Where are the Inspiring Events?
Sometimes the writer doesn't know what to write about, and this is my case in today's column. It is not that I have writer's block, that condition in which the writer sits before the blank page for hours without being able to write a thing. No, it is rather that there is a dearth of events in our political space that inspire fresh thinking. In such a case, the writer is reduced essentially to repeating old ideas and perspectives or to rehashing what news reporters report, and it is a reduction that can become very tiring. Of course, the writer can create his own events and write about matters of purely personal interest, but he runs the risk of losing his audience if he keeps that up.
What are some of the events that have happened recently and that one can write about? We have, in no particular order: the national football team's apparently unstoppable slide away from qualification for the World Cup; the firing of coach Ian Porterfield; Jack Warner's declaration (threat?) of possible retirement from local football by the end of the year; Brian Lara's withdrawal from the tour of Zimbabwe before facing a ball; the retirement of Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy from local football; the corruption scandal at the North West Regional Health Authority; $1.7B missing from the treasury; Panday's authorisation of the transfer of Dhanraj Singh from jail to mental health institution and his cancellation of the transfer before it is effected; some sort of collaboration between government and opposition in the parliament in respect of ensuring the dignity of that institution; reinstatement of Dr. Keith Rowley in the parliament; a $1B Tobago House of Assembly budget.
Of course, these events can be written about. In the case of the football events, we can blame them on poor coaching, weak administration, undeveloped player skills, a lack of commitment to country on the part of the professionals based at foreign clubs, a virtual Jack Warner dictatorship, an undervaluing of local coaches, administrative insensitivity to the personhood of some of the players. But these aren't new insights, are they?
In the case of the withdrawal of Lara and the retirement of Yorke and Latapy, we can point to the following factors, among others: indiscipline in their private lives, wrong-footing of their fans, greater loyalty to self than to country, mistreatment by both administrators of their sport and public commentators, and their need to take care of number one in the face of a clear decline of skill. But what is fresh in these observations?
In the case of the corruption scandal and the missing $1.7B, surely we can say nothing beyond the usual platitudes and cynicisms? Ent the fellas in charge could do what they want? What if they tief? Ent they performing and giving we something - better road, more school, more and more job, less tax? So what if they drive Benz, BMW, Audi, etc., as if they giving way? We ent really have to pay for this kinda lifestyle, eh? Somebody go take a jail, not so? But, ay ay, we don't have no jail for corrupt officials. And what you talking about evidence?
Any new thinking there?
In the case of Panday's volte-face on the transfer of Dhanraj, we are not surprised, are we? We expected him to say that his action was legal, didn't we? And we expected him not to care, didn't we?, that we would think that he was being partial in picking out Dhanraj alone from among the prisoners in our jails for relief from inhumane treatment. He was acting within the law by seeking to protect Dhanraj and he was acting within the law by not seeking to protect any other. No new insights here either.
In case of the government-opposition parliamentary collaboration and the reinstatement of Rowley, well that could inspire some fresh thinking because of its unusualness, but what exactly, we are hard put to say, especially as respect for the speaker is presented as a relevant notion.
Perhaps it is the case of the THA's $1B budget that has the most potential for inspiration, not in the amount being sought, but in the fact that it is the PNM, and not Hochoy Charles' NAR, that is seeking it. The PNM has used the 6.9% of the national budget, which Charles won by invoking the Dispute Resolution Commission, as a basis for its estimates.
But what it inspires must be left for a subsequent column.
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