The proposed joint venture project between the American conglomerate, ALCOA, and the Trinidad and Tobago Government should be scrapped. There are so many disadvantages attached to the project that it is no longer viable.

Cedros, like many rural areas in our country, needs investment in order to generate employment. The coconut industry is dying and the once flourishing market for cocoa and coffee has long dried up. The proposed Aluminum Smelting Plant in the Cap-de-Ville/Chatham area will certainly generate employment in the construction phase and to a lesser extent beyond.

However, one has to ask what are the long-term costs to the people and the environment. It is here that the ALCOA deal falls flat on its face.

One of the problems with development in the Third World is that governments never ask people what they want. It is just imposed on them.

This is the way of “ the learned and the clever ” of today's gospel: “ I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children .”

The “ learned and the clever ” see profit first and people a distant second; the insights of the “little people” are disregarded and natural resources are reduced to oil and gas.

Those whom Jesus calls “ mere children ” see things differently; for them consultation is crucial to development, and the first natural resources are the people and the environment.

“The Cedros Affirmation 2005”, a written declaration of the “The Cedros Peninsula United” – a group of concerned citizens representing all the twelve villages of the Cedros Peninsula – highlights many of the dangers of the proposed ALCOA deal. These include long-term destruction to the environment in the south-western peninsula, an environmentally sensitive area.

WILL CEDROS BENEFIT?

Contaminants from the Atlantic LNG plant in Point Fortin plant have already polluted the Cedros Gulf : fish is no longer plentiful and the livelihood of the small fisherman is being slowly destroyed. The combined effect of two mega-companies in such close proximity will spell ecological disaster for the Cedros community.

Agriculture is another important factor. Since independence no government has given sufficient attention to agriculture. The proposed site in Chatham represents 2000 acres of prime agricultural land.

Is it not wiser to invest in long-term agriculture than to invest in long-term stomach and liver cancers that result from exposure to the effluents from aluminum smelting?

Finally, we ask, who will really profit from all this investment in aluminum smelting? “The Cedros Affirmation 2005” puts forth a stinging criticism: “Given the fact that the Cedros Peninsula, for the past fifty years, has not benefited any way whatsoever from the annual one billion dollar harvest of oil and gas production from the Soldado oil field just offshore Cedros, it is highly illogical to assume that a one billion dollar Aluminum Smelter will bring any economic relief to the livelihood of the people of the Peninsula.”

This is a significant point: oil and gas investment in the South has brought some development to Point Fortin but practically none to La Brea. Will Cedros end up in the same boat?

When we consider the disadvantages attached to the ALCOA deal in the Cedros Peninsula it does not pass the test.

It will not contribute to holistic development; on the contrary, it ends up being a form of social and ecological violence.