EDITOR: For the last two decades or so, we have been hearing the voices of persons who present themselves as leaders of progressive thinking, yet we have hardly seen any manifestation that they have the capacity to advance the welfare of the people. There is no project that they can point to which any sector of the community is significantly benefiting from.

On the contrary, the perception is, that scarce resources seem to be channelled to aiding them to be economically comfortable from month to month, while their productivity sheet is almost without an entry to a large extent, their energy is expended on hollow rhetoric aimed at hoodwinking the people.

The time has come to ask these voices to desist from this charade. A lot of our young people have been demonstrating that they have the capacity to take in useful knowledge. Let us give them the real opportunities to apply if for the well-being of us all.

The abandonment of our feeder roads is crippling the agricultural sector. If we ensure that the roads to service the needs of a modernized and reinvigorated farming industry and community are addressed and maintained, the agriculture industry could itself be a strong drawing card for tourism, and the government revenue generated directly and indirectly, from agri-based activities, could be substantial.

All this could be done, with the injection of less than three hundred million dollars, and measurable returns could be realized in a matter of months. We have the human resources to do it.

These voices, so persistent in the defence and adoration of the status quo, would better serve the interest of the nation and the advancement of the welfare of its people, if they would use their training, experience and skill, to influence the authorities to change their approach, with a view to addressing the decline in our agriculture, which has been deteriorating steadily over the last two decades.

Leroy Providence