‘If we were being attacked by a foreign entity none of us would have known’
By Neil Gosine
THE country was totally shut down for almost 12 hours on Wednesday.
There was no electricity, no phones, no internet, no information from the media and no water.
For me, I felt that all of us, all our citizens were abandoned and left to fend for ourselves.
There was no government support or information, nothing from the Prime Minister or Minister of National Security. Nothing from any state agency to inform citizens or tell them how long it would be out so people could have put things in place to protect the perishable goods nor even guidance or an update. If we were being attacked by a foreign entity none of us would have known.
Thank God our citizens are still law-abiding as for the most part there wasn’t any mass looting or robberies or anything. This shows that we are still good God-fearing people and respect the rule of law. However, the traffic situation and the chaos that resulted from this, well that is another story.
We expect that many citizens would have lost perishable items and the losses may total hundreds of millions of dollars and this is something businesses and citizens cannot afford coming out of lockdowns from the pandemic. Not now!
The Government continues to put pressure on every citizen and every business that is trying desperately to survive. After Wednesday, I wonder if we really have seen a failed government at its best. All of us suffered through this ordeal, almost 12 hours without leadership, guidance or proper information. For all the times we ever thought enough is enough, yesterday was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. The most unacceptable incompetence we have ever seen by T&TEC and the ministers in charge, as the head of these state agencies.
What would happen if a real natural disaster ever hits Trinidad and Tobago? We can’t handle a simple outage and get back power in two to three hours, how can we expect to be up and running effectively after a real disaster? We will be in total chaos for months.
We keep hearing that Trinidad and Tobago is not a real place and we have detractors saying that’s not true. However, Wednesday we saw the meaning of this in its true sense. We spend millions on many unessential things in our country. We can put aside $20 million for a Taste of Carnival but cannot put aside money to upgrade our infrastructure to ensure we have constant power for our island. How ironic is this?
How much longer can we accept this type of performance by a Government? Wednesday’s travesty should not be accepted, ever again. No longer should we accept the people in power incompetence and channelling monies to their projects that syphon monies away from the real infrastructure like sustainable water and electricity for all in our twin-island.
Our citizens need to demand better and get accountability as any true democratic state can expect from its government and resources or we might as well migrate from our homeland.
We elected a government to fix all these issues, not to give us excuses and continue giving a small percentage of our elite citizens all the contracts and all the lucrative business in this country.
Not to continue to feed the friends, family and financiers of the current oligarchy. Not to keep a stranglehold over us by the current regime. If we do not demand change now we are really doomed as we already have a galloping dictatorship before us!
Expect more of the same, a totally failed state.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Master in Business Administration. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.
Feeling Abandoned in a Blackout
‘If we were being attacked by a foreign entity none of us would have known’
THE country was totally shut down for almost 12 hours on Wednesday.
There was no electricity, no phones, no internet, no information from the media and no water.
For me, I felt that all of us, all our citizens were abandoned and left to fend for ourselves.
There was no government support or information, nothing from the Prime Minister or Minister of National Security. Nothing from any state agency to inform citizens or tell them how long it would be out so people could have put things in place to protect the perishable goods nor even guidance or an update. If we were being attacked by a foreign entity none of us would have known.
Thank God our citizens are still law-abiding as for the most part there wasn’t any mass looting or robberies or anything. This shows that we are still good God-fearing people and respect the rule of law. However, the traffic situation and the chaos that resulted from this, well that is another story.
We expect that many citizens would have lost perishable items and the losses may total hundreds of millions of dollars and this is something businesses and citizens cannot afford coming out of lockdowns from the pandemic. Not now!
The Government continues to put pressure on every citizen and every business that is trying desperately to survive. After Wednesday, I wonder if we really have seen a failed government at its best. All of us suffered through this ordeal, almost 12 hours without leadership, guidance or proper information. For all the times we ever thought enough is enough, yesterday was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. The most unacceptable incompetence we have ever seen by T&TEC and the ministers in charge, as the head of these state agencies.
What would happen if a real natural disaster ever hits Trinidad and Tobago? We can’t handle a simple outage and get back power in two to three hours, how can we expect to be up and running effectively after a real disaster? We will be in total chaos for months.
We keep hearing that Trinidad and Tobago is not a real place and we have detractors saying that’s not true. However, Wednesday we saw the meaning of this in its true sense. We spend millions on many unessential things in our country. We can put aside $20 million for a Taste of Carnival but cannot put aside money to upgrade our infrastructure to ensure we have constant power for our island. How ironic is this?
How much longer can we accept this type of performance by a Government? Wednesday’s travesty should not be accepted, ever again. No longer should we accept the people in power incompetence and channelling monies to their projects that syphon monies away from the real infrastructure like sustainable water and electricity for all in our twin-island.
Our citizens need to demand better and get accountability as any true democratic state can expect from its government and resources or we might as well migrate from our homeland.
We elected a government to fix all these issues, not to give us excuses and continue giving a small percentage of our elite citizens all the contracts and all the lucrative business in this country.
Not to continue to feed the friends, family and financiers of the current oligarchy. Not to keep a stranglehold over us by the current regime. If we do not demand change now we are really doomed as we already have a galloping dictatorship before us!
Expect more of the same, a totally failed state.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Master in Business Administration. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.