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Viewpoint 003
PIRG and the NEDCO Factor

Not even Trinidad 's penchant for destroying people could have prepared us for the WHOLE PAGE public advertisement we captured on April 13th 2003 showing the FACES , Names and Addresses of 23 black citizens (21 Negroes and 2 Indians) with the notorious headline “REQUEST TO CONTACT” in BOLD Capital letters, and providing the phone number 623-1606.

These NAMING & SHAMING advertisements were started by our so-called “Indigenous” and now defunct Workers Bank to publicly if not malevolently name and shame black people in arrears on their high interest mortgages at the height of the collapse of our national economy was the callous and shameless precedent immediately followed by other Banks, Creditors and Debt Collectors in a supposedly civil society with an efficient court system.

Worst yet, NEDCO (National Entrepreneurial Development Company) is an arm of the Government through the Ministry of Labor, and was established to provide Micro financing for the poorer class of citizens displaying entrepreneurial skills and of course unable to obtain the required financing from our traditional parochial bankers far more favorable to businesses run by the “considered” status-quo. They are however, fond of doing consumer loans whereby they can hold a piece of collateral albeit with limited exposure to their unilateral self interest, as they choose not to develop the individual entrepreneur and thus help the country to develop from the grassroots up, ensuring a comfortable living for all.

PIRG was incensed, humiliated and embarrassed, and spared no effort whatsoever in contacting NEDCO through their published phone number with the lender confirming what PIRG long suspected, that they were indeed seeking these 23 people by matching their published photos to repay their debt. Our investigation further confirmed that on applying for these micro loans, prospective borrowers were required to “PRODUCE A PASSPORT SIZE PHOTO FOR OUR FILES”, not having the faintest clue that should their business fail causing them to become delinquent, they would be publicly penalized, ridiculed and embarrassed in a most puerile and malevolent manner via the publication of their Names and FACES with connecting Addresses.

PIRG then tried contacting the then Chairman of NEDCO, Ricardo St. Cyr, and the then Minister of Labor, Larry Achong, all to no avail, followed by a deafening reticence demonstrative of their contemptuous disregard to our many correspondences on the matter, with NEDCO even having the audacity to refer us to their attorneys, threatening a lawsuit. Correspondences to the media houses asking them to desist publishing these destructive publications were put behind lucrative advertising revenues as NEDCO shamelessly continued publishing, and the newspapers continuously accepted the FACES of their delinquent debtors, causing severe damages to their otherwise good reputation. PIRG would communicate with our international attorneys to determine what compensation, if any, these people may be entitled to.

Were it not for our steadfast determination NOT to have NEDCO'S notorious precedent become the norm, coupled with our overtures and the timely intervention of the then Minister of Legal Affairs, the Honorable Camille Robinson Regis who immediately contacted both NEDCO and the Trinidad Express who only then provided PIRG with a written confirmation that they would no longer accept these advertisement we deemed destructive, scandalous, and unbecoming of the civil society we all wished to craft and enjoy, PHOTO blackmail of debtors, regardless of their mitigating circumstance, would unquestionably, be the norm today followed by many an unscrupulous Creditor.

Only idiots misusing their license would believe they can publicly embarrass Black people into paying their debts to satisfy the lender's bottom-line, while lacking both common-sense and vision in blatantly refusing to offer the poorer borrowers advice or counseling on Credit Management, Priorities, and Sacrifices, as they merely engage marketing strategies to seek out their victims and their next million dollars in profits as demonstrated by our self serving banking system.