Lesson from Egypt: People's Partnership, or bust!

Before the rapid advances in information technology permitted us concomitantly to observe and participate in events in any part of the globe, distant occurrences, as has recently been happening in Egypt, had little immediate impact upon us, or were little influenced by us. But, the world is now changed, perhaps for better, perhaps for worse, but, regardless, for good. Hence, too, the expression "neighbour" in "When your neighbour's house is afire, wet your own!"

Hence, whatever now affects or guides the Zulu in South Africa, the Eskimo in Anchorage, the Bedouin of Sudan or the Maroon in the Blue Mountains can and will be determined, in part, by our response or lead. Now, at last, via real-time observation of and commentary on world events, we have the means to address that to which Dr. the Reverend Martin Luther King alluded, when he enjoined that: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly!"

Our history is inescapably bound to Egypt, if not by genealogy or religion, by dint of the similarity of social structure which permits the minuscule minority to hold and exert overwhelming sway of the commanding heights of the economy.

We made a monumental move to overturn the tables when we rose up against the PNM and put the People's Partnership into office. We never believed that by that mere act, all would overnight become well, for the price of democracy equates that of liberty -eternal vigilance.

Against such backdrop, let us learn from the ongoing events in Egypt to understand that, in Trinidad and Tobago, if any move towards social justice is ever to come out on top, then the people must unite as one congress, for it is only by national, joint action that whatever machinations those who oppose such a purpose have in mind or in train, may be derailed.

Those who don't get it will, sooner or later, get it. Ask Mubarak!