The rotten foundation

All over this island, little knots of intelligent men get together and talk as we are talking now, deploring the systems and methods of education, labour, politics, social services. Then they finish their cigarettes and go off to a film or a football match. There is a lot of fury and indignation on the surface, but no one does anything. It's a pity about Trinidad. She builds on a rotten foundation, introducing new ideas to fool herself and the world that she is progressing.

-Samuel Selvon An Island Is a World

This was written in 1955 and it's true today as it was then, probably more so. Take our nation's roads - the roads and highways are so choked with cars that almost every day there is a fatal accident. So what is a government to do? Well they could invest some of those oil dollars and bring traffic control officers and vehicles up to the required strength so that they can discourage excessive speeders or drunk drivers or any kind of breach of road rules. In the States and other countries we aspire too, you can't drive half-a-mile without seeing a police patrol car. Here you can drive the length of the Solomon Hochoy and Churchill Roosevelt highways and back without seeing a police car. But what do they do...well they bought a blimp. A fucking blimp for US $10 million dollars plus maintenance. So that the police can cruise around and watch the carnage below.