HOPES DASHED!

A full week has passed (at the time of this writing) since Patrick Manning made his statement that he gets tremendous job satisfaction from management of our country. A whole week has passed, and only one editorial — thank you, Newsday — has commented on that ridiculous, self-deluding speech which our Prime Minister laid on a flock of senior business executives at the Crowne Plaza breakfast. This flock was just like the southern group who attended the first breakfast at Paria Suites a few weeks ago.

They came, they grazed on the “vegetarian” (most appropriate!) fodder provided, politely accepted the nonsense spoken, asked no questions, and then applauded the shepherd.

At least for this breakfast, our shepherd avoided talking about his “headaches.” Maybe he took the aspirin I prescribed in my recent column (Headaches and Aspirin —Sunday August 6). However, the medicine had some side-effects. There was a clear personality change, from “I have a headache, Dear,” to an upbeat, effusive, and even giggling mood.

The highest-paid Prime Minister in our history, having awarded himself and his wife some inflationary pay increases, jokingly told his flock that, although he did not earn as much as most of them (probably true!), he did not think that “anybody in this room gets the job satisfaction I get from being associated with the development of Trinidad and Tobago.” Really? Where does this man live? What, if anything does he see as he speeds through the country in his armed convoy? Does he watch, listen to, or read the news — filled with protests against his Government?

And what about all the sheep who sat there in apparent agreement with all that the shepherd said? What is their definition of “job satisfaction”? Indeed, do they share Manning’s vision of what constitutes “development”? Maybe they do. Maybe their lives are as totally out of touch with the realities of TT today as Manning is. When these people need health care they fly off to Miami or Mayo without a thought. Hell! — we even fly our dead pets off to Las Vegas for autopsies! No one sitting at that breakfast, including Manning, has any idea of the real, demeaning horrors which ordinary people suffer to get basic health care. But Manning is “satisfied.”

No one sitting at that breakfast, including Manning, suffers the fear of crime and violence which ordinary people experience. Oh, I know that it’s an inconvenience, and gives you the “right” to close your streets to the public, and to fortify your homes — all as “expense” to your businesses. Just like the armed guards you must put into your vans that deliver our daily bread and milk and beer and cigarettes. These costs are added on to the price of our food and our vices. Of course, these price increases are not inflationary — they simply reflect the cost of “doing business.”

And no one sitting at that breakfast, including Manning, has to endure the regular flooding of their homes, their crops or their cars parked in Port-of-Spain. Imagine this man claiming “job satisfaction” because he has a mess of foreign contractors building huge towers in the city, but he cannot even clean the drains to stop the city flooding every day. And while the city floods, the majority of the people cannot get a regular supply of water. Power outages are becoming commonplace —increasing manufacturing costs. Add that to the selling price! Congestion on the ports is chronic. Add that to the cost of goods. Add every failure and incompetence to the cost of living, but don’t pay workers a cent more — that is inflationary!

God help us, yes! The country is falling apart, and the man claims more “job satisfaction” than any of us! And we take that, without a Baa? If any of you had a divisional manager performing at one-tenth of the incompetence of Manning’s Government, you would fire him immediately. And if he told you he was satisfied with his performance, you would rush him to a psychiatrist immediately. But, with Manning, you accept that: you have goods on the Port, you have “proposals” out there. You cannot complain, at least not to Manning, you have your business to consider. So you complain to each other, at the cocktail parties, and then rush to shake his hand when he walks in. Congratulations! It’s just business.

Our silence, in the media, on the streets, to Manning’s outrageous speech to the top businessmen, is astonishing. This man, in addition to actually claiming that he has “job satisfaction,” tells the gathering words to the effect “I bet you did not know we had so much going on, and we have much more, but we not telling you what that is.” Do we not have a right to know? Did no one think to point out that we have a right to know? When will people speak out?

Manning’s “Breakfasses with the Prime Minister” are not Reports to the Nation. They are the prelude to the fact that business is expected to fund — Big Time — the upcoming election campaign. And if you cannot question the man now, how are you going to resist that big donation when they come to remind you?

We were all better off when Manning had the headaches. At least then he recognised the problems, even if he could not solve them.

We will have no water, no BWIA, no health care, plenty of flooding and an increase in crime. We will have plenty of tall buildings, and be among the top “consumers of electricity” in the world. Is that what we want? But before you lose all hope, please turn to the Sports pages.