Vernon Daley

We criticise public officials rather harshly when they fall down on the job. That is how it should be. When people put themselves forward as public men and women to do a job of work it's reasonable to expect them to perform. If they don't, they should feel the sting of public discontent.

Doing a fine job

What we don't do often enough is congratulate them when they roll up their sleeves and make things happen. Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie is an example of a public official who has been doing a fine job since taking office in 2003.

He has been working very hard to bring some respectability to the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). For his efforts, he has got into several conflicts with business operators, residents and even the United States - through its embassy here.

The Mayor seems determined to ensure that people take the KSAC seriously and conform to the laws and regulations which are there to ensure good government at the local level.

Over this past weekend, he and his team were all over the Corporate Area tearing down billboards which had been illegally erected. The Mayor says he will now be turning his attention to cleaning up derelict and abandoned vehicles left on the streets.

These actions are relatively small things but they are very important because they carry a major psychological impact in creating a sense of order in the mind of the public.

Before Mayor McKenzie took up that job, it was hard to detect any sign of life in the KSAC under the People's National Party's Marie Atkins. I had always found it contradictory that the PNP claimed to be the party of local government and yet continued with Atkins in such an important job. What is really important is not what people say but what they do.

Bacchanal in T&T

It's real bacchanal in Trinidad and Tobago as the country makes its way to the November 5 general elections. The latest topic of heated public discourse is a claim that Prime Minister Patrick Manning owns a home in Germany.

The allegations have been made by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj who, it is said, was also responsible for revealing that former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday owned a house in London. Maharaj has spent the better part of the last decade bouncing between the two major political parties and, presumably, would know these things, but his credibility is far from intact.

At any rate, Prime Minister Manning has denied the allegations and dismissed them as a desperate attempt by the United National Congress Alliance (UNCA) to pull something out of the hat, days before the elections.

Then there was the trip made to South Africa last week by Panday and co-leader of the UNCA Jack Warner to visit Nelson Mandela. Speculation is rife that they were attempting to have the former President visit Trinidad to endorse the UNCA. Warner has denied this but since there is no word on what the "closed door meeting" covered, the speculation and rumours will live on.

Remittances

A recent study done by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) shows that Caribbean countries received some US$8.379 billion in remittances in 2006. The majority of that money went to the Dominican Republic, second was Jamaica with Haiti coming in next.

Jamaica received US$1.049 billion, which represented 18.3 per cent of its GDP. Grenada received US$162 million or the equivalent of 31.2 per cent of its GDP while St Vincent and the Grenadines raked in US$123 million or the equivalent of 26.4 per cent of GDP.

With that kind of money keeping the regional economy afloat it's little wonder that those in the Diaspora want a greater say in how the affairs of these countries are managed.