We are into the "worst of times" with only citizens, those free of party and race fanaticism, able to put brakes to this descent to the bottom as election campaigning has begun to sketch its ugly and degenerate outlines.Election campaigning has come to mean the manipulation and exploitation of those at the margins of society hoping to "eat ah food" from the spread of largesse. Witness for instance, Cepep and URP workers instructed to make raucous noise at "Skippy" Barrington's meeting.
It was a meeting during which Barrington sought to tell the national community about the absence of democracy in the UNC; indeed the non-existence of a functioning party structure. Witness how the protesters sought to earn their living but retain some pride by hiding their faces with the posters.
Election campaigning is a period of severe emotional exploitation of people's loyalties to parties and leaders; it is a time when campaigning politicians insidiously undermine native ethnic and cultural loyalties; sometimes with subtly of subtext, but in cottage meetings away from the glare of the media the "N" and "C" terms are freely used.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/digital/new-members