WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Let's say that you have a prosperous business that is making you a million dollars a year. But you discover/believe that the manger is stealing a hundred thousand dollars from it so you fire him. Then you hire another manager, but this one is so totally incompetent that instead of making a profit he actually is losing a million dollars a year. Then, although you have no justiciable evidence you have good reason to believe that your new manager is also stealing a hundred thousand a year from you. In other words you are way in the hole by more than a million dollars! Now, what do you do?

Obviously you get rid of the second manager. But the problem here is that the only other available manager is the first one whom you fired because you thought he was stealing from you. So? What do you do? Here are the stark choices facing you: (1) you keep the first manager because you believe that he is at least more honest than the first; (2) you fire the second manager, hold your nose and rehire the the first manager knowing full well that he will steal from you again - but at least (you reason) he will put you back in profit; (3) you say to hell with both of them and look for a third manager who you believe/hope will not steal - although at the moment there is no one on the horizon in whom you can place your trust. But time is working against you. You can't take too long to take a decision.

And that, my dear friends, except for the names and a few other changes, is the conundrum that we find ourselves in. So? I ask you: given the choices available, quite seriously, what would you do? Let's not argue about it. Let's answer this hypothetical question.

"WHEN IT COMES TO PINNING BLAME - PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEYS"

 The tile of this post is a quote from the American Senator Mitt Romney. When you think about it, you will realize that this piece of advice is followed to the letter by our local politicians. We have on the one hand, the erstwhile Leader of the Opposition criticizing, for example, the Prime Minister's COVID advisers and on the other hand the Prime Minister dissembling to the point where it is almost impossible to ascertain exactly where the truth with him ends and the lies begin. Often one is left with the impression that he didn't say something earlier that was in direct contradiction to what he might be saying now, when in fact that is exactly what he is doing. And yet, he not only gets away with it, but continues to get away with it. Unbelievable!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm in a state of despair over the state of affairs in Trinidad & Tobago. On the one hand it is absolutely clear that we haven't been told the truth about this virus from the beginning (and I'm talking about from February last year). On the other side of the coin the Opposition really seems to be totally incompetent and completely incapable of doing anything other than talking to its supporters who will vote for them no matter what. Then on the third side of the coin (and, yes, I know that a coin only has two sides) we find ourselves with persons who are supposed to be independent but clearly aren't - like the Speaker of the House who really is an absolute disgrace and doesn't even seem to try to be even handed any more. (I guess that she has decided that it really doesn't matter and that nobody gives a damn what she says or does so long as she pleases her boss, the Prime Minister. The problem, of course, is that her boss is really the people of T&T, but then they appoint her in a very indirect way and she has decided to pay more attention to the real decision maker - the Prime Minister - and what he wants.) And the sad truth is that she just happens to be one of the more visible examples of the wrong person in the wrong job.

Perhaps in about fifty or so years from now we will break out of this racial voting. Apart from the fact that I can barely hold by breath for fifty seconds let alone fifty years, I certainly don't expect this pattern to break any time soon. Instead I see it continuing for a very, very long time.

But we have a habit of blaming the 'other' side (whoever the 'other' one may be) and completely ignoring the faults on 'our' side. If you support either the PNM or the UNC your answer will usually be something like "well, they (the 'other' side) are worse. They 'tief' more, they don't do what is necessary and we are (or would be) better off with 'our' people in charge." And there you have it, folks! How do you argue with that? My father used to say "a man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still".

But one thing is certain, you will very, very, very rarely get a supporter of one side saying that he/she thinks that the country would be better off with a third party. Instead, he/she will point out the two rather spectacular failures of the two attempts at a third force and will argue that there is all the evidence that you need as to why it won't work. And you know what? They may well be right! Isn't that sad, if they are? In the meantime, at least we have plenty of donkeys to pin tails on!