THOSE ODD COUPLES

There was the monkey in Bangladesh who “adopted” a puppy and reportedly spent many hours hugging it.

There was the “unlikely bond” of the 11-month-old female rhino calf and a young goat at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, northwest Johannesburg. The animals were both orphaned and became “constant companions.”

There was the photo of Sai Mai — a 26-month tiger at a zoo in Chonburi with small piglets climbing all over her. She was born in captivity and breast fed by a female pig for four months after birth.

A female orangutan at Zooworld, in Florida was befriended by a male tabby cat named TK.

So, unusual bonds in the animal world can happen. I can’t say if animal instinct eventually takes over and the harmony ends with the bigger, more ferocious animal mauling or killing the smaller animal but I hope for the best. There are other odd pairings which don’t make me smile but instead make me very suspicious. I am referring to political alliances.

Jaded by politics and the utterances of politicians, news that “unity” was the topic of discussion at a meeting on February 23 at Emerald Plaza, St Augustine did not evoke too much hope.

Having just come out of the Carnival season, I felt that would have been a good topic for a Jouvert band presentation.

Having no success wooing the Congress of the People and not a chance in hell that the UNC and PNM would join and become an alliance, veteran politician, UNC interim political leader Basdeo Panday invited smaller groups — the Movement for National Development, National Alliance for Reconstruction, Democratic Party of TT, and YesTT (headed by Stephen Cadiz) to a meeting to talk “unity”.

According to the press release issued after the meeting the parties agreed that the “cry of the people for political unity must be respected and every effort must be made to achieve this in the shortest possible time”. Ha!

Politicians must have wax in their ears — or should not have been so close to those speaker boxes for Carnival because they must be suffering serious hearing loss if they have been hearing people crying for unity among politicians.

If anything people must cry out “what chupidness these politicians trying? They feel we are fools?”

If there is any outcry it is for money to stretch when we go to the groceries, it is for a reliable, safe public transport system, it is against taxi fare hikes when the service remains inadequate.

It is a cry for the feeling of security before crime made us a little paranoid and a lot anxious because you never know when someone will come to get their “due” at the expense of law abiding citizens. And they may even take our life too!

People also “cry” about how Mr Panday's track record for unity is rather questionable. Wasn’t he in the Organisation for National Reconstructrion with former PM/president ANR Robinson, then left and formed Club 88?

What happened to unity after Ramesh Lawrence, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maharaj left?

Why did Gillian Lucky decide to be “independent” after disagreeing with Mr Panday that politics had a morality of its own?

Why did some of Mr Panday's UNC members form a separate entity called “Congress of the People?”

It is a cry for a better TT minus all those negative qualities and attitudes which are our downfall.

The Public Servants and others are crying out for higher salaries and there are people bawling for better roads and regular pipe borne water.

Maybe you have heard about that odd couple — the scorpion and the tortoise. They were friends until the scorpion had to get across a stream. The tortoise allowed the scorpion to ride on his back but when they were halfway across he heard a sound. When he asked the scorpion what he was doing he replied, “whetting my sting to see if it is possible to pierce your shell.” The tortoise was angry and to punish his ungrateful friend sank below the surface and drowned the scorpion. Another version of the tale has the scorpion explaining his action as “I could not help myself” or “It is in my nature.”

Having felt or seen the politician’s sting, many are not going to let politicians ride their backs to office. They are not voting.

During election time we will see all kinds of alliances formed by the opposition and government. Some may be overt, many will be covert. My cousin from Washington spoke of a former US President who once said “if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

Somehow I would rather trust the alliances and bonds in the animal kingdom because unlike politicians (and some humans) animals do not pretend to be something they are not.