The Plight of the Hairy Blue Crab... (Environmentally Correct)

There was a time when Gary Aboud and Fishermen and Friends of the Sea mounted a spirited and public campaign against the then government giving permission to decimate the mangrove at the end of Wrightson Road for the development of a cineplex and in the beginning he got some support against the destruction of the natural habitat of the blue hairy crab. To me the issue was a serious one and I learnt a lot the day I spent 'protesting' with Gary under that white tent he occupied for the duration. Now the complex he and they (we?) were protesting is fully built and is arguably the most successful commercial enterprise in this country's history, spawning further development and expanding throughout both islands and into the wider Caribbean. And if Gary Aboud sticks to his guns (and knowing him I fully expect him to) and he never goes to that particular complex or any of its spin offs, chances are he would be the only one in Trinidad & Tobago to do so. Why? Is it because we don't care about the mangrove and the blue hairy crab? No, not at all, in fact, given the choice the average good hearted Trinis would hope that both movies AND blue hairy crabs could co-exist in fun loving harmony, but if the choice was either or then things are going to have to be tough for that crab.

We are notoriously selfish when it comes to our convenience and our entertainment, and while we would shake our collective heads in temporary dismay if (we) found out the very road to our favorite moves was actually paved with the shells of those blue hairy crabs we would still go, because we have been fed a diet of the price of progress for so long that we have come to terms with it.

We are good at rationalizing anything.

This is a country that paved its largest natural green city space to allow for a two day romp, and the most ardent naturalists and every activist of note could be seen on any given Carnival Monday and Tuesday jumping up and down and wining low on that bit of tarmac, not in protest but in celebration, not of the pitch or the blue hairy crab, but in our right to do so.

We protest the hunting of wildlife but eat more meat than anywhere else in the western world. To us turtles are sacrosanct, sentient beings, while chickens are not so much. Those you can eat and we eat them by the ton. Are we hypocrites? No, but we are a little bored and easily misguided with our good hearts and best intentions. A video of a swimmer saving an errant deer from drowning in Chaguramas goes viral while the fourteen dead dog corpses that one has to pass along the way to the scene of the heroism are all but ignored, no mindshare given to their plight. Now this same deer seems to have been saved again in another now viral video, begging the question as to why should we be saving deer that seem intent on drowning themselves? Am I heartless? Far from it. I am the type of person that would fight for the deer AND the dogs if you let me, but I know the country I live in.

To get our right to jump in the Savannah we conveniently ignore the memory of one of the truckloads of gravel used to pave it being dumped on top of a protesting Eden Shand, another environmentalist who will be remembered more for his words and his works, not his successes.

This is Trinidad. Convenience and entertainment comes first.

It is the same situation with the disputed Point Fortin Highway. Having spent some time with Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh I want to say that as far as men of conviction go, I stand and applaud him. And while I never really understood the nuts and bolts of his cause, as an activist I supported him in his right to fight for it and made myself available in the struggle. And if Wayne was the lead campaigner against that cineplex chances are, ten years later his tent might still be there in the middle of the highway. But there comes a time when you have to face the truth, that if the people want the progress that you are protesting against you are going to have to be prepared to lose. And by all accounts all of the people seem to want this bit of highway, regardless of how much sympathy we feel for the now emaciated Wayne Kublasingh. No one understands on whose behalf he is protesting and why, what they know is that they want the convenience of their highway and it will be built even if it has to built over him.

We are a people who have torn down historic structures with nary a glance back at our history.

This same blue hairy crab was last seen covered in oil being passed from hand to hand between the head of the union rumored to know who is responsible for the spill, and the head of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, who now hopes to have as his way, the cessation of the seismic surveys needed to find the oil that pays for the lifestyles we all live.

And while Gary Aboud may now have come full circle and the death of the hairy blue crab may be seen as the light at the end of the tunnel of his struggle, what of the poor crab? The same Gary has implored that the surveys be stopped because it kills fish, the same Gary that lamented the oil spill that killed the fish, so why not allow for the survey to take place now that the fish are gone?

Or is it that Gary is so insistent on getting his way he no longer cares if his struggles misalign or if they fail to make sense?

The Hairy Blue Crab has lost again, and someone needs to tell Wayne  and Gary that to we Trinis, the price of progress is weighed, not against what we save, but on what we must have.

That it is time to dismantle their symbolic tents and move on.