Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 29/Nov 11:00

Stop feeding homeless everywhere

THE EDITOR: I am so grateful for San Fernando Mayor Robert Parris' call to stop feeding the homeless. Of course, it sounds cruel but this is what is needed. It's no different to stopping fetes at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. Leaders have to take decisions which are not popular and will not win them likes. I hope the society will support the mayor. We must put it into the national dialogue that this is encouraging vagrancy. When someone knows they can get three square meals, they will be encouraged to stay there. I have seen the meals: a near hotel breakfast – choka and sada, eggs and bake, cheesepaste and coffee, if you please. Lunch is pelau – and chicken pelau mind you – and soup. Vegetarian meals of channa and aloo and mango and pumpkin are dumped. Dinner can be anything from chow mein to au gratin potatoes. Madness, I tell you; makes people with homes want to stand in line. And there's water and Chubby to go with it. I have seen lollies and danishes being given out for desert. It is unacceptable that you have millions being spent to build a world-class waterfront, but right there in front of the mayor's office, a thoroughfare to the courts and the hospital, is one of the nastiest spaces next to the Brian Lara Promenade. (I mean this.) There is human filth everywhere. As fast as you clean one area, people do their thing in another spot. The average citizen cannot get a seat because all spaces are occupied by vagrants and their belongings. We cannot be encouraging vagrancy. I know successive mayors in Port of Spain – Lee Sing, Tim Kee and Alleyne – took action. God bless them. Now, I saw a report that US President Donald Trump was driving past and saw tents pitched at the side of the road. He couldn't stand it and demanded the FBI remove them. Before he even reached his destination, the FBI swooped down and removed every single homeless person. That is leadership. You don't have to be liked, but you swear to do what's right in the interest of the nation. Public officials must not play politics with such issues as the sanitation and preservation of public spaces are not PNM/UNC issues. Speaking of which, is it that the Aranguez Savannah will now be annexed to the Emperor Valley Zoo as the latest forest in town? OMG, someone please cut the grass. LINDA CAPILDEO via e-mail The post Stop feeding homeless everywhere appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.