“Debe is a duck and fowl run,’ said a retired building inspector. “People come to my office and complain about the neigbour’s fowl and duck and quarrel over an inch of land.” He continued: “Debe may have nice structures but the people have a 1920 mindset,” he said.
He then said that Chaguanas was given borough status to early. “Outside of the town center, the places are unkempt and grasses are left to overrun vacant lots,” he informed.
I can relate to much of what he said. No wonder that the building inspector and engineer in the regional corporation visit a site to listen to a complaint and never came back because the affected villagers failed to compromise to come to a solution. In many cases fences are built too close to the drain, leaving no room to throw the rubbish after cleaning the drain. For this reasons, many drains remain unclean and the consequences are flooding and damages to appliances, furniture, livestock, crops and general inconvenience.
Generally, there is a ten-foot reserve on the bank of a ravine or river. This ‘no-man’s land status” is never respected. The land is soon fenced, trees are planted and there is no place for an excavator to clean the river.
Why this pre-occupation with land? Do we have an appetite for hate? He said that one neighbor threatened to build a high wall so that he would not have to see his neighbour’s face. What is the genesis of this disease?
Scapegoating or placing the cause of the problem on others has become a way to circumvent a problem. Our people need to think big, not self. To think self is to lock oneself in a prison and experience depression and anxieties.
Driving SUVs, building houses in residential parks and gated communities are other ways to escape troubles. You bid for a contract and did not get it. Instead of challenging the selection process, the Indian throws a party or leave for Miami for a weekend.
There are hundreds of lawyers who are running down “fowl cases” to survive. They need to challenge the way that state briefs are distributed. Indian-owned accounting firms are denied work from State enterprises and definitely not getting any from the 1%. Nevertheless, they remain silent. They resort to the most high-end bars and partake of the most expensive beverages.
The community is hurting. Discrimination is rampant but no protest. A growing trend among Indians is to identify those that you cannot associate with. “If she is coming here, I am leaving!” Indians are not afraid to act as judge, jury and executioner towards their own. They have an extremely mean streak when fighting their own but practice ahimsa when dealing with non-Indians.
A trend I am noticing is a penchant for “cussing’ Gandhiji for his policy of ahimsa. “Gandhi gave away Pakistan…I am admirer of Bhagat Singh, He was a fighter, not Gandhi. He sold out Indians.” If you are a fighter, then by all means solve some of the current issues around you! You don’t have to use ahimsa as your political tool; you can use arms to redeem Gandhi. Despite all this prattling, Indians are afraid to even march on the streets for a reliable water supply in their taps, far more picking-up arms to fight!
Indians have to exorcise this “fear” that is haunting their psyche. It is that fear that manifest itself in binge-drinking, building walls to not see the neighbour’s face, not speaking with that one and the next. The level of such arrogant behavior is stupefying.
But worst of all is our behavior in public office. When power is trusted upon us, we embrace it and soon keep it to ourselves. It is never shared but held out as a bait to attract the weak to keep them at your beck and call. Power is never use to empower the people. Now the personal possession or heirloom of the leader he shares it with his father, mother, brother, charcha and babhi. It is no longer for the public good; it is to serve the family interest.
The strong stays away. They know they can hunt for their food and don’t have to eat the remnants. The strong has the capacity to bring food on the table; the weaklings are going to be forever dependent.
In conclusion, we must develop the mentality of a lion, roaming the forest fearlessly, hunting our game. Living apologetically, quarreling with our neigbours and “building walls” are signs of cowardice, a desperate cry of a people who cannot deal with life challenges. They are symptoms of a mental incapacitation.
