Capitulation to Indecency....

On Monday evening the nation was treated to the spectacle of a United National Congress (UNC) Monday Night Forum replete with a plethora of UNC Ministers that asked many more questions than it answered, most noticeably, where were the other partners in the partnership? As the event was used to promote the successes of the government, why was the UNC allowed to take credit for all the significant accomplishments of the two and a half year old government? Is it that the Congress of the People, Tobago Organization of the People and National Joint Action Committee have been relegated to irrelevance? One waits with baited breath to see how this one is spun, but no matter how you turn it the other members seemed to be damned if not now then soon.

If that were not enough to make the thing a circus the performances of the featured acts would have made both Barnum & Bailey proud, and first up to the podium was Oropouche West Member of Parliament and junior Minister of Works Stacey Roopnarine, whose part in the evening's proceedings was all honey in sheer contrast to the vinegar to come. She reminisced much and promised more of visions of a world and how things could be if the people could just trust the government on whose behalf she spoke. To hear her tell it, the people of the south had been living lives of sheer desperation consigned to the dark ages up until now, and the highway that was being built was going to be a magic carpet bearing gifts and goodies for all. What she avoided addressing is the potential social impact and any negative fall out on the south in particular due to the desecration of communities that were here a hundred plus years before modern day independent Trinidad & Tobago was born. She didn't have to, because the people knew; these are people that live and breathe family, to whom community is measured in generations; for this reason her promises of a golden age of harmony fell flat even before the rent-a-crowd that filled the room because it was clear to her audience that she was not one of them, and for that reason she could not get it.

Next up to the mike was Minster of Works and famed ghost whisperer Emmanuelle George, whose part in the play was to undo the legacy of Lincoln Myers, whose only role in the thing to date was to offer a suggestion and an opportunity so that everyone could back away from the knotted impasse. He (George) used his speaking time to harken back to a time when he used to drive to his grandparents house deep in the heart of wherever, painting a picture of how much better his, their's, and everyone else's life would have been had someone, anyone the heart and the mind to build them this fantastic road that would never flood because the engineers were told not to let the highway flood and we all know that engineers always do as they are told.

Roodal Moonilal and Jack Warner used their speaking time to disrespect, admonish, threaten, cajole, and to make the usual spectacles of themselves that they are accustomed to doing. Roodal Moonilal saved his worst venom for hunger striking Wayne Kublalsingh's mother, causing every other mother or child of a mother watching to feel nothing for this man but pity.

The Prime Minister stepped up to the podium in song and treated us to her views on many things but failed to answer the important questions burning in everyone's minds. The message was clear to all listening, that the government was prepared to do as they damned well pleased and if the people didn't like it that was going to have to be tough. The last Prime Minister that I remembered taking such a position with the voters ended up getting the political beating of his life, and all I can tell this Prime Minister two and a half years into office is that history has shown us time and time again, be careful of the toes that you are stepping on today if you hope to contest elections tomorrow.