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ALL TOGETHER NOW SHOUT: "YOU ARE FIRED"
In a recent letter to the TG a Mr A Petit asked: could someone explain to him what was going on in T&T, he contends he's was not asking the question lightly. AP observed: how insane and stupid a proposal it was to increase the benefits of Gov't ministers by hundreds of thousands of dollars. He asks many questions like : Did anyone in power care the least bit about the general public and did they have any pride. He raises many valid and bothersome issues like inflation, crime, poverty, Parliament's incompetence, public trust (betrayal of), and ends with: After all, you can't blame the farmer if the sheep just stands there waiting for the shears. My summary here of Mr AP's letter is on Valium/tranquilizers, you need to read his letter to get the full jolt. AP simply bowled me over, if it wasn't so sad I ‘d say it was funny (in a sick kind of way!).
Another gentleman (V Jardine) wrote in about the Prime Minister's admittance of poor management, VJ goes on to remind the PM that he the PM was Managing Director! Good on you VJ, How easily we forget our responsibilities huh! the good news VJ? It's (JPR) Job Performance Review time soon!, sharpen your pencils!.
In response to Mr A. Petit's "JUST LIKE SHEEP AWAITING SHEARS" (TG Sat Apr 28 2007), and Jardine's "As the MD you should know, PM" (TG Fri May 4 2007).
I feel deeply for Messrs Petit, Jardine and the rest of folks who share their sentiments. For those ‘speed reading' this response, let me save you some time, l 'll encapsulate the rest of my comments in 4 words "YOU LIKE IT SO". There, you have your sound bite, now you can move on to the next item.
Let's do a quickie reality check here;
a) YOU the voting public of T&T ‘HIRED' these people to run the country, to MANAGE the affairs of T&T, that's right, THEY work for YOU.
b) THEY are accountable to YOU the people of T&T, ALL the PEOPLE, 100% of the population, not just the fractional xx percent that hired them!
c) YOU the people of T&T pay their salaries –Ah, and here you thought your Tax dollars went solely to building roads etc SURPRISE!--, and YES, YOU have a say in how much they get paid. Now here is the good part YOU also have the right to FIRE THEM, not as quickly as they do in other places, but you can change that too (Constitution Reform).
d) The T&T constitution (best I recall), does NOT have the elected officials ‘Recall option' so you're stuck, grin and bear. On the bright side, there is some sort of review in the offing, so here is your chance to raise a posse and gun for what others (Kiwis?) have in their constitution -RECALL-.
(The province of BC in Cda and 18 states in the USA provide for the recall of elected officials. Essentially, if enough voters' signatures are gathered, an election is called and the incumbent can either simply resign or run again in the election).
e) Let this be a lesson to ALL of you for next time around, whether you voted for this bunch of loafers or NOT.
If you bought into their ‘con' given their track record, then I sympathize with you, we all have our weak moments in decision making. Next time make sure you're sober and not nursing a hangover, before you vote.
f) Oh one other thing, study the Performance of the teams that managed T&T over the last decade then put on your recruiter's cap and ask:
Which team MANAGED T&T the best in the recent past?
Which team ‘TALKS Game' vs ‘PLAY Game' ie yap, yap, yap, vs performance?
Which team is best qualified to manage T&T in today's Globalized world?
Which team is aware that we now live on a FLAT EARTH?
g) Finally, as the founder of a large US Corp. would say to prospective candidates seeking upper level management positions in his Corp. "Don't try to impress me with fancy vocabulary, show me what you've done over the past 5 years and show me what you can do for me. Know what that approach got him? he went from almost broke to USD 6-Billion in the bank (sold Corp. to GM). When IBM was in trouble not so long ago, he offered his team of managers to IBM to sort things out for them. Yes his management team was that good.
Need I go on about what's happening in Dubai, KSA, Libya, Thailand...etc? Naaaw, I think I made my point.
Okay, in case you're still not clear, the countries mentioned above ALL made a beeline to the source of the best managers on the planet to learn how it is done, and the rich ones simply bought the expertise. You will not hear hit-and-miss ‘talk-game-empty-rhetoric' like First World Status by xxxx or whatever the catch phrase of the day may be, NO! these people are into ‘play-game' mode, they are making it happen in spectacular fashion.
A suggestion for AP and VJ: gentlemen get yourselves --and a bunch of your friends-- a Donald Trump haircut/hairdo/hairpiece, go up to the Red House balcony and in your best imitation of the Don (study the apprentice) let fly IN ONE VOICE, "YOU ARE FIRED". Now if that doesn't get their attention and put a smile on your faces, then I give up!.
K. Singh, Toronto Cda
sskellyss@gmail.com
May 4, 2007)
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This contribution was an excellent and stimulating read. I agree with almost every thing said. If I was a shareholder for an organisation managed in the way T&T has been managed, I would have voted to have the CEO or Managing Directors etc to be fired - and I would not have invested my money there.
[What I say next is speaking from a general perspective, and I would fully accept that not all people are the way I describe it. There are bound to be exceptions to any generalisation.]
The sad state of affairs for managing Nations is that, broadly speaking, the State has authority to legally appropriate citizens money via taxes and do with it as they please - until the next election. The other problem is that from my experience of people in T&T they simply 'doh cyah dam' in their attitudes about how their money is spent or not.
Political regimes dating back to Williams have inculcated in the population shortsightedness and yearnings for immediate gratification. I'm talking about the 'money is no problem' so 'gih we it now, gih we it free' attitude.
Once people happy and they get they business sorted quickly, well they know who they voting for. They eh biting the hands that feed. But the hands that feed are the hands that stunt, enslave and infantilise the populace as well. How can people in general be brought to see that? 50 years of going nowhere fast speaks for itself.
Trinidad should have been a paradise in all the years since Williams. The country is blessed with so much natural resources and wealth. Instead what we have is widespread mismanagement and bobol left right and centre.
People still cannot get water to drink and to bathe in T&T. Now poor people bathing and drinking from a chicken farm pond in south Trinidad. The solution to the water crisis? "Build more desals" - they say. Boy, I am surely living on a different planet from them. In a country suffering with devastating floods every single year, they want to build more desals? Look nah man, ah wonder if anybody reading this out there see anything funny wit that. Well, the problem of water shortage is the result of chronic poor management and the solution (in desals) is the quick-fix 'make-dee-people-happy-so-we-go-get-dey-votes-and-screw-dem-some-more' approach!
But guess what? Dey like it sooooh. The quality of the management selected is a product of the collective intellectual capacity of the voting population - no? We dogs could be dead, boy.
Ah think I'll take a break there otherwise I might go on to talk about, lame management of power supply, public transport, health service, justice systems, security, crime control, food production etc etc. I could be here all day repeating the same thing in all these areas.