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....especially since Sandals was recently fingered for breaches! not beaches
We need to be free... of outrages like NEPA
Friday, August 01, 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding makes several important points worth noting about the significance of today's Emancipation holiday, which marks the end of some 174 years of slavery.
"Being a free people means that we must respect each other's freedom and the right of every one of us to live peacefully and seek after our well-being," he says in today's edition.
His eloquent message, which speaks to the wisdom of treating the monstrosity that was slavery as an important reminder of where we are coming from and a testimony of our ability to triumph over adversity, is apt and reads nicely.
But history has demonstrated, time and time again, that things are easier said than done.
For in order for respect to flourish and facilitate the freedom that we purport to celebrate as a people, it must be unanimously adopted by the nation.
It cannot be demanded unless it is given; expected unless it is assured.
So it's all well and good, easy even, to set up agencies like the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to guarantee respect for the environment. Having done that, however, it is unreasonable to expect anyone to respect its judgement in the face of news that it operates under a directive not to prosecute other government agencies for breaches.
And if investigations by Mr Daryl Vaz, the minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister, should reveal that the agency has in fact been complying with such an obviously outrageous directive, then those currently in charge of it should be relieved of their jobs.
In fact, they should be cashiered on the same point of principle which would have made it evident to any self-respecting advocate of environmental integrity that the only response to such a directive could be a strongly worded resignation.
Otherwise, what's the point, really?
Can we expect the people of Ramble and other communities in Hanover who have been crying foul at NEPA's endorsement of the controversial Royale Rest cemetery so near to their water table to back down after such a revelation?
In fact, how can anyone be expected to respect anything that NEPA has to say after this?
We need a new NEPA, one that is staffed with people who can see the difference between right and wrong; people who are not so blinded by economic hardship that they are unable to take a morally correct stance on environmental issues that will guarantee sustainability for all of us in the long run.
Because contrary to the cynical adage, what we don't know can not only hurt us, it can, and will, kill us.
We need to be free... of outrages like NEPAFriday, August 01, 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding makes several important points worth noting about the significance of today's Emancipation holiday, which marks the end of some 174 years of slavery.
"Being a free people means that we must respect each other's freedom and the right of every one of us to live peacefully and seek after our well-being," he says in today's edition.
His eloquent message, which speaks to the wisdom of treating the monstrosity that was slavery as an important reminder of where we are coming from and a testimony of our ability to triumph over adversity, is apt and reads nicely.
But history has demonstrated, time and time again, that things are easier said than done.
For in order for respect to flourish and facilitate the freedom that we purport to celebrate as a people, it must be unanimously adopted by the nation.
It cannot be demanded unless it is given; expected unless it is assured.
So it's all well and good, easy even, to set up agencies like the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to guarantee respect for the environment. Having done that, however, it is unreasonable to expect anyone to respect its judgement in the face of news that it operates under a directive not to prosecute other government agencies for breaches.
And if investigations by Mr Daryl Vaz, the minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister, should reveal that the agency has in fact been complying with such an obviously outrageous directive, then those currently in charge of it should be relieved of their jobs.
In fact, they should be cashiered on the same point of principle which would have made it evident to any self-respecting advocate of environmental integrity that the only response to such a directive could be a strongly worded resignation.
Otherwise, what's the point, really?
Can we expect the people of Ramble and other communities in Hanover who have been crying foul at NEPA's endorsement of the controversial Royale Rest cemetery so near to their water table to back down after such a revelation?
In fact, how can anyone be expected to respect anything that NEPA has to say after this?
We need a new NEPA, one that is staffed with people who can see the difference between right and wrong; people who are not so blinded by economic hardship that they are unable to take a morally correct stance on environmental issues that will guarantee sustainability for all of us in the long run.
Because contrary to the cynical adage, what we don't know can not only hurt us, it can, and will, kill us.
