‘It is not promoting Carnival that would make us the richest country in the world. It’s what we do with our energy and resources that would make the difference…’
IN the last 40 years or so, I have been monitoring the developments in the country that, includes both islands and observed over the years, one of the main reasons Tobago had been left behind is the constant reaction from individuals in Trinidad.
On the other hand, I also observed that, while we continue to develop Trinidad, I have not seen or heard of individuals in Tobago objecting to our developments.
I am now seeing comments relating to Mr Duke’s trip to Dubai, where he presented a blueprint for the island of Tobago development.
From my view after seeing his presentation, he must be congratulated for bringing the island future to the international community. Moreover, if we look at Dubai’s development over the years, the leader of that Emirates destination did exactly what Mr Duke did. He presented his vision of what he saw Dubai to be to the developers and investors around the world, hence we have seen the success. It is with those kinds of vision that we seek for a nation’s development that makes the difference.
In this regard, I want to congratulate Mr Duke for bringing their vision for the island of Tobago to the world and Dubai was just the place to do this.
All that is needed now, is the support of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
Another one of our issues that is keeping back developing our nation is, that when investors comes forward and present their plans to the various state agencies seeking support where state lands are sometimes required, we see many individuals objecting, as they now see the potential and subject the state to open the lands up to tender and asking for all kinds of silly proposals, that never comes to reality.
We really don’t see the value in one’s ambitious plans for the country’s development and allows individuals to stifle projects due to selfish attitudes.
What about our 2020 vision, now known as 2030. Are we to see it being pushed to 2040 or 2050 or someday in the future, when would that be?
I also saw a video clip from those high-level individuals who represented the Ministry of Tourism Culture and Arts at the said Dubai trade show and the only thing I saw was a Carnival/cultural type presentation. Is that all we have to showcase?
As our late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams once said, “Only if we can use the energy that we display during Carnival year-round, we would be the richest country in the world.”
I don’t think we fully understand his statement. It is not promoting Carnival that would make us the richest country in the world. It’s what we do with our energy and resources that would make the difference and we seriously speaking, if we were truly to use our Carnival energy to do commerce in T&T and developed into a first-world status, we would not be speaking today about the value of our currency.
One of our less talked about industries in Trinidad that can satisfy some of our foreign exchange requirements is tourism, we believe that Tobago is our only tourism destination.
We tend to shortchange our potential for Trinidad tourism developments.
Tobago alone cannot satisfy our tourism needs as a nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
We failed to comprehend that, we have two islands that can receive tourism arrivals at the same time, meaning more foreign exchange flowing into our economy.
Where exactly our blueprint for Trinidad and Tobago is?
Charles Carvalho is a cruise ship agent in Trinidad and Tobago for close to 40 years. The opinions and views expressed by him are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
Realistic comments by Mr Calvalho…our image in all sectors is important….