Part 1
In this country we must begin to understand that the word "consultation" actually means "this is how it is going to be, we just thought you should know." It was difficult to see how anyone could have expected a different outcome from the recent "consultation" held between government officials and opponents to certain segments of the Pt Fortin highway.
Not long ago I was asked by the Highway Re-Route Movement to write a column about the mammoth project. The author of the e-mail tossed in a vague reference to the Oropouche Lagoon, knowing that this would tug at my heartstrings. I was reluctant given that such a column would be used as an endorsement of the movement and validation of its protest.
Let's deal with the environmental element of this campaign first. As the producer of a nature television series, I have a natural aversion to any sort of development given this country's abysmal track record on environmental monitoring. This though is simply a personal position, not practical in the real world.
If the Highway Re-Route Movement is serious about flying the environmental flag on this issue then its members must present detailed research on the Oropouche Lagoon. If I am to consider your position seriously I would need to be presented with in-depth studies on the flora and fauna of the lagoon, resident species, breeding populations and hydrology of the wetland, to name just a few. That would be the bare minimum to buttress any argument presented to the Government against the highway development.
Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, who is identified in newspaper articles as an environmentalist (even though he insists that he is not), has presented another prong of this anti-highway push. He is quoted as having said that the group is not opposed to the San Fernando to Pt Fortin highway, it just doesn't want any development in the Mon Desir and Debe areas. His argument is that this will destroy 13 viable communities.
Coming from the man who fought against the smelters principally on economic grounds, this is a surprisingly flaccid position. It is reasonable to assume that the Government is negotiating with the affected communities for appropriate compensation rather than simply bulldozing them into the substrate, being prepared for the impending avalanche of asphalt.
Change is difficult and as we prove with alarming frequency in this country, it is absolutely unbearable as evidenced by the wailing and gnashing of teeth at that recently failed "consultation" on the highway extension. Ironically, I am opposed to the highway construction, but for entirely different reasons. This project was identified by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran as critical to rebooting the stalled economy.
A big highway pro-jek! A typical product of the atrophied imagination of governments past and present. That is just what this economy needs, a multi-billion-dollar capital injection which will invariably go to a handful of bloated contractors (and we all know who they are), the usual suspects who will gorge themselves like pythons and sleep until the next government feeding.
For the life of the project, there will be relatively limited circulation of the $7 billion that the Government proposes to spend, save for the importation of more Lamborghinis or Hummers, or whatever the trough-swilling million- aires are driving these days.
During the course of 2011, I made frequent trips from Port-of-Spain to Icacos. I can assure you that I am keenly aware of the horrendous traffic that motorists are forced to endure on that route. In each instance I found myself snarled in soul-crushing congestion that I could trace directly to a truck parked at the side of the road while the driver popped inside to buy beers.
Take that infuriating circumstance and replicate it a hundred times along the route to Pt Fortin and there you have your answer. The Government would rather spend $7 billion, hard-to-come-by taxpayer dollars rather than enforce the law.
Businesses sprout up along the south bound arteries without so much as nod to planning rules and regulations. The effects of such unplanned development are all around us. Need a reminder? Just take a look to your left just after you pass Freeport on the south-bound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway.
That roti shop must really have the busiest tawa in the country because motorists have no qualms about casually parking in significant numbers at the side of a major highway where vehicle speeds routinely top 100 miles per hour.
The problem has always been that we do everything backwards in this country. Buildings are erected to encroach on established roads and highway reserves. I submit that a fraction of that $7 billion allocation could be used to upgrade the existing road network in the southland and enforce the bloody law to minimise the number of obstructions on the route.
Perhaps that is just too difficult to contemplate so the easier option is to build a six-lane highway and enrich party supporters while you are at it.