By Alicia Chamely
“STOP thinking this is a banana republic”
Minister in the Housing Ministry Anil Roberts has taken issue with United Kingdom based TikTok creator Alex Cassidy and Trinidad-born Darrel Arjoon’s viral video offering the prime minister refurbished laptops for the Ministry of Education’s laptop programme.
Arjoon, born in San Fernando, is the chairman of the Reuse Tech Group. The Reuse Tech Group is a London based, IT asset management company with a focus on environmental sustainability.
Cassidy, who is known for his travel videos through the Caribbean, posted a video with Arjoon offering to provide refurbished laptops to all students in Trinidad and Tobago. Arjoon sweetened the deal by adding that for every laptop purchased by the government, £1 will be donated towards to an environmental project the students choose to engage in.
In the video Arjoon said, “Kamla has made a pledge to the country. We want to make sure that every single student has access to the absolute very best education. We can work with the government to deliver this now. This could be delivered now. Not only are we delivering refurbished laptops via the government to every student, we are giving £1 to their eco-friendly projects in the country.”
Saying the offering was his way of giving back to his homeland, Cassidy ends the video by asking his viewers to share the video to “Kamla.”
As of Thursday morning, the video appeared to have been removed from Cassidy’s Tik Tok page.
Responding to this on Wednesday night via his YouTube channel Douglar Politics, an aggravated Robert’s lashed out at Cassidy and Arjoon’s post, explaining T&T is a sovereign nation and there are legal processes that need to be adhered to in the provision of goods and services.
Roberts said, “So, if you have a company and you would like to provide a service to the government of Trinidad and Tobago that would expend taxpayers’ dollars, not Ministers dollars, not cabinet dollars, the people’s money there is a process. And the process is not going on TikTok and saying, ‘Aye look my company, I have some refurbished computers here to give to Trinidad, and I would give yuh one pound for your environmental projects that children want to do.’”
He added, “That’s abject, total nonsense, stop embarrassing yourself, stop thinking this is a banana republic. We are a country with a rich history of intelligent people with companies that have gone global. There are processes to be followed. So, if you have some refurbished computers to offer for some price or whatever, do your proposal, go through the requisite channels, make your presentation. If there is a bid or a tender, go and compete.”
Roberts questioned the quality of these laptops, asking what the warranty would be, where did they come from and would they be suitable for the students.
He further took issue to the causal nature of which Cassidy was talking about the Prime Minister, referring to her as just as “Kamla” numerous times in the video.
Roberts lashed saying, “And to you English Boy, ketch yuh self, it’s Honourable Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar.”
Emails and calls to the Reuse Tech Group were unsuccessful at the time of publishing.
Messages sent to Cassidy via his TikTok were also not answered.
