Submitted by Alden Blackman
February 15, 2016
Mr. Frank Thornhill
Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Ministry Of Transport and Works (MTW)
After months of leaving several messages, I finally got the opportunity to have a conversation with you on Wednesday 3rd February 2016, during which you acknowledge there is an illegal private road obstructing the watercourse at Clarke’s Road, Derricks, St. James. And that the infringement of the law occurred from 2004 based on my initial complaint.
I asserted that the illegal road was allowed to exist despite my persistent pleas for corrective work to be done. My protestations were ignored by you and other MTW officials as well as the Drainage Unit. You conceded that because the road remains untouched that my pleading were ignored. You also revealed that you as the CTO of MTW, will not commit MTW/ Government resources to perform remedial work on said watercourse.
With respect Sir, you the CTO of MTW have in this case abused your authority in 2004 and proceeded to ignore and ordinary Black man (and a Barbadian) who beseeched you to discharge your duty and effectively address the illegal road built by a foreign white land owner -“a yard-garden cum road in and along a watercourse”, causing flood water to be redirected and to damage part of my home and surroundings. Sir, you as CTO and other officials of MTW have already committed an egregious act. You have not only allowed an illegal road to remain but leading up to the 2013 general election, MTW workers were employed on said road, not to correct but to maintain the road to appease the request of former MP for St. James Central, Mr. George Hutson thereby making a bad situation worse. Further, after the paving the land owner constructed humps on road – MTW workers removed said humps.
With all respect Sir, your behaviour since the matter was brought to your attention is no different to that of the perpetrator of the illegal and callous act. Sir I am certain like the majority of Barbadians that I – who you already perceived to be a low status black working class man “due to the way you treated this situation – “could not have built that road in a watercourse to put your household or for that matter any of your colleagues or any foreign white land owner household at risk of getting flooded out. Why the discrimination against me, Sir, a Black man. As the CTO of MTW you are totally responsible for the damaged and suffering I have to endured endured to date.
As a Black man and a taxpaying Barbadian I appeal to your sense of reasonableness. I await your response .
Alden Blackman
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