May, Might & Probably...

There are few words in the English language as powerful as the words 'may,' 'might,' and 'probably.' In a world where cigarettes might cause cancer or may make you into a stud, able to give a beer a pedigree it might not really have or ascribe healing qualities to soup or cholesterol reducing properties to a cereal, these words allow the person speaking to make claims that may or may not be true even if probably unbelievable or that might be an outright lie.

Take politics for example: There are some who are of the view that it is entirely probable that former Justice Minister Herbert Volney may have been the only person responsible for the Section 34 fiasco, while many others believe that Attorney General Anand Ramlogan might have some questions to answer and that Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar probably knew more than she let on. To some, Opposition leader Doctor Keith Rowley may have been correct to call on His Excellency the President to enquire of the Prime Minister what exactly she did know, while others believe that to be the textbook definition of a fool's errand as His Excellency might have had the power to refuse to pass a section of a law under such dubious circumstances in the dead of night on a public holiday anyway. The many who are refusing to let go of this issue probably believe that we might be able to get to the bottom of it all if we could somehow convince the Commissioner of Police to investigate the former Justice Minister for misbehavior in public office, and while it might give the Director of Public Prosecution something with which to finally build a case against the plotters, it may also be too late, the trail too cold and the covers all battened down tight.

Or take Carnival: To Culture Minister Lincoln Douglas, Carnival 2013 may have been a resounding success while to the rest of the country it may have been a disaster of Titanic proportions. Perhaps if asked the right questions the Minister might be able to tell us on what exactly he bases his claim but until then we will have to accept his superlatives and platitudes.  His number two and head of the National Carnival Commission Allison Demas might well have damaged the festival beyond repair, leaving many to surmise that the decimation of the Dimanche Gras was no accident but an underhanded ploy (a subterfuge if you will) to destroy calypso in general and social commentary in particular. Some point to a certain religious leader, whose master plan to 'centralize' all things is notorious, but regardless, what eventually became this year's Carnival was an embarrassment and a failure of epic proportions and someone ought to be made to pay. The Minister of National Security insisted that this carnival was the safest ever, contradicting the actual statistics that may have proven him wrong once again. Of all of the public officials with questions to answer on the carnival though, none are more important than the Minister of Tourism, who will probably need to explain to the population where the tourists went this year. Someone said he may have been counting on late arrivals (as his explanations to the media pointed out), but based on his arithmetic, that might have seen visitors beginning to arrive early Ash Wednesday morning. As no one saw the Prime Minister on the road for the event she may well have suspected what was probably coming and might have 'taken in front,' for which we give her ten points. In cases such as these where versions of reality differ so starkly we turn to public order instruments such as Commissions of Enquiry, but even these have been proving difficult to empanel of late, and no one can be absolutely sure if aspiring commissioners may or may not be fudging their resumes.

The head of the Copyright Collection Organization may yet be proven the grand jester of carnival 2013, and, together with the National Carnival Bandleaders Association themselves, may end up collectively the most despised of all the characters in this year's mas. Guilty of trying to 'take all' and 'leave none,' what might have started off as a reasonable sounding appeal for protection ended up coming across as strong-armed thuggery and may have left the masqueraders holding the empty bag.

In a festival underwritten by the people 'in front' through sponsorship (estimated between ninety and two hundred million) and then by actual costume purchases, this gang of mas artists (they seem to believe that copying designs and then using them to import complete costumes from China is art) tried to levy a further 'tax' upon the masqueraders for having the audacity to take and share pictures of themselves having fun; and now, because of the absence of said images, the rest of the world is wondering if we did in fact have a carnival at all this year. The head of the NCBA David Lopez together with Richard Cornwall of the TTCCO may be the ones to blame for destroying mas, but in a carnival where many people believe that even the Soca Monarch may have in fact been rigged or that the promoters of that event are probably the biggest winners in this 'eat ah food' mas, that took some doing.

Of course all of this may just be fiction and will probably amount to nothing. If it does anything it might encourage us all to pay closer attention, but who knows, we may all end up probably better off for it in the end. Or we might not.