No water, only flood! - the Peter O'Connor column

We really must wonder if our situation (as a surviving, far less a developing society) is not totally, and infinitely mired in slough of contrariness, stupidity and a clear desire to remain in this state regardless of our protestations to the contrary.

We live in an absolutely pantomime society, where everyone contrives to fail, contradict and to do everything backwards. And the irony is that we do not even recognize this appalling reality as we fete, dance and laugh at it all.

Last week, in the midst of raging flood waters in North Trinidad, huge swaths of the country, and hundreds of thousands of citizens suffered for over a week with no water in their homes, schools and business places. 

We know that we, through greed and a blind desire to “be like away”, are responsible for the flooding, although we always blame “Gord” for the fact that we destroyed the forests, bulldozed the hills and dumped all of our garbage in the rivers.

But we cannot blame “Gord” for the fact that the Desalination Plant was inoperable for several days. We cannot even blame Her for the stupidity manifest in wasting money to build such an artificial “supplier” of water, when everyone knew, or ought to have known, that the failure to deliver water to the population lay not in water shortage (tell Maraval and Diego Martin about water shortage, nuh!), but in water wastage. 

WASA, the institution which built that Desalination Plant, wastes more than half the water it produces through its own broken, clogged, and defective mains system. If (When, please Gord, put a hand?) we replace the defective mains, and this has been planned and deferred since the mid 1980’s, the water supply to the people of this country will double. Yes, double, do the arithmetic for yourself!

The flooding will take longer to control. The immediate mission here is to prevent Santa Cruz and Maracas St. Joseph from becoming like Diego Martin and Maraval (where the hillsides are “clad” with galvanize). But have we learned from Maraval? We wait to see.

Because we are so jokey, we apparently found it quite in order for our National Airline to detain two foreigners, caught entering the country with forged passports. And because we are a first world country aspirant, we apparently “detained” them in a luxury hotel, at the airline’s expense. 

These people have since disappeared from our, well, we cannot call it custody, but they gone (sic). We have a Detention Centre for undocumented aliens. Why did Immigration not secure these two people in Aripo? (We ‘fraid white people still?). 

It is alleged that they were Israelis, and rumour even has it that they were connected to the alleged assassination plot. Well that could only happen here in Pantomimeland: Israelis joining Muslims in an assassination plot against a Hindu Lady Prime Minister governing a predominantly Christian country!

They say the State of Emergency ends tomorrow (at the time of writing this there is no extension envisaged). But we have several “plotters” and “assassins” in detention under suspicion of their involvement. 

The Minister of National Security had blithely announced that if we do not have evidence to take to court, they will all walk free tomorrow! While we all know (including Keith Rowley and the media!) that the State cannot lay out evidence before going to trial (it is called prejudicial, but I should not be telling you this, because most of you already know it, except it is politically convenient to play stupid).

Having said that, I really hope that the State is able to bring credible evidence against the detainees. But I leave that for the time being.

And while all of these serious issues need to be faced and resolved, we have the continuing vaudeville show of Patrick and Keith. 

These two clowns, who have apparently forgotten that between them, even as they fought, had brought this country to ruin, wasting money on Calder Hart’s relatives, even as they refused to give Labour one per cent increase. 

And yet they pontificate to us about what should be done. Too bad they had no answers when they governed the country for nine years. Given the amount of times Keith Rowley has been wrong in his pronouncements, do you trust him when he says the assassination plot is a fabrication?

And finally, look how proud we were when an inconsequential reporter deigned to come from England to tell us what we all knew about our country. Everyone is circulating this stale-news trivia as though it was important to us? Oh! We reach! Foreign newspapers are talking about us!

But that is how we stop (sic): No news, only talk; no plot, only hysteria; no joke, only hysterical laughter; no water, only flood.