Fowl Business... (no place for cockroach)

This hastily called Local Government Election and its subsequent campaign seems to be flopping (circling the drain really), as if the people just could not be bothered with the whole mess anymore.

Fed up of the display of lowness that (what passes for) elections brings out these days, the people's apathy should be a clear sign (to the politicians) to stop the divisive politics of hate because it is contrary to true 'Trini' culture. Regardless of the headlines and the murder rate, this country is still the most loving and friendly place in the world (ask any ex-pat living among us ) and we really not into all this war talk and constant bacchanal.

Plus, the politicians themselves seem to be getting nastier with each election season, and the calls to 'hate' the other side falls flat when you 'liming' with the other side later.

Look, It's one thing to stoop low and compromise your ethics to remove a Prime Minister guilty of abuses against the people and who clearly has obvious intentions of further abuse.

It's another thing entirely to remain low, stuck in a cycle of back biting and pseudo racist baiting that the endless campaigning requires, the gutter behavior and the war talk.
That is not how we do things here, and the people, by their apathy, seems to be saying to the political Parties that they would rather have none of it.

If we're fortunate, the two major Parties may learn from those two experiences (the General Election and this Local Government Election), that maybe the zero sum game is not the ideal political model for a people so 'together', so interbred and 'pumpkin vine' related; that they need to find a better form of political expression, one more in keeping with who we are.

Anyway, I need to ask a question; Why are we having this Local Government Election so close on the heels of the just concluded General Election anyway?

Is it really just Kamla trying to keep an election promise as she says, that she would bring back Local Government Elections?
To be honest, I cannot recall that particular promise and I am sure most people would be hard-pressed to as well. But if it is indeed a promise, why rush to keep this particular one when there are so many more much urgent ones?

Why the haste?

I have offered what I suspect to be the motive, that this is nothing short of a raw attempt at consolidation of power by the UNC, relying on the momentum of anti PNM hysteria that swept them out of office in the first place to uproot the PNM's hold on Local Government; hoping the people would be willing to 'do so' at a local level.

I have since been reliably informed that another more serious reason exists.

It appears that the budget is going to be a very hard one to swallow and that the Party is going to have to break many of their campaign promises, especially the ones that come with a price tag.
The powers that be behind the People's Partnership are aware that the Party would not fare so well at the polls after the budget.

Regardless of the machinations, the electorate is having none of it.

Whatever the reason we find ourselves here, I would like to make a suggestion to the electorate, and that is to vote the PNM OVERWHELMINGLY into Local Government.

Why?

Because nobody works harder for you than somebody bent on getting back into your good graces and the PNM needs that like a drug addict needs a hit.
More importantly, by forcing the Central Government to have to work with the 'other side' to govern effectively coupled with the 'New' PNM's desire to prove themselves, the country might end up with a system that works accidentally.
Also, there is little or no advantage to the country to have one Party in control of everything; There is no motivation to perform.

Whatever.

At some point the people of this country just want to put a government in place that would do the blasted job they were hired to do without robbing the country blind, or without developing delusions of grandeur, African Chiefdoms or Nation fathering.

Something to think about...