The Return of Hope... (Presidential Style)

On Monday last, in the midst of the inauguration of the fifth President of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, something remarkable, something totally unexpected happened. Believed to be long extinguished and dead, at first it struggled as the people doubted what they were hearing, but then it seemed to sputter to life as the words gained momentum, flickered at the consistency, depth and honesty of the message and finally, with a sudden understanding of what was actually taking place, from those present in the stadium to those countless tens of thousands watching from screens around the country, hope roared across the land; and with the first few lines of his maiden speech to the Republic, its new President - His Excellency Anthony Carmona - grabbed everyone within ear shot and bowled them over -  “The powers that you think I have, I do not; the powers that you think I do not have, I do.” And just like that and with just those words Trinidad & Tobago came back to life, switch boards lit up, phone networks and text systems overloaded as people contacted each other to say “Hey, pay attention, something different is happening and you are going to want to hear this.” Social networks became engulfed, people started talking, the energy became electric as the growing throngs on onlookers hung on every word he said.

That is not to say that it was a sugary treat being delivered, far from it, but what it was was an equalizing moment, one that put each person's responsibility regardless of station in life, squarely at their feet. “For many of us "tolerance" has become synonymous with indifference; and these reckless, lawless, dysfunctional patterns of behavior are treated as examples of "Trini" culture that we condemn in private but accept as par for the course.” In other words, We the people who curse the rain while causing the flood, blame others for not working quickly enough to clean up the messes we leave in our wake. “I believe that we need to re-discover our destiny of creating hope for a world in turmoil.
Pursuing this goal, however, would require us to make certain changes.
For many, many years the ship called the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has left its safe moorings of integrity, accountability, responsibility, transparency and inclusiveness. We are good at sound bites and labeling. We can be excellent wordsmiths. But if we are to establish a better, more progressive, more humane society, real change must be invoked.” Wow, I could not have said it better myself.

Now it could be that the people (myself included) are so starved for calm, assertive, sensible sounding leadership that this well worded speech being delivered by a man believed to be honest and trustworthy was so much quenching waters for the parched ears of the thirty populace, but if ever there was a right place and a right time, then clearly amongst the ridiculous and poorly planned, badly executed gala laid out as spectacle to welcome him, this was it. I am not sure if he went there seeking to convert an army of believers or if this was all an unplanned happy accident, but he found one.

And where once stood polarized camps competing for the hearts and minds of the electorate to spin into power stood one people, and for the rest of that evening, that man who united the nation was King. Where do we go from here? I have asked that question sarcastically or cynically so many times in the past, but this time I ask it with hope. I believe we need to give this man a tsunami of support upon which to build his message and hopefully, with a little bit of good luck and blessings from above, we may begin to see our way out of the mess that we're in. If he does anything at all he will give us a clear example of what to look for in leaders to elect and appoint. We can no longer say we weren't guided and we should make every endeavor one to another that we collectively do not disappoint.

Will he himself be able to live up to all of this? I do not know, but wouldn't it be just grand if he did? Wouldn't it be fantastic knowing that political leaders from all sides knew that there was someone else in authority who was not going to be taking the nonsense that has come to represent what has passed for governance in this country? We have been searching for that magical something, that someone to unite us for so long, and whether or not Anthony Carmona possesses that spark only time will tell, but for this writer, tired of different flavors of more of the same, week in and week out as we circled the drain, it was the most refreshing of times and for that, for bringing us back to hope I would like to say thank you Your Excellency Anthony Carmona, congratulations on your elevation, may you live to surpass all the hope we now have in you.