Tag: collaboration

My January 7th, 2018 letter to Dr. Rowley

~ dennisedemming ~ Leave a comment

This is one of the letters which I have written to
Prime Minister Rowley over the past 5 years.

Congratulations on your 28th month as Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Here are 12 suggestions for your government for 2018:

  1. Rationalize our public holidays in order to positively impact productivity.
  2. Publicize the performance appraisal system for the public service so that citizens know how public servants are judged with regard to performance delivery.
  3. Appoint a Minister of Communication to ensure that your government’s performance is positively highlighted and brought to the attention of the citizenry.
  4. Have the Regional Corporations develop and implement a 6 month plan for creating “walkable cities” in their Boroughs starting simultaneously in April 2018.
  5. Appoint a “Social Innovation Think Tank” to report within 9 months on key social innovations projects which can be implemented across the country.
  6. Ensure electronic transactions become the norm at Government and State institutions.
  7. Begin the obesity reduction programme with our protective services especially those in leadership.
  8. Place a moratorium on the approval of new franchises.
  9. Mandate Rituals and Starbucks to use 10% local coffee and increase that usage to 60% within 5 years.
  10. Place a moratorium on the importation of cars. (Effective February 2018, Singapore banned the addition of cars on its roads to reduce the permitted vehicle growth rate to 0%.)
  11. Implement a programme to ban the use of disposable plastic cups and plates.  (In September 2016 France became the first country in the world to ban disposable plastic cups and plates. A new French law will require all disposable tableware to be made from 50% biologically-sourced materials that can be composted at home by January of 2020.)
  12. Mandate that garbage be separated in homes for collection by specially assigned trucks on specific days.

The country and indeed your government is suffering from inertia and you are in an ideal position to fix this.  As your election tag line implored: Let’s do this!”

Yours Respectfully

Dennise Demming (Mrs.)
MBA, BSc., Cert-Mass Communications
Citizen

May 07, 2017 

~ dennisedemming ~ Leave a comment

This is one of the letters which I have written to
Prime Minister Rowley over the past 5 years.

Dear Prime Minister

I hope this letter reaches you experiencing the best of health.

It is your 20th month at the helm of the MS T&T and the noise from the deck and the dock is increasing.  Indeed you may not appreciate the analogy of boats and ships at this time!

I am reading a book by Jeff Speck called “Walkable City” which answers the question: “How do we solve the problem of the suburbs? Urbanist Jeff Speck shows how we can free ourselves from dependence on the car — which he calls “a gas-belching, time-wasting, life-threatening prosthetic device” — by making our cities more walkable and more pleasant for more people”.

I recall your stridency on the campaign trail talking about transportation being a quality of life issue.  May I suggest that you appoint a committee of urban planners and give them the brief to find modern solutions to our transportation issues even if it means bringing Jeff Speck to provide some advice.

Let me know if you wish to borrow my copy when I’m finished reading it.

Yours for our country!

Dennise Demming (Mrs.)
MBA, BSc., Cert-Mass Comm
Citizen