Stuck in a rut

Unfortunately, it is not only in the sphere of tourism that this country has failed to keep abreast with our Caribbean neighbours.

TT seems stuck in a rut. MX Prime in his recent release described our attitude well, “The Treasury could bun down, but we jamming still,” and “de economy could fall down, but we jamming still.” Why is it that this country, richer than most in the Caribbean, remains so utterly disorganised, so confused, so unable to get its act together? We have transformed our green spaces into rubbish dumps; we contaminate our rivers — if not deliberately then by the accidental spillage of (always) “non-toxic pollutants”; our city floods after ten minutes of rain; we clog our drains with junk.

There is no wildlife policy; no protection of species; our “culture” redounds to the mandatory imposition of steel-pan beating in schools along with calypso and soca.

The former has degenerated into the political dirge, and the latter has become overly vulgar, crass and chauvinist.

Can you believe that people would “wine and jam” to Benji’s latest offering that tells of his “girlfriend” who “pee dong she pants?” Then again that is who we are.

When will we as a society begin to rubbish political ole talk, mamaguy and empty promises? When will we ever start to ignore hearsay, rumour, and lies and begin to verify the facts as they are for ourselves? Will we ever be able to see the illiterate rubbish that continues to be fuelled by blind race prejudice? When will we begin to assess the worth of our politicians by objectively assessing the fruit of their labour — objectively analyse the good they have done — rather than allow ourselves to be swayed by either what they or others say about them or say about what they heard someone say of them? We are a childish and pathetically immature semiliterate society too lazy to search for objective facts.

We are a naive people who focus on irrelevant personal traits rather than on the results that a person’s work generates.

We are an emotive society too easily influenced by politically fuelled irrational racial biases.

These have been impediments to our growth as a nation.

When we ought to be making our politicians pay a heavy price for resurrecting racial ancestral memories, we instead reward them through our support. The net result is that they perpetuate their corrupt ways while we remain mired in the backwardness born of the disunity they cause.