Callousness is contagious
Date: April 1st 2019
Dear Editor/Newsroom,
Another fisherman is missing and its business as usual almost as if some casualties are invisible. Every life matters but we act as though a fisherman is only half a citizen. Why this national silence? Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) sympathize with the family of Cpl Gerald James who for two weeks is missing at sea when his fishing vessel, (close to Gaspar Grande Island), capsized in the large wake of the speeding T&T Spirit. Although the “T&T Inter-Island Transportation Company” openly denied liability, the two surviving seamen confirmed that their vessel capsized as a result of its wake.
This is not the first time that the Government’s high powered ferries, operating in shallow waters at high speeds, have caused fatalities. For decades FFOS have pleaded to Ministers of Works and Transport and Directors of Maritime Services, that these high speed vessels be sent into deeper water and regulated at slower speeds.
FFOS publicly call on the Minister Sinanan to account to the public on our missing citizen. Is he dead or alive? Has there been any independent verifiable investigation? If not why not? Where is OSHA? Why this deafening silence? Would it be different if he were a millionaire or a politician? What is to happen to his family? Will any compensation be paid?
Our leaders are turning a blind eye and must not. What has our Government or the Ministry of Works and Transport done to prevent further mortalities and to ensure that any similar incident will never ever occur in our country’s history again?
Why this deafening silence as if Cpl James does not matter? Nationhood is more than a pretty flag. Nationhood means responding as one people to disaster even when it strikes the least of us, out in the remotest of seas. As we fly our flag we must pause to think about the fact that callousness is contagious!
FFOS continue to appeal for a well-lit right of way (ROW) with buoys, for long overdue legislation on speed and for enforcement. More lives will be endangered by this legislative vacuum, yet instead our Cabinet is busy writing legislation which will give them the right to torture and victimize independent Civil Society members like FFOS.
Our fellow citizen, our brother, one of us has disappeared leaving behind grieving children and a mourning family is left abandoned by uncaring public administrators. Unless each one of us makes our voices heard we fear that we will continue to lose our spirit of nationhood, patriotism and solidarity.
Sincerely,
Gary Aboud
Corporate Secretary
Fishermen and Friends of the Sea