Opinion & Issues

Why I hate Tolerance

Darryn Dinesh Boodan

Jan 16 |00:00
Everyone keeps telling me that I am an intolerant person. Within the past month, everyone from my dad, my friends, the cashier in PriceMart, to the people I work with, have all had something to say about my supposed inability to be tolerant. Even my mom.
“Mom people say I am becoming an intolerant @sshole”
“Really? Becoming? I think that ship sail long time son.”
This really confused me. I never saw myself as being an intolerant person, and I spent the weekend alone, in my hammock, quietly contemplating this supposed flaw in my personality, and how I could possibly repair it. On Saturday night at about 9 p.m., just after I finished my third beer, I came to a profound realization. I am not intolerant. I am just surrounded by crazy people.
Take, for example, my father. A man who I remember used to stay home to watch “Star Trek”, while my mother took my brother and I to church. A man who once told me that I should forget about university, and become a pastor “because it have real money in that, and it all tax free”. This man has now found God. He claims it was the result of a divine revelation. When I tell him that I find it really coincidental that this “divine revelation” seems to have come right after he survived a severe heart attack, he becomes belligerent.
“God save my life Darryn!”
“Really Dad, I guess those doctors and nurses and specialists were just in there liming.”
“God was working through them Darryn. God came down from heaven and work through them to save me.”
“Well that’s good Dad. You shouldn’t pay them then. I mean people shouldn’t go to medical school.  What’s the point? We just need to put people near sick people, and let God work through them.”
“You can’t respect anything eh. You too smart for everybody. This is what is happen when people feel they too smart, they become intolerant!”
“Oh, I intolerant? What you think tolerance is? Just listening and staying quiet?”
“I not saying you have to believe in what I believe in. Just have more tolerance and respect that this is what I believe.”
“Fine Dad. I’ll be tolerant. Tell me more then. What did God look like?”
“Well he big and bright and he does glow…like...this creature in this episode of ‘Star Trek’ where they thought they found god…just like that!”
You see, this is what most Trinidadians and Tobagonians think tolerance is about. Respecting somebody else’s point of view, no matter how stupid it is.
So, my father thinks God, who resembles an alien from “Star Trek”, personally saved his life. What’s the harm in that, right?
But really, what is separating my father, who thinks God chose him to live, to someone who believes that God has chosen them to strap a bomb to themselves and kill other people? Or those who think God wants homosexuals to be put to death, girls not to go to school, or be covered up, or have their genitalia mutilated, or even send him ten percent of your salary via your preacher  each month?  Recently, there have been suggestions by “Hindu leaders” that underage, Hindu girls should be married, if they get pregnant. Apparently, this is the “Hindu way”. How are we supposed to respond to this?
“Well ok, if your religion says that you should force underage girls to be married, then fine; to each his own I guess.”
For Trinis, tolerance isn’t an idea to believe in, or a watchword to live by. It’s something you “do”. And the way you “do tolerance”…is by doing nothing at all. There is no need to think. All ideas are equal. Just accept it. It’s not your responsibility.
The problem in thinking like this is that it allows a much more sinister word to slowly creep into your brain - apathy.
Take for example my friend Roger. Roger was extremely incensed by the Government’s decision to implement a state of emergency (SOE) last year. He would call me at all hours of the day to vent about how unjust the SOE was. And he was especially riled up at the thought of the police entering people’s homes without a warrant, thinking that they would single out poor communities. Roger said he was going to “do something drastic”. It sounded ominous. But I knew Roger, and I knew how his brain worked.
This is Rogers’s brain on apathy…
Roger: “I going and defy these curfew orders, and show the Government that they can’t suppress the people.”
Apathy: “Really? That means you’ll get arrested and go to jail. You want to go to jail?”
Roger: “So! Gandhi went to jail, Martin Luther King went to jail, and Steve Biko went to jail!”
Apathy: “Yeah, but they didn’t get bull in jail. You want to get bull in jail? Because that’s what will happen. Even if you didn’t get bull in jail. People will say, ‘Allyuh know Roger make jail. I sure he get bull.’”
Roger: “I have a new idea. I don’t need to defy the curfew orders. I am part of the young     generation. I should do something on Facebook. You know? Use the new media.”
Apathy: “Now yuh talking! What you goin’ to do?”
Roger: “Well I can write an essay explaining how I feel and why the SOE is wrong.”
Apathy: “Nah people don’t like to read plenty things on Facebook. What you should do is something more powerful and attention grabbing, like posting quotes from ‘Animal Farm’ in your status. It will send a strong message, that you have read it, and you know who George Orwell is.”
Roger: “Brilliant!”
Roger wasn’t alone. During the SOE, there was widespread discontent, but it was all done on Facebook. For my generation, posting angry comments on Facebook has become the new “going and block the road and set tyres on fire”. Except it can be done from the comfort of your bed.
Trini’s think the word “apathy” means that you’re “indifferent” to things. Not really. Apathy really means that “you’re indifferent, but you’ve managed to convince yourself that you’re not”.  Apathy likes to reassure us that: “It’s not that you don’t care enough to do anything about it; it’s just that you are really tolerant - and that’s good, so doh hot yuh head”.
There was a reason why Martin Luther King called his movement “civil disobedience”. He was breaking laws. He was defying authority. He refused to tolerate segregation. He refused to tolerate the status quo. Like Gandhi, before him, and Mandela, after, King had no tolerance for bad ideas.
My friend Roger, like most Trinis, loves to invoke the language of great revolutionary leaders in a time of crisis. But we also love to invoke apathy’s way of acting: “I won’t stand for this, and it’s not that I don’t care enough to do anything about it, it’s just that I am really tolerant, so I not going to hot my head yes.”
In our warped view of tolerance, the more you can tolerate a bad idea, the more virtuous you are.
From bad roads, and bad traffic, to high food prices, bad government, Ian Alleyne, lining up to leave Pricemart after you have paid, poor service, poor sanitation, corruption, TV preachers, paying 45 dollars for a cinema ticket, VVIP sections, CEPEP, the WICB...the list goes on…and on. The more we can display tolerance for these things by smiling and reciting the Desiderata, the more we pat ourselves on the back, saying what good pleasant and courageous people we are.
“Man I sit down in traffic for two hours yes!”
“Dread I pay 50 dollars for a pack of rice yes!”
“You know how long we doh have water, a whole week now yes!”
Tolerance is not about putting up with bad ideas. It’s about having the courage to kill them. People assume bad ideas automatically die a quick and natural death. That’s not true. Bad ideas are like that annoying Pennywise jingle you keep hearing and thinking it’s going to go away soon because it’s so awful. Then ten years pass, and you not only discover that the jingle is still playing on the radio, but you are now humming along to it.
So I want to propose a new definition of tolerance. A definition that I feel would help to remind us all what the true meaning of the word is, and the spirit in which we should use it. A definition that will allow us to keep apathy from sneaking in.
tolerance
[tol-er-uhns]
Verb
1 The ability to look injustice, bigotry and inequality straight in the eye and say “go f*ck yourself”.

zerotoleranceEveryone keeps telling me that I am an intolerant person. Within the past month, everyone from my dad, my friends, the cashier in PriceMart, to the people I work with, have all had something to say about my supposed inability to be tolerant. Even my mom.

“Mom people say I am becoming an intolerant @sshole”

“Really? Becoming? I think that ship sail long time son.”

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Banking in T&T: Irritating, Irritating, Irritating

Kern Elliott

Dec 05 |00:00
I’ll be honest. I really hate banks. I hate banks so much that if I had a choice, I would prefer to be punched in the testicles than to ever have to visit a bank again.
To me, banking in Trinidad and Tobago, is a horrific experience, but am I alone in this belief that banks are the spawn of Satan himself? To have this question answered, I spoke with a few of my friends, and their complaints and anecdotes were strangely similar to my experiences. So I decided to compile a list of the most common reasons why people hate banks.
As much as we may not want to admit it, we need banks for two, simple reasons (and I’m being really simplistic, and not mentioning the greater macroeconomic issues here):
1. No one wants to walk around with their entire salary in their pocket when month-end arrives.
and
2.  Your company, most likely, will not deposit your entire salary to a credit union.
Still, just because we need them, because they’re a better alternative to stuffing cash under our mattresses, banks stress us out with…
Crappy opening hours
Honestly, why would an institution that serves working class people, only open during working hours? Don’t you think I would be busy between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. doing hmm...I doh know...WORKING? There is nothing my boss likes more than saying: “Kern you need to go to the bank? Of course...go take some much needed time off. We will jus’ limp around until you get back. No problem for the company at all”.
Seriously, isn’t service delivery important to banks? If the majority of your customers is the working class, then why would your opening hours be the same as the hours your customers are occupied? Clearly convenience for customers is not a priority.
In the US of A, for example, some banks open from 8.30 to 6.00 p.m., as well as on Saturdays and Sundays. I know Scotiabank used to offer weekend banking, but I’ve been told that it’s no longer available. And yes Internet banking was introduced to help us deal with this major inconvenience, and avoid the loooonnngg anaconda lines, but hey, customers might actually love banks, if they showed us some consideration by being a bit more accommodating, and flexing their opening hours to suit customers’ lifestyles.
B!tchy customer service
Some of you may have gotten good service at some banks, but here’s a scenario I’ve experienced far too often.
Customer Service Representative (CSR): “Good day sir. How may I help you?”
Me: “I would like to cash this cheque and make a change to my credit card payments.”
(I hand the CSR the cheque. At this point, the CSR’s attitude ‘tun up’ after watching the cheque, and I get the why-the-hell-is-he-here-to-give-me-more-wok stare. Think about it. You have seen it before.)
CSR: “Sir you cannot cash this cheque. It needs to be deposited and after four working days it will be cleared.”
Me: “What the hell! Four whole days? Why horse?” (Yeah I done lose it, but I need the money now and the CSR isn’t helping me at this point).
CSR: “Because the cheque is crossed.”
(Now I’m thinking, “BITCH! I don’t care if it’s crossed, has an asterisk, a square or even curly brackets. I want my money now”. However, I respond.)
Me: “Ok, well deposit it” (while mentally checking to see if I have enough gas money for four days).
(And when I ask about changes to my credit card standing orders, what does she tell me?)
“You cannot make a credit card account change here. You need to go to your home branch.”
Home branch my foot!
What the hell is a home branch? Aren’t all the *insert your bank’s name* branches the same bank? So why does it feel like one bank, with many sounds? A home branch is something I’ve never understood. RBC (or RBTT as some of us still call it) has all my information to authenticate my identity, if I want to make a change to my account, even via telephone. All the branches can access this information, so why can only one branch make changes? I think I speak for everyone when I say this is the dumbest process ever. Readers, do you agree?
I know they’ll say it’s all about security risks, and protecting me. And yes, you might say that’s what Internet banking is for. However, that doesn’t mean it’s any less frustrating when someone loses their bankcard, and has to travel to the next end of Trinidad, to their home branch, to collect a new one. Hard luck if you opened an account in Port of Spain, when you used to work in that area, and now you work in San Fernando.
Strangely enough, this issue of a home branch is also present in banks in foreign countries – although they do offer their customers the convenience of a wider range of transactions at all branches and online.
And while I’m on this customer service issue, you know what else peeves me? Apart from the fact that I continuously wait in really long lines, and end up reaching to work late, when you really analyse the situation, the full complement of tellers are not working; only two, maybe three. Maybe they are stuck in bank lines too…at their home branch.
Lack of responsibility/Totally profit oriented
Banks always promote loans more than savings in their advertising. Sure they have implemented the debt to income ratio. However, the banks’ responsibility to the public should go much further than that. Just today I saw Republic Bank’s Google text ad saying, “Use your Credit Card this Christmas and spread some joy!” Ugh yeah. Joy now…seriously broke for the new year.
Banks should implement a solution that properly discusses responsible finances, specifically targeting young adults. A bank, or any financial institution, for that matter, shouldn’t encourage someone to buy a brand new car when it is not a need on a relatively low salary. Nor should it encourage someone new to the working world to use a loan to pay for something frivolous, such as a carnival costume. It should also discuss strategies on how to save money to achieve a specific goal, and not spread the notion that a loan is an answer to all your financial needs. In my humble opinion, this can greatly develop better finance management skills in Trinidad and Tobago.
Excessive fees
While everyone bombarded me with different issues about banks, only one person had a totally different perspective on this topic. Dike’s (pronounced DK) grievances were not process or customer service related. Instead, his biggest grievance was the amount of fees the bank charges its customers to access their hard-earned money. He also expressed disgust with the interest rate on loans, both short and long term. This particular grievance is one we see highlighted by customers in First World countries…which made me think, are we as Trinbagonians focused on Third World issues of how we are treated, or is it that Third World countries in general don’t know how to implement superior customer service?
So there you have it folks, some of the common reasons why Trinbagonians, including myself, hate banks. Hopefully, and I know I’m stretching here, one of the banks might actually ‘take me on’, and this article can be used as a catalyst to change the way banks treat customers. Having said that, in all honesty, I don’t think that will happen. Modern changes in the local banking system happen ever few zillion years. However, if banks could change any of their processes by next year, what changes would you like to see?

bankingttI’ll be honest. I really hate banks. I hate banks so much that if I had a choice, I would prefer to be punched in the testicles than to ever have to visit a bank again. 

To me, banking in Trinidad and Tobago, is a horrific experience, but am I alone in this belief that banks are the spawn of Satan himself? To have this question answered, I spoke with a few of my friends, and their complaints and anecdotes were strangely similar to my experiences. So I decided to compile a list of the most common reasons why people hate banks.

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Vroom Vroom Horrors: Drivers who Piss me Off!

Karel Mc Intosh

Nov 28 |00:00
Check out this scenario. You’re bobbing yuh head to Bunji Garlin’s “Bless U”, mindin’ yuh business, while waiting for the traffic light to change on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. Suddenly, some imps shoots out of nowhere, attempting to cut in front of you, making you swerve, and maybe even slam your brakes, while you pray that none of the cars behind you ram yuh bumper.
“Yuh dotish owa?” Dais de only ting dat could pelt out yuh mouth, even if they can’t hear you because your windows are up. Okay, maybe yuh pelt some cuss, and honk yuh horn. I can’t blame you, because drivers who make us engage in road rage, and endanger our lives are the bane of our existence in these traffic-filled times.
Sometimes I dream of installing a Mactruck’s horn in my hatchback, so that I could scare the living daylights out of discourteous and dangerous drivers (and de people who take dey time to cross de lights by City Gate). I also dream about ramming into them (de drivers, that is) just fuh spite. But on the roads, reality rules.
If our cars worked like Knight Rider’s, we could happily ignore them. But since Kit won’t save us, hopefully this rant will invoke the power to get them to relax on the roads until 2012.
Women drivers
Yes I will happily heap criticism on my sistren from the get go, and say that most times, when a driver does some sort of idiot manoeuver on the road that tests your patience, it’s a woman. But they don’t just piss me off because of their clumsiness; they also piss me off because of the consequences.
Decades of women driving like they’re scared is what has brought the plague of men who think that every time they see a woman driving or parking that they must give her directions. You reverse parking just fine you know! You know exactly how much space there is between you and another car, but men feel the need to tell you, “Lock to the left. Okay, straighten up dey. Yah ha space… come back”, while doing their best police-conducting-traffic gestures. It irritates me every time. See the pain you women who can’t drive well have caused us women who can?
Sloooooow drivers
I get it. You’re a safe driver. But did you not learn the meaning of fast and slow in primary school? The fast lane is for driving quickly. Not at 40! Go crawl somewhere else.
And word to the wise, the same way that driving too fast is a serious hazard, driving too slowly can cause harm for others as well. I’ll always remember driving onto the Valencia stretch, and the woman in front of me (hadda be a woman eh!) was driving at about 20 kilometres. Ah mean… she had the rest of us behind her squeezing our bamcees, because you know how people does speed on dat stretch out of nowhere! Nobody wanted to get ‘lick up’.
Big vehicle mentality
So because you’re driving a Mercedes, Audi or Touareg, you really think I’m not gonna bounce you? You’re right. I’m not going to bounce you. I don’t have $5,000 to spend on a side mirror, far less the ridiculous amounts of money to repair a door. However, because you’re driving ‘rich people car’, that doesn’t mean you can drive as you want, because we, the drivers of less elite brands, would do our best not to hit yuh, even though you’re the one driving like the a$hole.
Telephone lovers
Okay, most of us do it at some point in time, because like plenty ah we have thousands of dollars to waste on a ticket. But what irks me are drivers who chat on their phones, while zorcing at 100, or switching lanes, and dey not paying attention to what’s going on around them. Whether they’re on a major or minor road, they trying to do some sort of fancy manoeuvre, and you’re there like, “Watch whey yuh going nah!” And then you realise the person’s on the phone.
No people. If you’re on the phone and driving, pull to the side, or go with the more realistic move (because how many of us really pull aside?) – switch to the slow lane, and relax yuhself. Do not attempt to multitask behind the wheel. Like Kanye West says, “Drive slow homie”. (Yeah ladies and sloooooow drivers, this is when you drive slowly.)
Need for speeders and bad drivers
These are the ignorant drivers who love to ‘bad drive’ yuh. No courtesy on de road. No indicators. No hand signals. They drag race, as they please, because like they daddy pave de road. They switch lanes like a madman after dem, only for you to see they’re turning off a few centimetres away (okay I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean)… or five minutes later, they’re cruising at 30. Steups!
These are the dangerous drivers who are sometimes responsible for the flowers we see on the highway, marking loss of life. These are the drivers who make a camera system on our highways and byways necessary, so that the law can catch all of their wrongdoings, and snatch away their licence before they harm someone. Sometimes, these are also the drivers who live to ‘bad drive’ another day, even if they caused an accident that leaves others in critical condition… or dead.
In a practical defensive driving I did, the instructor said that driving is one of the most dangerous things you do on a daily basis. I believe him. And with Christmas and New Year’s only a few weeks away, you know some people are going to get extra happy – aka stupid – on the road. So you have to be extra careful.
I could go on… and on. I could talk about the drunk drivers. I could talk about those who don’t know about switching lanes the right way, and stop on the highway in a lane waiting for someone to give them a space, instead of maintaining a steady roll, and switching when there’s reasonable space to do so. I could talk about the maxis and taxis who stop and block up de road to make ‘small talk’, and get change from their fellow maxi/taxi friend (and that’s the least of their sins).
Daft and dangerous drivers need to be outlawed, because, really, they make it so easy for you to see your life flash before your eyes, or get high blood pressure. With the ever-increasing number of cars on the roads, something has to be done about this. So to help me add more categories to the letter of complaint I’ll be sending to the Ministry of Transport, tell me, what kinds of drivers piss you off?

baddrivershandbookCheck out this scenario. You’re bobbing yuh head to Bunji Garlin’s “Bless U”, mindin’ yuh business, while waiting for the traffic light to change on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. Suddenly, some imps shoots out of nowhere, attempting to cut in front of you, making you swerve, and maybe even slam your brakes, while you pray that none of the cars behind you ram yuh bumper.

“Yuh dotish owa?” Dais de only ting dat could pelt out yuh mouth, even if they can’t hear you because your windows are up. Okay, maybe yuh pelt some cuss, and honk yuh horn. I can’t blame you, because drivers who make us engage in road rage, and endanger our lives are the bane of our existence in these traffic-filled times.

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Ian Alleyne: Less Batman, More Booster Gold

Karel Mc Intosh

Nov 14 |00:00
Batman didn’t become the most badass of super heroes because of his gadgets, or his ability to ‘beat up’ psychopaths, crocodile men, and high-level gangstas, while wearing skin-tight, leather leggings, and a bulletproof jockey shorts.
Batman is the most badass super hero ever (barring competition from Wolverine), because he has no super powers, yet his intellect, detective skills, tactics, and ability to intimidate are unparalleled. And the man has character.
Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego, chose a caped crusader as the medium to tackle crime and corruption in Gotham, because, as badass as he is, Batman knows that it’s way smarter to don a masquerade, maintain a low profile, and not reveal his true identity, than to casually walk through the streets, mike in hand, dressed to the nines in a suit, while talking to a camera crew.
Ian Alleyne, the latest media personality Trinis have come to love or hate, depending on your worldview, obviously derives no satisfaction from quietly conducting intel from a bat cave under his house. While the thought of comparing Ian Alleyne and Batman is preposterous, even to me, I still get some sort of kick about doing it, being the comic fan that I am.
Now, there are different depictions of the bat. In some depictions, he’s almost psycho, seeking vengeance over justice; in others, he’s softer. I’ll go with the Saturday cartoon version, as most people would be familiar with this. The darker Batman was too gritty and grimy for kids… kind of like “Crime Watch” – with its footage of dismembered body parts and the raping of a minor.
“Crime Watch” has become “The Ian Alleyne Show” – less about reality, and more about show. That’s why I say Alleyne might be more Booster Gold than Batman.
If you’re unfamiliar with the world of comics, here’s the background on Booster Gold. One of the lesser known DC heroes, he’s a glory-seeking character from the future, who uses his knowledge of historical events and futuristic technology to stage high-publicity heroics. He has no real super powers. He is a shameless self-promoter who is obsessed with fame and wealth (sounds familiar?), and only went back in time to seek them, because he’s a failure in the future. Eventually, he realizes that he can’t be a hero who’s just looking for fame, and decides to become a true hero, because action, and not praise, is where value lies. But it took some personal tragedies and humility-inducing events to bring him to this realisation.
When “Crime Watch” first started, it offered a ripe platform for Alleyne to empower people, and be the crime fighter we’d love. But then the showmanship took over. Why? Because he thinks he is Batman. However, his story has more parallels with Booster Gold’s. Whether he’ll come to the same realisation as Booster remains to be seen. Whether TV6’s suspension of his show will be a humility-inducing event for him seems doubtful. Right now, he’s busy inviting his supporters to sign a petition get the show back on air ASAP.
But here’s where he can take a page from Bats.
Batman, in all his “doh mess with me” persona, never compromised doing what’s decent. He was always aware of the potential effects his actions had on the less fortunate and the victims of villains, because his very being was a direct result of understanding what it felt like to be powerless and in their shoes.
Batman is a vigilante, no doubt about it, but he’s a lovable one. He does his job quietly, and hands over the criminals to the police. That’s why no matter how much people paint him as a vigilante, he’s a hero to most.
Some call Alleyne a vigilante. Some call him disgusting. He thinks you all are just jealous. And what boosts his belief are his blind fans who think he can do no wrong, including the 297 plus, who, up to last night, professed that they were missing the show, life is boring without “Crime Watch”, and that people were trying to tear down the forces of good.
This perception of him being a saviour, a de facto minister of national security, restoring balance to the plains of good and evil in Trinidad on candid camera, makes him relentless in his pursuit of justice. Doh hot up yuh head. The hunt is on. But now that it’s off – at least on TV6 – his mission has been thwarted.
Amidst all the brouhaha, no one doubts that Alleyne has ever done any good whatsoever. But when a man hallucinates about which level of super heroism he’s at, and forgets that the means do not justify the end, someone needs to show him the bright lights. Director!
We could say that he has to resort to alternative tactics, because – unlike Batman – he lives in a country where the police commissioner doesn’t even begin to compare to Gotham’s Commissioner Gordon – a cartoon character! The sort of red tape and inefficiency he may encounter must surely frustrate him and cloud his judgement.
But any champion for the people, super hero or non-super hero, can never let his cause be about him. The very nature of his mission requires that he strip personal pride, and not seek praises. I mean, Mahatma Gandhi never got up during one of his fasts to thump his chest and say, “Allyuh should be thankful for me because I doin’ what half ah allyuh not brave enough to do”.
No, a champion for the people goes about conducting missions, with humility, compassion, and grace.
On his Facebook page, Alleyne says, “I don’t live for friends. I live for justice”. If he gets back on air, hopefully he’d have learnt Booster Gold’s lesson by then, and will maximise the potential a show like “Crime Watch” has to do good – without the theatrics and disregard for how it affects members of society. The question is, will “Crime Watch’s” host change his approach, if given a second chance?

captaintandtBatman didn’t become the most badass of super heroes because of his gadgets, or his ability to ‘beat up’ psychopaths, crocodile men, and high-level gangstas, while wearing skin-tight, leather leggings, and a bulletproof jockey shorts.  

Batman is the most badass super hero ever (barring competition from Wolverine), because he has no super powers, yet his intellect, detective skills, tactics, and ability to intimidate are unparalleled. And the man has character.

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Curfew done, but it’s too soon to...

Karel Mc Intosh

Nov 14 |00:00
Curfew done. Praise de Lawd. Hallelujah. If you’re guilty of shouting this when the honourable prime minister announced that the curfew had been lifted, doh feel guilty. I did it too. Doh mind I eh go a place to lime as yet, and, since then, I’ve always been home before 11 p.m.
Between the celebratory reflex actions and simultaneous grumblings, because we aren’t really free, I got to thinking about all the things that some of us have been too quick to do.  Let’s start with the obvious.
Jump up for joy and lime with abandon
Have you seen Ariapita Avenue since the curfew was lifted? What has South or Arima been like? Looooook at people dey!
The whole reaction to the curfew being lifted reminds me of animals being let loose from a cage. Freedom they think, in that moment of instant gratification, not realising that there are still snipers and hunters out there waiting to get them. In our case, the bandits and murderers are the hunters, and while the police may not have paid mind to Minister Volney’s previous, giddy-headed comment that people caught outside of the curfew would be shot on sight, let’s admit it, most of us are even less trusting and even less excited to see a police officer.
We’re not free; we just have a bigger backyard to run in. The fact that the state of emergency is in effect means yuh still have no rights. You know that. I know that. As a friend said, on Facebook, “One handcuff has been removed, yet the other one remains... Should I celebrate? Should I be thankful? Or should I continue to fight for the removal of the other?”
Fall for the same tricks
On another level, this whole thing reminds me of Aristotle’s days, BC, when the aristocrats decided that they knew what was best for the plebs (middle and lower class), and they’d play little mind games or use tough tactics to keep them in order.
Every regime in T&T has always played the game of distraction. We’re so distracted by the thought of jumping in our cars to go for a doubles or to the club, that we don’t realise that these periods of distraction are when some bills pass through Parliament, and when the majority of us – who would be just as incensed as “activists” over their contents – would barely stop to make a ruckus about it. Do you know about the DNA bill? Are you still watching the news, now that you have entertainment options? Do you remember the Facebook note a friend or two posted, listing exactly what a state of emergency entails? Did you ever get around to learning more about the constitution, which you told yourself you just had to do, when the SOE was first called?
Forget to think about the future
I’ll be honest. I’m one of those who are caught up in their own life – busy, busy, busy, as a bee. So much so that it’s really easy to go about life as usual. The problem is that we’re not living as usual.
We’re unsure about the future of our country. We’re unsure about what succession in politics looks like for T&T. We’re unsure of whether the state of emergency will even be lifted, because everything is being evaluated, as we go along. We’re unsure of whether the curfew will be reinstated. Let a week pass by, and we have five murders, it may bloody well happen.
Yes, the majority of us haven’t had police banging down our doors, yanking us to cramped jail cells, at two in the morning, and thankfully we don’t have any Gaddafis in government; but just because the removal of our rights hasn’t reached apocalyptic, critical mass, that doesn’t mean we should be lulled into a state of complacency. Maybe this is why the curfew was probably seen as an inconvenience at best, and not a threat to freedom. It was just about a physical leash.
Personally, I never like to criticise, and say Trinis doh care, Trinis like it so, and all that jazz, so I’m not going to. I have no idea as to where the answer for a better future comes from. I have no idea, as to whether we’ll ever get governance that we can be 75% pleased with.
What I do know is that this is a crucial juncture, where amidst all the liming that we love, that we should be stopping and thinking, before operating by reflex. Where we should forget about political allegiance, and saying “Mannin’ woulda never do dis”, or “Kamla doing a good job”, and really think about our future, and the value system we want.
The people who will save T&T aren’t the ones who are happily riding around in a benz or beemer. They’re little people like you and I, who can do our civic duty in being watchdogs, who bark AND bite, and show support for those who will actually throw us a bone. And not a dry, tasteless one. A real, meaty one that will make us cocksure when we say T&T is sweet.
Seven days since no curfew, is life better? What do we plan to do when the SOE is lifted? Like I said, I don’t have the answers. But I hope that our generation can further the discussion, and start brainstorming solutions. And as the lawyer and university lecturer, Clarence Rambharat, rightly said in a recent column in the Trinidad Express, this discussion needs to happen before the SOE ends.
Talk is just talk, but what citizens need to decide is whether they will remain quiet about things they aren’t pleased with, or whether they will show that we are a society that does not sit back and let things happen. This is the critical juncture we’re at, because if the SOE ends, Christmas comes, and Carnival plays itself, we’ll just go back to life as usual, accepting whatever is thrown our way.

curfewCurfew done. Praise de Lawd. Hallelujah. If you’re guilty of shouting this when the honourable prime minister announced that the curfew had been lifted, doh feel guilty. I did it too. Doh mind I eh go a place to lime as yet, and, since then, I’ve always been home before 11 p.m.

Between the celebratory reflex actions and simultaneous grumblings, because we aren’t really free, I got to thinking about all the things that some of us have been too quick to do.  Let’s start with the obvious.

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