The price of progress is too high in TNT

As a Trini musician living in Toronto, my heart is always thinking of home. Life in sweet Trinidad - the culture, the people, the lifestyle and all the good things that we, as Trinis over years have come to expect as 'd norm'.

I have only been gone three years, and yet each time I return for a visit, I'm not too sure if it's the same place I once knew. This year I arrived home for Christmas, and I was greeted by an every increasing crime rate, escalating inflation, road hooligans, an alarmingly booming construction industry and open hostility from my people.

This unwanted change is something all Trinis living abroad lament about, just what exactly is the reason can spawn a debate that can last hours among ex-pats, but it seems to me, that like Sparrow said many years ago 'Things bad in Trinidad, oh Lord, Capitalism gone mad!'

I know progress has it's price, but I'm not too sure if it's a worthy one, especially if most houses in the north are out of range for every middle class income earner, leaving only the few wealthy ones to buy a handful at a time, and re-sell to the highest bidder - which in turn, drives up market prices for everyone. Speculation is a hell of a thing, an invisible force that wrecks havoc on a decent man's life savings. The new Condos being built at One Woodbrook place are a prime example of this, they now go for over a million dollars, each. So now, St. James and Woodbrook freehold prices have skyrocketed.

The end result of this construction mayhem may be that many working professionals might still be living at home when they're 40, being unable to afford to buy a property, or worse yet, rent. More and more rentals are now quoted in US dollars, on an island mainly inhabited by Trinis, rent is quoted in US dollars! Unbelievable!

And what about the 'poor man' who can't even begin to pay a meager mortgage, what is he/she to think when they see castles being built all around them, and they must live in their cardboard box? What social systems are in place to help the less fortunate? How can they understand that 'hard work' is all you need, when at the rate this is going, the only people who will be able to afford Trinidad, might be foreign investors, and other 'shrewd businessmen'. I wonder, is it hard work, or Capitalistic greed?

While home, a friend mentioned to me that there's over 700,000 vehicles in Trinidad, if that's correct, then on an island with just over 1.2 million people (and for sure our population is not growing - check out our country's migration stats), does this mean that every household has 3 or 4 cars? That's kind of ridiculous don't you think? And now, there's an impending ban on foreign-used cars, as highways are rushed to expand to fill our road needs, but traffic is worse than ever before. With most people working in the East/West corridor, why wasn't car-pooling ever raised as an option? Most people in Trinidad are driving as if they're going to hell in a hurry, I myself was run out of my lane many times. Where did this hostility come from? Remember the days of someone giving you a chance to get into a lane? Not anymore, no way, either you wait forever or rush like a madman yourself.
And with most people living on other parts of the island, but working in the north, we have gridlock from hell, morning and evening, every day.

The cost of living is ridiculous now, the rationale I guess is that we all must make a profit, from supermarket owners to investors, carnival fete organizers and mass camps, building developers, government officials and last but not least, our kidnapping criminals. Allthewhile, the small man is marginalized, still trying to survive on the same salary he's been getting for years now.

It seems to me that our common courtesy, our 'version' of order, patience and compassion has been replaced with violence, aggression and greed. Greed to get ahead, to accumulate 'possessions', to build higher walls to keep the masses out which of course does an excellent job of attracting criminals to these high walls, like flies to a light (we all like big shiny objects you see).

With our country's rush for power and status, we forgot what intangible treasures we had before, and now, with the panic to keep the 'unwanted' out, we have bred many bi-products - mainly hatred towards one another, resentment, suspicion, covetousness and a people at odds with one another.

Are these all 'teething problems' of a growing nation, a nation that is being touted as the 'Manhattan of the Caribbean', or is this a society in decay? I'm not too sure, but right now, things don't look too good, with no fiscal and monetary policy in place to curb inflation (just ask any housewife who sees chicken prices go up constantly), with no legal framework to combat the new-age criminal (we have 5,000 police officers, who on average make one arrest per year - each police officer makes one arrest per year), with no social system to help re-introduce into society the deported ex-criminal from the US (and yes, they are coming back home in hundreds), it's no wonder things are out of control.

Maybe we're all just biding time, with those who can pay for a false sense of comfort, they're taking full advantage now, having their parties in guarded quarters, for who knows how long our version of paradise will survive? Who knows how long the money makers can keep away the starving vagabonds - whom, having seen how the other half lives, want their share of the pie now, at any cost.

As the middle class continue to leave the island in search of safer havens in foreign lands, who might be left at home are the haves and the have-nots, battling it out for what once was.

What happened to you, my sweet Trinidad? Capitalism gone mad indeed.


Cesco Emmanuel