Money talks

He spoke a truth that many found abhorrent. Sabga-Aboud is reported to have stated that the Syrian-Lebanese community, although tiny, packs the biggest punch in our society.

I am guessing he was talking about influence as much as dollars and cents since his community, per capita, is the biggest creator of wealth in this country, and is reputed to back both of the two prevailing political parties, which is what investors do everywhere — they spread the risk.

They compromise no beliefs since our parties are not divided by political ideology or anything so sophisticated, rather by Indo and Afro-Trini tribal affiliations and the methods politicians use to achieve their objectives.

Blame the lack of electoral funding accountability and transparency for not knowing who is pulling whose strings.

The attacks on the Levantine community were ugly but not surprising, mainly because of the slim possibility of most Trinis interacting with its members except through business. After all, we have become accustomed to dominant ethnic groups having a national day of celebration and to dressing up in modern versions of ancestral costumes, but not the Syrian-Lebanese community.

The average Trinidadian knows little about their Levantine culture except that “Syrians” and their close-knit families tend to live behind suspiciously high walls, do not seem to routinely mix with or marry outsiders, and that the group has a penchant for making money. None of these is particularly respected because the average Trini values extroverts and believes that where there is money there is wrongdoing. We ignore how they share their wealth with others.

The Syrian-Lebanese may or may not be Arabs but you can source their Levantine gene pool in the crossroads of trade between civilisations going back centuries, if not millennia. It is this unique “bazaar” skill and inheritance that our Syrian- Lebanese brought with them here and elsewhere, so that replica communities are to be found almost worldwide. That they have turned small trade into great wealth may cause envy but it was not without sacrifice and hard work over decades and generations.

Older Trinidadians remember the curiosity of the itinerant “Syrian” on his cycle calling at weekends to sell fabrics, speaking very little English.

Marrying a typical “Syrian” was not what ambitious parents wanted for their daughters.

Many of the wealthiest members of the Levantine community now were among the poor then, along with others of all ethnicities and colours, and they were as much discriminated against in business and society by the small, ruling elite of English and French Creoles, as were the Portuguese, Chinese, less well-off local whites and everybody else, but the comparative speed with which the “Syrians” left the pack behind is another source of suspicion.

Certainly, we can assume that corruption exists in that community as in every other for we are all Trinis and we do not do the right thing because our systems are flawed and where there is opportunity people take risks. I do not condone that but the general undervaluing of those who create wealth disconcerts me.

Because we have a State-run economy, pay few, small taxes and enjoy outrageous subsidises, we are like spoilt children who fail to understand what sustains our living.

We do not see that creating wealth in the private sector provides economic development and stimulus for economic activity. The large companies pay taxes, buy services and employ people who pay taxes.

They invest in TT. We need greater private sector activity as national revenue falls and State spending increases.

My mother’s pension application update: At visit #4 to the Pension Office, more, p r e v i o u s l y unsolicited, documents d e m a n d e d but the application was accepted