I love food. I particularly like Chinese food and could eat it every day. My doctor would not approve such overindulgence and it cannot be recommended on a daily basis.
Not too long ago this Government had started (allegedly) negotiations that visitors from India, Africa, China and Russia, would not need visas. Perhaps it was seen as good for tourism and to attract investors and that this unrestricted entry would be for the elite business sector. But I spent a sleepless night pondering the "teeming millions" of the inhabitants of those countries visiting T&T but not leaving.
The tip of the teeming millions iceberg would appear to be, in the main, arriving from China. Chinese people are likeable, polite, pleasant, helpful and hardworking. We welcome help from China and access to their superior business acumen.
But what about our own T&T Chinese citizens who have been here for over two hundred years? Suddenly their businesses are being squeezed out. It is not just about new restaurants on every corner. It is about far too many restaurants being opened and undocumented arrivals spreading and living throughout T&T.
It is also about supermarkets and dried goods stores proliferating like wild mushrooms. Are our own Chinese people too proud and too polite to complain about their businesses being decimated? All Trinis have to stand up for each other and say something.
When will this Government sit down with our Chinese friends and negotiate a widening of the expertise on offer from China that does not include unrestricted numbers of cooks? The outside world is well aware that China is not only about cooking a pot of rice. We urgently need Chinese experts in other areas of endeavour.
Lynette Joseph,
Via e-mail.