Decisions, like actions, have consequences. Listening to the current Prime Minister speak you would swear that he lives in a bubble, where he believes the feelings he gets from his full stomach, overflowing bank account and safe and secure night’s rest translates easily to those whose bellies are rumbling, who are struggling to keep the rent paid and the lights on, and who sleep with one eye open.
Politicians are using the suffering of the masses as a means to relevance while not actually addressing the issues at the causation level. So decisions are made in this bubble without a thought to the consequences of a lack of action on the price of food, the cost of living, and the ease with which drug traffickers among us move their contraband and launder their gains.
That as an opening to an Eid message in response to the clap trap put out by the man paid to steward the economy and safeguard the nation seems heavy handed when our greetings should all be hope and celebratory, but tell me, what is there to hope for in a country destroying itself through race politics, and what is there to celebrate in a land where nothing works but the corruption machine?
The Muslim community demonstrates a steadfastness to belief even to the extent of huge personal sacrifice to gain better at the end and I think to myself, how do I get that to translate to how we perceive our country, each other, and go about our daily lives?
How do I get Trinidadians to understand that, good or bad, what we are living is the result of the choices, decisions and actions we are all making?
Until we as a people decide to make better political choices so that a proper nation could be built around us I fear we will be hopping and skipping from observance to observance missing the lesson and wasting the knowledge.
We have living examples. Today is one. Use it.
Eid Mubarak Trinidad & Tobago.
Phillip Edward Alexander
Political Leader
The Progressive Empowerment Party