VernetteOutLoud

Calm before the STORM

Who’s it gonna be?

Bemused. That’s how I feel.

Merriam-Webster defines the word bemused as 1. to make confused : puzzle, bewilder; 2. to occupy the attention of : distract, absorb; 3. to cause to have feelings of wry or tolerant amusement.

Bemused is the word I would use to describe the way Former Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs and Deputy Commissioner of Police Jack Ewatski viewed Trinibagonians for the last two years.

When you have to work with a Yes-Man like Former National Security Minister John Sandy who appeared to have no balls when it came to our PM and now the new Sheriff in town Jack Warner who is still unclear as to what Ministry he is really in charge of, how can you be productive? From the time a State of Emergency was called last year and these two men were not even in the country when it happened and worse, appeared to have only known about it AFTER the fact…allyuh shoulda know who was really running the show.

How can you implement any initiative or improve our police force when we have a PP Government more interested in the “appearance” of reducing crime, rather than actually reducing crime. Underperformance by Gibbs and Ewatski? Look a lil further trinis.

Who is Accountable? Take our PM to task, she is after all, head of the National Security Council. If this PP Government was SERIOUS about reducing crime in this country, their first order of business in a comprehensive crime plan would be to remove Jack Warner as National Security Minister. He is absolutely unfit to be in that position which requires a leader of integrity, capable of justice and honesty. The disclosure of the latest incriminating evidence of Warner’s shady dealings with Bin Hammam, as was reported by a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit should have been cause for enough concern for the PM to act in the best interest of Trinidad and Tobago.

I feel insulted by Kamla Persad-Bissessar who asks for the nation’s support of this man in the face of these damning findings and continues to show her support of him by endorsing him as a member of her Cabinet. There is sufficient evidence that this man is unfit for public office. He has indulged in improper and unethical behaviour and this is not the first time. Have the footballers gotten their money yet?

Or is it that the new crime plan is “bandit to ketch bandit”?

So allyuh, it comes as no surprise to me that Gibbs and Ewatski have tendered their resignations which takes effect on August 7, because I find they take long. They damn right to leave this country at this time. The do-do about to hit the fan and I hope allyuh ready to “do so” when the time comes.

How long Jack in office and his crime plan is still non-existent? Allyuh Wait for it…it coming. Because now we will get Dep CoP Stephen Williams, who is tipped to replace Gibbs. And what exactly allyuh think will happen?? Nothing stopping SOE like measures now: removal or breaching of our constitutional rights, shows of brute force, sudden raids all in the appearance of “we wukking” and “allyuh want crime down, take dat”.

As Kamla Persad-Bissessar said last night in her address to the nation, “No measure will be spared against those who seek to terrorise and brutalize our elderly folk, our women, our children and our men. The national outrage has reached a stage where everyone agrees that stronger and more aggressive initiatives are required.”

My advice: Stock up on canned foods and bottled water. The storm coming.

Tendering Carnival?

Carnival Tuesday 2011, Spice Band

This is not a fete in here, this is madness…

It seems as though when these ministers get their instruments of appointment it comes with a slap in the face that leaves them stupid and dazed for 5 years.

This PP is a government of ideas and this latest headline grabber joins other Hall of Infamers like the tunnel from Tunapuna to Maracas, Allowing PH Operators the same privilege as H car Owners, Laptops for every secondary school student and the Airport in South. Whatever happened to these ideas?

And why can’t we hear from our PM? A masquerader herself…how does she feel about this latest verbal diarrhea?

Can you privatize the intangible? Can you privatize air? Because trying to privatize this spontaneous combustion of artistic expression, rhythm and music, the heartbeat of a people is what attempting to privatize Trini Carnival will be about.

This newly minted Minister of the Arts and Multiculturalism, Dr Lincoln Douglas seems to have forgotten that Carnival existed before NGC, TUCO, PanTrinbago, before the PP, UNC, and PNM. It existed before The Mighty Sparrow, Shadow and long before Ambassador Machel.

On d road, Carnival Monday 2011, Spice Band

Carnival cannot be privatized.

Carnival may not be profitable for the Government of the day, but the Trinbagonians profit big time. From Bandleaders to Newspapers, hotels to the doubles man by the corner, DJs and even gas stations…the people profit from Carnival.

Maybe you can privatize an event within the festivities…maybe…but not the Carnival. Mr Douglas has to be out of his damn mind if he thinks that this is so. Aunty Verna where are you, when we need you? This one should be sent to St. Ann’s for evaluation.

What Minister Douglas should seek to do is equip the bodies charged with the responsibilities of producing our various Carnival events with trained staff to produce a better product.

But yuh know what I feel, I feel this man was reading papers and saw that Dean A looking to secure the Miss Universe Franchise and he had a “light bulb moment”. But padna before you roll out this idea, think, think some more, stop, think again, speak to stakeholders – bandleaders, heads of the various carnival and Arts related bodies, formulate a game plan aaaaaaand then talk to a PR person BEFORE you make a statement to the public.

I remember, I was helping a cousin with some school projects, proof-reading and editing and she insisted that she pay me. She also thought it was a good way to make some extra money. When I rolled out the idea to a friend, he grilled me worse that the sharks in Shark Tank. I got upset and defensive, but what he did was, show me that having a great idea is one thing, execution and follow-through however, demands a lot of thought and planning. A lesson I will always remember.

Minister Douglas, for your sake, “doh play mas and fraid powder” let this one, like the other stillborns before it, die a natural death.

Choose: Red or Blue

Red or Blue?

Is it just me? Or does it appear as if the majority of the populace has been on a steady diet of the blue pill lately? It must be that most of the population exists in this Matrix that Jack built. That is the only explanation I can find for this pervading “sleep” that has created a lull over the nation.

How else could one describe this “blissful ignorance of illusion” that causes the population to not question why Jack’s greatest achievement on his “war” on crime as National Security Minister to date, is be clear that “private companies who shall remain private” paid for Shaq’s $10 million-dollar visit. Or is that the sleep so sweet, we forgot all about the spectacle of our PM being lifted high in the air to dunk a basketball? 35 murders later, all we can get from our Jack is a “I didn’t kill them…” and a promise for a crime plan long overdue, in another 4 months.

It must be that people are sleeping, because the nightmare continues. Our PM has been conspicuously mum on this and other major issues, not even to blame PNM incompetence and corruption. The once vocal business leaders in Port of Spain, must be rolling over in their comfy beds, sucking their thumbs while they nap because we have heard nothing from them on this latest surge in crime. And as for the PNM providing a glitch in this matrix, not happening, as they too seem to be snoozing.

When you have a National Security Minister claiming that he doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “abuse of power” while he personally escorts a demolition crew to violently oust protestors and no one bats an eye, you know is level Ambien people swallowing. In this dream state, it seems many people cannot tell the difference between right and wrong anymore. Happy tidings for our wide awake criminal elements.

You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. – Morpheus, The Matrix

This rabbit hole, so far, has been one long nasty fall with no bottom in sight yet.