Can I offer an open-minded view of the regularisation of the squatters programme and the upping of the cut-off point from 1998 to 2014?
1. Helping the poor with shelter is a universally noble gesture but can the perception be that the poor have now become "privileged" when viewed against the many who are struggling for a lifetime to own a piece of land in today's real estate market?
2. By extension, is this "freeness without effort" inimical to the traditional energy and resources which people put into land and home ownership, giving direction to their lives and fulfilling part of their life's dream?
3. Working towards owning your home is a fundamental of the social fabric as much as pursuing education is to fulfil career ambitions. Can eliminating that drive to home ownership through freeness lead to social anarchy with everyone wanting free land?
4. In a related way, is this freeness pointing towards the creation of a dependency syndrome which is to have expectation without the work that should attend it, which if ingrained in the psyche of the people, can lead to the habit or inclination to obtain what you have not worked for, extending itself into wanting another man's car or produce in the garden and then moving into bigger things?
5. Can this land giveaway lead to intense speculation with land grabbers exploiting "owners" to sell their land for money which is attractive in its newness as is the case with Caroni lots at present, and with the system of land distribution still hazy, can this be an excellent scheme for insiders to make a "killing"?
6. Is this a marker of the administration's approach to winning votes at all cost irrespective of the consequences of a policy decision? By extension, is the appeal to the simpleminded painting pretty pictures to ensnare them with no concern for an intellectual evaluation of what lies beneath?
7. Is this part of a "scorched earth" policy, as suggested by one commentator, with little thought about the new administration, whichever it may be, having to pick up the pieces?
I leave this to your better judgement.
Dr Errol Benjamin