A CIRCUS IN TOWN…

THERE is a circus in town – and the characters are clowning around with us.

Citizens face hefty fines for the dengue crisis after the authorities failed to carry out pre-emptive clean-up and education campaigns, especially in low-lying rural communities with a higher infection rate.

This is despite WHO-PAHO reports that revealed that this region of the world is most affected by the deadly disease.

Ever-bungling Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is true to form.

Deyalsingh had earlier put a big spin on the PAHO report of premature deaths at the neonatal intensive care unit of Port of Spain General Hospital.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert, whose I Can See Clearly Now brag meant he turned around the economy, is dipping into the sovereign HSF wealth rainy day fund.

This is in addition to huge loans to balance annual yawning deficit budgets.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is prescribing crime solutions for Tobago after overlooking porous national borders that permit easy entry of illicit guns and drugs and is a major factor in homicides.

As the crime crisis worsens, Rowley has still not considered removing non-performing Police Commissioner Earla Christopher, whose report card is progressively pathetic.

In any private sector organisation, the failed Commissioner Earla would have long packed her bags.

After presiding over the flight of billions of dollars in investments, the Government is now boasting about the impending sale of Petrotrin to a non-national at unknown terms.

More of the nation’s patrimony – the NFM rice mill at Carlsen Field, for example – is being parcelled off to foreigners.

Roads and bridges are collapsing across the country from the bad weather, and there is no urgent remedy plan.

The emphasis the Government placed on the infrastructure of Moruga-Tableland – which the PNM is seeking to win in the upcoming general election – is not replicated elsewhere.  

Almost a century after its historic invention in inner-city Port of Spain, the steelband has just been identified as the national instrument, never mind that the world has long commercialised the product.

There are pan schools and factories around the globe, while in the land of its birth the instrument lies under breadfruit trees, panists pay for stipends, and the parent body remains without a home.

The constitution reform consultation which – amid the emotion of Basdeo Panday’s passing in January – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley announced for June has not taken place.

As always, constitution reform remains a flash-in-the-pan issue for the Rowley administration.

The former senior officials who served on the constitution committee – Barendra Sinanan, Nizam Mohammed and others – must now realise they were co-opted in a shameless public relations exercise.

On the eve of African Emancipation Day, the Government has set up a Reparations Committee after falling way behind other regional territories on this issue.

There are already reports that the annual school vacation repair programme will be affected by budget issues.

Expect classroom disruptions at the start of the new academic year in September.

Human trafficking remains a national nightmare in spite of consistent scolding from the United States and offers of assistance from United Nations agencies.

There is a circus in town…