Cutting Up Old Khaki Pants To Make New Ones? Again?

I somehow got included on an email (initiated by Kid5Rivers) with a lot of politicians on the list (such interesting email addresses!), and which a few have responded to. I honestly didn't want to read them and after about 10 responses to the email - something about the Silver Fox (Basdeo Panday) - I let them all have a piece of my mind, perhaps to my own future detriment.

Almost everyone I talk to seems to agree that the 'same old khaki pants' is just that - and mixing the parties up doesn't actually do anything because they remain the same people. Do I really need to whip out Ernie and Bert with the cookies again?

I figured I may as well share my response here since I think it needs to be openly discussed:

I have little time for politics as politics has little time for me. My concerns are not serviced by political posturings. I am not alone in this. The people of Trinidad and Tobago have consistently been wronged by the medieval politics that persist. I have been included on this list by someone for a reason. I do not know what their reason is.

That said, and since I must now suffer every person on this list having their say - I will now have mine. First, I must acknowledge that I am happy that this conversation - if indeed it is a conversation instead of competing monologues - is happening. I must also write that I am saddened that this discussion is not happening in a more public forum, but I fear that is simply a sign of the consistent inability of politicians to embrace the democratization possible through technology. Still, we start with a baby step.

Ask me whether I trust any politician and I will tell you 'no'. So why then should I trust politicians who tell me not to trust other politicians? Quite a conundrum has been dropped in the lap of this citizen, but it is not a new conundrum. It is an aged conundrum, one that defines Trinidad and Tobago politics more than the race based politics of the past. "He said! She said!", I read in the newspapers. And the conundrum is easily resolved when one looks at the issue rationally. If all the politicians point at other politicians and say that they cannot be trusted, what truth is there to be found in politics? That politicians cannot be trusted. Circular logic? Yes. Self-referential? Yes. But so are the politicians of Trinidad and Tobago.

Let me be frank - as if I haven't been yet - do not tire me with the finger-pointing. I do not trust any politicians here in T&T based on heuristics. The colloquialism, 'same khaki pants', can be applied liberally as far as I am concerned. Again, I am not alone. When I check the news I laugh these days for it is only a comedic soap opera. Is this truly all Trinidad and Tobago has to offer? Perhaps we should export more comedy on YouTube. Some politicians should look into it - it could be more lucrative than accepting bribes to do dishonest and underhanded things.

And at least one person receiving this knows that I personally know that they are dishonest. Think back. I wonder how many will wonder if I am speaking of them. After all, many of those on this list are people that have met me. But do they remember? What of the contexts? Oh, the consciences of politicians must be burdensome...

If you want to impress me, do not bore me with words about who can or cannot be trusted. In my eyes - and again, I am not alone - none of the politicians can be trusted. If politicians really wish to get support from people such as myself, they will focus on what needs to be done and come up with concrete solutions. So you see, I answer a conundrum with another conundrum. I ask politicians who do nothing but play with words to do concrete things towards bettering Trinidad and Tobago.

Perhaps it isn't politicians that Trinidad and Tobago needs. After all, we've tried that route with the same politicians over the decades. Einstein once said, paraphrased, that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I submit that this country has consistently demonstrated insanity by this definition.

Thus, what Trinidad and Tobago needs is an asylum. Ahh, well, I imagine I have not made no friends by speaking my mind - but I know the friendship of politicians to be fickle, as did my father, as did my great-uncles, as have my friends... The only reason I enter such discussion is when you come knocking upon my door. I am interested in concrete things, not the political meanderings of politicians. I do not discuss brushes with painters, I appreciate their art. Where is the art of politicians? Guile, it seems. But guile does nothing of substance.

Do not come to me with brushes. Show me the art. From that I, and others such as myself, will judge. I will not pretend to like politicians because they don't even pretend to like the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.

It would be refreshing to be wrong. The first thing T&T politicians could do in this regard would be to stop proving us right. If you take anything to heart from this, take that.

And for those of you who feel the need to try to impress upon me why your politician is better than the politicians of others, do not show me the brushes. Show me the art - not the guile.

Good day.

T. Rampersad

I got this response:

Refreshing.

Since all politicians are “the same”, the sane measure for support is proven efficacy.

Who Sir, has a proven track record of all who seek your ear? Who has successfully practised the art with mastery despite his admitted flaws?

To which I responded:

In response to these questions, I offer two things:

 

(1) A democracy is only as good as its options.

 

(2) A quote sometimes wrongly attributed to Petronius Arbiter instead of

Charlton Ogburn (1957): "/We trained hard ... but it seemed that every

time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I

was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by

reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion

of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

 

/The two sticks of thought, when rubbed together vigorously, should

supply the answer you seek - instead of the answer you asked for.

 

T. Rampersad

And to be honest, I had to explain my response even further... but the gist of it is that making new khaki pants out of ripped and shredded khaki pants is questionable, if not insane.

But that, of course, is just my opinion. What's yours?