I find it morally reprehensible to wake up to photographs in the press of Mr Duke and his supporters celebrating what he clearly sees as a victory in court as his contempt proceedings go through the justice system. The unfortunate and ineffective handling of the situation by both Mr Duke and Minister McLeod leaves much to be desired.
My family and I have now tried on two separate occasions to apply for the renewal of our machine readable passports—leaving our home in Port-of-Spain and travelling to Chaguanas to the very nice building in which the Immigration Division is housed, in the second instance—only to be told the Immigration Division has computer problems.
We met a lovely single mom and her daughter, gifted with a trip to the US by family for the summer, making her third or fourth attempt to obtain a passport for her little girl. Not that she is not entitled to it, being a born citizen of the country, but because she just cannot get to put the application in!
A senior citizen with her son trying to renew her’s so that she can spend time with a grandchild who was getting married up the islands. Several people with business travel plans who are paying for extraditing their very necessary passports couldn’t even make the application because the “system down.” Collections only? Come back next month! We will not talk about the dashed hopes and anxiety levels of the parents with children fortunate enough to be accepted at universities and educational facilities abroad. Heart-rending.
What is Mr Duke’s real agenda? And if it is just the working conditions of their air-conditioned offices with comfortable kitchens that all seem to make great use of, then why can’t we just get the thing fixed?
Tara Percival
Bayshore
