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There is no denying it now, people damn vexed. Last night, Trinis offered the first visible sign of dissent against a boldfaced, illegal presence on our shores, cheekily defying eviction and gorging on the seemingly unending patience of the State and relevant authorities.
But enough about Jack Warner’s extradition battles.
It was bacchanal at the Oval as irate locals turned out on Thursday night to demonstrate against the growing presence of Venezuelan refugees on the island. There was bottle and spoon, chanting, kaiso, wining… Everything but ticket scalpers, a corn soup man and Burkie in a Rattans shirt and tie.
There was no ‘scrap iron buying’ sales pitch by a megaphone-wielding National Security Minister Stuart Young on this occasion. Maybe it was past his bedtime.
What a week it has been in Trinidad y Tobago: copyright Trinidad Guardián Periódico. Gangsters wake up ‘Sandman’, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi tries to hide the Freedom of Information Act—presumably in the same vault that the government buried the Darryl Smith-Weinstein Diaries—and Faris defends proposed pension increases for politicians and judges by suggesting, in this time of retrenchments and austerity, that it is a way to ‘incentivise’ them.
Can the AG point to many examples within the Syrian/Lebanese community of employers motivating underperforming workers in that way?
Mr Live Wire thinks the ‘unexplained wealth bill’ should not target just ‘zessers’ but politicians who are poor value for money too. But we digress.
Funny that it has apparently taken the sight of our downtrodden South American neighbours camped outside a Woodbrook landmark to push Trinis over the edge. Not the closure of the Petrotrin refinery, the unimpeded murder rate, the stomach-churning molesting of young footballers by TTFA president David John-Williams and his mini-me Camara David, or the bland dhalpurie at Massy Stores…
(Wings and soul food? Hell yes! Roti? Ahmmm…)
As Trinis sang ‘close the borders’, it was easy to close your eyes and imagine it was a Tea Party gathering in some redneck state. Not that Mr Live Wire is trying to invalidate the legitimate concerns of protesters, only wondering what might come next—especially with general elections due in a year’s time.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley might have the work ethic of a public servant on a Friday afternoon; but there is no doubting his ability to suss a situation and find a no-frills speech to fit the occasion.
But you can’t take oratory to the grocery or the hospital, and the time seems fast approaching when Keithos’ gift of gab would be insufficient cover for his uninspiring government and governance—even if Stewie lent him his megaphone.
Hell, Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses can’t even negotiate his way through Immigration at the Piarco airport; what use is he in a full-blown refugee crisis on our doorsteps?
The government could barely get a ferry to operate the Tobago sea-bridge; how do they address dozens of motorboats speeding across the Gulf of Paria with illegal visitors?
And God knows who would step in to fill the gap when the people lose confidence in not just the ability but the will of politicians to solve their problems. Who would be that populist leader with a knack of honing in on mass discontent and finding an utterly simplistic ‘solution?’ Where might an un-political politician emerge, capable of charming the haves and have-nots and marginalising the ‘analytical’ and ‘educated?’
Thank heavens nobody has surfaced to fit that description just yet, eh.
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Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.
“Who would be that populist leader with a knack of honing in on mass discontent and finding an utterly simplistic ‘solution?”
Does it have to be an MP or would Patriotic Front’s MP do?
This guavament too blasted arrogant!