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Friday, April 17, 2015

Opiate of the masses

Endless social and economic inequality.

Government corruption - over budgeting, tampering with contracts, tribal politics, racism and class prejudice.

Garbage everywhere, crumbling buildings, dilapidated hospitals.

Unsafe schools, unsafe roads, poor drainage. Poor sanitation.

People without money dying in public hospitals, being turned away by the private 'nursing homes'.

Sinfully rich doctors, lawyers, businessmen, politicians and public figures.

No accountability.

Government MP's who don't and won't respond to the needs of their people, the same people that put them in charge.

The more things seem to change, the worse it perpetuates the same.

Nepotism, narcissism, friends. Blatantly obvious with all their corrupt dealings, but who cares? No one gets caught.

Cutting corners, cutting deals, cut your losses.

Destroy any and all buildings of heritage value, build a car park instead.

Steal a car, steal money, steal other people's songs to use as your own.

Catch no criminals but demand a pay increase, hold the country to ransom by staging multiple road blocks until your demands are met.

An ego-centric TV host who thinks he's a politician and a policeman, pretending to solve crime.

All of this and more.

Teenage pregnancies, multiple fathers.

Inefficient public services.

Hostile postal workers. Corrupt licensing officers.

Drugs. Guns.

All covered up by two days of feting in the streets and the smearing of paint on other people's houses.

Mash up 'd' place. Mash it up.

Wine, grind and jam all day prior to Ash Wednesday, maybe get pregnant. Carnival babies are a normal thing.

Kids never knowing their fathers.

You pay $5000 and more for a costume that won't even last for two days. Take out a carnival loan, repay every year.

Go to a different fete every week in a different outfit, all paid for by you guessed it - a carnival loan.

Carnival - the opiate of the masses in Trinidad.

I actually don't have a problem with Carnival itself, at least what it used to mean years ago, although I do find most soca and chutney songs really garbage, and most costumes are just recycled ideas year after year.  But I just wish that as a country and as a people we could try to fix our social and economic issues, rather than just covering it all up and accepting every bit of nonsense that we have to tolerate and forget about it whenever Carnival comes around.

Carnival is not the be all and end all of our existence as Trinidadians and I wish we could just move from beyond that way of thinking.

But sadly, I don't think it will ever happen.

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