The Inertia of Trinidad and Tobago

The happenings here in Trinidad and Tobago, now with (or without) Hart and with (or without) Property Tax Reform and with (or without) a true change in Opposition, amongst the happenings in my personal life, have me in the frame of mind where I am compelled to write about the elephant - or in T&T, the Manicou - in the middle of the room.

Inertia.

If there is a tone of displeasure here, it is warranted from this writer's perspective. How is it that the face of the country has changed so little for me over the decades? In speaking with one journalist a few weeks ago, my observations were echoed by someone who had more insight into what has been happening over the decades here than I. The faces rarely change, the problems remain the same, and the sliding scale of what is celebrated has slid below mediocrity.

I may sound negative, but isn't it somewhat odd that the country takes the day off when the national football team comes back from the World Cup after being eliminated, having scored only one goal - against themselves? I used to say that was celebrating mediocrity, but it isn't. It's celebrating less than mediocrity. It's a celebration of stagnation; a simple wave of enthusiasm was what was celebrated - a simple hope that something would change. Maybe I am become old and jaded. I am unimpressed with the idiocies tossed around like a dead shuttlecock in Parliament and in the rumshops. I have shaken my head over the years as I have seen more and more money poured into bad ideas - ideas that were so patently bad that even John Q. Mediocrity shook his head with the next nip of puncheon.

So many times it seems that to fool the public into thinking there is progress, standards are lowered. And every time, the public makes some complaint and is ignored. And every time, the public readjusts to the new way of things. Is this the way new generations will look upon Trinidad and Tobago, once rich and proud but now only proud? And proud of what? 

We had CHOGM last year where millions were spent, but this year there is a water shortage because desalination plants are not yet online. And there are natural water wells around Trinidad as well whose abundance is wasted on the Water And Sewage Authority. We import modern convenience but produce none of it. We hosted two conferences last year because... some idiots thought they would bring in money. Instead they funnel money out, strip mining the treasury in search of what little of substance is left.

Carnival is copyrighted, broadcast rights are bought from the government by the government to be shown to citizens with advertisement - the same citizens that sponsor the whole thing. Isn't that peculiar? 

People look to a new Opposition leader for change, but the 'new' is an old face. The politics is a victim of the societal inertia so endemic that it can be seen in the youth of today where the youth think that 'just enough' is 'good enough'. They come by it honestly, it seems.

How can this inertia be broken? I do not know. But I, for one, am sick of it.

Aren't you?

It starts with the individual, you see. Someone who once was someone used to talk about civil disobedience, but that's not the answer. The answer is found in the premise of Thoreau's work - the high standards by which people not only hold others accountable but hold themselves accountable.

Or everyone can stay right here. After all, you leave no footprints if you stand still.