WAS HE "HORNED"?

 Poor Dr. Rowley, the man can't get a break. With the country collapsing all around him and monies running out, his credibility is now in complete shreds. Of course, it can be argued that he brought all this down on himself. He has signally failed to face the country and give a frank account of where exactly we are financially as a nation and things that he used to criticize the former UNC Government for are now coming back to bite him in his "nether regions". For example, we still haven't had a proper explanation of why those four divers were allowed to drown back in February and we still haven't seen any prosecutions, much less suspensions, of anybody associated with children's homes following the Judith Jones report on abuses in those homes. (The answer from some of his surrogates seems to be that because the UNC did nothing about the Robert Sabga report he doesn't have to deal with the Jones report. But, wait a minute, didn't he criticize Mrs. Persad-Bissessar for basically not fixing things that ought to be fixed?) 

Then he gets Covid for a THIRD time! While this is obviously possible, I haven't heard of anybody having Covid more than twice and nobody that I have spoken to has heard of that as well! With his luck he'll probably catch it a few more times! But it says something about his lack of credibility when so many believe that this is not true that he has got Covid three times!

Then  before he gets Covid again, he gets sick in the United States and doesn't come home for three weeks while allegedly getting 'tested'. The rumour mill went wild with all sorts of speculations ranging from he was simply taking a holiday or was more ill than has been let on, to being arrested by the US authorities for bank accounts with millions of dollars unaccounted for and everything in between. Of course, he didn't help his case by refusing to release any of his medical details. Not releasing details of one's medical condition is , of course, the right of every person, but there is a strong argument against that when the affected person is a Prime Minister or a President. One can only imagine what he might have said if Mrs. Persad-Bissessar was missing in action for three weeks and absolutely no information was forthcoming other than she was "doing medical tests"! He would probably have at the very least made some pretty scathing remarks!

Then, as a final blow to his manhood and personal self esteem, the country is awash with an unsubstantiated rumour concerning his wife and her fidelity. It is unsurprising, to say the least, that his political opponents have seized on this rumour to mock him: "the horner man get a horn" is the refrain. (Translation: in the Trinidadian dialect a person gets a 'horn' when his/her boyfriend/husband/wife/girlfriend cheats on him/her with another).

One of the worst things that can happen to a politician is that he is ridiculed; that the ridiculing can backfire and create sympathy for him is a given, but is usually unlikely when people believe that whatever he is being ridiculed about is probably true. Hypocrisy is a big "no-no" in politics and in this particular case, too many people believe (as opposed to know) that Dr. Rowley has been unfaithful to his wife on multiple occasions and therefore deserves to wear the horns of a cuckold; and in politics, perception is reality. In other words, the perception is that he got well and truly horned. Perhaps now that he is on the receiving end of the type of rumours and allegations swirling around him he might consider it wise just to keep quiet and say nothing, and now knowing how it feels may just stop his own unsubstantiated attacks. On the other hand, his history suggests that he won't. We will all see what happens in the fulness of time.