We know it as Christmas, and we always have, so we must not let alien prejudices infect us by copying the whole “holidays” nonsense, and replacing the nativity with Rudolph and “Santee Claws” (sic). We have not changed the names of Divali or Eid-el-Fitr so we need not change the name of Christmas.
So, whether you believe in the story of the birth of Jesus, or the drama of Rudolph’s shiny nose, the truth is that this is not really a bright or joyous Christmas for most of us, or indeed for our country.
And, although our politicians all put on ridiculous red “sleeping caps” (nothing to do with the message of the Nativity as far as I remember) and left their duties to hand out trinkets to screaming children and their clambering mothers, the issues that remain in our society are cause for great concern and continuing worries.
Things are not good in our country, or indeed in the wider world—but we need to “water our own roof” right now, and clearly we need to do this without any help from the society’s traditional leadership.
They—the traditional leadership—government, business, labour and the religions have let us down badly, and I say this without reservation or apology.
The messages of goodwill they now ring as hollow repetitive trite in the face of the troubles so many suffer, and the clear lack of concern shown throughout the year.
The bleating for “prayers to save our nation” by our religious leaders conveys the impression of a society without ideas, without will, and without any commitment to individual improvement.
After all a society is the sum of all its members, and we are not prepared to correct our own defects while we pray to “Gord” to save our nation, we shall continue to wallow in the morass of incompetence, crime and corruption we have brought upon ourselves.
The man whose birth we celebrated Saturday, with fireworks, electronic gifts, gluttony and drunkenness, was a man who “did” more than he prayed. We really need to seek refuge and salvation more in action and less in prayer. In other words, Trinidad and Tobago, “Take up thy bed and walk”!
I, surely not a voice alone, am tired of all of us begging, demanding, stealing and taking rather than working and giving.
I have seen our country twice reach the heights of self-sustainment and therefore potential glory. And twice I have seen us fall of the edge, although many of us do not even acknowledge that we are in free-fall again, as we demand what is not our entitlement.
We are fighting for our “share” of the gold in the ship’s cargo hold, while the ship is sinking. And while we conduct this unseemly behaviour, no one is operating the pumps or bailing the water.
We need to acknowledge certain realities. We are about to go under, and we cannot allow the newly awakened Trade Unions, the Peter Permels and Patrick Mannings to continue to delude us that once they get their demands all will be well in Bethlehem tonight.
We need to accept that Patrick Manning knew full well the true state of our nation. It is now generally accepted that Manning called his election for the sole purpose of demitting office and handing over a broken shell of a country, riddled with debt -the extent of which is still unfathomed-, the still-to- come tsunami of CLICO, the scourge of violent crime, the spying on our citizens, including me, and the failure of health care, education and infrastructure.
For eight years we used our increasing wealth to take us downhill, in morality, decency and in caring for our people.
And we let Manning build, without a murmur of protest from business, labour or the churches, his towers, his NAPA, his Tarouba, his Palace, and oh, yes, his Church in Guanapo, the last making him pure in the eyes of some: “It is God’s Church” they exalted. Well, the Son of God took a whip to the priests of such “churches” long ago.
But I believe that although we are not yet aware of it, we do have deep within us, as individuals, and as a society, the intelligence and the strength to see what is happening, and to rally ourselves to save our ship.
And this is my wish for Christmas, for the coming year ahead, for Eid el Fitr and for Divali: May we discover our strength and our sense of justice and rally to save our land for our children’s sake.
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