Advantage... (or Why nobody really cares about change)

To say the politics in this country is ruthless, heartless and selfish is to be truthful to a fault, and in looking on at the behavior of every race and class active across the political spectrum it is obvious to see the one trait they all have in common, the one quality that every side possesses in spades is greed.

At campaign time we may talk about hospital beds and children funds, but as those things don't pay supporters after the election is done and dusted they're irrelevant and forgotten before the glitter fades.

I have been observing the politics for quite some time and I have noticed a couple trends which I will share for no purpose other than to at least point out where the water is; I have no intention of taking anybody to it, nor do I care anymore who drinks.

Everyone has something that they want to get from whoever is in government and all of them would support anyone who they think would give it to them. Conversely (or symptomatically) all of them will turn on and pull down people they once supported to the hilt if they fail to deliver on any promise made or perceived and all of them lie to promote their own agenda.

The name of the game is advantage.

From the most base level everyone wants a house or land and will do or say whatever it takes to get it. My misinterpretation of racial voting patterns was based on the thought that blacks would support blacks and indians would support indians out of tribal loyalty, but this has been completely demolished. Now I see it for what it is; blacks support blacks hoping that the blacks that they support would reward that support with housing, jobs, contracts etc at the expense of the indians in society. The indians do pretty much the same thing, and while it IS a type of racism at work, both sides would gladly switch sides if they thought the opportunity warranted it or if being black in an indian world was paying greater rewards and vice versa.

I have also noted a fifty fifty voting pattern give way to something like a forty forty twenty pattern when the occasion begs, with the middle twenty being comprised of the disenchanted from whoever is the ruling Party augmented by people who normally do not vote, who only come out to vote to remove the incumbent from Office.

This says a lot about our politics, but it says more about our electorate in that while we are not too sure as to what we are 'for,' we could easily be motivated to line up to remove what we are 'against.'

This has had the effect of causing our politics to sink to a level where the bench mark to win is not to be better than the next guy, but to just not be the other guy. Simply put, we are working to the lowest common denominator and in those circumstances the first things to go are the touchy feely stuff, things like social programmes, law and order, Judicial management and non construction policies and plans.

Where into this world of supporter demand and reward can you fit programmes that do not spin off contracts and jobs?

That this has been so since Williams should come as no surprise to anyone, but one could argue that Williams at least had a vision for the country and put things in train that still carries us through today. The fact that we are blessed with energy resources that brings foreign 'support' for exploitation is what keeps the engine that Williams built going, but we have had nothing like a vision for the country since his death, six well written manifestos later and notwithstanding.

The truth is we fail the politics by our greed and our desire to gain advantage over others by whichever shortcut presents itself, and watching the CLICO policy holders turn on the Finance Minister for trying to find a way to fit their demands in with everything else in a declining global economy was very instructive to me.

The very same people that carried him on their shoulders calling him the new Messiah are today cursing his name for doing the job he was supposedly hired to do, run the entire economy and not just be a rubber stamp for their sometimes ridiculous demands or their personal paymaster.

This country needed a Prime Minister with balls enough to hand the collective lot of them the CLICO Empire and let them run it, sell it or take little pieces of it home with them, but it never should have been borne by the taxpayers, not when the real bandits made off with the loot without so much as a by your leave.

As an aside to my now so intelligent friends, when one financial institution is offering rates far over and above the five commercial banks the only thing that could drive you to move your money from the safety of the banks and put it at risk is greed. The problem with this picture is that most either don't know or don't care that greed has a price, and it is usually at someone else's expense.

We are writing checks today that the next generation will have to honor and this has been going on for too long and I fear for my country if the money is not there when it is most needed.

Giving Government houses to the children of Ministers and Prime ministers is insulting to the people who have to scrape out a living and one day these chickens will come home to roost and we need to stop this madness before there is nothing left to take and the people turn on each other.

This country needs a government willing to offer qualitative and development plans for the people on a wholistic level and not continue the politics of greed and reward, and i daresay that this government is perfectly poised to begin this process and should be encouraged and supported if they begin doing and saying the right things, the things that will elevate the country and all of its people to a vision of a better day.

We have examples of societies that work and we need to emulate their best policies and practices and work to save the next generation from the evils of the last one. We also need to punish all who have looted the treasury either directly or indirectly. The government needs to bring simple anti-corruption legislation to Parliament that allows the State to seize the assets of the convicted and to dispose of them and return the proceeds to the people.

Time is running out for this much needed work to begin, this real leadership, and it is probably the most important work we will ever do as a people; business as usual is just not going to cut it anymore.