by encouraging people to ride bicycles to work. Again, in theory, an excellent idea, however asking someone who lives in Sangre Grande to ride a bicycle to work in Port of Spain is insane. Does Mr Scotland understand that the Government is the largest employer in the country and that most Governmental offices are in the capital? Does he understand that this is one of the main reasons for traffic? Apparently, neither him nor our prime minister, who thinks Trinis all leave home at the same time just to sit in traffic for fun, get that they are part of the problem.
If Government offices were decentralised and businesses were encouraged to move away from the capital, then we wouldn’t have to waste so much fuel in traffic and some people would adopt cycling to and from work as a preferred method of transportation.
But even if businesses were moved closer to where people lived, our roads are not equipped to handle mass cycling. I’m not sure if Mr Scotland has noticed but, we have no designated bike lanes and many of our roads are too narrow to accommodate the addition without proper structural work.
‘Lady, there is not a single human in T&T who has not had to make sacrifices to preserve their way of life. Some more than others’
Again, I ask, while Mr Scotland may be out there peddling will I soon see Rohan Sinanan or Kamla Persad-Bissessar give up their luxury vehicles, with their fuel allowances and ability to zip through traffic, for a BMX and knee pads?
Yeah, don’t insult us, if you and your government friends are too good for coal pots and bikes don’t expect us, peasants, to shake our heads and hail you as a visionary.
Scotland’s remarks come on the heels of our prime minister telling us we are too undisciplined to work from home, which is odd since many of us did it during Covid and many private sector companies still have work-from-home operations, and Minister of Sport and Community Shamfa Cudjoe telling us to stop being babies and just sacrifice, like her. Lady, there is not a single human in T&T who has not had to make sacrifices to preserve their way of life. Some more than others.
So, don’t stand there collecting my tax dollars to live all high and mighty and have the audacity to tell me and my national brothers and sisters to stop complaining and just sacrifice.
The contemptuousness!
Then came Thursday, when approximately 20 minutes after I dropped my goblins to school, I had to U-turn and pick them back up. Listen, we were lucky we were not affected by flooding, so people saying only mad people sent their children to school Thursday can take a backseat. And yes, yellow-level weather alerts are not enough to close schools but given the disaster the day before and the weather projections for Thursday, the Government should have decided either the night before or at 5 am that morning.
Again, it is just a lack of consideration, because the fact of the matter is our government and those in charge have lost connection and have little understanding of their citizens.
Hopefully, next week’s word of the day will be APPRECIATION. Appreciation from the Government for its citizens that are just trying to get through the damn day.
‘Contempt’ is the Word of the Week
‘Arguably the first act of contemptuousness was raising fuel prices without providing any solutions to deal with the inevitable increase in the cost of living’
THE word of the week is Contempt!
Contempt (noun): the feeling that a person or thing is worthless or undeserving of consideration, example: “The Government spoke to and treated their citizens with contempt these past few days, as though they have forgotten that it is these citizens that gave them jobs.”
Coal pots, bicycles, traffic, flooding and sacrifices. Never more have felt so insulted and disregarded by a government.
Arguably the first act of contemptuousness was raising fuel prices without providing any solutions to deal with the inevitable increase in the cost of living. Most Government figures would have understood peoples’ concerns and tried not to aggravate an already aggravated crowd. But not Government MP Keith Scotland, nope not this guy.
Instead of providing any intelligent solutions, he implored citizens to save on gas by cooking on a coal pot. Not particularly a bad idea you might think, there are many families in T&T that use coal pots to cook. However, asking people to give up the most basic of household luxuries in order to offset a big old economic mess made by successive Governments is incredibly insulting. Scotland may be ready to use a coal pot but, are his Red House cohorts? Yeah, I literally cannot picture Colm Imbert or Roodal Moonilal standing in the rain or blazing sun roasting meat on a coal pot.
Scotland continued by encouraging people to ride bicycles to work. Again, in theory, an excellent idea, however asking someone who lives in Sangre Grande to ride a bicycle to work in Port of Spain is insane. Does Mr Scotland understand that the Government is the largest employer in the country and that most Governmental offices are in the capital? Does he understand that this is one of the main reasons for traffic? Apparently, neither him nor our prime minister, who thinks Trinis all leave home at the same time just to sit in traffic for fun, get that they are part of the problem.
If Government offices were decentralised and businesses were encouraged to move away from the capital, then we wouldn’t have to waste so much fuel in traffic and some people would adopt cycling to and from work as a preferred method of transportation.
But even if businesses were moved closer to where people lived, our roads are not equipped to handle mass cycling. I’m not sure if Mr Scotland has noticed but, we have no designated bike lanes and many of our roads are too narrow to accommodate the addition without proper structural work.
‘Lady, there is not a single human in T&T who has not had to make sacrifices to preserve their way of life. Some more than others’
Again, I ask, while Mr Scotland may be out there peddling will I soon see Rohan Sinanan or Kamla Persad-Bissessar give up their luxury vehicles, with their fuel allowances and ability to zip through traffic, for a BMX and knee pads?
Yeah, don’t insult us, if you and your government friends are too good for coal pots and bikes don’t expect us, peasants, to shake our heads and hail you as a visionary.
Scotland’s remarks come on the heels of our prime minister telling us we are too undisciplined to work from home, which is odd since many of us did it during Covid and many private sector companies still have work-from-home operations, and Minister of Sport and Community Shamfa Cudjoe telling us to stop being babies and just sacrifice, like her. Lady, there is not a single human in T&T who has not had to make sacrifices to preserve their way of life. Some more than others.
So, don’t stand there collecting my tax dollars to live all high and mighty and have the audacity to tell me and my national brothers and sisters to stop complaining and just sacrifice.
The contemptuousness!
Then came Thursday, when approximately 20 minutes after I dropped my goblins to school, I had to U-turn and pick them back up. Listen, we were lucky we were not affected by flooding, so people saying only mad people sent their children to school Thursday can take a backseat. And yes, yellow-level weather alerts are not enough to close schools but given the disaster the day before and the weather projections for Thursday, the Government should have decided either the night before or at 5 am that morning.
Again, it is just a lack of consideration, because the fact of the matter is our government and those in charge have lost connection and have little understanding of their citizens.
Hopefully, next week’s word of the day will be APPRECIATION. Appreciation from the Government for its citizens that are just trying to get through the damn day.