The future we want

Recently I participated on ET's behalf in a CANARI hosted workshop intended to facilitate communications across the CSO divide. They separated us into groups each having to describe in fair detail, the way we'd like to see our communities by the year 2030. Unfortunately I was not delegated to speak on Tobago's (the group's) behalf, being late to the meeting. Due to a CAL enforced circumstance way beyond my control might I add.

The pithy offering of my Trinidad based colleagues, which spoke of easy/ier flight connections to the wider world, a solar powered grid, and possibly – I forget, a bespoke rainwater harvesting system, hit me all the more as to how perspectives vary. We who live in Tobago understand without doubt that should we live to see the year 2030, this place will in all probability not look at all different from 2018, or 1968 for that matter. Which is a pity really. The best 2030 vision has already been articulated quite nicely thank you House of Assembly in the mantra “Tobago – Clean Green Safe and Serene”. 

As they say, the language is out there, now its just the work. Guidelines such as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are all that's actually required if Tobago does want to buy in to the collective (global) thinking. That is actually the key imperative. And here I'll paraphrase ex-UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who noted, “we're the last generation that can effectively mitigate global warming”. Of course Tobago this rounds needs to see itself as a generation that has voice. Understandably this may be something hard to get to grips with given the age old failures of contributing to anything , be it airbridge, seabridge, bus service, policing or even the health and education sectors.

There's something else that happened to reinforce my negativity re: Tobago's Ultimate 2030. Yesterday, I was returning from cutting grass for my sheep and horses. It's a pretty idyllic labour of love that takes me to places off the beaten track. So here I'm coming out of the Courland Riverbank which flows through the old Pentland Estate, from which the WASA draws water for much of the densely populated Southwest. Turning onto the main road just near the Courland Bridge, under which a pristine looking stream flows to nourish the Turtle Beach estuary, I see this guy gulp the last bit of water from a plastic container which he then tossed onto the bank just above the stream. 

There wasn't much distance to separate us. Mere yards. Without thought I called out to the guy who looked at me. As I began berating him as per my norm, he in turn and surprisingly so shouted back smilingly in hail fellow well met mode. Turns out we meet regularly in pro-environment capacity enhancing and brainstorming sessions hosted by his employers the THA. Now this is a pretty educated individual. Well placed, often exposed,to all that Tobago needs to do to achieve the future the THA says it wants. It was then I had the revelation. Which you may want to stay tuned for. It'll require some reading.