Correction

So I woke up this morning to a request for a story about the President requesting information on Section 34.  immediately I get scared.The story was apparently carried in the morning news and a fellow reporter was asking me if I had the details. She sent me a fb message cause she thought I was at work already. But I sort of jumped when I read what the big story of the day is. Having thought about though I realized that life is made hard in Trinidad and Tobago by an 'opus magnus' of morality and rectitude that betrays the island paradise we sell. No wonder we're unfriendly to tourists, I think we spend too much time being unfriendly to each other! And hasn't the Prime Minister already told the Office of the President what transpired with Section 34? It will be a fine day even after all.

I also woke up this morning to realize I created a mash-up with my brief post last night, four people saw it. I watched an episode of The Bible currently showing on The History Channel and I saw the scene where Mary and Joseph were heading to the census on a donkey when Jesus was born and yesterday being Palm Sunday the image of Christ on the donkey blended with that one. I had also just come from a very good benefit concert for St Francis of Assissi Roman Catholic church last night. Added to this the election of Pope Francis. It was just 'donkey' on my mind and so we ended up with what can now be seen below:

Happy Palm Sunday! Have a holy week! Stand up and be counted! Bless!

Its all about getting past the illusion this Holy Week. A good God would remove the sting from a minister saying he was libled when the esteemed publication, also legally advised, said it did not libel him. The funny thing is that any good journalist knows when they libel someone, of this set I am not. It is a direct attack on the media by a man who presents himself as a really good, honest person. Its like he is possibly speaking to the public that will not even find out what is libel but just interpret it as another case of the bad media in Trinidad and Tobago as the politicians are wont to say. Its like they are infallible and unimpeachable but oh the media are just so bad. So yes, let Jesus, light the way!

I will be spending hundreds of dollars on fish this week. It is a family tradition to prepare salted salmon or smoked mackerel for Easter and they are both about $50 a lb. I like to buy enough to store to cook again later in the year when it is no longer in the groceries. Imagine these things are soaked in brine, pickled fish, and cost more than steak! But I love eating it and preparing it so here's to tradition!

Be careful out there!

Crisis Management

My mother did her best. She worked two jobs for most of her life to support herself and children without much help from my father. She would not approve of this post as it puts family business out there, at least I don’t think she would approve. My life feels in crisis though and so I have to try something unusual to bring a solution. The President yesterday called for an “out of the box” approach to the nation’s problems. He also said the nation is in crisis.

            I can’t say that I don’t feel that his analysis is wrong as the indices that led to the conclusion may not be the only ones that should be considered. In his inaugural address, a histrionic call to action, Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona, spoke to issues that gauge governance. I have never felt that crime and unemployment were good measures of a society’s standing. He mentioned the former treading dangerously close to the political tenor that can embarrass a government.

            All hands are needed on deck, he said, to save Trinidad and Tobago. It is inherently flawed as it is a top down approach. Really must I feel compelled to now consider how to reduce crime when all it seems to do is determine how good the state is managing our affairs? He reinforced this belief when he said that as a nation we are one: it means our goals are shared and too our responsibilities. We may be an independent nation but I am apparently not free to determine what it is I want to achieve.

            Thinking about the speech I realised that this is what is wrong with my world, it assumes for me what is important, taking me away from what I feel is important. We count corpses in Trinidad and Tobago and no one counts the stifled souls, the snuffed dreams, the unrealised ambitions and the impossible that faces so many of us.

            Everyone is saying that the President’s speech inspired hope. I peruse the social media sites like FB and twitter and see nothing but fit-to-print reactions that hail the address as what the country needs; I am left lost for comfort.

            It’s not like me to challenge the voice of the nation’s highest office holder. I dare say this is not what I imagine my mother had in mind when she made me. I’m not sure that a lot of what I do could have been imagined by parents. I do know, though, that desperate times call for desperate measures and I know what my responsibilities are. I hope this also means that for all her efforts my mother has at least made a citizen that is not afraid to take a risk, do the unimaginable and fly in the face of authority in an attempt to make life better.