tidings
Newsday reporter
Assemblyman Watson Duke has identified the “real winners and losers” of the Tobago Carnival.
In a Facebook video on Monday, Duka said THA secretaries benefited the most from the October 28-30 festival.
“They were the real winners. After all, who else got free tickets, free food, free party? They were the winners.
“When I compare what the people of Tobago had to go through, I would say they were the losers, when you look at the amount of money they had to spend to go to Burna Boy’s party, about $800-$2000 a ticket. When they go there, some have to walk barefoot because the ground is muddy, they have to stand up in the rain with their umbrellas.
The Duke said the inaugural carnival was a failure after heavy rain caused a number of events to be cancelled.
“This whole carnival – failure, failure, failure. Allahu must count Allahu’s losses. Put your head Alyuh in shame and ask us for forgiveness. Allahu does not listen. Like the foolish man who built his house on sand, Allahu built a it’s raining at the carnival and I want to make money. Everything has failed.”
The Duke said it was all a disaster, as he pointed to power outages in parts of the island on the night of the Burna Boy concert.
“Was it that party that took out all the power? Or is T&TEC working extra hard to ensure the place stays on while Scarborough and the surrounding area are shrouded in darkness?”
He said the $17.5 million spent by THA on the carnival was wasted.
“When we look at the amount of money spent on carnival, the secretaries of THA, they spend money like water for carnival in the rainy season.”
He also criticized the $20 million contract awarded to Trinidad California Stucco Ltd to build the Smithsfield-Dutchfort link roads in Scarborough. The roads were officially opened last Friday.
“Now tell me, what kind of traffic does Tobago have that can’t be dispersed within ten to 20 minutes, when you see bad traffic, is someone badly parked, some truck coming off the boat. How does that road benefit when most of the carnival was not at Scarborough, but at Crown Point and elsewhere?”
He said the money could have been used to build retaining walls to help Tobagonians who had suffered damage from landslides in early October.
“They never took part in it. They just clean up the mess. Wipe it off and it’s gone – carnival in the air.
“It rained again at the carnival and some of those slides got worse and blocked the roads.”
He said the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) reported that 12 roads were blocked during the carnival.
The Duke also took another shot at the controversial sea scene at Rockly Bay, Scarborough.
“How many people dance in that scene in the sea? How beautiful was it? Is it something like the statue of Christ (Christ the Redeemer) in Brazil; the iconic figure of the Eiffel Tower; or something beautiful like the statue of Liberty?
“This sea scene, was it a work of art that says, ‘Look what we’ve done, come pose from this’?”
He said the location of the scene at sea, next to the I Love Tobago sign, was another faux pas, as it pales in comparison.
“Now the carnival is over, what will it be used for? For the cars to roll? How fast was it, how urgent, that you didn’t even get permission from the EMA?”
He also criticized Augustine for posting photos on his Facebook of soca stars Aaron “Voice” St Louis and Vincentian Skinny Fabulous.
“Those big guys at the dance. What about little Tobagonain looking a little ahead?”
He said the mandate of the PDP was to put Tobagonians on a pedestal and Augustine was not doing that.
