Why did caroni diversify

He was onto the Master Gas Plan, the smelter economy. Take your filthy lucre and go! For smelter. He did not listen. Warning after warning after warning! The intelligentsia of La Brea rose up too. No Alutrint Smelter in La Brea! Did Mr Manning listen? One morning he moved with devastating hubris and destroyed 1, acres of forest, covered over three water-producing dams.

Once, he rode into the proposed smelter site on ceremonial business. The people shrieked and cried. The fishermen in Otaheite also rose up. Why did Mr Manning want to destroy their historical fish and shrimping grounds at the mouth of the Godineau River? For an industrial island?

Mr Seepersad, the head of the fishing association in the Othheite Bay said no way. Mr Manning sought to attack the Claxton Bay fisheries and mangrove system. For an industrial port. How many fires were lit, tyres burnt, pujas heard? To Mr Ragoo and Mr Sooknanan? Pranz Gardens in Claxton Bay was also placed in jeopardy.

One helluva big steel mill not 50 yards from the communities. The women warned. Miss Daisy, Samdaye, Radica. Craig, Ryan, and Stacy.

Mr Pooran. They made a temple, Maya, near the site. Gail Rajkumar had to go, for years, to court. The usual charges, resisting arrest, obstruction, using obscene language. And Carisal. Putting a mega chemical plant on the outskirt of 13 communities. More tyres, placards, camp and site occupation. Messrs Bhola, Rajkumar, Ramdath, Byjou. It was a quip. And Debe to Mon Desir. It was part of his megalomaniac dream of industrialization for the South West Peninsula and the West Coast.

The Master Gas Plan. Somebody had shown him, too, a template for Qatar, Kuwait. And he fell for it. In his weakness, passion for the grand. Two highways to Point Fortin, not one. And one of them, Debe to Mon Desir, a high-priced embankment, a barrier to the flow of water. A lagoon, a food economy, upon which towns and markets are built, relies on this flow.

Did he listen? One month before the General Elections in , his line minister, the Environmental Management Authority recklessly gave a certificate for Debe to Mon Desir. Without doing the relevant hydrological, social and economic studies Armstrong Report, Every single one of the projects above collapsed. Debe and Mon Desir and the entire highway extension project have collapsed.

Like the gas to liquids project. If these heavy gas-based industries had been built, where would we have been getting the gas to fuel them? Trinidad and Tobago cannot any longer be competitive in the global energy market. What terror, woe, trauma experienced by the communities!

Wayne Kublalsingh. Interesting indeed… I am starting to wonder what kind of magician Mr Manning was though: One morning he moved with devastating hubris and destroyed 1, acres of forest, covered over three water-producing dams. Geeze, rolls eyes. Much as I respect the commitment of Dr Kublalsingh, I have to point out the emotive nature of this very one-sided contribution.

And I want to point out that though I hold no brief for Mr Manning, governments sometimes have to make hard decisions in the light of the information that is available to them. Might the smelters not have been the start of the diversification away from the reliance on SALES OF gas and oil that so many lament has never happened? Ever since my days of Geography at school, we were taught that the sugar industry in TT was uneconomic.

It needed to use mechanical harvesters for example which would have put many people out of jobs. They preferred a product that was more expensive to produce rather than to rationalise the industry and make it self-sustaining. We see the result.

Raffique bringing me to tears with all this creamy factual goodness. Caroni Ltd: The gift that keeps on giving.

Yet we managed to make no money on all!! Great leadership! Prime Minister Rowley, be a builder not a destroyer! I think the Belizean people are very happy to export concentrate to us. So we go from being a net exporter of grapefruit to the United Kingdom to now every juice you see in a box, is concentrate…out of Belize. He noted that today Angostura has to grow 17, acres of sugar cane in Barbados to make up for a shortfall of molasses locally which would previously have been supplied by Caroni Limited.

Source: www. By Rhonda Krystal Rambally May 19, — guardian. He said his message for farmers or anyone involved in the sugar cane industry was that the Government could not be trusted at all. He said Caroni Ltd was the most precious opportunity for the Government. Much can and has been said about Caroni. Politics is perhaps the only entertainment the aloholics have to keep them entertained. Yes, the rum shop talk about Caroni continues.

The only difference now is the PP in charge of Caroni lands. Place in their hands is this mass of land that remains empty and unused. What is the PP plans for this land? Those who have eaten salt and rice and have labored in the hot sun were promise some of this land, but to date it remains out of their reach.

The PP needs to understand politics can be a 10 days job, today you are in and the next day out. The supporters of the PP should be given the respect they deserve, by giving them their due and ensuring that the folly of Panday is not repeated.

The remainder of the land should come under mass mechanized farming and some set aside for industrial park. When the PNM returns to power the only thing they would be doing is planting houses. Caroni has been a political football since it has been referred to as the breeding ground for opposition politics. It must never be dismissed that what Panday achieved for sugar workers was the start what Weekes was doing for oilfield workers legally through labour law.

To mull over the politics that transpired is a waste but to cite what was being quietly achieved is a must. Let it be known that natural sugar is in demand now because of the carcinogenic properties associated with aspartames etc. This would have saved us from the EEC and contracts entered in supplying sugar at set prices which was less than production costs Rampersad Plan. The question that needs to be asked is what went into production costs?

Managing director making 23 trips in one year to the UK 2 To enter into agricultural and industrial diversification Spence report simultaneously needed a strategic approach employing an education and symbiotic relationship whereby the Unions would be aware and understand that an agreement with the sugar company would be different than it was say Rum Division. Golden Glow was one of the best rums produced locally in the 60s. This submission is bias towards industrial diversification.

Rum Division, Buffalypso rearing, citrus production, Rice cultivation etc. This means that all satellite companies had to be their own Cost Centers. Mon Jaloux milk farming? In fact one student achieved his Masters in reaching JETT the by product from refined sugar manufacture as the syrup in making cordials, liqueurs from fruits e.

Keep in mind all local expertise. There was a plan in motion to get established a Quality Vinegar plant established at Caroni. Keep in mind no extravagant plant capacity but an incremental approach i.

Water from the river was taken in to the distillery and was then transferred into the rice cultivation area as an irrigant. The effluent was rich in nitrates, phosphates and potash natural fertilizer. The Rice project of Caroni in the 3 phases was on the threshold of producing 10,, lbs.