V.S.Naipaul said that in Trinidad the rich did not study and that the poor studied to escape poverty. What was interesting was that children from homes with parlors and rumshops also gave up on studies. And having two cents more than a neighbor was enough to qualify a family as rich.
That culture has not changed. The few who have achieved some wealth or steady incomes are on a spree. Every weekend trips are made to resorts to have fun. Little or no efforts are made to develop a sport or repair a school. These ambitions are beyond the reach of those people!
But the lower middle class is no different. They are hell bent on entering the professions and when they arrive, it is now for them to enjoy the plums of their hard work. Like the moneyed class their biggest ambition is to demonstrate their arrival- cars, mansions shopping and parties.
As for the poor and elderly, they are left to suffer in silence. Even the politicians don’t have time for them. They become relevant only for their votes and a handshake and promises are enough to win their support.
Managing a business is now viewed as too tiresome as children demand that the business be sold and they be given their share. Everyone wants to be an employee, not an entrepreneur. A culture of envy for the hardworking is now entrenched, thus little sympathy for business families that have suffered at the hands of bandits.
This python culture of lying in wait for a prey is becoming the norm. Minimum exertion is needed as the appetite for easy money grows by leaps and bounds.
While we worry about home invasions we must also be weary of the bandits within the home. In fact, the term family is just another name for exploitation and extortion. Today the norm is to use and abuse the elders in the family for their hard earned income and wealth.
