Dear Editor,

There are those among us who find excuses for the inefficiencies in our water distribution system, our inability to maintain our roads and bridges, our unpreparedness for natural disasters, and our failure to restructure our economy to prepare for a period when energy reserves are depleted. They blame race, politics, and lack of resources for what is gross incompetence and varying levels of selfishness and greed.

To the excuse-makers, the few who walk with their pants under their bottoms are victims of poverty and lack of government resources, not misguided youth; the few who drive around our roads cutting cables and destroying our communication system are financially challenged, not thieves; and the others who wait until farmers’ crops are ready and reap what they did not sow are seen by some as just seeking a way to feed their families, not as unscrupulous people.

To the many who use race as an excuse, perhaps they should take time to find out about their ancestors. Some of the descendants of slaves are perhaps unaware of the efforts of their ancestors to learn to read, to start businesses, and to work for themselves and family. Lost to many are the struggles to not be called by the N-word. The ancestors could never have envisaged their male folks describing their women as female dogs. Those who now find it okay to describe themselves and their fellow man with the N-word and women as dogs ought not to be excused, they must be seen as what they are — silly and misguided.

The few among those of East Indian ancestry who take for granted their economic and political development are perhaps unaware of the sacrifice of generations that were unable to read and write, the struggle for political recognition, and the cooperation with other races to assimilate in a society of people who looked different from them. Those who trample on the success of their ancestors, destroying the political and social structures that have been the hard work of generations ought not to be excused or tolerated, they must be seen as who they are — selfish and ungrateful.

There are the arrogant businessmen and businesswomen who forgot that their parents walked the streets selling cloth and other items of trade to eventually build the businesses that they have inherited today. They ignore the humility of these traders, their love for family, their desire to make the Caribbean their home, and their respect for humanity.

We still have among us today those who possess the strength, determination, pride, and capacity for hard work and decency that motivated our ancestors to build our homeland. We must not allow the few who disregard our history to take us along a path that divides us.

We must unite; embrace our common history; seek our best leaders, our best thinkers, our true patriots; and build the country that our ancestors dreamed of.

Steve Alvarez

Trinidad and Tobago

bilcoa@hotmail.com