A
former Caroni worker carries on doing what he knows best
as he tends his own agricultural plot.
Chandra
Bobart’s last major responsibility as acting chief
executive officer of the now defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd was
to ensure that the voluntary separation employment programme
(VSEP) was “properly executed in accordance with shareholders’
directions.”
Bobart, who acted as CEO in the last five months of 2003—the
same year that 9,000 Caroni staff and daily paid workers
were given VSEP—said most of those who went home were
able to put their VSEP payments to wise use.
He said the initiative and drive of the ex-Caroni workers
has helped them to survive.
“Many
of them became self-employed. I interface with them on the
streets and in the groceries.They have adjusted themselves.
A miniscule number of them can be found in CEPEP and URP
work.”
Bobart said some former sugar workers are driving taxis,
working as mechanics or are employed in service or energy-based
industries.
He said that given that 9,000 were displaced, the crime
rate in central Trinidad did not increase, which is a credit
to the character of the ex-Caroni workers.
Given
the fact that people in the sugar industry have never been
culturally conditioned to have a dependency syndrome and
always pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, they
were able to, with whatever little VSEP money they got,
whatever little training they got, put it to wise use,”
said Bobart, a mechanical engineer by profession.
Prior to acting as CEO, Bobart was a group factory manager
in charge of Caroni’s refineries.
He got his engineering certification through two scholarships,
one from Tate and Lyle, a world leading ingredients company
with operations predominantly focused in Europe, the Americas
and South East Asia. It produces a diverse range of food
and industrial ingredients made from renewable resources
such as corn (maize), wheat and sugar.
Before 1921, Tate and Lyle were two separate cane sugar
refining operations. The two merged in 1921 to form Tate
& Lyle. In the mid-1930s Tate & Lyle began to purchase
land and set up production facilities in Jamaica, Trinidad,
Belize and Mauritius. To make sure their increasing demand
for sugar would be met, the United States and Britain encouraged
cane sugar production in many Third World countries.
In 1965, Tate & Lyle diversified into agri-business
and chemical research, leaving fewer resources to improve
sugar technology or yields. In the mid-1970s, Tate &
Lyle sold its plantations in Jamaica, Trinidad and Belize
and began to concentrate on importing and refining in the
United Kingdom. This left countries that produce and sell
raw sugar with the riskiest part of the business.
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