TNN 86

Hello folks…an’ welcome again to we broadcast from de land of T&T…(deep voice)…This Is TNN…… Trindad is nice, Trinidad is ah paradise ….. (background music..Valentino)

Jumpstation: A series of losses'; Talk yuh talk, Mr. Speaker; Oh dear, what can the matter be.

We new captain Hooper even start to critisize de team on camera… de man say we just not able… people get vex… ah mean is true, but yuh doh have to tell de worl’ yuh give up before yuh start! 

Now an’ den yuh was seein’ some flashes from de West Indies, but all too soon de flame getting’ put out.  Right now, if yh want to see de outcome of de Test and one Day-ers, just go to www.WI.com/cuta--!  De full story dey!  

An’ of course we set ah nex’ record… dis was de first WI team to lose both Test and One Day series in de West Indies… no mean feat dat.. ah mean, yuh have to try to do dat bad!  

Not even de rain try to wash away we shame…we take planass under de blazing sun, so yuh have no doubt what went on! 

Wey nex’?  Well, Zimbabwe, one of de neophytes of cricket, so ah hope maybe we could get ah lil time, get ah l’il confidence, blood de new players properly… if we lose to Zimbabwe, all fall dong brudder….. convert dem cricket grounds to cemeteries an’ bury West Indian pride in each one!

It comin’ more an’ more regular.. dis commotion in de House of Representataives.. ah wonder who exactly dey representin’?  Of course all dis have de beginning in de placin’ of  “Mr. Both Sides” Griffith as House speaker…

De man jump from PNM to UNC,  lose he seat an’ now come back as de presiding officer in de House.. ah man who was rejected now holdin’ court over  ah place of elected members!   

Of course dat eh sit well wit’ de Opposition, so from Day One, dey in he tail…… Ah mus’ say of  course dat de man have ah neutral position….. neither side respeck him….! 

Remember de PM did boast how he could buy members of de PNM “ for $2….. ah Chubby an’ ah doubles…!”   Now if de man who buy yuh sayin’ yuh easy to come by, yuh cheap,  yuh go sell yuh allegiance for nothin’ ,yuh expeck ANYBODY in de party to respeck or trust yuh?  

An’ on de odder han’, if yuh bus’ it from ah party overnight, get ah Ministerial post for it, get yuh tail cut up in election an’ now want to grand charge over de party who bring yuh into Parliament in de firs’ place, brudder yuh not only lookin’ for trouble, yuh on yuh knees beggin’ for it….! 

So de man tryin’ to swim through guava jam dese las’ six months.  De PM buff him at least twice (jus’ las’ week in fact, when he uphold de protests of de Opposition) an’ now dis week de Opposition gi’ him good!   

It was somet’ing else, I tell you….. check out de scene….. Keithos Rowdy makin’ he presentation on ah Appropriation Bill (de gov’t decide dey want $650M more to fund de budget.. apparently de figures was ah little wrong….. surprise, surprise), so Keithos tell de House dat de AG responsible for de ole mas because he shoulda tell de government to re-open de airport contract, because ah committee chaired by ah ex-judge had ruled dat de contract was null and void (had plenty bobol!)..to say nothing of it being given to ah government financier  ....so happens dat de airport over budget by $600M dollars an’ ent finish yet (but de openin’ it today, 18 months late!).  

So if dey did do it right in de first place, dey woulda have money now (ah not so sure though, because Carlo take he budget on road paving from $200M to $800M… did I say dat dat contract also went to anodder party “friend”?  Oh, must have slipped up!). 

So Keithos warmed up, de AG pole vaulted on principles…. De Speaker jump up an’ tell Keithos to withdraw de statement..  Now de funny t’ing is de man who de remarks was addressed to eh say nothin’, but de Speaker jump up to defend him….. so Keithos say “Eh-Eh, not dis rounds… ah tell de truth, ah have nothin’ to apologise for!”  

De Speaker decide to make he manima… he tell him to withdraw, Keithos say no, he tell him sid dong den, Keithos sit an’ mutterin’ to de fella…   Speaker by dis time ready for action an’ tell him doh disrespect de chair, by which time anodder member get up already to make he contribution… de Speaker tell him siddong, he remain standin’ until de Speaker tell him for de t’ird time to siddong…

Meanwhile Keithos still t’rowin’ verbal barbs so de Speaker say he go suspend him. Keithos leggo back answer… so de  Speaker tell de leader of Gov’t business to move ah motion to suspend Keith.  

Who is de leader of Gov’t Business…?  De AG!  Lord, look my crosses....  if he say he disagree, it would make de Speaker look like ah damn fool (reality check!) because de Speaker was defendin’ HIM!   So he have to say yes… which he did rather sheepishly.. an’ dey ask Keith to leave indefinitely…

Keith say dey go have to put him out….. 

Well is like ah pipe bus’!  Valley slam dong he papers an’ start to behave like ah fish market vendor!  All he eh do is cuss de Speaker mudder! 

De Speaker ask him to leave… man he storm out shoutin’ all kinda threats at de Speaker, den de whole Opposition an’ de lone NAR representative leave de House… so de government side end up alone in de House.. yuh had was to be dey! 

So what would de Cobra say…..? 

First, leh we go back to basics… respect for de Chair… if you in power, yuh would want de other side to respeck yuh Speaker an’ further young people watchin’ yuh, an’ takin’ lead from yuh behaviour, whether yuh like it or not…

If de man is de Head of de House yuh have tuh respeck him…. now of course de Speaker have ah responsibility to keep de Office untarnished as it were… which he has done a magnificent job at NOT doing!  

Secondly de matter at hand… was Keithos speaking de truth?  Was de contract illegal? Yes!  Did de AG inform de gov’t of such an’ still allow dem to go t’row wit’ it? Yes!   Was he responsible for not advising otherwise? Yes!   What is de problem wit’ alluding to dis?  Nothing!  

Las’ week de PM accuse ah Opposition member of settin’ up paper companies an’ fraud… he did not provide evidence, so of course he had to be cautioned… de Speaker chose not to do so, until de Opposition nearly eat him raw.. den he decide to caution de PM, who den buffed him in he own House!

Wishy-Washy… one way den de nex, waffle, waffle, waffle…. ah mean… is so he does run he home?!  

So to me we in ah lose/lose situation…...   

Solution… Change de Speaker…simple!  In our situation an’ culture, all de shoutin’’ an’ threats doh look good, we could do without dat….. de backyard behaviour eh necessary!    Of course in Japan dey does have fist fights in de House, but dat is ah different culture….

So, who will put we House in order… we wait… but doh hold yuh breath, unless yuh have yuh coffin pick out!

OH DEAR, WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE?
SHORT (WELL KINDA) POLITICAL COMMENTARY:

Well we seemed to have come to what some call a sorry situation.  The last UNDP report indicated that our education system was in crisis; simply put if you were not middle class and above, your chances of emerging with a good education or even functionally literate were becoming rather slim. It pointed to tens of thousand of children who were “missing” from the system.  

Crime has escalated to a hitherto unknown point and the perpetrators more sadistic, unpredictable and sadly, younger.  

One legal crisis after another, the AG fighting the DPP, the President fighting the Prime Minister  and the Government fighting the courts.  

The Police are being charged for brutality, rape of persons in their charge and corruption, though I sincerely believe they are trying harder.  

Even the editorials have taken a turn for the morose.  Is it as bad as it seems?  But more importantly, what is the solution?

Unfortunately we have adopted a fire fighting approach, trying to snuff out each puff of smoke or spark with brute force; so if there are more criminals on the street, send in the army.  Temporary solution... the criminals are still present.  

The Minister of Education said the report was inaccurate and should be withdrawn; bury our heads in the sand, if we can’t see it, it’s not there.   We are in a technological age, and we think by putting computers in classrooms we have solved the problem.  

A politician’s life line, better known as window dressing.   Accusations of corruption?  Accuse people of having ulterior motives, deflect attention from the problem.  So we already have the first “problem”.  We have refused to tackle things head-on.    

The second and more pressing issue is how did we get to this state?  We have more technology, more money, more access to resources and yet still we are in a social downward spiral.  

The second aspect that we have failed to take account of is the fact that many of our  systems are obsolete.   We have a constitution that was written for us by people who do not even have a written Constitution.   Written without taking into account the Caribbean’s  history or development path.  No wonder our institutions are now in conflict.   We refuse to sit down and analyse it paragraph by paragraph. 

The Prime Minister’s solution is to win 24 seats in Parliament (a two thirds majority) so he could change the Constitution.  Always the short cut.  

The US had a civil war and made a zillion amendments to the Constitution , because it is always a document in making, constantly adapting to the needs of the society, not the wants of a chosen few.  Not that I agree with everything they have done, but that is another story.  

Our methods of imparting  knowledge have changed little over the last 500 years.  Shove children into a building, get them to read and write and a few go through to higher education and become the elite, while the peasants feed themselves as best they could.  

Schools are not linked to homes or communities as they were in the past, so students and teachers operate in isolation at a time when support systems are most in demand to meet the challenges of the millennium.  Our culture is not linked to our lifestyles, our present situation is not linked to our history, our development not linked to our people, except in some glib manner of distributing resources more equitably; and what will the people do with the resources when they get them?  For the most part, expend them in dissipation, because they have not been thought to manage and care for themselves.  Note how much of the “oil money” in the seventies merely passed through on the way to foreign lands to procure exotic goods.   

Thirdly our allocation of resources is completely inappropriate.  We are aiming our cannons at flies instead of at fortresses.  

We spend an extraordinary amount of money building government offices, but never train the staff to operate efficiently.  We would bust our capital expenditure budget, but yet still our health systems are tottering as nurses evacuate them.  

Single parents have no day care facilities or other incentives to enable them to earn a living while their children are supervised, so they grow up in front of a television or on the streets.  

We are busily building schools which continue to turn out functional illiterates (don’t believe me… read the report!).  

We build whole communities but fail to put in health centres, youth skill centres, sport facilities, domestic counselling centres, communication centres, self help offices, libraries or any such.   Maybe a couple basketball courts and a rectangular building called a community centre.  

Criminals grow up right in our midst, they did not drop from the sky.  Are any bells ringing yet? 

If we would just consider any of the above,  we would be well on our way; the situation is not hopeless, we just need to adapt.  The world continually turns, we cannot afford to stand still.  When the society starts to become delinked and decoupled from its constituents and its moorings, we become the reality described by the pathetic lines of the poem……

Twisting and turning in an ever widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconier…..
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold,
Mere anarchy is released on the world.

It is not inevitable, it is a choice.

Dat’s all for dis week folks… remember any queries, questions, comments, hail outs etc… jus’ write to we anchorman Cobra at ttcobra1@hotmail.com an’ we go get back to yuh… Take care care, alyuh, ah gone…. Peace….. My friends, money eh no problem…my friends, money eh no problem….. ….….(background music, Ras Shorty I)