Fete now, murder after

Persons who have never seen a football game or even kicked a ball on the beach came out in their numbers to celebrate the gala occasion in the true "Carnival" spirit that precedes Ash Wednesday every year.

In reality the only true beneficiaries were the manufacturers and retailers of various alcoholic beverages which were sold in unusually large quantities over the 24-hour period of abandoned revelry.

The following morning very much like on every Ash Wednesday, the spirit of unity was laid to rest and quickly replaced by one of antagonism and ill-feeling among many of the previous day’s revellers. Murder, shootings and stabbings along with the usual spate of lesser crimes resumed with renewed vigour to mar the previous day’s temporary state of unity.

One day of celebration for whatever cause will never unite the inhabitants of this country, specifically because of the existing system of party politics which was instituted by politicians for the sole purpose of achieving their own ends, regardless of whatever noble intentions they may have projected at the time.

It is noteworthy that Trinidad and Tobago like Guyana, are the two countries that are worst affected by the division and intolerance that exist between the two major ethnic groupings in the country.

It is indeed a great pity that the citizens of this country cannot live in peaceful co-existence like those of our neighbouring South and Central American Republics.

Until we can rid the society of all these self-proclaimed foreigners and grant them national status and identity, there will be absolutely no hope of making TT a united nation based on total equality and equal opportunity and revert it to the once beautiful land that it was where the inhabitants lived in peace and harmony, before our politicians got their hands on it and succeeded in fragmenting the inhabitants in order to pursue their own goals.

MARTIN KAVANAGH

La Romaine