While Rome burns or rather Trinidad and Tobago, we continue to be distracted and allow our leaders to play tit for tat and set the bar lower each day.
A respected senior in the Legal Profession recently took to social media and posted “race baiting by the PNM is picong, by anyone else… its seditious.” Let us not fall in the trap designed to distract us from the daily dangers we face.
Our colonial oppressors must be sitting, sipping on hell’s finest cocktails along with the big red guy himself and sharing a hearty laugh at us dotish Trinidadians for allowing further division in our society whilst our problems worsen. How is it possible that we still have “C” and “N” word problems when we BOTH suffered cruelty and hardships from Western oppressors? Are we in 2022 or the early 1900s?
How is it acceptable to have media personalities and columnists make fun of the names of our people? I went through the school system here and my surname (of East Indian heritage) was also ridiculed and made fun off. Does that not end when you leave school?
Lest we forget, we have a failed education system where students go to school to get dismembered and attacked, daily home invasions, we have more potholes than roads, to access foreign exchange in this country is like winning the lottery, corruption and nepotism plagues major government institutions with no recourse and best of all, our leaders who are entrusted to pull us out of this mess, mount petty platforms, decked up in arrogance and egotism, to call each other names.
One has to wonder if historians such as Froude and others who claimed that Caribbean people were incapable of governing themselves and would need the firm hand of the Crown to survive, were possibly on to something. Our diversity is OUR strength, we must not allow anyone to use it conveniently to make minor political gains at the detriment of our unity and peace.
As I opened my eyes and thanked God for another day, sadness and anger filled me to think about the state of our country. Oppression comes in many forms and when we think of the quality of life we lead, the failed healthcare system, crime, stifling economy…it makes one wonder who our oppressors really are? Reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the animals were able to get rid of the oppressive humans, who became the oppressors? Perhaps “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
We must unite and demand better from our leaders. Let Einstein’s definition of insanity no longer apply to us… Trinidad and Tobago will prosper for it.
The writer is an Attorney at Law and former Senator (Temp) in the 11th Republican Parliament.
Commentary by N. D. Tripathi, Attorney-at-Law, June 7, 2022
