Dear Sir:
Trinidad and Tobago was about to be hit with a major tropical storm and all that was heard from the prime minister was that he was not changing his plans to fly out to New York “to address the UN General Assembly”.
While the country attempts to deal with the aftermath of tropical storm Karen, prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has jetted off again on another fancy and expensive junket and it is not the 74UNGA as he wants the population to believe, but rather an event with his friends and supporters at a posh NYC Hotel, paid for by taxpayers.
The media is quoted as saying that prime minister, Dr Rowley is sticking with his agenda to speak at the UN, which he has not done since he was elected prime minister in 2015.
Prior to his departure, Tobago was feeling the full impact of tropical storm Karen and prime minister, Dr Rowley’s own constituency, Diego Martin West was being deluged with heavy rain and widespread flooding.
But this could not stop prime minister, Dr Rowley from another overseas junket to the USA, his second in as many weeks. But what is very puzzling is the statement by the prime minister that he was going to New York to address the UN General Assembly.
According to the UN’s website dated September 16, under the caption schedule of general assembly plenary and related meetings, which has the full list of all the heads of government speaking… Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness and St Vincent’s Ralph Gonsalves on the 25, Guyana’s vice president Carl Greenidge, Saint Lucia’s Allen Chastanet, St Kitts and Nevis’s Dr Timothy Harris, Bahamas’s Hubert Minnis and Barbados Mia Mottley on the 28, but no Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley.
However, what the prime minister is on schedule to attend is a “Diaspora Engagement” event being held by the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate General, New York and the Mission to the United Nations at the New York Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge.
Many nationals living in New York are in the dark about this event and attempts to ascertain how to attend this Gala have been unsuccessful. It begs the question… is this a “Diaspora” event catering to all nationals or is it an event with his friends and supporters?
Prime minister, Dr Rowley opted to fly out to New York to attend an event that has been clouded in secrecy at the posh Marriott Hotel, all on the taxpayer’s dime, whilst the country was being ravished by a tropical storm.
Was this Gala deliberately planned to coincide with the 74UNGA and thus afforded Prime minister, Dr Rowley the opportunity to tell the country that he is attending the UN whilst the main reason for this trip was infact the Gala?
Will he now try and have the country’s UN ambassador make representation to the UN secretariat to allow the Trinidad and Tobago prime minister to speak at the general assembly, which can be done?
And if this last-minute request is acceded to prime minister, Dr Rowley “address” will not be in the same “message/theme” of other CARICOM leaders, who would have had theirs carefully planned and organized.
But back to the country that has been experiencing severe flooding recently.
In the four years that prime minister, Dr Rowley has occupied the corridors of government, the Rowley-led Peoples Nation Movement (PNM) administration’s responses on every occasion have been slow, disorganized, profligate and sometimes non-existent, even in its PNM controlled constituencies.
To add insult to injury, prime minister, Dr Rowley’s social development minister Cherrie-Ann Crichlow-Cockburn stood up in parliament and declared that “people who build homes in a lagoon bound to get flooded.” This was when central and south Trinidad were being flooded out and the irony of that most insulting, partisan and uncaring statement from the Rowley-led PNM was that from that day forward, North Trinidad has been feeling the brunt of the rainy weather and flooding.
The government’s inadequate and lack of maintenance of the country waterways, bridges, and rivers are very evident whenever there is a 15-minute downpour. The response to assistance for victims of floods across the country has even been described as unpatriotic, especially in areas of south and central Trinidad. In fact, many residents are still waiting on promised financial assistance from the State for losses suffered a year from flooding and just when they were slowly getting back onto their feet, another major flooding has struck.
And while the country attempts to deal with aftermath of tropical storm Karen, prime minister, Dr Rowley has jetted off again on another fancy and expensive junket and it is not the 74UNGA as he wants the population since as of today, he is not listed among the speakers to believe but rather an event with his friends and supporters at a post NYC Hotel, paid for by taxpayers.
Capil Bissoon
