The speech made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning at the hand-over of the Academy for the Performing Arts was really a revelation; it contained his interpretation of sustainable social welfare development which he encapsulates in his Vision 2020.

He told us that the step-by-step transformation anticipated by this Vision 2020 was falling into place. It (the Vision) was never random or haphazard. He continued: now that the physical transformation was in train his government planned by next September to begin a nationwide highway programme.

Priority number two is water, including some desalination plants, then electricity, then ICT (with a plan to lay a fibre optic cable). Next on the list is the construction of the cultural centre at the Savannah, then the renovation of President’s House as we await the completion of the San Fernando Academy and the renovation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.

The Prime Minister praised Calder Hart and UDeCOTT for the tremendous work they continue to do in the development of T&T. He reminded us of the biblical saying that by their deeds they shall be known -- many can talk but few can build. He concluded that Vision 2020 is not pie in the sky and then came the fundamentally important statement - we have built enough facilities for you to get the idea of what Vision 2020 is! The showcase to date is the Academy on the Princess Building grounds which he claims has stirred such feelings of pride in his breast since he now has a world class facility second to none.

Mr Manning has stepped out of his crease, ’vooped’ and missed in his 2020 game. His performance at the wicket of national governance demonstrates that he is totally ignorant of what constitutes sustainable social development. His model of economic development is ’wealth-stage’ plantation in which the proceeds of a risky FDI-driven energy sector are used to create on-shore a facade that ignores the society’s shortcomings and mimics (to him it is real) the artefacts of the developed world. To him, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck-it is a developed nation!

This column has been discussing a route to sustainable development with the understanding that the concept was generally understood. The performance by the PM at the hand-over of the Academy demonstrates that social sustainability is yet to find a place in our political governance.

Let us start again at the beginning. The basic aim of the society should be in general to enhance its welfare and nature via sustaining the things we love and depend upon and improving the condition of people time and time again in new ways. Hence the first question we need to ask ourselves is what are we trying to sustain and then what do we need to do to ensure that these things are indeed sustained (’The National Advantage of Nations’, Editor --- Karlston Hargroves ).

For our society we need to ensure the survival and maintenance of our ecosystems and bio-diversity, maintain human potential in areas currently afflicted by crime and poverty which will require large amounts of innovation and strategic change. We have to implement initiatives that will sustain and improve economic, social and environmental well being now and into the future. We have to improve the natural advantages of our nation, which in the wide sense means the many advantages achieved through the ’whole-of-society’ approach to the pursuit of sustainable progress.

To do this we must deal continuously with risk, uncertainty and irreversibility. This is of profound interest to us since our dependence on the energy sector exposes us to risk and uncertainty and the depletion of our resources is irreversible. But to the PM the natural gas is down there -- no risk. All we have to do is pay Big Oil to go get it.

We have to integrate environmental, social and economic goals in our policies and activities; many groups are concerned that the building of aluminium smelters is not in synch with the integration of these goals.

We need to ensure equal opportunity and community participation -two areas that are again cause for concern here. We need to ensure intergenerational equity, something which the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund is incapable of doing with respect to the depletion of our petroleum resources. We need to ensure continuous improvement in human welfare and maintain no loss of human capital.

To get this done we need good governance. If you were to hold up the above yardstick against the current Manning government it is easy to conclude that his Vision 2020 is certainly not about sustainable social development.