Blips and blahs

Ten thousand excuses and ten thousand promises after last Saturday’s blaze, a fire which began in a downtown shack and almost turned Port-of-Spain into a pile of ashes, and all I can glean from the chatter of the “authorities” is “blah, blah, blah and blah again.” “Fresh water mains this, salt water mains that, fire hoses and tenders this and hydrants that, poor planning this, wooden structures that, blah, blah, blah. But don’t worry; we’re going to rectify the problems, spend more millions. Blah, blah, blah.” The same ole talk from the usual suspects. “Listen here,” is what I’m thinking. “I’m no darn civil engineer or fire expert. I’m a taxpayer who is dog tired of the non-ending waste of money and in no mood for the “blah, blah, blah.” What I’d like to hear is someone taking responsibility for the tragic, costly and unnecessary inferno and for once I wish that someone, anyone would tender his resignation.”

Don’t think I don’t know that “I’ve resigned” is one declaration I’ll never hear. Resign? That’s offensive language in a society that tries to “blah, blah, blah” its way out of every predicament. We’re a nation of blabbers and blusterers, not of honourable men and women. It is wishful and wasteful thinking to expect anyone in “authority” to do the principled thing after Saturday. Chief Fire Officer Lennox Alfred is going nowhere; nor is WASA boss, Errol Grimes. Don’t expect any Minister to quit, either. People cling to office here like they are human Velcro, refusing to realise that they should readily take the blame when all systems fail, as eagerly as they grasp the perks that management brings. They want the big cars and the cocktail parties, but don’t ask them to accept fault or flack. No one is responsible, don’t you know? They just know how to blah, blah, blah and smile for the cameras.

This is why none of us should be surprised by the calamity of Saturday. It is this lust for position, but lack of appetite for its accompanying responsibility that creates the perfect breeding ground for mediocrity and thus, disaster. Are we truly shocked to learn that the hydrants and water mains in Port-of-Spain are non-functional and that all the “relevant authorities” had prior knowledge of this, but failed to rectify the problems? It can really only be the most na?ve of us who are stunned by the deficiencies that contributed to last Saturday’s blaze. That the hydrants were operational and water was flowing, well like water, would have been news. Ask yourselves how many times you have read reports of firemen arriving to a burning building only to discover on connecting their hoses to the hydrants that there is no water.

Water either trickles out of our taps, or flows not at all, so only the most stupid of us should expect it to gush out of our fire hydrants. In this country, you only see water streaming from a hydrant when there’s no fire. It is solely the indigent and the extremely masochistic of citizens that does not possess a water tank in his backyard because in the year 2005, water is a luxury. We all are painfully aware that WASA’s approach to maintenance is higgledy-piggledy. As a matter of fact, higgledy-piggledy is the accepted way of doing everything in Trinidad and Tobago. Patch a little here, repair a little more there, that’s us. Leave a building to crumble, then knock it down and build a brand new one. Let a road deteriorate until it is as pocked as the surface of the moon, then bring in the pavers. And after that, look out for WASA to come in with a crew of at least ten men and dig up a section of it again.

Let the hospitals run out of vital supplies before ordering new stock. Allow schools to fall apart until they tumble down on the children, then issue a press release announcing you are conducting an investigation. Wait for an inferno to fix hydrants and mains. “Better late, but best never” should be our motto and if indeed we were forged from the love of liberty, it is the love of freedom from discipline, professionalism and responsibility. So perhaps we shouldn’t be so hard on our Minister of Trade Ken Valley for last week describing the Port-of-Spain fire as a “blip,” by which I suppose he meant that the fire was something relatively small or inconsequential within a larger context, that greater context being Vision 2020 and the FTAA. Valley was without a doubt, tactless and insensitive, but he was also the most honest of all who were talking.

And isn’t what Valley said exactly what everyone else was in effect saying with all their chatter of mains and millions and their ‘blah, blah, blahing?” By not accepting blame for their inability to contain the fire, aren’t all the “relevant authorities” stating that this disaster was merely a blip? A blip like any other. You know, blip- 96 murdered and it’s not even the end of April; blip- a score of people kidnapped already; blip- current gone; blip- taps dry; blip- town nearly burn down. Blip, blip, blip. We are going to blip ourselves into one big blot and I just can’t wait to see how we will “blah, blah, blah” our way out of that spot. suz@itrini.com