The Red House is the seat of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. From afar it is quite an imposing sight but come closer and the signs of age and decay begin to appear. Windows with every pane of glass broken or missing; tracts of mouldy, discoloured and flaking paint — decay that should not be this visible in the building where the leaders of this nation meet on an almost weekly basis.

Surely preventative maintenance could have been done before the building got to this sorry state. Surely ongoing maintenance would have been less burdensome to our taxpayers' pockets than the many-million dollar rehabilitation and renovations schemes that are announced at the eleventh hour.

As in other aspects of society, it seems the general trend is to leave these minor inconveniences to fester until they become major nuisances, then attempt to solve the problems by throwing huge sums of money at them in search of a quick fix. Look how well that's worked.