Michael Als pulls a 'fast one' on
the Toco Community
Three Blind Mice - Gipsy, Panday and Michael Als
Toco people must have a say
Newsday September 6, 2000
By Petra George
The following is an open letter to Mr. Michael Als, Co-ordinator, Toco Foundation. Sir, so your decision to be a Big Fish in a small pond is about to pay off. Congratulations! I hope your meeting is well attended. In fact, I know it will be, even though a number of persons like myself will not be present. I could not have failed to observe the request of the numerous groups in the Constituency who have called upon you to make yourself available as a candidate in the upcoming General Elections. What is missing however is the name of the party.
My recollections at the inauguration of the Toco Foundation were that it would have been non-religious, non-sectarian, and non-political. This was to ensure that no one would be excluded. In fact, the general understanding was that an individual was free to pursue his/her religious, sectarian or political interest as an individual and whenever the interest of the community was involved, all groups would have been consulted. I ask Sir, are we on the same wave length?
The Toco Foundation was a most convenient vehicle for the ruling party to secure a toehold in the Toco Community and this they attempted. The party's success in that respect will soon be revealed but what I can say is that Toco has benefited.
My concern however, is why were not the Toco Old Boys and Girls and other community organizations used to achieve the same or even better results? Or is it a pattern of your party to establish parallel community organizations when they wish to have their friends strategically placed? At least no one can ever say that your friend Senator Wade Mark has forgotten his old friend.
As you proceed on your mission may I make these few suggestions. Since 90 percent of the persons attending will be URP job hopefuls bearing in mind the coming of the Christmas Season would it not have been more representative of your needs to have these people speak in their respective localities rather than give the impression that it is the Toco Foundation when we all know it is not so.
With such an expected large turnout to participate in this great debate would you be kind enough to give an account of the subventions and cash donations made to the Toco Foundation.
Tell all of us with ears to hear and eyes to see why have the Toco Lighthouse Park established a mere two years ago been allowed to deteriorate to such a disgrace.
Would you be so kind as to name the numerous interest groups who have made this call upon you to make yourself available as a candidate in the upcoming General Elections Sir. I know you will respond in the interest of the people of Toco and the nation at large.
More about Michael Als
Environmental piracy
A Project supported by Michael Als
Express Editorial
Sunday, July 23, 2000
AS reported in last Monday’s Express, the Toco Port and Ferry project has little to do with a ferry service to Scarborough. It is to be a large multipurpose port servicing oil tankers, cruise ships and the energy sector, complete with a longline fishing fleet—a US$71 million development.
But the unaudited Port Proposal’s assumptions of financial success are without foundation. The project is challenged as impracticable, unsustainable, uninsured and hazardous. It’s spurious claims, and its callous disregard for stakeholder and the environment are quite staggering. Despite opposition from Toco residents, the Government is falling over itself to implement it.
The effects on the marine environment in Toco will be devastating, regardless of what the developers’ own Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) might say.
The EIA, not carried out by an independent firm but by Toco Developers themselves, is flawed. It fails to meet the Terms of Reference of the Town and Country Planning Division—the environmental conditions required, by law, to be addressed before final planning approval.
But these days, proponents of major infrastructural projects don’t need final approvals—those can be overridden by Ministerial decree, as with Invaders Bay.
It simply doesn’t matter that developments like Toco Port, the Port of Spain Waterfront Plan, Invaders Bay, the Desalination Plant, and the Beetham Wastewater Treatment Plant have EIAs which do not address their true impact—or do not have EIAs at all. All will, in fact, have a severe impact on the surrounding environment.
Final approval by the Town and Country Planning Division was never given for Invaders Bay, nor as yet for the Desalcott plant which will return concentrated poisons and salt back to the Gulf of Paria; which now has a US$60 million loan and where work has already started.
This small country faces an environmental crisis under an administration that has dubbed this election year “E2K”, or “Year of the Environment”. The Environmental Management Authority’s (EMA) annual report was damning in its indictment of the environmental lawlessness taking place.
The EMA has no Board of Directors, and no teeth. The establishment of the Environmental Commission through the EMA Act seems far off. The Town and Country Planning Division is powerless to halt development which fails environmental and planning standards.
Meanwhile, fortunes stand to be made from the implementation of these mega-projects. This is a good time to be in the contracting and construction business, or to own or lease land along the north and east coasts of Trinidad, or in Tobago.
Toco’s proposed port is the vital corner piece of a jigsaw representing a much-changed Trinidad. A highway is planned to run through the Maracas St Joseph Valley, tunnelled through the mountains to Maracas Bay. A vast development on a Tobago Plantations scale is ready to roll in Las Cuevas. A super highway linking it to Toco is probably only a matter of time.
Think about the environmental cost to this small island bordered by a ring of tarmac, high-rise developments, ports and processing plants. Think about the people of Toco and Las Cuevas; the fishermen along the west coast. Think of your children and ask yourself—did anyone ask me?
The Toco Foundation
The Drum Beat
U.N.D.P. TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Project Fact Sheet
Remarks At The Launch Of Toco Foundation Trade Fair 2000
TOCO FOUNDATION ECOTOURIST PROJECT
Radio Toco - Trinidad & Tobago
HYPOTHESES AND THE PROBLEM OF ‘EXPLANATION’
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