Thursday, December 6, 2007

Vision 20/20

When I was a child, I distinctly remember my siblings leaving home at three in the morning to go for their passport. The reason being, that if you did not go at that ungodly hour, then you would not be able to secure a place in the line.

Now I think everyone will agree that this was a very retrograde practice and as such could not have lasted very long. How surprising for me, then, when I decided to renew my passport on Friday gone, to be told that I would need to be at the (San Fernando) passport office at four in the morning, to ensure I had a place in the line. To make matters worse, I had to carry along my one year old child to get her passport as well.

Why the reason for this line? It seems that this “office” for want of a better word, can only accommodate one hundred persons at a time, so if you want to get a passport, then you better be in the first hundred.

Is this what we are moving toward? Is this Vision 20/20? After twenty plus years, could a simple situation such as this not have been rectified? How difficult would it be for there to be a standing appointment where persons called in one week before and were given an appointment for a specific day and time?

Would this simple solution not completely remove the need for persons leaving their home at ungodly hours of the morning especially in these crime infested times? Also, would this not allow for persons to arrange their day to be more productive instead of wasting it away at the office?

The US Embassy, realising this very problem came up with solutions to prevent us, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, from facing these inconveniences. Is it that we are our own worst enemies?

Alas, who can we blame for this? A government that seems deaf to the needs of its citizenry? Or the citizens themselves who sit quietly and allow their pride and self-respect to be trampled underfoot by a public service that needs a serious attitude adjustment?

Vision 20/20 is not about the infrastructure or lifestyle of a people, it is about the way they think about themselves in relation firstly to their fellow citizens and then to the wider community. Hence, if we continue to allow ourselves to be treated as second-class citizens, then Vision 20/20 will remain nothing more than a vision.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

REALITY 2020

By 2020 :-

T&T would be one big massive traffic jam

Streets would be deserted after sundown

Nightlife would be non-existent

People would pay to play mas in enclosed areas like the Stadium, since the streets would not be safe

Small business would close and send staff home because people would not be able to afford to eat out

Then the Syrians will buy out their properties

Murders and kidnappings will continue

People will return their cable boxes, and antennas on top of homes will reappear

Price Smart will introduce a Gold Card for PNM friends and family and CEPEP contractors

The Water Taxi project will be promised by 2025

Everyone under 25 will be a graduate of the University of T&T, but will be unemployable anywhere in the world

UTT will still be spending millions on God knows what

A Panday will still control Indian votes

The sugar workers will still be waiting on their lands

Most of their lands will be bought by Syrian businessmen

The Police Service will introduce credit card and ATM facilities at Police Stations for easy payment

High rise buildings in POS will remain unoccupied

The Interchange Project will be stopped until the Commission of Enquiry into corruption is finished

Belgroves will open a kiosk at the Casualty Unit of all the main Hospitals

A doubles will turn into a singles, and be a once a week treat

Kiss Bakeries will introduce a sliced hops

The US and Canada will stop issuing visas to Trinis

Natural gas reserves will run out

Three smelters will be killing our people, but the environmentalists of the NW Peninsula will only be concerned with re-afforestation and landing some big UN job

There will be a demand for Jamaican and Guyanese dollars

The Piarco Airport corruption trial will enter its 2564th day of hearing

Dookeran will write newspaper columns from his home in Canada

Indians will be purged from the public service and Jennifer Baptiste will be smilingly silent

All persons south of the Caroni will have to buy a monthly pass or pay a toll to drive into POS

Manning will be Executive President for life

The rich will get richer

The poor will get poorer

The middle class will disappear

The PNM will continue tiefing and denying that we are a failed State

WE IN DEEP SHIT !!

Anonymous said...

Why is trini posting the same comments all over the place?

Anonymous said...

Vision 2020 might take another 40 years to achieve....I doh think this country will ever achieve first world status....the type of lazy mentality of trinbagonians, I doh think we will ever reach 2020 at all....in fact this country might sink into the sea long before then.

Anonymous said...

We need to stop selling all our resources! It is silly to sell oil (just an example) to large international corporations just to buy it back from them at a higher cost!
That is just IGNORANT!

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