The Warning Light Of A Generation

Submitted by Taran Rampersad on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 00:16

My perspective shifted when I realized I was a year older than the appointed Attorney General. There's a line from John Mayer's 'Waiting On The World To Change'  that sprang to mind:

 

...One day our generation Is gonna rule the population ...

 

Reality sets in. It's only the Attorney General. The majority of them are still the generation or two before me, including the Prime Minister herself. The Attorney General is the warning light, though. It means people of my generation are going to be governing Trinidad and Tobago - even Barack Obama is 10 years older than me. But it has started. Soon, very soon, it's going to be people of my generation.

Like the generation before me who went to school with Patrick Manning and his sisters and who remember the one who died, a sad story. The generation that used to drink with Bas. My father's generation knew these people in a way that was intimate. But people of my generation and younger never shared that intimacy. To many of us, these faces became like the characters on Sesame Street1: sometimes as amusing, sometimes seemingly close but in reality always very distant. They don't look at our generations as equals, they view us as children. And maybe, at least for some, the reverse is true. How we view that generation before might vary from person to person but no one can deny that it is different than viewing a peer.

These people influenced how we saw their generation.

Soon enough, there will be more peers there. And how our generation behaves will determine how the next generations will view us.

And the reason I write this:

(1) I hope that our generation doesn't look as stupid inefficient  ineffective as the generations before have... but if we don't start being critical, we will look that... ineffective...

(2) We should worry more about any government because if they leave our generation in a mess, it will reflect on our generation when we hand it off later.

1But when we look at the new cabinet and the last cabinet, we see some faces that keep showing up like Oscar the Grouch for brief interludes - as if the writers of Sesame Street needed some time filled.

Blog: 
Trinidad and Tobago
politics
government
governance
age
generation

Comments

Submitted by Ian Ramjohn on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 03:48.

For me it wasn't Anand Ramlogan so much as Glenn Ramadharsingh. I remember Glen from UWI. So while I knew of people like Gillian Lucky (she was in my sister's class in Naps) or Roodal Moonilal (who was in the UWI Guild around the time I started), I actually knew Glenn well enough to have well-defined opinion of him. Sometimes I think that's a problem. One of the most dismissive things you can say about a politician is "but I know him".

Is it empowering to see behind the curtain when it comes to government? Or does familiarity breed contempt?

Submitted by Taran Rampersad on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 04:07.

"Is it empowering to see behind the curtain when it comes to government? Or does familiarity breed contempt?"

I'd have to say it depends on the person. I've sent people to Anand in the past for serious issues (if you recall the man who was buttstroked on Library corner and his death was initially called a drug overdose... and after an independent autopsy was done: head trauma)... and he really went to bat for the victim. Social justice. Addressed corruption. All in one fell swoop. And there are plenty of other examples.

So, I see him there and my confidence in his track record as a good thing.

Someone else who now has a Ministerial post has done little for his constituents (who did re-elect him, though they likely just voted for Kamla), has a decidedly shady side and who tries to rig the game coming and going. So he gets contempt.

Two glaring examples for me. And what disturbs me is that Kamla was smart enough to pick Anand, but not smart enough about the other person. But that's... politics.

 

Submitted by Christian Khabay on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 17:48.

Forget our generation feel for us Pres men. If anything this last six months has seen two of our favorite sons (Manning / Panday) dispatched from the halls of power. A third Malcolm Jones is close behind. So never mind our generation pretty soon our alma mater will be known as the Despot Depot.

Submitted by Taran Rampersad on Tue, 06/01/2010 - 11:20.

Especially amongst the Naps friends. Heh.