STREET VIBE: Roget’s retarded, regrettable error; irresponsible to give BP red card

“The mere decision by BPTT to have their platform built probably some place in Texas speaks volumes about our work ethic.

“It will eventually drive business away from this land, where parasitic unions and their leaders still dress up in comrade uniform to hold the nation hostage with their unreasonable demands despite providing nothing in return.”

The following Letter to the Editor on OWTU president Ancel Roget’s response to oil and gas company, BPTT, was submitted to Wired868 by Rudy Chato Paul:

I used the term “retard” advisedly. Let it be clearly understood that I mean no ill or offence to persons with challenges or any of the various forms of disability. In this case, I intentionally use it to refer to loudmouth Mr Ancel Roget who, to all intents and purposes, has once again in one swoop demonstrated his arrogance and illiteracy by advising BPTT to take their business elsewhere.

Mr Roget has single-handedly demonstrated all that is wrong with this nation. He has once again proven that he cannot think and speak simultaneously. Nor does he really represent those whom he claims to.

Let me also categorically state my view that the Minister of Finance (MoF) is in way above his head, both literally and figuratively. From his very entrance into that office, he has been misleading the nation about the nation’s finances.

It is undoubtedly his view and that of his Cabinet colleagues that, by blaming the past regime for all the challenges his government faces, he can almost literally get away with murder. He has to stick to that story.

It is also my prediction that during this regime’s final year in office, should they make it that far, the tide and the MoF’s tune will change. Monies will be found to do all that is necessary to oil and grease the voting apparatus. This brings me back to that Mr Retard.

Despite his years as a union boss, like many of his other colleagues in that line of business, Retard undoubtedly has political aspirations. A cursory glance at the lengthening list of persons using unions to get into political office supports my theory. Jennifer Baptiste-Primus and Watson Duke being the most recent examples.

Aspirants have generally relied on two basic entrances to political offices: the legal fraternity and unions. There has been the odd exception, like Stephen Cadiz who skilfully created his own 136 Committee.

However, BPTT’s refusal to build their platform for the Angelin here in T&T, as was requested by the negotiators, and the reasons provided put the spotlight on our work ethic as a major challenge. The mere decision by BPTT to have their platform built probably some place in Texas speaks volumes about our work ethic.

It will eventually drive business away from this land, where parasitic unions and their leaders still dress up in comrade uniform to hold the nation hostage with their unreasonable demands despite providing nothing in return.

As a former and current union member, I hold no brief for or against unions. They have a place and function. However, Roget and others, who consistently chant “We woh we money, we woh it now” yet offer nothing like value for money in return, have outlived their usefulness in a globalized economy.

Most people, I daresay, recognize the need for increased salaries. Many people are operating on 2008 salaries. Unfortunately, the nation has bought into the line sold by the MoF that the nation is broke. Nonetheless, I have always been a believer in “from those to whom much is given, much is expected.”  Unfortunately, such a concept is foreign to our native land.

On the contrary, we go out of our way to demonstrate just how smart we are by avoiding work.

Work, I submit, is a bad, four-letter word.  Many of us associate work with slavery despite none of us having any idea, academic studies notwithstanding, of what slavery really entailed.  Work was further demonised by the nation’s first prime minister, whose “Massa day done” statement is often quoted in many quarters.

From this statement has blossomed the entitlement mentality, which makes many of us take for granted that someone, usually “the govament,” owes us something. That something usually means free housing, free land, free education, free health care, easy (free) money, etc.

So when Dr Rowley, himself a beneficiary of ‘free education,’ recently said that the government was not in the freeness business, building free roads and free schools, he had the right idea but got his information mixed up.

Government is not an employment agency. One of the functions of a government is to put in place the proper infrastructure and make the environment attractive to businesses like BPTT to invest in nations like ours.

For Mr Retard to make the statement that BPTT can take their business elsewhere is irresponsible and demonstrates his narcissistic personality.

So sad he can’t be fired.

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