This was another good-time week. The pace seems to be hotting up, both locally and internationally. While the bankers and their political protectors continue to bathe in easy money, the stock market is taking a beating, Spain and Italy continue their slow collapse, Norway murders, London riots and weirdo American politicians come to the fore talking their strange brand of right-wing religious fundamentalism ("I talk with God every day and He tells me I am right"). Are we in for another socio-economic semi-collapse? Will more people lose their credit cards and houses? Not in La Trinite. Despite all the talk about a slowdown in the economy, sales of luxury cars have not decreased, more second-hand cars are about to enter the country, St James and Ariapita Avenue are busier than ever and dengue continues to proliferate on the waste an undisciplined, wealthy society produces. There's far too much money in the country, much more than the official figures would suggest.
The week began with 20 per cent of the police force staying home to "rest and reflect" and ended with fighting on the rooftop of the PSA headquarters building and the death of Pat Bishop. In-between there was a bit for everyone: the PM with dengue (one wonders how she got it, travelling around with so much security and air-conditioning); a man resigns and then unresigns, as the Newsday poetically put it (like the un-dead, some people never go away); the Harts launched their brand new Carnival mas band to the usual high-spirited media approval (free grog and doubles for the reporters, our standards not too high); A rape case was thrown out of court because the "rapee" marries the "raper" (never get involved in people sex life); another man got away from punishment for failing to wear a seat belt because he has 16 children ("the court erupted in sighs") and I wonder if it is not time to bring back the Evening News court reporter; the Minister of Foreign Affairs assured the population that there was no dengue outbreak, just after the Minister of Health left the post-Cabinet news conference, and five foreigners and one local had expressed interest in buying the blimp. How Pat would have laughed.
But really, what does the "local" plan to do with the blimp? Sight tours of the quarries behind Sangre Grande? Air box over the Oval for high-riding industrialists? The police operation was hailed by all and sundry as a victory for the Government. One in five police stays away from work and that is a victory for the forces of law and order? One in five? If that figure does not scare you, it scares me. Perhaps it means we really have too many police as has been suggested before? I think the figure is that we have more police per capita than New York City? The "rest day" by the police seemed a bit of a shame since murders are down, whatever that means. But without doubt there is more of a police presence on the roads, police cars are everywhere, even on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, and one can actually see police walking the streets again. It's only a start but it's obvious that until the police take back control of the streets, crime will never decrease. Police work is street work not office work.
The PSA fracas is a mini-review of all that is wrong with T&T. A set of men invade a locked building, physically break up a constitutionally called general council meeting (doh mind that, as the Guardian editorial said, something must be wrong when half the general council has been suspended by the president of said council), cuss up the chair, try to put some cuff on him and when he leaves, claim to have the constitutional right to take over the meeting and to be in charge of the organisation. Back to dengue and the extraordinary "there is no outbreak, there's an outbreak" story or "the platelet count high, the platelet count low" dilemma, or the "dengue test positive versus it negative" affliction sweeping the country.
By now so many people, medical and non-medical, official and non-official, have commented that the only thing left to do is to plant a paw-paw tree and hope it bears before next year.
Of course no one has thought of organising a national clean-up day as the NAR successfully did in 1986 and which would stop the mosquito in its tracks. No mosquito, no dengue. No, let's do like my three-year-old granddaughter and play "pretend." Maybe the full cesspits and drains and empty tyres and fried chicken boxes collecting water and breeding mosquitoes will go away on their own. Finally, came the news that 35 health scholarships had been awarded. After so many years of failure to do so, that was good news indeed. However, the scholarships only touched the tip of our needs. Two physiotherapists and one audiologist? No speech therapist and no occupational therapist? And worse, not a single one for treating children.