Fixing the Economy Part 1: Diagnosis

Introduction

First, Let me start this post with a little housekeeping. I know it's been a while since I last posted and I do apologise for that but it's due to me getting a job and not having as much time to write as I did in the past. Nevertheless, I will continue posting when I can its just that my posts would be less frequent and take longer than usual. I do thank you all for your continued patronage. So with that out of the way, let's get on with it. 

The economy of Trinidad and Tobago is not a healthy one. It suffers from inefficiency, a lack of diversification, wealth polarisation and quite a few other maladies. These factors have contributed to the economy presently being in a deep recession which we are unlikely to get out of in the near future. Poor decision making and a lack of productivity place the bulk of the blame squarely on the population. However there are external factors which contribute to the current state of the economy as well. In this post, I will examine the economy in detail and identify some of the problems facing it.

Economic Structure

In order to understand why the economy of Trinidad and Tobago is in the state it is, we must first understand how an economy works. The figure below (Fig. 1) is my personal model of how an economy is structured. Essentially, an economy is how we distribute the planet's finite natural resources for use by humans. The resources may be directly used in their raw state or manufactured further and have value added to them. Each activity relies on some combination of natural resources (derived from the environment) and labour (derived from people). The further along the value chain we get, the more labour and resources are required, thus increasing costs.

Figure 1:- Barindra's Model of the Economy

The Environment

Without the environment to provide the raw materials like air, water, metallic ores, hydrocarbons and so much more, we as humans cannot live and our economy cannot function. This is a fact that is often ignored in conventional economic models, but it is why environmental protection should be prioritized over economic development.Without the environment, there cannot be any people and no economy. This is why it is a focal point in my model.

Primary Economic Activity

Primary economic activities are extractive industries which mainly rely on the direct removal of natural resources from the earth as their main source of revenue. Examples of these include industries such as mining, fishing, farming and hydrocarbon exploration. They can be considered the first stage in the economic chain as there is little value addition at this stage. People may consume the products of these industries directly such as buying fish directly from the fishermen or they may be sold to secondary industries to be processed further.

Secondary Economic Activity
Secondary economic activities are manufacturing industries which process the raw materials extracted by primary industries, adding value to them. They produce refined goods for consumption by people and include industries such as food processing, car manufacturing or oil refining. Again, their products may be consumed directly by the people such as buying furniture from a factory outlet or they may be sold onto tertiary industries for further value addition.

Secondary industries are the so called, "sweet-spot," in the economic chain, it is where there is the best balance between cost of doing business (in terms of acquiring raw materials) and the selling price of finished goods. Therefore this is the stage of the process where you'd get the highest relative profitability in comparison to the others and usually where salaries tend to be the highest.

Tertiary Economic Activity

Tertiary economic activities refer to service industries which use products from both primary and secondary industries to provide a service to the consumer . These include retailers, hotels or airlines. They are often the final stage of the value addition process and where most consumers interact with the economy. Typically they are the most costly in terms of doing business and add the least value to the goods in the economic chain.

Quaternary Economic Activity

Quaternary economic activities refer to knowledge-based industries like IT and education which use technology to transfer knowledge and provide training to other industries. . Quaternary industries can be considered the ultimate stage in the economic process because it typically cannot occur until the other three have been carried out. Skills and knowledge cannot be attained without first doing the work that needs to be done to learn them in the first place.

People

People refer to the producers and consumers in the economy who conduct trade and provide the labour that drives it. Without people, there would be no economy. It's our demand for goods and services that keeps the economy going.It's our willingness to trade our labour in the form of work for these goods and services that drives the economy.

In order for the economy to work, people need to contribute to it through labour and the economy needs to provide people with the resources they need through salaries in exchange for that labour. Contrary to beliefs of your typical psuedo-marxist, work is not slavery, it is a means of helping your fellow man to live by doing your part to ensure that we can all get what we need to survive. I am not saying the system is perfect and I will admit that capitalism, originally designed to give the common man power through his spending, has instead become corrupted as a means to keep a few wealthy people in power at the expense of the many. But the core purpose of work was and still is to provide yourself and your community with the means of survival. It was true in early nomadic hunter-gather tribes and is true in today's modern economy of specialisation. Humans have to work to survive, plain and simple, life is not going to give you anything without effort.

The economy is a natural result of our desire to survive. So long as humans require and extract resources from the earth to live, we will have an economy of some kind, be it a socialist, communist, capitalist, resource-based, feudal or some other kind of model, we will always have an economy.

Value Addition

Value addition is the process by which the economic value of a good is increased through a particular process. This process could mean manufacturing such as using raw peanuts to make peanut butter, which will fetch a higher price or it could mean providing a service such as a high end restaurant using the resources to provide an exquisite dining experience. Value addition is whatever in the mind of the customer, increases the perceived value of the goods, and therefore the price they are willing to pay. Typically there is an inverse relationship between value addition and labour intensity and costs but the cost of doing business also tends to increase at each stage of economic activity because the cost of raw materials acquisition tends to be higher due to value addition along the chain.

For example, farmer Joe grows cassava which he then harvests himself with the aid of his family, this is a primary activity. He then sells the cassava to Maurice who owns a factory which makes cassava chips (a secondary activity). Maurice's factory cuts, cooks and packages the cassava adding value to it. The finished chips are then sold to Brent's supermarket where customers purchase it for consumption, this is tertiary activity. Brent, Maurice and Joe as well as their employees all required some degree of education and skills to do their jobs and thus had to attend school to learn these skills which were developed over decades of experience in the industry. This is quarternary activity.

Regulatory Forces in the Economy

Taxation and Regulation

Contrary to the beliefs of many conservatives and libertarians, taxation is not theft and regulations do not exist to stifle innovation. In principle, they are means of ensuring that order is maintained in society through the manipulation of wealth distribution and setting reasonable limits on human behavior. Taxation is not supposed to be about taking from the rich and giving to the poor in some misguided attempt to achieve social justice and it is not about punishing people for making money. It is simply the state doing what it is supposed to and keeping order in society. Regulations are not about placing limits on people or slowing innovation, they exist to make sure individuals do not do things which are detrimental to the collective.

We humans have proven time and time again that if we do not have some sort of regulatory force be it the law, religion or some other form of regulation to keep us in line we tend to destroy each other. This is why taxation and legislation exists, to make sure too much resources do not end up in the hands of too few people and lead to society collapsing or to make sure that individuals behave in an acceptable manner
.
Now granted, the system of taxes and regulations need to be administered properly and by competent individuals who understand the ramifications of the decisions they make. So not Trini politicians in other words. Certainly in Trinidad and Tobago, the taxation and regulatory systems are woefully inadequate and are in dire need of updates. But the principle of taxation and regulation is to help keep order in society and to help fight the innate human tendency to act selfishly and to the detriment of his fellow man.

Economic Growth, the Environment and Resource Constraints

In most economic textbooks, you will see this notion that capital is what drives an economy, with it being considered a separate concept for natural resources (referred to as land in conventional economic thought). Land, labour and capital are the three ingredients of economic activity in conventional economics. However, the reality is that capital and land are essentially the same. Capital is simply representative of natural resources, which are finite, making capital also finite. 

While your economy can grow, it cannot grow infinitely because we have finite natural resources to feed that growth. If you hit your resource limit and still continue to expand, then you get what I would like to call, "false growth." Essentially, this means that if looked at from a pure capital standpoint, the economy is growing BUT the amount of resources available are not so the individual value of each dollar drops, leading to inflation. Infinite growth cannot take place in a finite system, something which is not really understood by contemporary economists.

The Market (People)

The final regulating force in the economy is the market. The market is another regulating force in the economy and the only one often actually considered in contemporary economic models. The market dictates how the resources extracted from the environment are manufactured and used by society. If the market demands a good, then the economy would provide that good within the limits of technological and resource constraints. For example, current technology can produce cars, cleaning products and televisions to satisfy demand, but it cannot produce faster than light space travel or reverse aging because even though there is a demand for this, technology cannot produce it yet. So while it certainly is a determining factor, it is not the only one as conventional economics would suggest.

Trends in the Trinidad and Tobago Economy

GDP

Take a look at this graph from the world bank of the GDP of Trinidad and Tobago from 1960-2016. You could see that there was slow but steady growth post-independence in the 1960's towards the 1980's. Then there was an economic recession in the 1980's which the country recovered from in the 1990's. Since then, there was high growth which all came to a peak of US$27.87 billion in 2008, and then declined sharply the following year most likely due to the global economic recession at that time. Since 2009, the economy recovered slightly with steady GDP growth up until 2013, following which GDP began to decline again all the way up to last year (2016) where it stood at US$20.989 billion. This recent decline is due to a drop in global oil prices which Trinidad and Tobago's economy is heavily dependent on. It shows how a lack of economic diversity and dependence on one particular activity can hurt a country. Our economic health is heavily tied to the global oil price, a precarious position to be in especially given the long-term decline of the fossil fuel industry with the advent of substitutes like renewable energy technology.

GDP per Capita

Look at this graph of GDP per capita growth from the world bank for Trinidad and Tobago. Notice that after an all time high in 2003 (when oil prices were skyrocketing) there has been a general downward trend in GDP per capita growth, with negative growth being experienced in the past several years. This shows that economic growth has been unsteady and erratic at best and is indicative a very unhealthy and poorly managed economy. We have not been able to achieve steady growth for any significant period of time.

Specific Economic Issues

Small Size

In both a demographic and geographic context, Trinidad and Tobago is a small country. This means that it has a small market with limited demand to drive its economy. This makes it difficult for firms to establish themselves here and grow because the market's small size means that there is limited demand for products, meaning that it would only support a limited level of economic activity to satisfy this demand.

This translates into less jobs for the population because our economy simply doesn't have enough demand to support it. Factor in competition from trans-national corporations for the few services that our economy can actually profitably support, and the lack of natural resources and high labour costs making it harder for the local firms to compete in international markets to expand and generate jobs for the local populous, and the economy is further disadvantaged.

Lack of Natural Resources and A High Dependence on Imported Goods

As stated above and contrary to the beliefs of many economists, natural resources and not capital are what drive an economy. A lack of them can directly affect an economy's productivity and the amount of jobs it creates. Trinidad and Tobago, due to its small size and geography has limited natural resources to drive its economy. While it is more resource rich than some of its' neighbours, the amount of resources available to drive economic activity in the country are paltry in comparison to larger nations.

This lack of natural resources means that in order to grow its economy, the nation would have to import resources like raw materials for factories or food for its population because it either cannot produce them at all locally, or cannot produce enough to satisfy demand locally. The issue with this is that it significantly drives up the costs of production for any good produced in the country, and therefore the market price, making local firms less competitive in a global marketplace. Generally speaking, the closer a manufacturer is located to its raw materials, the lower its costs of production due to lower shipping costs.

Now we do have a significant amount of hydrocarbon resources and have certainly capitalized on these in the past. But recent market trends have led to reduced income for the country from this avenue and the production and extraction has not been the most efficient due to other factors. This has created an international trade deficit of sorts where the country exports less than it buys in imports leading to a crisis for foreign exchange. This forex shortage means that our manufacturers cannot buy raw materials to run their operations and thus have to scale back or stop production. Basically, our entire economy is either directly or indirectly dependent on one sector, and this has led to the current recession.

Globalisation and, "Free," Trade

Free trade is touted as an egalitarian concept which will drive the world forward in a spirit of economic co-operation. Proponents of free trade paint rosy pictures of trade leading to increased economic growth and improved consumer choice and options globally. While this is true in some cases, in small economies like ours, free trade can actually hamper economic growth.

How, you may ask? Well a small local economy means that you would naturally also have small local companies with limited economies of scale and higher costs than companies in larger economies. So when companies from those larger economies like the US, Canada, China and Europe come into our country to do business, they tend to out-compete local firms and may even drive them out of business. This can significantly lower the type, quantity and quality of jobs available on the local market and lead to capital flight, which means that there is less capital for investment in the local economy.

Now proponents of free trade will argue that these companies also create jobs in the local economy and pay taxes as well, but is this necessarily better for our economy than local firms? Because they typically don't do any sort of manufacturing or value addition here, rather importing finished products to the market from factories abroad, these companies tend to only create a small amount of low-paying, unskilled service jobs. They also will not pay as much taxes as a local firm with the bulk of its operations based here, proportional to their income as they simply pay taxes for the portion of their production process which operate in our economy i.e. import taxes and local sales taxes etc. A local firm with more of their production process based in the country would generate much more tax revenue per dollar earned and will create higher paying, skilled jobs leading to higher standards of living for their employees.

This is why free trade is actually a bad thing for Trinidad and Tobago, because we tend to have the trade gradient stacked against us with most of our partners. Their firms are larger, better capitalised and can destroy local competition with ease. They could also leverage their larger size and lower unit costs to, "dump," produce at lower prices onto the local market as well. This process known as dumping is illegal in many countries but we don't really have anti-dumping legislation in this country to prevent it.

International regulatory bodies such as the World Trade Organisation while claiming to be interested in open and fair trade, tend to rule in favour of larger countries and maintain this advantage. Protectionism is needed in the local market to help keep local firms from being overwhelmed by foreign competition and to help protect local jobs. But the WTO will vehemently oppose any protectionist measures we try to implement and it is likely to create an international incident if we make an effort to do so. Therefore they need to be very carefully implemented so as not to upset them.

Colonialism

Like most of the now independent countries in the Western Hemisphere, Trinidad and Tobago was once a colony of a European power. While both islands have changed hands between Spanish, French and British rule during their history, at the time of independence and for most of their history, the islands were under the control of Britain.

Like most of its other colonies, the British used Trinidad and Tobago to grow crops for export, mostly sugar. This has left the country with the economic legacy of colonialism where most of the economic activites were primary industries with little value-added production (and thus little wealth creation) taking place in the country. Most of the raw materials were shipped to the metropole to be manufactured with the finished products being re-imported into the country for sale. As discussed above, the crucial secondary economic activity is where most of the profit is made on the economic chain, so this process essentially sapped the wealth out of the country.

This was a concept Lloyd Best termed the, "Muscovado Complex," a reference to muscovado sugar, which followed the same concept with the sugar cane being grown in the islands and being exported for processing to the metropole and then the finished products being re-imported for sale in the local market.

Because of this mentality, post-colonialism many former colonies were left with a distinct lack of manufacturing industries, the stage of the model where there is the best balance between value addition and cost of purchasing raw materials. There have been various schemes to help grow these industries here, but they have had limited success.

Compared to its Caribbean neighbours though, Trinidad and Tobago does have a larger amount of manufacturing industries but they tend to not operate on a scale needed to be internationally competitive, or be crippled by high costs. Additionally, manufacturing has suffered somewhat given the local economic decline.

Hostile Environment for Start-ups

Start-up companies tend to revitalise the economy of many countries, leading to increased innovation and eventually economic diversification and growth. Corporate giants like Google, Amazon and Uber were once plucky little startups with innovative business concepts. They succeeded in the marketplace and brought us new business models which other's have tried to emulate.

Given these examples it should be noted that any country needing to diversify and grow it's economy (like T&T) should aim to encourage their citizens to start up businesses and innovate. However, the environment for start-ups in the country can be described as hostile.

The lack of infant industry protections and restrictions in the local market open the door to ruthless competition from large foreign and local firms which can quickly crush a small local start-up company. The government systems here are needlessly complicated and bureaucratic and corruption runs rampant. Our financial institutions also tend to be unscrupulous and draconian when it comes to lending so it becomes difficult for businesses to secure start up capital. These factors make starting a business here very difficult and risky thus many people are deterred from doing so.

The few businesses that do start up tend to be in the service industries and focus mainly on serving the local populous with no focus on innovation or manufacturing and are usually import orientated not export orientated so their net effect on the country's aggregate income is negative. Service industries tend to rely on imports which burn up foreign exchange reserves. This is another reason why we need to start encouraging manufacturing industries, which are more export orientated so they will bring in revenue for the country. This is because while they sometimes have to bring in imports for raw materials, they bring in more revenue from exports because their operations add value to those imports, increasing their export value.

But there hasn't been much of a push to develop these kinds of manufacturing industries and the ones we have are currently struggling due to a lack of foreign exchange or due to government mismanagement and other factors.

Poor national work ethic

Discipline, Tolerance and Production are the rather ironic watchwords of Trinidad and Tobago. The populous could be described as the exact opposite of them being highly undisciplined, intolerant and unproductive. The poor work national work ethic has contributed to the failure of many private and public institutions. Workers in this country, particularly in the public sector, exhibit a type of, "reverse capitalism," where they attempt to exploit the organisation for the most they can get out of it with the least amount of work possible.

The typical Trinidadian, "worker," will commute to their job, often arriving late, do the absolute minimum required of them, take their lunch break on schedule regardless of what task they have in progress, come back, again do the bare minimum amount of work required then promptly leave when their day is over. There is no extra effort expended, no drive to improve themselves. They will not give their employer anything more than the absolute minimum. If they see a problem, or anything that needs improving in the organisation the typical line of thought is, "not my job."

As you could imagine, this type of mentality does not bode well for the economy and is partially why we are falling behind economically. Our own laziness has worked against us and quite frankly this needs to change otherwise we won't be going anywhere.

Lack of Innovation

Closely related to poor national work ethic is a lack of innovation in the local populous. Trinidadians lack the ability to innovate, with the business landscape here being a reflection of that. As mentioned before, most of the privately owned businesses here are services which simply import and sell goods from foreign manufacturers. The few manufacturing industries we do have are either state-run and incredibly inefficient and thus are unprofitable or not revolutionary at all. There is a distinct lack of invention of new products for the global market.

This creates a problem as it means that Trinidad and Tobago doesn't have anything unique to offer the global marketplace, making us vulnerable to competition. There is no industry or service we can monopolise or lead to provide us with a competitive advantage because we don't innovate as much as other countries. We could easily be under-priced by firms from much larger nations and thus be rendered noncompetitive on the global marketplace. Our local market alone simply isn't enough to support our industries and does not bring in enough foreign exchange.

Inefficiency

As one could imagine given the poor work ethic and lack of innovation of the populous, Trinidad and Tobago is a very inefficient country. Inefficiency is evident in the public sector with needless bureaucracy, lack of technological adaptation and unwillingness to change archaic procedures. You see it when you have to submit mountains of paperwork to government institutions to access services which could easily be shifted on-line. You see it with over-staffing of public sector institutions which cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year. You see it when you have to wait for hours at the public hospitals to access simple services. You see it when poor infrastructure leads to traffic gridlocks every morning. I could go on, but you get the picture. Inefficiency is the norm in this country.

For example, a simple act of renewing a driver's permit took hours the last time I did it because of the inefficiency in the system. I had to show up early to the licensing office, fill out a paper renewal form, get in line to hand this form to one person, then join another line at the cashier to pay the application fee, then submit the form and wait for hours on end until they called my name so I could go into the single photo booth to have my picture taken and licence printed with the transaction being logged on paper. The entire process took about five hours.

Why can't the entire system be shifted to an electronic, integrated IT-based solution? Instead of going into the licence office, why can't I just submit an application online, have a software application check it against a database of driver's permits to ensure that it isn't fraudulent then be issued an appointment to come in.Why can't I pay the fee online using my credit or debit card or a direct deposit from my bank account? Why,  instead of going to three different people to pay, submit and take photographs can't I just walk in to one person having paid and submitted my application online already, have my picture taken and licence printed within minutes and be in and out quickly? This isn't rocket science, it can easily be accomplished with existing technology. But we prefer to stick to archaic ways rather than innovate.

While they are certainly better than the public sector institutions, the private sector is also prone to inefficiency. However in their case, it is more due to a lack of investment in newer technologies and innovation than bureaucracy. Business owners are often unwilling to invest in technology to improve their business' efficiency either due to the high cost, technophobia, excessive greed or some combination of these factors. This makes private-sector firms in this country operate at higher costs than they need to, often to the detriment of consumers.

Don't believe me, well lets look at the banks here for example. Trinidad and Tobago banks are notorious for their fees. They see it as an easy means to increase their already substantial profits and their customers are the ones who suffer for it. Yet they have not taken simple steps which could reduce operating costs to improve efficiency. For example, why not give customers the option to go paperless, switching to online banking only? By doing this you reduce your costs substantially because you would not have to pay to print and mail out statements and bills to customers, would require less staff and less time to process transactions. It isn't that innovative, banks in foreign countries have done it. But no, we shall stick with the older system and let our customers pay the price for our inefficiency.

Inefficiency is a cancer to our economy, raising costs higher than they need to be and making us less competitive. It is tied to our poor work ethic and unwillingness to innovate. Unfortunately the situation seems to not be changing anytime soon.

Lack of Economic Diversity

When one mentions the Trinidad and Tobago economy to a foreigner, the first word that is likely to roll off their tongue is oil. Hydrocrabon exploration has been the main activity in our economy for decades. Many local companies depend directly on the hydrocarbon industry (oil extraction and manufacturing companies) and many others depend on the profits from the oil industry (service industries which cater to the needs of people and rely on the profits from oil to import goods and sell them to the population). Even the government relies heavily from the revenues they gain from taxation of oil exports to support government programs.

Heavy dependence on a particular economic activity is not a good thing. It leaves you vulnerable to external shocks in the industry and you run the risk that a single industry specific issue will cripple your entire economy. This actually happened to Trinidad and Tobago recently with the drop in oil prices. The low global oil prices triggered a recession, and led to a large number of job losses and a few companies shutting down. This is what happens when you depend too much on one economic activity.

Many academic experts in Trinidad and Tobago have been screaming their lungs out at the governments and population for the past few decades warning them of this exact scenario and a pressing need to diversify the economy. But despite paying it a lot of lip service, there was little done on the part of the government or private-sector to diversify the economy further. Rather than invest the profits from hydrocarbons into diversification efforts, we squandered them away on wasteful and needless social programs or shipped them abroad into foreign bank accounts held by the elites in society. There was no real effort to seriously invest in new industries and thus we are paying the price for it now.

High Dependency Ratio

The dependent portion of the population refers to those individuals who rely solely on the economic contributions of others for their survival. These include children, retirees, disabled and unemployed or institutionalised individuals. They may receive their support through formal programs run by the state such as disability grants, unemployment benefits or pension plans funded by taxpayers' contributions or through informal means such as parents giving their children allowances.

From an economic standpoint, dependent population members fit the definition of parasites in the field of biology. They take from the system without contributing to it in return and often cause harm to it. Now while this may not be their own faults, it is what it is. Dependent populations are a drain on the country's economy. Now while some segments of the dependent population, like children, could be viewed more as an investment as with education and a proper upbringing they can grown up to be contributors to the economy, the other sectors represent a tremendous opportunity cost. Money spent on social benefits like pensions and other grants is money not spent on economic growth, and further innovation.

Trinidad and Tobago has a high dependency ratio. This is no doubt related to our poor national work ethic and general laziness. We have a large sector of our population living off of welfare and it creates problems for us. Our governments have done a lot to provide for the population through social programs largely to secure votes and not because of altruism. While this is certainly acceptable and should be encouraged in rich states with healthy economies, we cannot support these programs here given our economic climate. Our economy does not generate enough money through taxation and economic activity to support all these wasteful programs.

The result? We have an inefficient, undiversified economy and a mountain of debt as we have had to borrow to keep the welfare programs going.  Additionally, we have also sapped labour and stiffed innovation out of the economy by removing incentives for people to get out and work and innovate. Our social safety net is now more like a hammock. What these programs have essentially done is drain resources out of the economy and wasted it which should have instead been invested back into the economy to grow and diversify it, further slowing growth. Additionally, many of these social programs suffer from inefficiency and corruption which inflate their cost to the nation, further increasing their drain on the economy.

Now while I do personally believe that a government does have the duty to provide for it's citizens through social programs and indeed social safety nets are critical to any modern, developed nation, this has to be balanced with proper economic management. The economy provides the resources and capital to fund these programs and thus care needs to be taken not to extract too much capital from it to fund them. Moreover, if people become too dependent on social support systems and refuse to do their fair share of work to contribute to society, it can lead to the collapse of the entire system.

Because of our high level of dependency, Trinidad and Tobago has been forced to do exactly this and we are now suffering because of it. Future generations will be burdened by the debt we incurred to keep these programs running. We desperately need to reduce our dependency ratio and tighten up on these programs should we wish to prosper in the future. But again this is unlikely as politicians will lose votes if they do so.

Militant Trade Union Movement

So what do a poor national work ethic, high level of welfare dependency and lack of innovation lead to? Well they lead to a lazy, entitled, individualistic, small-minded, short-sighted population which tries to drain as much from the economy and give as little back as possible. Perhaps the ultimate expression of this in the local context has to be the militant trade union movements which operate in this country.

The trade union movements operate in a similar manner to terrorist organisations. They routinely hold the country hostage through strikes and slowdowns if their often ridiculous and unreasonable demands are not met. There have unconfirmed been reports of them harassing employees who break picket lines and generally they behave in a rowdy manner.

Politicians tend to leave them alone as they rely on union members to vote them into power so it is unlikely that any sort of legislation will be passed or any kind of action taken to bring the trade union movement under control. So we as the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are at the mercy of these terrorists, and have no choice but to bend to their whims. We get commodities such as fuel and cement only if they are happy and we have to pay greatly inflated costs for these commodities either directly or indirectly through taxpayer funded subsidies or funding to state enterprises due to the unreasonably high salaries and benefits paid to union members. But at least the workers are happy.

Poor Investment Decisions by Local Entrepreneurs 

This was touched on previously, but poor investment decisions are partially to blame for the state of our economy. Local entrepreneurs instead of investing in manufacturing industries which can earn foreign exchange through exports, they have mostly invested in service industries like restaurants and supermarket chains which actually burn foreign exchange because most of the goods they produce are manufactured outside of Trinidad and Tobago.

Importing finished goods is more costly than importing raw materials because most of the value addition activities would have taken place prior to that, thus driving up the comparative cost of finished products versus raw materials. Moreover, this would mean lower salaries for employees as in order to remain profitable given their high acquisition costs, employers would have to reduce their operating cost to a bare minimum. Lower salaries will mean less money circulating in the economy, and thus less consumption and economic growth.

What this trend of investment has done is create a severe polarity in the distribution of wealth in society with a few wealthy elites at the top and the majority of the population living paycheck to paycheck. The low salaries these entrepreneurs tend to pay their employees are seldom enough for them to do anything more than survive. Forget about investing in the economy though financial institutions, they typically do not have the disposable income to do so.

Most of the manufacturing industries locally which do provide high-paying, skilled jobs are controlled by the state but state-run enterprises typically do not generate a profit and their net effect on the economy is to drain it of capital and worsen the wealth polarisation by allowing their workers to become rich through inflated salaries at the expense of the taxpayers.

Conclusion


So these are some of the major problems plaguing the Trinidad and Tobago economy. As we can see, things are a bit dismal at the moment and the general mood of the populous is one of pessimism. It will take quite a lot of work to remedy these issues but it is vital that we make the sacrifices now and fix them as they will work to our detriment in the future. They are certainly no easy fixes and I do not pretend to have all the answers, but in my next post, I will give my proposed solutions to these problems.

Thanks for Reading,
Barindra

The Economic Oppression of the Educated Trinidadian Youth

Introduction

Before I begin with the post, I'd just like to bring your attention to a change in format I've made to the blog as of this post. Instead of placing in-text citations and a reference list at the end as with previous posts, I've embedded links in the text to references instead. I find this to be a much more suitable format for referencing given the media used and will be implementing it in future posts for all reference articles I used which are publicly available online. If I reference print media where I only have physical copies, I will use the old style of referencing with citations and a reference list at the end. So with that little piece of housekeeping aside, let's get on with the post. 

The first three posts on this blog focused on outlining the political system of Trinidad and Tobago, showing how it disadvantages the educated youth of the nation and recommending changes to the system to correct its deficiencies. The next round of posts will focus on the economy of Trinidad and Tobago and follow the same basic formula. So this first post will outline how the economy of Trinidad and Tobago has contributed to the oppression of the educated youth in Trinidad and Tobago, with the subsequent posts zeroing on specific issues and proposing solutions to them.

Economic oppression refers to the denial of the rights of individuals to participate in the economy or denial of fair economic treatment. It can take the form of low wages, discriminatory hiring practices, denial of equal opportunity or forced labour.

For the young people of this country, the economic situation can best be described as depressing. We are the unfortunate beneficiaries of decades of economic mismanagement, globalisation and the laziness and ignorance of our forefathers. The economic situation is so bad in this country that many of us are unsure if we would be able to earn enough money to survive and have a bleak outlook on our futures. Let us examine the specific economic issues faced by the educated youth which have led to this mindset.

Lack of Suitable Employment Opportunities

The employment situation for the educated youth in general is dismal to say the least. There is an enormous lack of opportunities here for us forcing many to either accept underemployment or to remain unemployed. Now this has quite a lot to do with our geography and history but our people do share a large percentage of the blame when it comes to historical investment and economic policy. This is something we'd look at in greater detail in a subsequent post.

Underemployment refers to a situation where a person is employed for a job which does not adequately utilise their skills or expertise. This simply means that highly-qualified people are working jobs that don't require their qualifications. We see it here where people with degrees are forced to take low-paying, unskilled positions which they could have gotten without going through three to four years of university , meaning that they essentially wasted their time and money getting a degree. This can be an extremely distressing situation for ambitious young people to find themselves in and can lead to disillusionment and a host of psychological problems and even suicide in some cases.

Moreover as most tertiary education here is paid for by the government using taxpayers' dollars, this is wasteful from a fiscal standpoint as well. Why are we spending money to train people for positions that do not require their expertise or skills? You do not need a management degree to be a secretary or a finance degree to work at a fast food outlet. Either provide proper opportunities for the educated people when they graduate or stop funding degrees which obviously have no use to our society. Its a tremendous opportunity cost to the nation. All that the government is doing is setting up university graduates for disappointment and in some cases hardship because as will be discussed later on, a degree can actually hinder your ability to get a job.

As terrible as underemployment is, it is still preferable in the opinion of many than unemployment. Unemployment appears to be becoming a disturbing norm among recent university graduates, with many failing to find any job at all. The fact that the economy of Trinidad and Tobago is also presently in a recession due to poor economic policies and a drop in oil prices is not helping the situation. Many recent university graduates are unsure of what to do with their lives, having fired salvo after salvo of resumes into the job market with not even a response. Many have been unemployed for years which can be highly distressing, particularly if you do not have the means to support yourself otherwise. It is clear that the educated youth of this nation are uncertain about their futures and have lost all confidence in the economy to provide them with a means of survival.

It is a feeling I know all too well, where after weeks upon weeks of combing through recruitment advertisements you finally find a vacancy which you can apply for because you meet the requirements. You painstakingly craft your resume and cover letter to make it sound as professional as possible so you would have the best chance of getting a job. You mail or email it in along with the required documentation and then sit and wait. You just wait for weeks with no response not even an acknowledgement of receipt. Eventually you have to assume that you did not get the job and start the cycle all over again. So many of us have been going through this for months even years in some cases. The toll it can take on you psychologically is immense. To my fellow educated youth who are experiencing this situation, don't give up. I know the urge is strong but please keep fighting there are others like you out there, support each other through it.

National Service Obligations

Many of the educated youth have received financial assistance for their tertiary education expenses from the government through scholarships or programs like GATE. A stipulation often appended to this assistance is that the individual in question must complete a certain period of national service where they must work in either the public or private sector in Trinidad and Tobago or repay the government should they wish to pursue opportunities elsewhere. While initially this may seem fair, it has served to disadvantage many educated young people.

The local economy simply does not generate enough jobs for the population due to several factors including its size, lack of resources and competition from multi-national corporations. Therefore national service obligations essentially trap the educated youth in an impossible situation. They cannot find jobs to pay off their national service obligations and cannot afford to pay back the government because they have no money due to their lack of a job so therefore cannot leave the country to pursue opportunities elsewhere. This means that we have to sit and wait here until someone chooses to hire us. It is a good example of the poorly thought out policy decisions which have worked to our detriment in this nation.

The government has essentially taken our ambition and used it against us. Financial assistance has served as a means of ensuring reduced opportunity and quality of life for educated individuals because it is believed that we should stay and contribute to the country. Of course we would like to contribute to the country's development, but how are we to do that if we cannot get suitable jobs or get into positions of influence to use our skills and expertise to help solve the country's issues? When this legislation was being drafted did no one see the flaw in the plan? Or was it a deliberate mechanism to try to prevent the fabled, "brain-drain?" Look if you want to stop your educated people from leaving maybe try providing better opportunities for them so they would want to remain of their own free will. I'm just saying that might work better than legally bullying us to stay here.

Furthermore if one tries to escape one's obligations, the government can take legal action against you to make you repay the money you owe. This may decimate you financially and potentially destroy your personal and professional reputation so you run a huge risk if you try to do this. This happened recently when a scholarship winner was forced to pay back three million dollars through the court system because he did not return to the country to complete his national service obligations. If you cannot find a suitable job here then why should you not be free to pursue one elsewhere? Just because you had the misfortune of being born within a particular imaginary border drawn on the surface of the earth doesn't mean you have any obligation to that particular imaginary border.

Furthermore, it is actually financially beneficial for the government to let young people go abroad and work. They have families here and will repatriate funds from foreign countries through them, bringing in much needed foreign exchange for the nation. Maybe the government needs to start looking at it from that perspective rather than trapping the youth here and preventing them from reaching their full potential simply because of a false sense of national entitlement.

Nepotism and Corruption

The tribal nature of our society was discussed at length in my posts about the political system in Trinidad and Tobago. People are often favoured or discriminated against based on ethnicity, partisan affiliation, religion, gender and other factors. Tribalism also extends into the job market as well. Many positions in Trinidad and Tobago, especially in the public sector, are filled by political appointees. A lot of people either get their jobs because they belong to a particular ruling party which happens to be in power at the time or have some affiliation with a person holding a position within an organisation already. Sometimes, particularly in the public service, people are placed in positions solely to do the bidding of the dominant political party and not because of their suitability to the position.

As you could imagine, this ensures that incompetent individuals end up with jobs they cannot effectively do, to the detriment of their organisation and by extension the country as a whole. It also works to frustrate and demean talented, educated individuals who rightfully deserve those positions and would get them if they were appointed solely on the basis of merit. There are numerous examples of this occurring throughout our history. It seems that tribal affiliation always trumps actual expertise and qualifications here.

Even if by some miracle you manage to get a job in the public service based on your qualifications, it is likely that should the ruling political party lose the election, you will also lose your job because the new regime would desire to place their own people in positions of power. This means that despite how hard you worked while there and how qualified you are, you could still be fired simply because someone with the right connections wants your job.

This infantile mentality of selecting friends, relatives or party hacks over properly qualified individuals has not worked to the benefit of the country and as such needs to stop immediately. It is destroying our national institutions and is a driving factor behind the aforementioned, "brain-drain."

Low Salaries

This is rather self-explanatory, because there is a surplus of labour on the market in Trinidad, people are desperate for employment thus giving employers the upper hand when it comes to salary negotiation save for those workers who are represented by one of the militant trade unions in the country. As you can imagine this means that salaries offered to young people are often extremely low and barely livable. This is unreasonable and quite frankly an insult to people who have sacrificed years of their lives to get properly educated.

A further consequence of this trend of underpayment is that it may force people to work multiple jobs simply to get by. "The Millennial Side Hustle,", as the situation is often termed, is global trend where due to the unreasonably low salaries employers wish to pay young, educated people and unchecked inflation they are often forced to work multiple jobs should they wish to live the same lifestyle their parents and grandparents had at their age. This in turn reduces the amount of jobs available on the market even further because one person could have two jobs which could be done by two people instead. The consequences of this on the individual are that it increases their stress levels and works to the detriment of work-life balance. Systemically, it means less jobs available for everyone which can drive up unemployment rates. It works well for corporations however as it can reduce their salary expenditure but for the overall economy it is disastrous.

Another way low salaries oppress the educated youth in this country is that they reduce the amount of disposable income available to them. Disposable income could go toward leisure activities or it could be invested back into the economy through financial institutions, invested in a start-up company which would create jobs and allow for innovation or it could allow a couple to support a family, helping to keep the population stable. Employer's reluctance to pay decent salaries is therefore hurting our society rather than helping because it would mean less capital circulation, less investment and ultimately less jobs being created. If left unchecked, this trend of low salaries can lead to economic stagnation and collapse.

Additional consequences of these low salaries are less taxes for the government and less contributions to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). This can degrade the quality of public services being offered to the country from a lack of funding. Moreover, it would reduce the amount of money available for the government to take care of the dependent segments of the population i.e. the elderly, sick or disabled. Already the National Insurance Board (NIB) is sounding the alarm that the country's social safety net is about to collapse from lack of contributions by working people. Since the contributions to the fund are calculated as a percentage of one's salary, lower salaries would mean lower contributions and possible collapse of the NIS system, responsible for funding social programs like pensions and disability grants.

Discriminatory Hiring Practices

Thanks in part to programmes like GATE, the younger generation does have a higher proportion of educated individuals in it than previous ones. This was discussed before in a previous post so I will not get into the details of how this has happened. However, this discrepancy between the current and previous generations has led to ageist discrimination in terms of hiring.

Many older people who presently hold higher managerial positions in local institutions do not possess higher education and as such see it as unnecessary or even a hindrance to performing one's duties. They may also be somewhat envious of the younger generation for being given the opportunity to get a higher education when they were not. Additionally, many of them simply fear that they will lose their jobs to us should they hire us as we are better qualified and once we gain the relevant work experience, we will supersede them.

Older managers also tend to view the educated youth as, "entitled," or ,"arrogant," simply because they have degrees. Moreover, they may view us as threats to them especially if they have gotten their posts due to nepotism and do not possess the proper qualifications. Because of this mindset, they tend to try to oppress educated young people by either not hiring them outright or placing them in menial positions which do not take full advantage of their skills and do not provide them with the opportunities to move up the organisational chart in an effort to frustrate them. Of course they do not think about what harm this could do to their organisation or succession planning. No once their job is safe, nothing else matters.

Typical strategies used by older individuals to justify this discrimination against the educated youth are as follows.

Overqualification

"Well you know you overqualified for this position right? We can't hire you."

When a potential employer tells you you are overqualified what it really means is that they don't want to pay you a salary that they believe is suitable to your qualifications. Now while an educated youth may not necessarily be demanding such a high salary for a job and may gladly work for a lower wage, it is assumed they will so they will not hire you. This is because the older generations believe we have the same mindset that they do in being driven solely by salary and benefits when selecting a job. In reality, while this is certainly a factor in our decision-making process, we may also be driven by passion and a desire to help society as well so salary would be less important to us.

Furthermore, if its a job that is significantly below your level of qualification, employers tend to assume that you would leave for greener pastures the first opportunity you get. This makes the employer think that they will waste money training you for a position and/or that they will just have to expend more money to find someone to replace you should you leave and thus refuse to hire you. While you may not have any intention of leaving, this is the general assumption.

Well to the employers of Trinidad and Tobago I have something to ask, would you be satisfied after sacrificing several decades of your life and working hard to get qualified only to be told that you do not deserve to have better employment opportunities than someone less qualified? Would you not seize better employment opportunities should they be offered to you? I'm pretty sure that the answer any sensible person would give is an unequivocal yes. So how then is it fair of you to expect the educated youth to not do the exact same thing you would do? Furthermore before making the assumption that we would do certain things, have you maybe thought about asking them if they would leave or demand a higher salary before dismissing us? Have you asked them if they are even motivated by salary in the first place? You might be surprised by the answers you get.

Lack of Experience

"You lack experience, come back when you get more."

Experience is a buzzword that employers like to throw around when hiring. A job advertisement without a request for prior work experience is a rarity in this country. The educated youth tend to lack the experience that employers want and thus loose out on job opportunities because of this.The general view is that experience makes an applicant objectively better at their job because it increases their knowledge of their job. But is this a reasonable stance to take? Well the answer is it depends.

Experience tends to make you good at doing one particular task, so for mostly skilled-based professions like sports, fishing or flying, experience can work to a candidate's advantage. Generally speaking, the more experience you have had performing a practical task, the better you will become at it. This is an unquestionable fact.

However, not all jobs are skill-based. Some jobs, like management or research jobs are more knowledge-based in nature, and knowledge-based fields are where experience can work to a candidate's disadvantage. While it is certainly possible to gain knowledge via work experience, in the information age it is not the most efficient way to accomplish this task. The knowledge you would gain from ten years on the job in the pre-internet era can now be acquired within a matter of hours or even minutes through a search engine with the right keywords.Or it can be gained via an educational institution. This erodes the advantage that experience can offer a candidate for these types of positions.

Furthermore, the rate of technological change and progress can render work experience moot and actually serve to disadvantage a candidate. Experience can make someone set in their ways and slow to adapt to rapid changes in technology which will make their organisations more efficient and profitable. If these people are in positions of power (which they tend to be in Trinidad) they can make their organisation less competitive. What employers should be valuing in today's dynamic environment are people who are lifelong learners and those who can learn and adapt quickly to rapid shifts in the environment. People who cannot do this can place you at a competitive disadvantage.

So given these considerations, why then is knowledge gained via experience seen as objectively preferable in the local job market to knowledge gained from a degree or via the internet? They are simply different ways to arrive at the same point after all. The reason there is an issue is because many of the managerial level employees who are doing the hiring and firing in organisations are from the older generations where technology wasn't where it was today. They had to work their way up and gain knowledge through experience in their time because there was no other option. So therefore, they impose this worldview on the contemporary paradigm even though its no longer applicable.

This antiquated mindset works to our detriment as educated youth in two ways. Firstly it prevents us from getting jobs which we may possess the knowledge for and could otherwise do save for a lack of experience. Secondly it leads to the illogical situation where everyone wants experience but no one is willing to hire you to give you the experience.

Employers need to adjust their hiring practices to suit the new paradigm. Experience is not always advantageous to performing a job and a more critical examination needs to be done when hiring than simply saying, "Experience good, degree bad."

Trivialization of Academic Qualifications

"Look, you feel you have a degree and know everything and want to come here and tell me what to do? Learn your place, leave me alone while I continue to place these square pegs in round holes."

This attitude is nothing more than a manifestation of the jealousy and fear of the educated youth that the average Trinidadian citizen seems to possess. It is an extension of the belief that work experience is the be all and end all when hiring coupled with the fear that an educated young person may take their job. If an employer makes a statement similar to the one in the example above in an interview, you are unlikely to be hired, even though you may be adequately qualified and capable of doing the job at hand. It is an extremely irrational stance to take and sadly will probably continue until the older generation leaves the workforce completely.

Non-recognition of the Economic Challenges Faced by the Educated Youth

As if the challenges listed above weren't enough on their own, our complaints often fall on deaf ears. For many Trinis, the plight of the educated youth when it comes to economic matters is often a trivial subject. Some members of the older generations would tell you that you don't have it as hard as they did in, "their days," and you should be grateful for all the opportunities you have now which are the fruits of their labour. This dismissive and quite frankly arrogant attitude is partially why we cannot get help for our problems. I am not denying that the older generations had their challenges to deal with, that is obviously true, but the fact that they don't recognise that we also have challenges, different to theirs but challenges nonetheless, is a bit insulting.

I will use myself and my family as an example to illustrate what I mean. My grandfather had a high school education, my grandmother didn't have anything beyond primary school. My grandfather with what is now considered basic education was able to land a well paying job with the local oil company. He worked while my grandmother stayed home as a housewife and they were able to afford a house and raise four children solely on my grandfather's salary. At the time he got married and had his first child, my grandfather was younger than the age I am now and could already afford a house and car etc.

My mother and father both don't have degrees, instead possessing diplomas. Yet by the time they were around my present age of twenty-seven, they were both able to land well-paying jobs and could afford to build a house and start a family. This was despite growing up relatively poorer than I and my brother did thanks to their efforts.

Now lets look at me. I am much more highly educated that both my parents and grandparents, with a BSc and MSC both with high honours plus technical qualifications and certifications. Yet I've been unable to find stable employment that would afford me the same opportunities my parents and grandparents had at my age. I cannot dream of affording a house or family because I simply am not making enough money to do so. Yet I spent comparatively more time being educated than my parents and grandparents.

My situation is sadly not unique. Many of my friends have the same problem of not being able to achieve financial stability. How then can older people honestly say that I and other members of the educated youth don't have any, "real problems?" Yes we don't have to deal with things like Small Pox, World War Two or the Civil Rights Protests and technology has made our lives somewhat easier. But we have different challenges, which are arguably much more difficult to deal with because they operate on a global scale. Climate change, resource exhaustion, automation, the anti-reason movement and the rise of populism are just a few examples of what our generation has to deal with in addition to not being able to achieve financial security. 

This general trend of millenials being the most highly educated generation while also being the most educated and worst paid generation in history is something which is prevalent across the world. This is clearly indicative of a problem with our economic and social systems and should be addressed urgently by the governments of the world as it can lead to societal collapse. Too bad many of the older people in power don't believe we millenials have a problem. We're just entitled spoilt children who don't know what real problems are.

Conclusion

Based on the discussion above, it can clearly be concluded that the educated youth are severely disadvantaged by the economic system in Trinidad and Tobago. We cannot get jobs, achieve financial stability, invest or start families as a direct result of our economy. The social safety nets which have allowed/will allow our grandparents and parents to enjoy comfortable retirements are being eroded to the point where we may not have them available to us.

While these are issues that impact individuals, they also can have wider implications for the country and should be addressed. Swift policy changes need to be made else we may end up in dire economic straits. But as we should all probably know by now, this is most likely not going to be addressed because our, "leaders," tend to not care about the educated youth and many of them don't believe we have a problem. The problem will only be dealt with until they start seeing the impacts of it on the national economy.

The question is, what can be done about it? Well in my next couple posts I will attempt to address this question, identifying the key problems our economy faces and my proposed solutions to them.

Fixing the Broken Trinidadian Political System Part 2: Proposed Changes

Introduction

In part one, we examined the structure of the government of Trinidad and Tobago, identifying several shortcomings of the system. In this post, I will outline my proposed changes to the political system and the reasoning behind those changes.

My proposed changes will be aimed at improving system efficiency and effectiveness, reducing costs to the taxpayers' and ensuring that those who get into power are truly competent and willing to perform their duties.

I will not pretend that my proposed system is objectively better or worse than the current system because it would be impossible to know that without being able to compare the two. Furthermore, without testing it in real-life conditions it is impossible to gauge the practicality of such a system. So this post is meant to be a theoretical exercise as I also have little faith that anything that I list below will ever be implemented. But that caveat aside, I invite you to read the rest of the post to see my proposed changes to the system.

General Systemic Design Changes

Smaller Government

One of the key philosophies of this system re-design is to shrink the overall size of the country's government, by reducing the number of officials. The main reasoning behind this will be to reduce the overall costs of the system to the taxpayers through a reduction in the amount of money spent on things like salaries and benefits for government officials.

Additionally, a smaller government reduces the probability of corruption. A smaller government will mean that there is less opportunity for incompetent or corrupt individuals to enter into office as there will be less positions for them to compete for and these will be more easily monitored and candidates more closely scrutinised.

The smaller the size of the government would also mean less complexity, thus improving the efficiency of the system. There will be less officials and less bureaucracy to hinder system operation leading to efficiency gains which can also help reduce the economic and social costs of the system.

The proposed changes to the system of government are discussed in greater detail later on, however a general description is given below.

At the national level, the new system will see the senate reduced in size from thirty-one members to fifteen and the house of representatives reduced from forty-one members to fifteen (one senator and member of parliament per administrative region). It will also see the elimination of prime minister, president of the republic, president of the senate, speaker and deputy speaker of the house.

At the local level, there will be the simplification of municipal corporations to one singular type as opposed to the four separate ones they have now. The positions of councillor and mayor or chairman will be eliminated and their powers given instead to the member of parliament for the area. Aldermen will be kept but there will be a limit of five per administrative region.

With respect to Tobago, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) will be disbanded under the proposed system and their system of local government restructured to match that of the administrative regions in Trinidad. The new Tobagonian regional corporation will have the same powers, structure and role as its Trinidadian counterparts and will also be headed by a member of parliament.

Reduction in Post Electoral Checks and Balances

Post electoral checks and balances are checks and balances built into the system to ensure that no one person can corrupt it for their own ends. As their name suggests, they are all implemented after elected individuals get into power. The general principle employed is to limit the decision making power of each government official to prevent an incompetent, corrupt or malicious individual from hijacking the system for their own agenda. Methods utilised to accomplish this goal include separation of powers, debates and group decision making among others. While this is not necessarily a bad thing by itself, it does have the unintended side effect of increasing bureaucracy, making the system more expensive and inefficient while slowing down the decision making process. 

Therefore the proposed new system will see a reduction (but not an elimination) of post electoral checks and balances. This will be done in favour of implementing more pre-electoral checks and balances.

Implementation of Greater Pre-Electoral Checks and Balances

Pre-electoral checks and balances focus on preventing potentially unfit individuals from getting into power in the first place. At present there are no official pre-electoral checks and balances in the Trinidad and Tobago system other than a citizenship requirement. Political parties do conduct informal screenings of candidates but there are no standard procedures for doing this and as has been made clear by now, parties cannot be trusted to appoint suitable individuals into power.

The pre-electoral checks and balances proposed under the new system will aim to prevent potentially unfit individuals from attaining positions of power as well as correcting for faults on the part of voters such as bias or ignorance. They will include things like minimum educational requirements and double-blind voting. Additionally, stringent background checks will be carried out on all applicants. Anyone who was convicted of a serious crime (murder, sexual assault, embezzlement, fraud or anything along those lines) will be disbarred from becoming public officials.

Under the proposed system, the bulk of the pre-electoral checks will be carried out by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC). The EBC is the body responsible for regulating local elections ("Elections And Boundaries Commission | Partners In Democracy" 2017). Their powers would be expanded to allow them to screen applicants for public office. This job that was previously done by the political parties for elected individuals and by the prime minister, president, leader of opposition and/or senate for non-elected individuals.

Replacement of Constituencies with Administrative Regions

This is pretty straightforward, under the present system there are separate systems for local and national government, with no synchronisation between the two in terms of geographic division. This means that the borders of the administrative regions and the constituencies do not always line up. Take a look at the maps below to see what I mean (Fig .1)

Figure 1.-Map of the Regional Corporations in Trinidad and Tobago ("Regional Corporations And Municipalities Of Trinidad And Tobago" 2017)

Now compare the above map to the map of constituencies shown on the parliament's website at this link. See the issue? The constituencies do not always align with the administrative regions. The result? It's possible for a constituency to fall under two separate administrative regions or parts of an administrative region to fall under two constituencies. For example, The Tobago administrative region is split between the Tobago East and Tobago West constituencies or parts of the Rio Claro-Mayaro administrative region fall under the Mayaro constituency while other parts fall under the Moruga/Tableland constituency. This misalignment adds a layer of complication in terms of representation because the same MP may have to work with two separate local government councils or vice-versa, which can be problematic especially if there are partisan differences.

My proposed solution to this is a simple one: make the administrative regions the constituencies as well. Rather than having forty-one members of parliament in the lower house, there will be fifteen, one from each administrative region. Each constituency would also have to elect a senator, shrinking the size of the senate to fifteen as well.

The advantages of this is that the local government system is now synchronised with the national government system. It also leads to a smaller house of representatives and senate which again can lead to savings of taxpayers' money on salaries and benefits.

Introducing Minimum Age, Residency, Experience and Education Requirements for Candidates

Under the present system, basically anyone can run for office, with no consideration given to their fitness for the post they are contesting . It is assumed under most democratic systems that the electorate is capable of making a rational choice and selecting the most suitably qualified candidate on their own, the so called, "wisdom of the masses". However, this has not always been the case in practise.

Suriname elected Desire "Desi" Bouterse, a convicted felon, drug trafficker and mass murderer to the post of president ("Suriname Profile-Leaders" 2017) (Wilkinson 2017). President Bourterse then proceeded to grant himself amnesty from his murder charges much to the chagrin of the opposition parties and Suriname's former colonial master the Netherlands ("Suriname Profile-Leaders" 2017). He has also used his position as head of state and its associated immunity to avoid prosecution in foreign courts  ("Suriname Profile-Leaders" 2017).

 Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez, a former military officer who had attempted a failed coup in the past ("Hugo Chávez" 2017). Mister Chavez then proceeded to destroy their country's economy by overspending on wasteful social programs, destroying private businesses and not saving enough money to cater for future economic uncertainty. He also appointed another unfit ruler, Nicholas Maduro, a former bus driver with no higher education as his successor. This has led to Venezuela becoming a political and economic basketcase rapidly approaching failed state status (The Guardian 2017).

The Philippines elected Rodrigo Duterte to office. Duterte has regularly voiced his support for vigilantism in the Philippines, condoning extra-judicial killings of criminals and has been criticized by the international community for his various abuses of human rights ("Rodrigo Duterte" 2017). Despite his misdeeds being public knowledge, he was still elected by popular vote into power.

And of course we can't forget about the most prominent example of the, "wisdom of the masses," the election of Donald Trump, a candidate so demonstrably unfit to hold the position of president it defied logic that he even won the primary elections. Since taking office in 2016, President Trump has generally acted inappropriately and has made a series of poor policy decisions such as the infamous, "Muslim ban," (Dalton 2017) reversing the US's policy towards Cuba (Mazzei, Torres and Whitefield 2017) and appointing unfit individuals to public office who serve his supposed political agenda (Diaz 2017) ("A Raw Deal From Betsy Devos" 2017) ("Opinion | Attorney General Jeff Sessions Doesn’t Recall" 2017). There were mountains of evidence of Trump's unsuitability for the post of president during his campaign yet somehow he managed to be elected into power.

There are sadly countless more examples of unfit, populist leaders being elected globally but we'll stop with these four.

The electorate of Trinidad and Tobago are no exception to this trend of electing unfit, populist leaders into power. We have consistently done this throughout our history and this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Our country has paid the price for our collectively poor decision making in the form of improper policy decisions, corruption, scandals and countless other, immeasurable ways. It is obvious that the electorate cannot always be trusted to elect a suitable candidate on their own and certain objective checks and balances need to be done prior to elections.

Education

One way we can help ensure competence of public officials is by setting certain minimum educational requirements for candidates running for office. "But Barindra, that's wrong, you shouldn't block someone from running for office because they aren't properly educated what's wrong with you?" some of you may exclaim. Well dear reader, why not? We do it for other jobs. The next time you're flying, who would you rather fly the plane, pilots who have gone through years of training and posses the right qualifications or two random people elected from among the passengers in the cabin who may not have the required expertise? If you require surgery, would you rather a surgeon who has gone through medical school and has the proper qualifications or someone randomly elected from the people in the hospital waiting room? See my point now?

People tend to forget that running a country is a job which like any other job, requires the relevant expertise and qualifications. Why then do we insist that it is better to simply choose people for some of the most important jobs in our society by means of a glorified popularity contest? Minimum educational requirements will help ensure only suitably qualified individuals are allowed to run for office.

Age

Of course education isn't the only requirement that needs to put in place. Age is another factor. It is highly likely that the older a person gets, the less able they will be to perform their job.  They become more susceptible to mental and physical illness and generally become slower in nature. Additionally they may be out of touch with the current issues facing the nation due to their age, affecting their judgement.This is why we have mandatory retirement ages. It is therefore rational that there should be age limits placed on officials who serve in public office after which they must retire, as with any other job. I would propose this be the same as the national retirement age of sixty years. Any person who would reach this age prior to the end of their term in office will not be allowed to run for election regardless of if they meet the other requirements.

Residency

Currently any person who runs for public office must be a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. Under my proposed new system, this will remain in place for all positions. Additionally, for the positions of member of  parliament, alderman, and senator, the individuals would have had to reside in an administrative region for a certain amount of time before being eligible to represent that region. Ministers will have no such requirements as they will be selected based on expertise rather than residence.

Experience

This will apply only to the position of minister where field specific expertise is required. Any individual filling the post will have to demonstrate a certain amount of work experience in a relevant field before being allowed to apply for office. This will be in addition to having the relevant academic qualifications detailed below. Experience will help improve the proficiency of officials in the performance of their roles. Additionally, experience requirements will help prevent mismatches between ministers and their portfolios.

Proposed Structural Changes

The proposed changes to the political system in Trinidad and Tobago are aimed at simplifying the system to improve its efficiency, lowering costs and to make it more logical in nature. The proposed new structure of the government of Trinidad and Tobago is shown below (Fig. 2). Note that the judicial branch was not discussed as it will be done in a later post.

Figure 2:- Proposed New Structure of the Trinidad and Tobago Government

Senate

Senators under the new system will occupy the highest position in the government, replacing the old senate and the roles of president and prime minister. There will also be no more senate president as all the members of the senate will have equal powers.

Requirements for Senators

Age

-Any candidate for the position of senator must not exceed the age of sixty years at the end of their term.

-Must be at least eighteen years of age.

Educational

-Must be computer literate.

-Must be able to fluently read,speak and write the English Language.

-Must possess at least a PhD.

Residency

-Must be a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

-Must not possess citizenship of any other state.

-Must have resided for a period of at least ten years within the administrative region they represent.

Other

-Must never have been convicted of a serious crime.

Selection Process

Under the current system, senators are selected by either the prime minister, leader of opposition or president. As previously discussed, this can lead to unfit persons being appointed to the post to serve certain political agendas. To guard against this, the senate will be elected by the people under the proposed system with pre-electoral checks and balances in place. As previously discussed, each of the fifteen administrative regions will have to elect a senator to represent them in the senate. The candidates would also have to meet certain minimum requirements as discussed above. At each general election, a senator will be elected under a first past the post system similar to members of parliament under the current system. This system will also be double-blind to avoid irrational bias (discussed below).

Revised Powers

As discussed in a previous post, the top tiers of the executive and legislative branches of our government consist of the president and prime minister and the senate. This is meant to provide separation of powers. In practise however, the current system is unnecessarily top-heavy, and some of the roles (such as that of the president) can be considered redundant and symbolic in nature. This is an additional cost to the taxpayers and adds unneeded complexity and inefficiency to the government.

My proposed solution for this will be to eliminate the positions of prime minister and president and merge their powers with the senate. This would mean the highest position in government will be occupied by a group of individuals each with equal powers and who would have to come to a consensus on decisions before they are taken. So while the new senate will have more powers than its predecessor did, it will also have greater checks and balances than the prime minister and president do under the current system.

Senators will have the powers of the president in being the head of state and head of the defence forces, additionally they will be responsible for selecting ministers and the chief justice. Senators will also be solely responsible for passing legislation and will vote to decide the passage of legislation and recommend amendments to bills before they are signed into law. However the cannot propose new legislation or amend existing legislation, these powers lie with the ministers.

 Because they are elected under the proposed system, they will now be representative of the voice of their constituents, something which is accomplished by the MP's under the current system. This is why MP's will no longer be required to vote on legislation, because the senate would be sufficiently representative of the population.

Another benefit of this change, will be a reduction in the risk to the government. By having a group acting as head of state instead of an individual, you ensure that there will be continuity of government should something renders one individual to complete their duties such as an assassination or illness.

For international events like meetings of the United Nations, a representative will be selected from the senate at random to act in the role of symbolic head of state. This senator will have no additional powers and will simply serve a symbolic function.

House of Representatives

Under the proposed system the house of representatives will be a bit of a misnomer as members of parliament will actually be based in their individual administrative regions as opposed to the parliament. They will also no longer be required to vote on legislation, with that power lying solely with the senate. Instead, they will assume the position previously held by the mayor or chairman of regional corporations and be responsible for oversight of the administrative regions they represent.

Requirements for Members of Parliament

Age

-Any candidate for the position of member of parliament must not exceed the age of sixty years at the end of their term.

-Must be at least eighteen years of age.

Educational

-Must be computer literate.

-Must be able to fluently read,speak and write the English Language.

-Must possess at least an undergraduate degree.

Residency

-Must be a natural-born citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

-Must not possess citizenship in any other state.

-Must have resided for a period of at least ten years within the administrative region they represent.

Other

-Must never have been convicted of a serious crime.

Selection Process

Just like the senators, members of parliament will be elected by a first past the post system in the same general election as the senators. Having a single election will save time and money for the taxpayers and minimise the disruption to the country that elections tend to cause.

Revised Powers

There is no logical reason to maintain two separate, independent systems for local and central government in a country as small as Trinidad and Tobago. It is required in larger nations like the United States or the UK, but it is simply not necessary to have it for such a small nation. It leads to inefficiency and can slow decision making. Instead the systems should be integrated with local level government having a greater say in national policy making and the central government more involved with local level decision making.

To this end the local government system would be significantly restructured under the proposed system. The major changes will include the removal of the position of councillors and mayors or chairmen. The new position of member of parliament will combine the powers of the councillors and member of parliament and chairman or mayor under the old system. The main role of members of parliament under this system will be to oversee the affairs of the administrative region they represent and will be in charge of the regional corporations that governs the region.They will also have to listen to hear any grievances their constituents may have.

The MP's will also serve as the bridge between the local and national governments and will advise their respective senators on the opinions and issues affecting their administrative region so they could factor in to their decision-making process in the senate. Unlike the current system, they will not be able to vote on legislation, with the citizens' interests instead being represented by their senator.

Aldermen

Each member of parliament will be required to select aldermen to assist them with their duties much the same way councillors did.

Requirements for Aldermen

Age

-Any candidate for the position of alderman must not exceed the age of sixty years at the end of their term.

-Must be at least eighteen years of age.

Educational

-Must be computer literate.

-Must be able to fluently read,speak and write the English Language.

-Must possess at least three Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) passes at grade two or above or equivalent.

Residency

-Must be a natural-born citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

-Must not possess citizenship in any other state.

-Must have resided for a period of at least five years within the administrative region they represent.

Other

-Must never have been convicted of a serious crime.

Selection Process

Aldermen will be selected by the member of parliament for the area during the selection phase of the new electoral process (see below). The member of parliament for the area will be allowed to appoint a maximum of five aldermen to assist them with the execution of their duties. They will be required to present their choices to the EBC for verification of their qualifications and once approved, they will be appointed to their posts.

Revised Powers

Aldermen are simply there to assist the member of parliament in managing the administrative region which they are in-charge of. They will perform such tasks as engage with the people of the area, conduct polls among residents, data analysis and other similar functions which are deemed fit by their MP.

Ministers

Ministers roles will be similar to their roles under the current system, being responsible for overseeing a particular ministry. The main change will be the selection process for ministerial candidates.

Requirements for Ministers

Age

-Any candidate for the position of minister must not exceed the age of sixty years at the end of their term.

-Must be at least eighteen years of age.

Educational

-Must be computer literate.

-Must be able to fluently read,speak and write the English Language.

-Must possess at least an postgraduate degree in a field relevant to their portfolio.

Work Experience

-Must possess at least ten years work experience in a relevant field.

Residency

-Must be a natural-born citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

-Must not possess citizenship in any other state.

Other

-Must never have been convicted of a serious crime.

Selection Process

Ministers will be selected by the senate using a double-blind, first past the post voting system. Senators will only be given the candidates' qualifications and experience and will have a maximum of one month to decide who they will be voting for. As with the general election, personal details such as age, sex, religion, race etc. will not be revealed thus ensuring that the selection process is not irrationally biased.There will be no collusion or discussion allowed among senators in this process, each senator would have to come to their decision on their own and cast a secret ballot. Once the vote is cast, the candidate with the majority of votes wins the post of minister.

Should a tie arise, the candidates who have tied will be summoned to the senate for an interview and then the senate will vote again. Should no consensus be arrived at after this point, the EBC will simply randomly select an individual to fill the post. The fact that they have passed so many levels of screening means that all the candidates are suitable for the post at this point and the choice will not really matter.

Revised Powers

Ministers will be the head of the various ministries and will be responsible for managing their affairs, with their role being analogous to the CEO of a company. They will have the power to organise ministries as they see fit, appoint and terminate staff and initiate projects. They will also be responsible for budgetary management.

In addition to their ministerial duties, ministers will be responsible for providing an expert voice in the process of policy-making and executing policy decisions related to their assigned ministry. Under my proposed system, they are the only individuals who can propose (but not implement) new or amended legislation for the senate to pass. The rationale behind this is that they are the ones managing most of the country's affairs and are appointed solely based on their qualifications being experts in their respective fields. Thus, they will be in the best position to propose new legislation.

Revised Electoral Process

The proposed electoral process is shown below (Fig. 3).

Figure 3:-Proposed Electoral Process

Note that there are three main phases of the process, shown by the colours in the diagram.

Screening Phase (Green)

Instead of parties selecting and screening candidates, the Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC) will be required to review the applications of candidates to see if they meet the requirements to hold office discussed above. Note that this screening will be mandatory for both the elected officials (senators and members of parliament) and non-elected officials (NEO's) (ministers and aldermen).  Once they have met the requirements, they must be allowed to run in the elections. The EBC will have no legal right to stop a candidate unless he or she doesn't meet the educational or age requirements to run for office. This phase is expected to last six months and will begin one year prior to the date of elections.

The screening phase will begin when applicants for the various positions in the government submit their resumes, manifestos and documentary proof of qualifications, citizenship and residence as required by the position (see previous section). The EBC will then screen these applications and verify the information stated on them to be true to ensure that applicants meet the requirements for the post.The screening process to be conducted by the EBC is shown in greater detail below (Fig.4)

Figure 4:-Details of the Screening Process

Applications Submitted

Applicants wishing to contest the election for members of parliament or senators or who wish to be considered for a ministerial or alderman post, would have to submit a resume and an application form. Additionally, they would have to provide documents to prove that they meet the requirements of the particular post to the EBC for review.

Background Check

A thorough background check will be carried out on individuals by the EBC and protective services to ensure that they have not been convicted of any serious crimes or have ties to any know criminal organisations. If any evidence of a criminal history or intent is found, the applicant will be debarred from the current as well as future elections for life.

Review of Resumes

The resumes of applicants would be reviewed to determine if they meet the educational and where applicable work experience requirements. Any applicant who is found to be unfit will be debarred from contesting the current election but may re-apply for future elections if they have obtained the lacking requirements at that time.

Data Input

Once background checks and resume reviews have been completed, the successful applicants' manifestos (for elected positions) and resumes (for non-elected positions) will be fed into the proposed software application for randomisation. The resumes or manifestos will not have any personal details or any details which may induce irrational bias in the electoral or selection process. These include but are not limited to:

-Names which can be indicative of gender or ethnic background and as such can lead to bias.
-Age to guard against ageism.
-Race to guard against racism.
-Gender to guard against sexism.
-Sexual Orientation to guard against homophobia.
-Religion to guard against religious discrimination.
-Place of birth to guard against geographic or social prejudices.
-Names of schools attended to guard against bias towards particular educational institutions based solely on reputation.

App. Randomised

The manifestos will be fed into a software application which will randomise them before they are released to the public. No one, even the EBC officials, will be able to match candidates to their manifestos as the application will randomise them and assign them single letter codes such as, "Candidate A."

Released to Public

The manifestos will be released to the public for their consideration. A sample of what the final product will look line is shown below (Fig. 5). For non-elected officials, their resumes will be randomised  by the same process and sent to the senate for selection.

Figure 5:-Sample Manifesto

Electoral Phase (Yellow)

The electoral phase of the election is the second phase and is where the electorate actually votes for their desired candidates. Each voter will have to select a candidate from their administrative region to represent them in the senate and a member of parliament to run their administrative region. Like the current system, candidates would be elected via a first past the post system. However, there are some key differences which are detailed below.

Fixed Dates for Elections

Presently there are no fixed dates for general or local government elections. They are constitutionally due every five or three years respectively, but no fixed dates have been set, with the exact electoral date left up to the discretion of the prime minister. As you could probably guess, this creates issues as a prime minister can delay the date of an election in order to extend their party's term.

By setting fixed dates, this rather unscrupulous practise will become impossible. Ideally, I would recommend that the dates be set during the eight-week July-August school vacation. Reason being, during election-time schools are often used as polling stations and are thus closed for the election day, disrupting their schedules. By placing the election during this period, this disruption would be eliminated.

Merging Local and General Electoral Terms and Dates 

Under structural changes, I discussed how the local and central government systems would be merged to improve efficiency.  Once this merger is complete, it would be possible to elect local and central government officials on the same day. So instead of holding two separate elections, there will only be a single general election in which voters choose a senator and a member of parliament to represent their administrative region.

Abolishing Political Parties

As mentioned previously, political parties are a major source of division in the country and contribute to the tribal nature of Trinidadian politics. Moreover, they can stifle innovation by forcing their members to, "tow the party line," when voting on policy decisions rather than vote in line with their true personal beliefs.

So in order to get rid of this toxic element in our political system, parties would be outlawed under the new system. Only independent candidates would be allowed to run for office. This would free candidates to run for office and vote based on their own ideas and no the agenda of a wider political party.

Outlawing Political Campaigns

Political Campaigns are an expensive waste of money, resources and time. Moreover, they actually do very little to convince voters due to the tribal nature of the electorate as discussed in the previous post. Furthermore, they have become a tremendous public nuisance. Every election you are confronted with candidates walking through your community (often accompanied by loud music trucks) harassing you to vote for them, noisy political rallies (which are just a means of bribing the population), traffic obstructions from political motorcades, litter from political fliers posted all over the country and much more. This can become quite tedious and annoying especially if you don't like any of the candidates and would rather be left alone.

More importantly, political campaigns provide an avenue for the electoral process to be corrupted by vested interests. Rich individuals can (and often do) finance politicians' campaigns in order to attempt to influence policy in their favour. This is not a political problem unique to Trinidad and Tobago of course as it does occur in other countries.

By removing political campaigns, candidates no longer need finance and as such do not need to beg for campaign contributions. This blocks vested interests from corrupting the political process via this avenue. Moreover, it will remove many of the annoyances associated with political campaigns.

I know that you're probably thinking, "But Barindra, without political campaigns how would voters get to know their political candidates in order to make an informed decision at the polls?" Well dear reader, this is addressed later on, so keep reading.

Controlling for Voter Bias Through A Double-Blind Voting System

As discussed in previous posts, the electorate of this country are highly-susceptible to prejudice when selecting their candidates. Many vote on the basis of age, race, sex, party loyalty, religion etc. and do not critically examine a candidate's manifesto. This is highly irrational but is sadly not unique to Trinidad and Tobago.

To rectify this, I propose that we introduce a double-blind voting system. As mentioned before, each candidate will have to submit a copy of their manifesto with their resume and application at least one year prior to the election to the EBC. The EBC will then feed all the candidates' manifestos into a centralized database with a software application which randomizes them before publishing them online.

No one will be able to tell which candidate has submitted which manifesto. Details such as age, name, sex, educational background, schools attended, race, sexual orientation, religion etc. which may lead to bias will be left out. Voters will instead be able to access the database through a public portal on the EBC's website, download a copy of the manifesto in PDF format and be forced to make a decision at the polls based solely on information they read on the manifesto and nothing more.

To avoid candidates corrupting the system by accessing the website themselves, reading through the manifestos until they find their own, and then telling voters which one they are, access to the portal will be controlled by password. Candidates would be forbidden from distributing their manifesto themselves or even telling anyone they are an applicant. Any candidate found breaking the law will be barred for life from contesting elections.

Lengthened Terms of Office

A major issue with the current system is that terms of office tend to not allow enough time for long-term policy decisions given their short five year length. It has spawned a saying that politicians only think five years ahead at a time. Such an attitude is not conducive to the long-term, strategic policy making required in contemporary society and as such the terms of office should be lengthened to eight years. The lengthened terms will allow proper policy decisions to be taken without the risk of a regime change derailing them.

Of course the short terms also served as a check and balance by making sure that incompetent leaders could be limited in the amount of damage they do. However, with the abolition of political parties and improved pre-electoral checks and balances, it should be safe to lengthen the terms of office as the likelihood  of electing incompetent individuals to power will be greatly reduced.

A further benefit of this is it would reduce the disruption to national life that elections tend to cause because they will occur less frequently.

Blocking Candidates from Voting

Candidates contesting the election will not be allowed to vote under the present system. It might seem like something minor but basic common-sense should tell you that a candidate is likely (though not always) going to vote for themselves. However minute the possibility, it is possible that this may affect the results of the election and can be seen as a conflict of interest. So to guard against this, candidates who are running in the election will not be allowed to cast a ballot as well.

Selection Phase (Purple)

The final phase of the revised electoral process will be the selection phase. This is where the senate selects ministers and the chief justice and members of parliament select aldermen. As discussed above, The selection process will differ for each position. Once the selection phase is completed, it would signal the end of the electoral process.

Changes to the Legislative Process

The legislative process refers to the process a piece of draft legislation must go through before it becomes law. Under the present system, legislation must be passed by both the senate and house of representatives before it becomes law, usually after lengthy (and often tedious) debate. The  revised process for passing legislation is detailed in the diagram below (Fig. 6).

Figure 6:-Proposed Legislative Process.

Legislation Drafted

This is the initial stage of the legislative process. New or amended legislation will be drafted by the ministers and sent to the senate to be ratified into law. Under the current system, there are no real requirements for legislation, however, under the proposed system, ministers will have to provide sufficient scientific evidence to support the draft legislation in the form of peer reviewed scientific research papers and/or primary research carried out by their ministry or other evidence that there is a genuine, rational basis for any proposed legislative changes.

Senate Vote

This stage is self-explanatory in nature, the senate must vote to decide if legislation is passed into law. Note that there will be no debate under the first round of voting. The senators will instead review the legislation and the research provided by the ministers who drafted the bill. The review process will be no longer than one week in length. Once they have reviewed the legislation, they will be required to cast their votes. Should the proposed legislation gain more than a fifty percent vote (except in cases where a special majority is required in which case more than seventy-five percent of the vote would be required), it will be passed into law. Should it fail, the senate will then enter into debate.

Senate Debate

Parliamentary debates under the current system can be very adversarial in nature and can be long and drawn out, often coming to a less than optimal solution for the country. They are partially responsible for slowing down the legislative process. To reduce this inefficiency, debates would only be occur if legislation is defeated by the senate in the first round of voting.

Amendments Suggested

The purpose of the debate will be to recommend amendments to the proposed legislation. Senators will propose amendments and, after debate, should more than fifty-percent of the senate support them, they will be added to the bill. There will be a time limit of one-week for any amendments to be added to the proposed legislation before it is re-drafted.

Should no amendments be suggested after the debate, the bill will go straight to a second vote. If this vote is a failure, then the proposed legislation will be considered defeated and it will no longer be eligible for submission in parliament.

Legislation Re-drafted

After the debate, legislation will be sent to the ministers to be re-drafted with the amendments recommended by the senators. This re-drafting process will be no longer than one week. Following this the bill will be re-introduced into the senate for a second vote. If it passes it becomes law, if it fails again, the legislation will be considered defeated.

Conclusion

So these are my proposed changes to the Trinidad and Tobago political system. They are aimed at improving the selection processes to ensure competent, trustworthy individuals are placed into office, streamlining the government to improve efficiency and reducing the cost to the Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers. I will be the first to admit that the proposed system is not perfect and it is untested so its actual performance cannot be known. However these are just my suggestions to help fix some of the issues with the current system. Of course it is unlikely that things will ever improve anytime soon, a depressing fact which must be made clear. But it is my hope that someday we will see some change in this nation.

Thanks for reading,

Barindra

References

"A Raw Deal From Betsy Devos". 2017. Bloomberg.Com. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-14/a-raw-deal-from-betsy-devos.

Dalton, Ben. 2017. "Marchers Cautiously Welcome Block On Trump's Travel Ban". Aljazeera.Com. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/marchers-cautiously-block-trump-travel-ban-171018205224276.html.

Diaz, Daniella. 2017. "Pruitt Announces Withdrawal Of Clean Power Plan". CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/09/politics/environmental-protection-agency-scott-pruitt-clean-power-plan/index.html.

"Elections And Boundaries Commission | Partners In Democracy". 2017. Ebctt.Com. http://www.ebctt.com.

"Hugo Chávez". 2017. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez.

Mazzei, Patricia, Nora Gamez Torres, and Mimi Whitefield. 2017. "What Trump’S Cuba Crackdown Will Look Like". The Miami Herald, , 2017. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article183405526.html.

"Opinion | Attorney General Jeff Sessions Doesn’T Recall". 2017. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/opinion/jeff-sessions-hearing-russia.html.

"Regional Corporations And Municipalities Of Trinidad And Tobago". 2017. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_corporations_and_municipalities_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago.

"Rodrigo Duterte". 2017. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_Duterte.

"Suriname Profile-Leaders". 2017. BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19998033.

The Guardian. 2017. "Venezuela Crisis: UN Calls For Investigation Into Possible Crimes Against Humanity", , 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/11/venezuela-crisis-un-calls-for-probe-into-human-rights-violations.

Wilkinson, Bert. 2017. "Surinamese President Facing 20 Years For Mass Murder". Amsterdam News, , 2017. http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/jul/06/surinamese-president-facing-20-years-mass-murder/.