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I can remember when. It was early August eight years ago. A period where each day brought another event. All related to the big finale. One question kept me in the throes of angst as it looped through my head: I know I can celebrate but, should I?
I do not know how an answer eventually squeezed past the loop. Could have been because it came to me disguised as another question. It was simple in what it asked: What fool does not celebrate his homeland’s 50th anniversary of independence?
I celebrated.
Class-mates and I from long gone school days descended on a nightspot in Brooklyn NY. Together with scores of other expats we celebrated Trinidad and Tobago’s independence anniversary. Calypso Rose and Gypsy ensured a homely atmosphere.
Why did I ask the original question and, given it’s eight years later, am I celebrating this anniversary?
The easy part first.
Once a country becomes independent, there is no going back. It sinks, swims or, can tread water temporarily. Fifty years is a milestone, a time to reflect but also celebrate. I could not finish reflecting until the sneaky question answered my question.
My definition of “celebrate” now includes “recognize” and “reflect.”
In that sense I am celebrating this 58th anniversary.
For those who were preparing to descend on the savannah or the Tobago venue to admire the Independence Day parade, the pandemic continues to nix plans world-wide. Maccos will have to wait till next time for their glimpse of new assets the security forces may have acquired.
I don’t know if armored cars would have been in the mix this year. Police Commissioner Double GG, hinted the TTPS would have them soon. If soon were now, I’m sure he’d want to use them to send a message. You meantime get to align your celebrations with mine. We can reflect together.
My reflection has two questions. This year I am asking you them: Is Trinbago’s development keeping pace with the country’s needs? Who decides what to focus on in order to answer?
Each Trinbagonian decides, is my answer. It’s no different than a marriage when one side might wonder if their needs are being met.
What is the state of the country’s institutions?
Have they been updated since independence in ways that make them more in keeping with society’s needs?
Have new ones been created to satisfy those same goals?
What about the economy? How do citizens fair? Do they benefit or at least have access to tools that will enable them to benefit?
Public services? How far back does the waiting line go for basic services. Five, ten, twenty years?
This?
Is the government the people’s primary place for help? If so is that good long-term?
Back in 2012 I didn’t get to the end of my list before I decided the country was an under-achiever.
Eight years in the life of a country, independent or not, is not long enough for skeptics to see meaningful progress.
Triniland is not a teenager unsure of what she wants to be when she grows up. Meantime grades are so-so with the occasional surprise thrown in to show potential.
Leaders must know by now what are the barriers to sustained progress. At times the buzzwords echo in the air: Constitutional reform; judicial reform; law enforcement reform; educational reform; land reform; ease of doing business reform. Reform this; reform that. So, what’s the holdup? Isn’t this where the chant of those three watchwords should be loudest? Weren’t they meant to be remembered and provide inspiration?
Instead their opposites dominate too frequently. Are we a nation of people prone to indiscipline, low production and, as was exhibited in the most recent 2020 national elections, dangerous intolerance?
Political incorrectness, meets the capabilities of social media or, is it the other way around? Either direction that is not who Trinidadians are. I don’t know if one can chalk it up to social media’s skill at amplifying the idiotic.
All is not lost. That can never be allowed to happen. Earlier leaders knew that and transitioned the country into a republic fourteen years after independence.
While there is more to independence than the trappings, no country, especially one only a knnaaah from being 2,000 sq miles in size and no nuclear weapons to boot can force its will on others. A republic changes none of that but, it makes a statement. It says except for what we have no control over we are our own bosses. For that boldness I would tone down the focus on Independence and spotlight the upgrade to a republic.
Recently a friend suggested the country made the transition and Jamaica has not because Trinis are smarter. Smart or not how could a country with shades of jingoism not be a republic? Barbados I can see but our cousins up the road? For the time being Trinbago, along with Guyana and Dominica will remain the only republics in the English-speaking region.
Almost thirty years have expired since September 1976. In that time Vision 2020 was placed before the nation in the early 2000s. It represented a blue print on how to achieve developed nation status. Every facet of society would have been impacted.
When I first saw the manifesto I felt what I did not feel in 2008. Not because I was under any illusion the rollout date was feasible; it wasn’t. But because if enacting the plan was taken seriously it would begin enabling a change in mindset. That would then release a tsunami of unstoppable proportions and the world would have no choice but to take notice of a dot fermenting the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela.
So it’s 2020 and nobody is sitting up. Did COVID strike again?
No. Instead the UNC won the next election after the vision was announced and they poked out its eyes. I recall some vague promise of some future date. Unless this newly installed government revives the idea no one knows when T&T will achieve that original goal.
Faith and Hope.
That is what a couple could expect for staying married for 58 years. Two more years and, diamonds would be the reward.
Faith and Hope.
In comments after his new government was sworn in by the president, the prime minister referenced an agenda item to reform the education system. I raised an eyebrow and paid closer attention. He followed up saying no matter what came from the reform discussions, Civics (although he did not call it by that name), had to be returned to the curriculum. If I were a parliamentarian I would have thumped my desk.
Constitutional reform I hear has been laid before Parliament.
I will take the newly sworn-in opposition leader at her word when she promised no opposition to legislation to punish those flouting the requirement for masks in public.
Time will tell if talk is as cheap as always and I bought a truck-load. Again.
Although Lord Brynner won the title with his calypso, this was the de-facto anthem at all independence anniversary events I attended back in 2012. Eight years later and angst-less, I can now admit to intermittent discomfort each time I heard it.
With that admission comes memories of a very special lady. She invited me to one of those events in East Orange, New Jersey, a town she controlled if not ran. That’s my guess as to why many who knew her called her Town-Woman. She, Gail Bell-Bonnet, fell to COVID at the height of the pandemic in the New York environs. If anyone needed a template for a fully engaged and ready to act Trini her life would be it. RIP Gail.
Spend your 58th independence anniversary in reflection everyone.
Jeff Hercules is still plugging away at his writing although the plugs have slowed, But he continues undaunted. His website is still www.jeffhercules.com