At the same time yesterday, as many Trinis were enjoying the thrill of Keshorn Walcott's success in the 2012 London Olympic games (javelin), the people of Diego Martin and points west were enduring a thrill ride of an entirely different kind: the Great Deluge of August 2012 was in progress. When the rains finally stopped pounding down, rivers had overflowed their banks, drainage systems had given up the ghost and water was everywhere....mostly in places we don't want it to be; 2 were dead and 2 more were missing.
We in Trinidad have something of an edifice complex. We like big house. We are also not afraid to be a little corrupt if necessary, to get said big house put up on some high hill. So we will pay whomever we must, to get what permits or permissions we must, to build what we must, where we must have it. The trouble with that is that when trouble comes, as it did yesterday, it's not just you in your big house that's at risk. Suddenly, the corruption that put you in your big house up in the heavens, puts me in my little house way down below, at significant risk too. And that's risk I didn't ask for and shouldn't have to assume.
Over the last many years, we have been blithely gouging great chunks out of the sides of hills. What exactly did we think would happen? Hills don't generally grow back, they can't regenerate, at least, not that I've seen. So we've gouged; slashed and burned (our subsistence farmers are famous for this); and the dry season has parched and burned lands and no attempts that I've seen, have been made to stop or redress any of these activities.
We go on telling ourselves, "Gawd iz ah Trini" (God is a Trini, ergo all shall be well) and do nothing to fix what we've broken. Well all isn't so 'well' this morning is it? There has been loss of life, along with some pretty significant property damage and losses. Even now, I am waiting with bated breath to hear about the state of my own house in the west and those of various friends in same affected neighborhood.
Corruption hurts. We may like to believe that corruption is a victimless crime but nothing could be further from the truth, as this weekend's flooding shows. We want to think that it's just a bribe so that we can get what we want, but I would suggest that the fact that you need to 'pass change' as we say in T&T, means that what you want is not in the best interests of the collective. And to be clear, let me say that subsistence farming on state lands by squatters is as harmful to the collective good as is privately funded construction of questionable legality or government-sanctioned hill-gouging practices.
As a people, we have committed numerous sins against the environment. Unfortunately, many of those who are today paying the price of those sins, may have committed none. Plenty of folk who don't dump; don't slash and burn; and maybe even try to recycle (a tough thing in Trinidad & Tobago) are this morning facing a mountain of mud and debris and stiff clean up bills for their homes. In some cases, they may have lost everything they own.
It is often said that the Earth is on loan to us from our children. We need to wake up to the fact that it is not a roll of toilet paper. There aren't 10 different varieties on store shelves nearby for when this one runs out. This is the only one we get. We really should treat it that way.
We in Trinidad have something of an edifice complex. We like big house. We are also not afraid to be a little corrupt if necessary, to get said big house put up on some high hill. So we will pay whomever we must, to get what permits or permissions we must, to build what we must, where we must have it. The trouble with that is that when trouble comes, as it did yesterday, it's not just you in your big house that's at risk. Suddenly, the corruption that put you in your big house up in the heavens, puts me in my little house way down below, at significant risk too. And that's risk I didn't ask for and shouldn't have to assume.
Over the last many years, we have been blithely gouging great chunks out of the sides of hills. What exactly did we think would happen? Hills don't generally grow back, they can't regenerate, at least, not that I've seen. So we've gouged; slashed and burned (our subsistence farmers are famous for this); and the dry season has parched and burned lands and no attempts that I've seen, have been made to stop or redress any of these activities.
We go on telling ourselves, "Gawd iz ah Trini" (God is a Trini, ergo all shall be well) and do nothing to fix what we've broken. Well all isn't so 'well' this morning is it? There has been loss of life, along with some pretty significant property damage and losses. Even now, I am waiting with bated breath to hear about the state of my own house in the west and those of various friends in same affected neighborhood.
Corruption hurts. We may like to believe that corruption is a victimless crime but nothing could be further from the truth, as this weekend's flooding shows. We want to think that it's just a bribe so that we can get what we want, but I would suggest that the fact that you need to 'pass change' as we say in T&T, means that what you want is not in the best interests of the collective. And to be clear, let me say that subsistence farming on state lands by squatters is as harmful to the collective good as is privately funded construction of questionable legality or government-sanctioned hill-gouging practices.
It is often said that the Earth is on loan to us from our children. We need to wake up to the fact that it is not a roll of toilet paper. There aren't 10 different varieties on store shelves nearby for when this one runs out. This is the only one we get. We really should treat it that way.
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