TRAIN ONE- THE SUBTEXT

by Simeon Humphrey

There is a subtext at play here which is hidden behind the cacophony of heat and noise about “who incompetent”, “how much taxpayers’ money gone down the drain” and who should resign immediately, not inclusive of course of Fitzpatrick or any of the management of the foreign energy players involved in ALNG.

It is the subtext of the clash of interests connected to the contradictory relationship between the interests of the foreign mega energy corporations on the one hand and the neo-colonial countries dependent on foreign reserves from the rents these corporations pay to local regimes, on the other.

BPTT’s obligations is to its shareholders and the history of local media is to be Public Relations agents for the transnational capitalists who have commanded the Trinidad and Tobago hydrocarbon landscape for the past 100 years; so Claire Fitzpatrick has no lessons to teach me via press interviews. This is especially so since her predecessors and a former Energy Minister ensured that we own 0 % of Trains 2 & 3. In fact, when the NGC advised the government not to approve Trains 2 & 3 until we negotiate a better deal for T&T than the 10 % we obtained in Train One, he publicly bouff (excoriated) the NGC and demanded that we should ‘shut up and let people who know about natural gas speak’

After we invested billions to create what became to be known globally as the Point Lisas model, the local stooges of these modern day equivalents of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ have spent the last 40 years on creating in the minds of the public the 'manufactured consent' required to pull off the complete dismantling of the gains my country made by investing boldly in manufacturing steel, petro-chemicals and owning the maritime assets to ship our products worldwide.

This investment enabled us to obtain the rewards we continue to reap in foreign exchange, jobs and technology transfer that allows T&T citizens to run petrochemical plants in countries as far away as the Middle East.

Having worked on construction of the Urea plant, I still remember that when our State enterprise investment decisions were being made into real facilities on the ground the heat and noise from the local saboteurs demanded that we shut everything down because it was 'a waste of money' and we should know our little black place.

In other words, leave the petrochemical business to our former slave masters because Government has ‘no right running business’…hmm! I read that same mantra again in 2021 from one Curtis Williams when he tried to defend his ‘investigative journalism’ and proclaimed his personal opposition to the very existence of the NGC. In his opinion, it should not be the State monopoly it is in the natural gas value chain and the government should simply be a facilitator for private enterprises to make profit.

Every time one of these semi-literate, ignorant and lazy local agents of the BPTT’s et al who pretend to be ‘journalists‘ vomit on NGC, I wonder if they know of the existence of STATOIL of Norway and remember the speech their (Statoil’s) representative gave at the Gas Exporters conference in Tobago which outlined how Norwegian politicians agreed to allow their gas and oil State enterprise to be free to operate as a commercial business, regardless of which regime came to power and who lose elections, past or future.

I also remember Dr. Hamid Farabi of the UWI emailing his colleagues to complain that DuPont's leadership told one of his students pursuing her MSc in Chemical Engineering not to engage in a research project in amines production because ' it's extremely dangerous stuff for the environment and it stinks to high heaven’!

It was another example of keeping us in our place because they said we were already the site of the largest Methanex facility and leading global exporter of methanol and ammonia so we should not be allowed to join another global club and challenge their monopoly profits.

The Fitzpatricks and their local stooges have finally succeeded because the urea operation was sold lock, stock, and with its barrel of retained earnings of USD $10 million in a bank account at the time of the sale! A little objective research on the history of our hydrocarbon business will reveal truths that the Fitzpatricks will always employ their Public Relations agents to hide and mislead the public about the true goings on in the industry.

Look real closely at their latest moves to tell the world after they damage the environment for 100 years to achieve industrial hegemony and have the highest standard of living for their peoples, we should abandon ‘all fossil fuels' including natural gas and buy electric vehicles because we are the world's 'highest polluter per capita'.

Guess who makes electric vehicles and in which countries they are made! As my fellow alumni Chalkie said I in town too long and since I remain a patriot, my memory is just as long.

It is necessary for us to tell our truths for ourselves and expose all the mocking pretenders, local and foreign who remain determined to keep us in a state of neo-colonial slavery.

For approximately. forty years I sat on the other side of the table from the Fitzpatricks & their local agents, and I learned that at no time their mission was ever about defending and advancing the interests of my Trinidad and Tobago. Nuff said!