The Highway Reroute Movement pretty well describes its very being and its purpose by its title. It seeks to reroute the planned highway to a more sensible, serviceable location, and certainly a less expensive one. Moreover, only a very small portion of the highway is in contention with regards to rerouting, from Debe to Mon Desir, nine miles at most.
The Highway Reroute Movement does not demand, nor has ever demanded the complete abandonment of a highway, and has indeed called for an overall improvement of the entire roadway system of the Southland.The rerouting of the highway makes sense. The problem is that the rerouting of the highway makes no money for the "friends and family" of the Government.
The ill-advised, absurd madness of the Government's chosen route entails the destruction of a mountain, which is then to be carted cross-country to be dumped in a lagoon, thereupon to build a road. A huge fleet of trucks will have to be assembled to transport the carcass of the mountain across the country, north to south, before work on the Government's version of the actual highway can even begin.
This process alone could consume about three-fifths of the projected budget for the highway. That would be roughly in the range of three billion dollars. That's a lot of money. Who gets that money? The people who own the trucks of course! And who might that be? Who owns the trucks? Ask a silly question! Friends and family of course.
That is why the Government does not want to sit down and have discussions about the highway. That is why the Government has to disregard the recommendations of the Armstrong report for proper study to determine the good or bad sense of this nine-mile route.
The Government simply cannot afford to come to the table. The deck is forbiddingly stacked against its position. Scientific expertise overrules it. Principles of efficiency and wise spending rule it out. The Government's case for its highway clearly makes no sense. Shockingly, the Government's point of view seems to be that "making money" for personal gain trumps "making sense" for public benefit.
This nine-mile piece of the highway as planned is an extravagant nonsense. Only one small set of "well-placed" people stands to gain by it. Not the people of T&T. Neither northerners nor southerners. Neither displaced residents nor anyone just passing through. Certainly not the environment. A mountainside will have been destroyed and vital wetlands severely compromised. Only the Government and its friends stand to benefit. Integrity be damned.
They will benefit by exorbitant, excessive, unnecessary amounts, entirely at the expense of the country's people, its public monies, and its environmental integrity. Such contempt for the people and the place, corruption so gross and obvious, has hitherto been unimaginable. Bold-faced has never been so bold.
As with the Carnival, so with the Cabinet, all feathers and beads at exorbitant expense, tawdry excess and extravagance, Big People Party, VVIP only, all for the wealthy and the well-placed to play themselves.
Peter Minshall