By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2026

For sake of country, more than people, I keep hoping the portents of an economic meltdown that stand menacingly watching at Trinidad and Tobago will attempt for yet another time in its history to stave off the doom and gloom that threaten.

In my time, at my age (I’m approaching 80), I have seen God or whatever deity people worship smile at this cussed country and spare us the hardships, gore and misery that other countries face year after year. In my time, born in 1946 as I was, I have watched Trinis “wine” through hurricane, earthquakes, fire, floods and worse, while our neighbours up the Caribbean Sea, in Latin and North America, are bullied and beaten as they face the wrath of God or whoever else directs the show.

In 1974, the eye of Hurricane Alma passed over my Shamba in Claxton Bay; not a brick or board fell in the battle against the natural disaster. But I was not the only humble soul who suffered hardly a scrape. From Toco to Cedros, from Mayaro to Carenage, hundreds and maybe thousands of people suffered hits of every description. In some rainy seasons, scores of villages are flooded, many times a year. I feel sorry for the buggers, but from neighbours to friends we suffer our uneven distribution of destruction.

Our economy has remained resilient because we have oil, gas and other minerals and produce. I need add that we had and have among us some brilliant scientists, engineers, agriculturists, manufacturers, teachers—even journalists—and thieves. Yes, thieves. Our food producers have been savaged and ravaged by floods and fires, pests and vermin, and by larceny.

Very importantly, we have the most per capita murderers and bandits in the region. You would think a society such as what I’ve painted above tells the story of roaring success. And, it does. As I wrote above, we have escaped from savages and barbarians who haunt and taunt our people.

We have exploited much of the natural resources we possess—some successfully, others less so—but as luck would have it, we have even benefited from our ineptitude: from the venting of our natural gas resources to extracting it and refining it as an energy source, which at one point in time made us one of the world’s leading producers of LNG.

Some nationals among us have almost taken a delight in being witnesses to the demise of the country’s wealth. They roared with satisfaction as our gas production plunged downward, forcing the closure of other plants dependent on that industry. It’s almost like having our own personal cheer squad, made up of our own citizens, cheering us on as we plummet toward financial ruin; cheering a possible collapse of an industry in which we once held top ranking worldwide.

It is for this reason I held my position to write this column for my country, not my people. The usurpers in this country will bleed us dry and watch us suffer, with absolute delight, saying the catch phrase: “Trinidad is not a real place.”

I owe this lot no apologies, no regrets, and no praise. They are people devoid of emotion where their country is concerned. Patriotism is alien to some of them, and to others it is attached to the texture of their leader’s hair or the colour of their leader’s skin. I am not a hypocrite who will wish people like them well.

Worse, these are the citizens whose children carry in their heads no sense of history; and in their hearts, not an iota of loyalty, ergo patriotism. Their manners are absent—not a daily greeting or words of gratitude; just a sense of entitlement. They believe they own this country and they act accordingly.

I refuse to accept such disrespect and disregard towards a country that has been the source of wealth for many of these persons. They got free education, some up to tertiary level. In schools, they get free healthcare where other people around the world would pay for vaccinations, etc. We give them free meals and snacks while others their age in neighbouring America have to pay fees to their canteens to be fed a meal at lunch time; and if they don’t pay, they don’t eat. Their parents are among the most uncouth people in the world; so why do we expect different attitudes from their offspring?

Disrespect for the country and its other citizens is endemic. Their seniors teach them how to cuss their elders and how to insult officeholders whom they see as their enemies. This alters basic manners and respect that generations of Trinidadians have been instilled with. But a time will come when these same vile seniors will be walking or wheeling their merry way and some obnoxious youngster, maybe even a young policeman, will shout: “Why yuh eh keep yuh ol’ tail home!”

Nuff said.