ON POLITICS: HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED

How times have changed as my brother +selwyn ribeiro  can verify.

Used to be that when I was a child growing up in the Village of Sangre Grande in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago with my mother Camilla and three siblings Selwyn, Mervyn and Ann we learned the value of respect for adults, respect for authority and fear of God. My mother God rest her soul, lost her own dear mother Panchita Syriac at the age of four whereas her brother was then just six. Fortunately her father my Grandfather Charlie Ribeiro , remarried  and so she was not really alone.

Her values were very strong and yet in spite of that she did not resort to abuse in order that we may grow up to be worthwhile members of our community. Instead she used the proverbs and other Biblical anecdotes freely as she sought to instill values into our daily lives. And so we learned from the very best teachers, and this I still believe is the way to go, so much so that I was able to earn my way even while a child of 11 or thereabouts and this did not prevent me from attending school.

This is not a story about us, so I do not intend at this point to carry on about our growing up days ad infinitum. I simply make reference to this to compare the carrying-on of some of my peers on their facebook groups where deference has been thrown to the wind, crassness has replaced ethical behavior and insults fly every which way. If my mother was alive today she would have something special from her storeroom of spiritual wisdom to explain this phenomenon.

When one deals with voting whether in a Village Council, Community Organizations, Church or Politics, it is expected that those offering themselves as Candidates would accept that their role is to serve those who would deign to vote in their favor. What seems to be operating today is a competition to see who could hurl more abuses inclusive of blatant racists attacks, who will be stuck with more dirt at the end of the campaign and whose supporters can ride rough shod over the others.

Country has been relegated to an afterthought and "We time now" and "eat ah food" have become  popular slangs as those who received a heavy mandate from the widest cross-section of voters in our extremely multi-cultural, multi-ethnic  society ignore the love that was shown by this plural society and begin to take advantage of the fact that power now resides in a few. This is not a chastisement of a specific group as others have in the past shown similar tendencies to ignore those who fought for their cause albeit without the "we time now" ditty.

In spite of what may appear to be a divisive strategy to retain power by any means whatsoever, I am confident that Trinidad and Tobago has passed the stage of blindly accepting what passes for good governance without interest groups making their voices heard until the Pretenders of any age exit the stage. How soon this will happen is not my call, but I doubt very much that any Government following this one will have as long a honeymoon as the people have so far given these  Honorable men and women who took up the challenge of leading our beloved country unto greater glory and instead have allegedly violated the trust of those who believed in their honest intentions.

Updated : 30 December 2012

Incidentally I have just returned from the Sunday morning market where my opinion was confirmed in a discussion that was being held by market vendors who claimed to have voted  for the UNC and who are thoroughly dissatisfied by their open show of racism, their continuous mis-steps, among other things in their decision making with no thought for the other members within the partnership.

I will have more to say.