Wired for 2020

Can you imagine living in a country that’s wired for 110 volts and every electrical appliance in it is designed for 220? At times one gets the surreal feeling that the Tobago works something like that. Things run here so slowly if at all, that it must be the electricity – or the water, or the air. Maybe it’s a local  flux.

Environment Tobago has the dubious and unenviable distinction of being the naturalists voice for those who  feel strongly  about keeping things green. It’s not an easy chore by any means, especially since it seems the public  deems other activities , such as pouring concrete, as having more relevance to their lives .  Recently, in an evaluative exercise, several of the NGO members put out the theory that the proposed works advanced  by a community based organization like ET may be negatively affected, even short circuited, due to a lack of enough localized ‘current’.

Shocking news? Not really. Especially if the facts are examined. Environment Tobago has been accused of doing some good work in the past. They cleaned beaches, counted damaged coral heads, maybe even pulled a few strands of turtle grass that tried to establish new  growth in the Nylon Pool. ( less polluted water there than in the Bon Accord Lagoon). ‘Nice, keep it up, and here – accept this award, go ye forth and accomplish more’.  Well maybe not.

Our volunteers are becoming jaded. Their interests may soon be taken elsewhere. The future of groups who concern themselves with issues and not symptoms is doubtful in this present island scenario. It begs the question;  If one cannot win at something , would it be worth it to trouble taking up the proverbial baton that next time – unless One is Don Quixote, most people move on.

So is it to be likened to electricity then?  Does it have to have a flux in the air for movement to occur? To this writer it does. That the conservationist vibe – if you will, does not  exist in Tobago is pretty apparent. You can see it in the trends – all our fixes are targeted for the quick return. You may argue that we have  strong  initiatives  that encompass youth,  women, the handicapped and all the races.  The sting is that it’s the present faces, this generation , that are targeted for considerations, not those who are yet to come.  Conservation of anything is not part of island lexicon right now.

‘No idea comes before its time’ someone said, but can we as a society only derive energy and incentive from things that only produce results in our time? Is concern for the environment (to narrow it all down)  to much for us to handle if we are not to benefit personally. It’s a shallow thought,  but  its made even more vile on reflection. Are we willing to sacrifice the well being of our descendants so we can create more personal wealth  in our time?

Well personalizing the issue may be ugly indeed, but the fact is there are not many persons with a local birthright who will be remembered  as champions of Tobago’s  watershed and fresh water supply. It seems most people here are too busy chopping trees down. That others from elsewhere  may be unable to achieve it  due to a lack of popular support,  even if they had the inclination,  augurs badly for the future.

Our hardwiring for destructive behavior may well come home to haunt us. If the NGO’s and other organizations with pure purpose or mission keep failing  then the first bastion of our  governance system is threatened. As anarchy becomes a real risk, the destruction of all that’s  intrinsic to life as we know it looms. Doomsday? Political ploy? Far  from  it. Let’s look at facts.

It’s been several years that a plan to co-manage the Kilgwyn wetland has been sent to our local THA administrative offices for perusal . It must have disappeared in the wiring, or could it be that the spark went out of that idea? Or was it simply that it had little fiscal benefit to any particular person from this generation?
What happened to the idea is not the real issue though, it’s the fact that Kilgwyn is worse off than when Environment Tobago first went there.

That time it was a dump for most local household garbage, give or take the odd rotting carcass. These days  the restorative efforts of the NGO there are covered by new piles of garbage, new corpses, several other classes of refuse reflecting Tobago’s growing  prosperity. The new threat? Human habitat encroachment. They are bulldozing Kilgwyn to death.

That no one is listening to the voices of reason is a bad thing. That the transgressions to the sanctity of wetland  space is being violated throughout Tobago, is criminal. That the State allows it even though law forbids it, well words defy.

What to say dear reader? Environment Tobago cannot take the law into its hands. Solutions are short in coming, ideas  are drying off the old brain faster than the Tobago water table is being  choked off and polluted. The only way out may be to appeal to people to protect the children of the future indeed. That is a lofty goal, better than bulldozing Cove to create 220 volts. Or was that a part of a goal called 2020? Beats me. Maybe my circuits are just on overload – Too much current and no movement can do that.