Madness

Trinis seem to be an accommodating lot. For donkeys’ years we have all sat back and watched as our beautiful Trini women are threatened, slapped, grabbed, cuffed, kicked and even disfigured into submission by violent partners. We have also seen that the most extreme of these cases results in murder; usually of woman and child. The general public and institutions of state seem unable or unwilling to provide meaningful refuge and help for the many vulnerable women in our society. ‘‘Dat is man and woman ting…me ain gettin involve’’ is the usual retort. In fact, we have fostered a culture whereby many women feel that they are to blame for the ‘cutass’ inflicted on them by their psychopathic men. Those that do decide to take the matter further find that they are often faced with a myriad of obstacles; indifferent police attitudes, snail’s progress at court and apathetic friends, family and employers. Consequently, many domestic violence cases go unreported and our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and nieces are left to suffer in silence. This week, we will cry our crocodile tears for Sylona Constantine, who was so brutally murdered at the hands of her jilted lover. However, before long we will all forget and move on…T’is after all the season to be merry…

It now seems that you have nothing to fear from the police if you are hell bent on pushing drugs, robbing, or killing people like the infamous gunslinger Jesse James. However, should you decide to wear a pair of camouflage pants and walk down the street then expect to literally feel the strong and heavy arm of the law. I am still trying to envisage how in the process of asking a young man to take off his camouflage pants (apparently an offence) a police officer felt warranted not only to take out his weapon but remove the safety and fire a shot or shots. The rest as they say is history and Sheldon Des Vignes from St. Barbs, Laventille is now dead and buried. The Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul has promised that a full and thorough investigation will be conducted. Didn’t George Bush say that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with oil? Some people still think that they could fool all the people all the time…

I have noticed a particularly worrying trend developing in the media reporting of some murder cases. It seems that if you’re a young black man living in an area associated with a high level of crime and violence, then you warrant no more than a mere mention in the papers. It usually follows along similar lines:

‘Around such and such time, residents from such and such heard several gunshots and moments later, found such and such lying in a pool of blood in the road. Such and such had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and body and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was the such and such murder victim this year and police say his murder was linked to his illegal activities and drug dealing in the area.’

The foolhardy among us will read the morning papers and breathe a sigh of relief that this doesn’t happen where we live. No further thought would be given to the victim or the murderer still at large. After all, these things happen all the time in ‘dem places,’ with further ‘investigation’ by the police producing the customary nought. After all, as one blogger on a site (www.triniblag.blogspot.com) stated, ‘‘Who cares if the niggas kill themselves?’’

Well my racist partner, try this for size. Trinidad being Trinidad, chances are that one day this nigga will spot you at some party and decide there and then that he wants to go home with your B52 Sentra-and your wife! See if you find it so funny when you’re staring down the barrel of his .45 Magnum…

I remember learning about Patrick Manning, Basdeo Panday, Winston Dookeran and co when I was in Joyce Thompson’s Standard Two Class at Richmond Street. I am now 29 years old and it amazes me that these men are still at the head of the political class in Trinidad and Tobago. They were running our affairs when Ronald Reagan was president of the United States and Margaret Thatcher was referred to as the Iron Lady. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics still existed and Berlin had a wall running through the middle of it. Politically, it seems that the whole world has moved on-bar sweet T & T. Come election time, the farce and scandal is laughable and the decision for the electorate must be like choosing between the proverbial rock and the hard place. Basdeo Panday seems to have grasped how arduous the task facing the electorate is when he lambasted ‘errant’ voters for exercising their democratic right. He was right: It’s either vote for the PNM and deal with constant crime and violence or vote UNC and have all your money transferred to undeclared bank accounts in London…

prophet

Devil with one horn

It is certainly a shock that the Congress Of the People were unable to secure a single seat in the recent General Elections in Trinidad & Tobago, Winston Dookeran ashamedly losing his prized St Augustine seat to the United National Congress. The People's National Movement won by an 11 seat victory, capturing their foretold safe seats with ease.

Remarked by a friend, "it's a sad state of affairs that we are still voting by race in Trinidad & Tobago", his reaction borne out of the clear divisions of perceived racial divides that currently "segregate" our country, these invisible enclaves not necessarily a racial one, but more so a political one. I do not believe as a people we can be racist, our blood way too diluted to allude to such excuses, but we demonstrate our ignorance or, by Jove!, our natural intelligence on a national level, every 5 years.

We have searched within our communities (read rum shops) for the answer to why we persistently vote along racial lines, doing so in an ever more trendy, derogatory fashion, however, today I propose another strain of thought. I would like to first draw your attention to the fact that demographically, Trinidad & Tobago's population is divided as such : Indian (South Asian) 40%, African 37.5%, mixed 20.5%, other 1.2%, unspecified 0.8% (2000 census) (http://www.indexmundi.com/)

We are all human beings, first and foremost, tribal by nature, following ancient streams of evolutionary instinct to follow, trust those who are "like us", those who conform best to our genetic semblance. I don't think this can be changed, on any level. Human beings will always stick to their own, witness the demographics of Trinidad, whether it be for historical reasons or civic ones, the country is geographically segregated by ethnic similarities. The same goes for London, cosmopolitan, no doubt, however, the Indians live with who they know, the Pakistanis with their own, the "Safas" and Aussies conglomerate in their chic suburbs, the Arabs in theirs and we West Indians have our little boroughs overflowing with breadfruit, bacchanal and babash. I would imagine the same for most major cities internationally.

So if we will perpetually vote for our "ethnic brother", a system that works for the people depending on which party has a stronger following, the "mixed races" and "unspecified" races either not voting or going for the proverbial lesser of two evils (Mr "Red Beret" being the only candidate that I know of with a criminal record) then with all the punters looking for an alternative, all the new parties seeking change through ethic diversification of their line up, I say that this won't work. All you do is confuse people, and to confuse a Trinbagonian means you will make him lazy, he will steups and mark that ballot, at the last minute, after years of bad-talking the other party, bad-mouthing "de coolie party", "de cockroach party", "de whiteboy party", he will vote for his own. His thought process may get severely complicated for a 6am ballot casting, considering the all the speeches, the rallies, the Beenie Man, the teeshirts and bandanas, the new contract, the contracts he may lose, the Bollywood stars! (Bas boy, retire nah man, 74 is not de new 40 yuh know pal!), the voter will rub his head, rub his eye and stain his own.

I like the concept of Proportional Representation, but not on an ethnic bias. I propose we create a new race. Trinidad & Tobago is overrun by young professionals, extremely versatile, creative and vibrant 20-40 year olds. Let us think about how to get these voters out and supportive of the political future our country. A party reflective of the youth, the innate energy and passion of our islands, a force that disregards race on every level. I thought it sad when I saw Mickela Panday in the battered UNC line up, when I saw Nirad Tewarie fall prey to the hawks of COP, Nicole Dyer, Ato Boldon...why would such young innovative Trinibagonians want to follow, instead of lead. A race that represents this cross-section of our country, that understands the international politicking at play and one that knows how to ride the ebb and flow of our idiosyncratic culture. Forget the acronyms, this is just a political vehicle that will inform, educate and support the people who own this country: you and I.

The obstacles that face us will be the existing political entities who seek to perpetually divide the country, (to win elections) and the old school thought that distrusts change. Dooks came out with a positive idea, a vision, but where was the fighter in him, constantly being upstaged by the shenanigans of a silver haired Fox, out-resourced by the Pastor and consequently ousted by his constituents. It's not just change that will bring in the votes. It's also a change of scenery.

The leaders of politics in Trinidad & Tobago have remained unchanged, save a few jail sentences, corruption allegations, heart failures etc. for, well, my lifetime, and with the exception of Bas, who - come on ol' boy, by 79, you should be focusing your energies now on gardening or, come to London, let's have a pint together, relax, put up your feet - should not be around, in 5 years time, we risk seeing the same bullshit rallies all over again.

I don't offer congratulations, but ask for a humble favour that the winner of the elections, the People's National Movement, put aside their personal agendas and take stock of a country in civic decline. I don't want to know about your $3bn per annum budget, I want to come home at 3am, come out of my car, open my gate, and go to sleep. Not forever though.

A Pragmatic Approach

In the midst of all the furore surrounding today’s elections, I wanted to present an alternative conceptualisation of the predicament we have got ourselves into in Trinidad.. a pragmatic alternative.

Our first consideration when deciding how we should vote, must be what we agree with each party on. Given that all three parties failed to present their Manifestos until 10 days prior to the election, this falls by the wayside. Essentially, we have not been offered any choice beyond vague references to decentralisation and a fondness of re-establishing the sugar industry. These are neither inclusive, nor ground-breaking, nor original ideas.

So we move on to the question of what is best for the country? I believe the one thing that we can all agree on is that neither the incumbent Government nor the Opposition have a particularly enviable record, and that on balance, they’re just about as bad as each other. One slightly more corrupt, one on balance, more incompetent. And then there is the promise of a “third-way;” a new party - the promise of a step away from the past. This would have been an ideal choice had it not been for a) them having no chance of forming the next government, b) their failure to deliver fresh, good ideas to the political environment, c) the party actually being funded and run by the existing Establishment.

What choices are we left with? I believe the only real choice we have is to maintain a policy of voting against the Government, until such time as they learn to improve their offering. So if Party A is in power, we vote for Party B; and then Party A at the following election. Perhaps, the frustration of political opposition might push them to develop. In this particular case you could argue that the Opposition bent more than it would have done 10 years ago (by forming an Alliance), and that is some improvement of the despotic tendencies we put up with last decade.

Of course, all this is upsetting in reality, because what we all want is a strong, dynamic, principled Government to lead the country forward. And this is where we come in… I’ve met so many talented, balanced, and able young Trinidadians, who are really passionate about their country, that I don’t believe for a second that we cannot turn our country’s fortunes around in time. The Next Generation has to bottle up all this frustration with our existing crop of second-rate leaders, and strategically focus it on developing our country. Forget the passion and sound-bites that define today’s politics; we need to start thinking, and creating new ideas that would allow a third party to realistically challenge the aristocrats of the status-quo.

Let me begin. I believe the only answer to the feudal problem of race politics is Proportional Representation. A coalition government of all the parties would move us beyond blaming each other for our perceived greater misfortunes. It would allow us to focus on the country as a whole, and defend minority interests against majority dictatorship. Proportional Representation and ‘inclusive politics’ need to be the ring words for whichever party forms the next government.

It is our job and moreover, our duty, to make sure the Government hear those rings, and I would encourage everyone of you to write to your MPs, the newspapers, and bend the ears of the Establishment wherever you can, to make this a reality. Let’s set a new agenda; let us take our country back as our own!

Piers Varley