Looting Wonderland...

When John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural speech as US President - 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' he was attempting to unite them in purpose behind a common cause. Real countries understand the power of social responsibility; they reinforce the collective and emphasize the role of the citizen as part of the bigger picture. Here we do the opposite - we think together but act alone. The reason we Trinidadians & Tobagonians do not value our country is because we got it too easily. There is no memory of a struggle to independence, no blood soaked flag of the patriots who fought to forge a nation. Here we negotiated and traded away and made deals among ourselves as to who would get what when, in an orderly looting of what was left.

It is for this reason the collective 'we' have not shown up in support of the Highway Re-route Movement or their hunger striking leader. Had we any concern for others outside the boundaries of 'our' T&T we would have taken the time to get informed as to what could be agitating our brothers and sisters from the south so? For what reason would they literally put their lives on hold to camp out in the sun and rain to make their point? Armed with knowledge we would have gotten involved because the implied social contract demanded it, the contract that insists that we stand with others in their time of need; those others on whom we rely to stand with us should darkness and oppression come our way. In our animal minds we know that together we are strong but our Trinidadian minds tell us if it has nothing to do with us leave it alone; it is this warped thinking that allows temporary office holders to inflict so much harm.

Meaningless religion, culture, spectacle and drama are mixed together and thrown in our faces without rhyme or reason. There is no continuity from this year's Arrival Day to the previous or coming year's, there is nothing that takes us forward from the Emancipation Day observances that can be charted and taught in schools. Everything we do is the same thing with a different dress code. We may call it Eid, Divali, Christmas or Shouter Baptist day, but to corporate T&T it's just another opportunity for branding and peddling wares, and for rank and file Trinis it's just another reason to drink and fete a long weekend away. Machel Montano's continued rise into the stratosphere of riches and success buries our culture but to us it doesn't matter. Chutney soca is as much an insult to our rum drinking, horning, over sexed East Indian brothers and sisters (according to the lyrics) as to anyone else, but it doesn't stop them from gyrating in agreement. Peter Minshall's departure from Carnival left a void that Brian MacFarlane struggled valiantly to fill until he himself thought what was the point? Our politics is no different. Daily we are treated to the three ringed circus of the 'replacements,' a government slapped together in hasty reaction to then Prime Minister Patrick Manning (himself a chosen savior), whose decent into power fueled madness saw a public so desperate for someone, anyone to replace him even the fringe NJAC found themselves pulled into a coalition of the willing and the available and catapulted into government. We keep making the same mistake expecting different results.

Somewhere deep in the recesses of our collective consciousness we believe we do not really deserve our 'nation-hood' and that is why the looting continues to this day; this is the first thing that needs to change. We need to understand that as much as there are rights to being a citizen so too are there responsibilities. Our Parliament has to be returned to its original purpose - the representation of ALL the people, and this cannot happen without our collective agreement and involvement. Until we start thinking and acting as one people under one flag we as a nation are going nowhere but down, and when the oil and gas money that fuels the illusion and pays the bill of our excesses runs out, what then?