Dear Editor,

As a parent I know that my job is to ensure that the next generation has a chance at a better life than the one I experienced. Today most houses have running water, toilets, electricity, and a refrigerator. When I was a child, that was not the case. Outhouses were common and many houses in the rural areas had no electricity.

Despite the nonsense peddled by some politicians and those with racist agendas, the governments of the past succeeded in allowing many to have access to secondary and tertiary education. It is true that they have allowed corruption to destroy our society, they unnecessarily dismantled public transportation, and never understood the value of the local government structure they inherited. But they did leave us with better national sporting facilities and some new access roads and highways.

Those who manage our country now and in the past are our people. They were not aliens. We voted for them and supported their initiatives. It is extremely sad that to remain in service many have found it necessary to divide the population along sectarian lines, but it is up to us to reject their selfish agendas. Our youth are crying out for us to change things.

The criminals that feel empowered to drive bravely on our roads in heavily tinted vehicles loaded with assault rifles and pistols are doing so because of our failures. We have failed to make it illegal to have tinted windscreens. We have failed to put in place vehicle identification plates that cannot be easily manipulated. We have failed to ensure that criminals are quickly processed through our courts.

Crime is our failure and we must fix it.

The few people that make up Parliament are there because we placed them there. Now it is up to us to come together to find a new crop of people from among us to take us forward.

It is ridiculous for a largely literate population to buy into the politics of us and them at a time when we all know the solutions to our problems. We know that we must improve agriculture. We know that our education system must change to meet the demands of a world. We know that tourism is our diamond in the rough. And we know that neither the present Government nor the Opposition can take us to where we need to be.

So it is now incumbent on every one of us to hopefully work together to make our country a safe and better place.

Steve Alvarez

Trinidad and Tobago

bilcoa@hotmail.com