Why doesn't the proper authority take a drive along the Uriah Butler (UBH) and the Solomon Hochoy Highways and see the many areas of bad construction, severe deterioration and improper repairs done by incompetent agents over our many years of tribulation. These conditions contribute in a large part to the unnecessary traffic on the UBH.

Here are a few examples:

• The exit of the southbound ramp where one enters the Uriah Butler Highway at Grand Bazaar has a massive hump, depression, and bad paving. This has been there since "Imps-bert" celebrated the completion of the ramp.

• The protrusion of the steel dividers in the road on the bridges over the Caroni River.

• The extremely bad state of the pavement on the leftmost lane on the southbound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway from Caroni to Chaguanas.

• The amateur and inadequate patchwork paving on the Solomon Hochoy Highway from Freeport to San Fernando. The area near the Reform Link on this highway is notorious. Drivers pull in front of others to escape the rough areas.

• The existence of cracks and large holes in the southbound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway at Macaulay, Claxton Bay.

• The deteriorated condition of the paving on many of the ramps on these two highways.

• The absolutely unacceptable condition of the Tarouba Link Road from the Solomon Hochoy highway to the San Fernando Bypass. We have suffered for years with this mess.

• The rough condition of the paving on the Solomon Hochoy highway from Tarouba to Golconda.

• The lack of a third lane between Chaguanas and San Fernando.

• The inadequacy of the existing ancient flyovers at Endeavour and Couva to handle the traffic. Full cloverleaf interchanges are needed or upstream and downstream feeders to relieve the cross-traffic on the flyover. The present traffic lights are ridiculous and frustrating.

• The need for a separate flyover into Marabella after Gasparillo. The area around the Reform Link Road is ideal. There is now no direct access to Marabella from the Solomon Hochoy Highway, going north or south. Even the indirect access from Gasparillo has been blocked. The Reform Link Road is too long, and there is no access northbound to Marabella from the Solomon Hochoy highway at the San Fernando Bypass.

• The need for ramps at the Indian Trail Bridge over the Solomon Hochoy Highway to make it a full-access flyover. This road is a busy shortcut from Pt Lisas that bypasses the traffic-locked Couva flyover. At present, drivers enter the southbound illegally at this point, posing a hazard to highway drivers and causing traffic here.

Why is the Minister of Education trying to baffle us, touting the nebulous advantages of the new $4,000 HP laptops? He is just reading the HP ad. Faster processor speeds? Faster than what? Greater connectivity? My cellphone has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4GB of Ram. The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) is offering a $1,799 HP laptop in a big ad in the newspapers. India is producing a US$100 laptop for their students. Gopeesingh's computers are highly overpriced, especially as it's 20,000 being bought. HP can set up a factory in Trinidad for that. Is that the plan?

Roger Mathura