The Music Festival for Persons with Disabilities came and went last Tuesday like a politician passing wind. I counted two photos in the Guardian and nothing else. So much for the good news that the media say they are desperately looking for.For me, it was an honour to be present and as I looked around that Tuesday afternoon, I thought it unfortunate that more people were not in the lovely auditorium at Sapa.If it's true that there are more "mad people" outside St Ann's than inside, it must follow that there are more people with disabilities walking the streets than there are in the schools for people with disabilities.
Every one of those children who took part in the festival is a winner, because they and their parents have come to terms with their disabilities, which is more than you can say for most of us.Yet to see so many people with disabilities at once, in one room, is a massive blow to the sensibilities. It almost gives you a headache. I am accustomed to one by one. I sat by the entrance and watched the schools walk in. Like the majority of Trinidadian children, they are mostly well behaved. They file in, one behind the other, some holding hands, leading and guiding. Some move clumsily. They have clear, unblemished eyes, some slanted, but not because they are Chinese Trinis.Others have vacant smiles, open-mouthed stares, awkward facial features and shell ears. Tall and short, fat and skinny. There are the big heads and prominent foreheads of arrested hydrocephalus and the small heads of arrested brain growth.