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A dear friend sent me a despondent message in response to my lament about divisive and crass online comments.
“I want you to identify for me anyone else who has integrity that you know of personally in the world, because I can’t find too many,” he said.
My first reaction was to think of those I know who are full of integrity and decency, many of whom I was referring to when I wrote of them feeling forced to retreat in the face of the brazen blathering.
My immediate list was so long that, for a moment, I considered constructing a column of just their first names. It was comforting to realise how easy it was to populate that category just with personal acquaintances, and I optimistically extrapolated that to imagine everyone could compile something similar.
It lifted my spirits, and that was further boosted by the responses to the Junior Panorama finals last Sunday. It’s hard to express the sadness I feel that I can no longer attend such events. In my more mobile days, Panorama was my fixation.
Just before Carnival in 2024, I had remarked on the way arrangers genuinely seem to respect and admire each other and the broader impact of this mutual esteem.
“It is reflected in the attitudes of players, both in the internal way they respond to band and section leaders, and to the wider pan community. Players and supporters belong to their bands. They belong, and that feeling of belonging builds a powerful bond and contributes to a sense of identity.”
That surge we feel when we see youths who grow into adults carrying the imprint of those bonding years, those are the moments of pride that resonate with us indefinitely. These are the glimpses of light that keep my heart space resilient.
So, even in these dark days, we can stand up by not letting fallow fools drag us into their dark and dreary gutters.
Listening to Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday was like feeling a shaft of light piercing the gloom.
“Today, I’ll talk about the rupture in the world order, the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints. But I also submit to you that other countries, particularly middle powers like Canada, are not powerless.
“They have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. The power of the less powerful begins with honesty.”
That was the beginning of what turned out to be a powerful declaration of intent, heralding a shift in the perception of how things have to be. He laid out Canada’s strengths and its focus on building strategic relationships.
His was not the boorish, rude and self-aggrandising speech delivered by the US President on Wednesday; it was principled, clear and marked by integrity.
“Canada is a pluralistic society that works. Our public square is loud, diverse and free. Canadians remain committed to sustainability. We are a stable and reliable partner in a world that is anything but. A partner that builds and values relationships for the long term,” he said. “We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation.
“It calls for honesty about the world as it is. We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.
“This is the task of the middle powers. The countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine co-operation.”
The bullying and hectoring that has defined the “world order”, the threats to comply or else, this is the culture that has overstepped even the gossamer threads of diplomacy. Not once did Carney descend into that pit of ugliness, but he was direct about the time to overthrow old ways.
Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, was no less forthright in her recent conversation with Trevor Noah.
She is intelligent and visionary, and is confident in her capacity to bring about change. She was convinced that she only needed a face-to-face conversation with Donald Trump to persuade him to act on methane controls related to climate change.
Few politicians have the intellect, charisma, confidence and courage to make choices that require persuasion. The unfortunate trend, as my friend pointed out, is to resort to vilifying dissenting views and to replacing discourse with unseemly displays of vulgarity.
When there is an absence of integrity and a fixation with power, that’s the kind of governance you end up with. As portentous as Carney’s words might resonate, the politics of preservation might yet prevail and prevent those who fear the victimisation of the almighty ones who rule through bigotry and threats.
With his predilection for touting his accomplishments, the American megalomaniac might be surprised to find himself becoming the person who was responsible for forcing the global hierarchy to recognise the “middle powers” as a vital part of shaping the planet.
Unwittingly, he has probably tilted the world towards its tipping point. Here’s to the return of integrity and decency, and the recognition that they’re not a sign of weakness.
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Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Express, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the author of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
