Overtime Learning.

Over time, I've learned the following:

• All politicians talk:
• some talk all the time,
• some talk some of the time,
• very few hardly ever talk...Hardeo Hardath instantly comes to mind.
• A few walk the talk,
• a few balk...even when it's time for them to walk,
• many simply talk...and talk...and talk

And that, my dear people, is no ol' talk!

By Naipaul's logic, we need more jails.

Ever since Sir Vidya Naipaul in 1967 deemed us to be pretentious chameleons of the "forrin" landscape, the description and definition have paradoxically stuck like yet-unsated leeches do to the aperture they created.

Now, given that "forrin" to most Trinis means "USA", what prevails in 'Merica is expected to be followed...ASSiduously, if need be. Hence, it is expected that 13,000 persons ought presently to be behind bars in Trinidad and Tobago...and three times that number outside on parole.

Oh! By the way! What's in a name? Call it what you will, to those behind its razor-wire-topped fences, the facility on the Churchill/Roosevelt Highway at Santa Rosa, Arima will still be a jail.

The thing to remember is, jail eh nice: it imprisons both inmates and custodians.

And, justice for ALL!

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/JAIL_FOR_ALL-130175588.html

What's wrong with these personalities in whose name the "P" letter is pivotally harboured? Don't they know how to treat with persons brought before the courts on criminal charges? Why the ebbing and flowing then?

Just recently, De P. Person found no cause further to detain a school of fish rounded up in a seine -of which the entire expedition was allegedly telecast- because all was not well with the implicating evidence.

Now, we have another who is insisting that another catch must be detained, because even though they were ready to be processed, all is not well with the processing plant.

Come on, J. P. Madeira! With one-two initials like that, even if you weren't the hallmark you are, surely you ought to know that, unless and until otherwise is finally proven, all charged are presumed innocent -regardless the preponderance of damning evidence to the contrary at the time they are snared?

Such are the provisions of the law of this land...and for potent reason too: as, sometimes the unpalatable gets caught in the fisher-of-badmen's net merely because the mesh size was too fine (granted, sometimes the fish one wants to fry evades the dragnet because the dang mesh too big), or, when it's a really mammoth-sized badman being sought, instead of palanging or spearfishing, the fisher-of-badmen insanely opts to use a wall of death!).

All that to express alarm over a local magistracy operating like if things are normal when we are in a State of Emergency -how could Jones P. say that these junior judges' across-the-board absence yesterday is excusable on the grounds that mechanisms were put in place to cope with the inevitable upheaval that would ensue their having to attend a two-day wellness session (for which the had been summoned long ago) and, over which upheaval, to those "anything(s) which fell through the cracks and (those) any inconveniences to anyone, the (spokesman for the) judiciary apologises sincerely."?

In my book, the book needs to be thrown at those who perpetrated what may only be described as an employer-approved sickout.

And, may God bless our nation!

High on chicken!

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,147380.html

Wherein details of a one-tonne marijuana bust at Pt. Lisas port are given:

Marijuana compressed in the container of chicken? What the...???!!!!! No wonder chicken prices of late have been so high?

The dance of the bull versus the tiger.

Dear Peter!

Re: Your commentary at http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,147061.html

Good commentary, as usual! And the questions you posed are most apt, viz:

It is said that one can ride a tiger, but the danger comes when the rider tries to dismount. The current state of emergency brought the analogy to mind, as we wonder how and when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will return the country to normalcy. Having mounted that tiger, and controlling it for the time being, what will happen when she dismounts?

Given the wide readership of the Trinidad Newsday (print and online), I decided to respond this route.

Perhaps the answer will be found in the following tale?

There is a folk dance called “Dance of Bull Fighting Against Tiger” which is very popular in Ongnigod Banner of Chi Feng City, Inner Mongolia.

It is performed by four people, among whom two act as a bull (one as bull's head, the other as the bull's tail), one acts as a tiger and the last one acts as a woodcutter.

The performance paces through four stages:

1. The bull, the tiger and the woodcutter come onto stage together to form a triangle;
2. The bull fights against the tiger;
3. The bull and the tiger lie down to have a rest;
4. The bull fights against the tiger fiercely and then the quick-witted woodcutter fights against the tiger by trickery and beats it to death.

The dance has been spread for nearly a hundred years.

According to a legend, in the ancient times there lived a red-haired tiger near Ulaanban Village and it often came to the village to cause disturbance. So this place was once called “Ulaan Bar” which means “red tiger” in Mongolian.

The people who suffered a lot from the tiger decided to collaborate to fight the tiger and finally succeeded in beating it to death.

Afterward, the villagers invented a dance imitating a bull's fight against a tiger to celebrate the victory.

Later, with the arrival of many new migrants, new movements have been added to the dance, such as “somersaulting”, which give highlight to the tiger-fighters' distinguished moral qualities: brave, quick-witted and strong-minded.
[See: http://www.asiavtour.com/China_Inner%20Mongolia_Arts%20and%20Crafts_a169_s17.html]

Why I chose this tale by way of reply/comment on your commentary?

Well! Kamla is a Taurus, inno? And we, the people who damn fed-up with the tiger's marauding antics are formed into a partnership, ent?

'Nuff said!

I gone!

Carry on, MV PP!

Ever since being gruffly treated by a machine that long laboured for the better, many, including some considered as good friends, have been urging me to shy away from the present government administration, or, worse yet, to lambaste it in the open. Suffice it to say, none and nothing have convinced or will convince me to veer off my long-accustomed course, since the present (and foreseeable) replacement options comprise a mishmash of the witless, hopeless, clueless, careless and wotless.

Move along, NiLeung!

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/_Max_away__Kamla_to_leave_T_T_too_-129429668.html

Wherein Opposition Member of Parliament for Laventille West, NiLeung Hypolite, is alleged to have chastised His Excellency President George Maxwell Richards for leaving T&T at this "very important time", perhaps the best advice NiLeung may be given is that he ought to follow His Excellency's excellent suit...but, doh come back.

Labour statistics to make a politician cringe.