THE EDITOR: As we barrel pell-mell towards both 600 murders and another potentially impotent and anticlimactic budget presentation, I find myself, like many a TT citizen, faced with an undesirable dilemma.

We are in the space between growing trepidation and outright cynicism.

As Birdie, aka the Mighty Sparrow, sang so melodiously about his own impossible choice, “We end up with both of them.”

I have recently voiced my concern about the inevitable regurgitation of budget buzzwords that amount to no actual progress. I struggle with having to accept yet again that the absence of innovation and implementation means inflation and taxation on an already stressed economy.

The belt has been so tightened that the buckle is in the back pocket.

This Rowley administration will spend, borrow, tax some, ticket others, and still fail to pass legislation that can improve our EU standing or address our transparency index and ease of doing business rankings. We attract no meaningful investment, at least not without complication. None of this surprises me.

I would wonder what went wrong, if so many of us didn't already know.

We routinely practise clubhouse diplomacy and medical tourism: pictures and handshakes and invitations abound, and no pen to paper. Where others get grants and investors, we get loans and debts that our children will spend their working lives to repay.

We are running on IOUs instead of MoUs.

Yet, there is hope. Seeing headlines of potential controversy addressed head-on is a welcome change to our usual modus operandi. Even more encouraging is that in TT we can still see candidates be selected with no fear of skeletal revelation or the Damocles's sword of criminal prosecution.

I can only hope my successor mirrors some of the qualities beneficial to the generational transition in leadership our nation so desperately needs.

I criticise freely, and likewise do I commend. Where I see courses of action and inaction that are of national interest I will continue to do my patriotic duty to address them, regardless of office or good standing.

If US President Biden could, days ago in his final UN General Assembly address, call on world leaders to remember who they serve, am I wrong for doing the same?

I wonder which of my esteemed septuagenarian parliamentary colleagues will follow me graciously into retirement so that a new generation of leaders can emerge to confront the myriad cross-generational challenges we face, including climate change, unsustainable development, burdensome debts, prevalence of NCDs, ever-escalating crime, loss of hope, and seemingly inevitable societal collapse.

Do they have the courage, class, selflessness and patriotism to do what is right?

RODNEY CHARLES

Naparima MP

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