It was so enjoyable to have attended the Grand Opening of this year’s Jazz Festival at the Mindoo Philip Park, which made me wonder why we seem to have chosen not to have entertainment and major sporting activity at that venue.
Granted that throughout the years, certain communities have been stigmatized, but we cannot continue to live in fear, or isolate, or have marginalized groupings of people based on hearsay. If we put the proper things in place, such as good security, upgraded facilities, better traffic management and good promotional support, things can go right.
No place is bad, it is just a few people in the community who give it a bad name.
Over the years, some of our politicians chose to downplay activity and development within the Castries basin, choosing instead to give development priority to the Northern part of the island. Granted that was then, but as we grow we cannot continue to neglect certain segments of our communities as we do at present.
We all need survival and to get opportunities regardless of location, be it in the city, towns villages or community. We can make the old new, we can create new purpose, we do not always have to reinvent the wheel, but we must forget our egos, and prejudices as well as our selfish endeavors to ensure that we serve all the people and avoid labeling them or putting them down, or denying them of privileges.
We should look to repurpose Mindoo Philip park, make it relevant to today’s needs, turn it into a multipurpose site for sporting, entertainment and leisure activity such as a kid’s recreational park.
The millions usually squandered, mismanaged, or redirected to selective projects can be used with positive intent, as there are many other outlets and buildings within the city circuit that can be repurposed, starting with the old Court House, the Government Printery, replacing some of the run-down CDC buildings with modern day activity and relevant projects.
We must stop thinking in the past, stop attending to only the selective needs of certain people, especially friends, family and foreign interests. Development should be about us all, no holes based no class discrimination or doing for only party supporters, because all of us are in this hell-hole together and we cannot continue to perpetuate this rat-race mentality.
Time to wheel and come again; give us new hope and a new lease on life, rekindle our love and brotherhood that we once had, be our neighbour’s keeper and lookout for each other while the Government of the day looks out for all of us.
If we want to give support to the many you need to think outside the box. Put your critical thinking caps on and be courageous, daring, and don’t be afraid to make unpopular decisions, and stop thinking about yourself for a change an change from only thinking of “me” to “us”.
For the people to prosper and progress there must be new ideas and we ought not to remain stagnant as we are at this moment in time. To get success you have to get up and do, strive to get a balance, be vital and absorb change and believe that better can come.
Our Tomorrow depends on what is done today.