The Trinidad and Tobago Postal Service, TTPost, has apparently stopped the protest which has kept many, including me, from getting mail. Of course, this has been very inconvenient for many people over the last 2-3 weeks; checking the mailbox has been annoying, to say the least. One would think that mail would be considered important enough that 2-3 weeks would not elapse before they started delivering again. In a way, TTPost has held the country hostage with it's demands - whatever they may have been, and however they have been met.
To me, mail is a vital service. It brings the books sent to me to review. It brings bills such as the phone bill in an almost timely manner, though the tardiness is usually the issue of TSTT who for some reason does not seem to think mailing bills before their due date is a good idea. I won't pretend to understand that.
So now, apparently, I can expect a deluge of mail that is 2-3 weeks old. This is what the TTPost communications manager, Simone Farmer, had to say:
...She expressed gratitude to the public on behalf of TTPost for their "patience and continued loyalty during this period"...
Well, thank you for thanking me for being forced to be patient. And loyalty? Do I have a choice? Of course I don't. Did those words come out of a Public Relations 101 manual? It would seem so.
The general secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Workers' Union (TTPWU), Reginald Crichlow, seemed more realistic and less thankful for our 'patience and loyalty' (ibid):
...Crichlow, however, was not as optimistic about the resumption of normal mail operations, pointing out that the backlog was from three or four weeks and would take about a week to clear up.
He added that the protesting workers continued to be on work-to-rule and the end of their industrial action was dependent on feedback from TTPost management this week...
As you can see, mail isn't considered very important in Trinidad and Tobago. It is small wonder that so little happens; if even the traditional communication outlets are undependable and subject to severe failures such as this then it is no wonder that the pace of development in Trinidad, probably the richest country in the Caribbean in resources, seems less agile than it's more economically challenged neighbors.
There's no room for finger pointing here.
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