Last week, the T&T Guardian ran an ad placed by Ross Advertising, and paid for by a possibly pro-highway and certainly pro-government group that tells us exactly what we are, as a people, and what our government is; and we are pretty firetrucking despicable and damned foolish; and our government is the most recent of a long line of inept, greedy, uncaring and arrogant regimes we can trace back from Patrick Manning through Basdeo Panday to Thomas Picton.
Predictably, the exquisite cruelty and wickedness of the advertisement itself was ignored, and attention focused instead on an empty distraction in which the Guardian was pilloried for allowing the ad to be placed, another messenger being shot while the message itself went unchallenged. The paper's editor-in-chief took it upon herself to pull a second placement of the ad, but she was wrong.
The Guardian should have run the ad as often as it was paid for, in the same way it would any other ad promoting the advertiser's own interests. The paper owed no duty to the public greater than the advertising industry itself–or the Cabinet, whose views it clearly represents–to censor any ad. Indeed, the paper's duty is to report accurately upon the place; and the people of T&T need to digest the advertisement to understand its intent to ridicule the only public figure in our time deserving of unstinting respect.
Whether or not you agree with Dr Wayne Kublalsingh, who may soon die because of his hunger strike against the ROUTE of the Debe-to-Mon Desir segment of the highway (not the highway itself), you should respect his courage in laying down his own life to stand up for a principle in this violent, lawless frontier town. His unwavering honesty stands in stark and open contrast to the hypocrisy of our government, WHICH PROMISED TO STOP THE ENTIRE HIGHWAY while in Opposition. Here, then, slightly edited for length, is the ad copy, annotated (by me) in italics in square brackets.
Photo caption: The Kub-lal. An unusual human reptile (Wayne Kublalsingh is not a hero, but a snake)...basking in the limelight (he is not making a sacrifice for the nation, only gallerying himself) outside the Prime Minister's office defies medical explanation (doctors would tell you he cannot do what he is in fact doing, so he must be a liar) by surviving without food and water for weeks without any sign of health issues (an open lie: his health is fading visibly rapidly).
Kub-lal (Koob-lal)...a human reptile (a snake, not a hero) found only in Trinidad (he would rightfully be exterminated anywhere else) that can endure endless weeks (if he was really fasting, he would be dead by now, so he's a liar, you can't trust him) without a drop of liquid and morsel of food by claiming (he is just pretending to fast and fooling all the stupid Negroes and Indians) to absorb water and nutrients via soaking it all in through the pores of its skin and breathing in moisture early in the morning from plant life (he is smoking ganja, he is on a holiday while the nation's children must suffer in traffic jams he is causing). This amazing creature flourishes if not nourishes (he is eating secretly, is just as much a hypocrite as the rest of us) in the limelight (he doesn't care about the place, only his own stardom) and can be found on the street pavement (he is not from the Academy, but a vagrant, dismiss and reject him) everyday, usually outside the Prime Minister's office. It attracts others known as manimals (anyone supporting Wayne Kublalsingh is a dog) who, like the Kub-lal, crave the glare of cameras (more rich white people from North playing theyself while poor black people in South suffer in traffic).
The Kub-lal is a great imitator (another open lie revealing the Government's greatest worry: he is actually an inspiration, around whom the nation may rally) and sometimes assumes to itself names such as Gandhi (another open lie: it was masman Peter Minshall who properly compared Kublalsingh to Gandhi, but the lie that he called himself Gandhi will stick with the rabble) and those of other great prophets (not even Ernie Ross has the stones to say BC Pires called him Jesus Kublalsingh, because Ernie knows people will recognise the truth of sacrifice, instead of sacrificing the truth for UNC convenience), yet it has no such following or cause other than confusion (secret fear revealed again: let us pappyshow this hero before the other slaves and indentured workers realise their own political power). The Kub-lal is only reported in T&T where a fascination with mas and other fanciful creations is known...(It's not the Cabinet that is feathers and beads, but Wayne Kublalsingh). The Kub-lal is unlikely to be found in any other country since it...would be removed to rest comfortably in an appropriate medical institution. (The most contemptible but most necessary of all the lies: he is a madman and would be locked up anywhere else; because, if he we don't hold him to be insane, we have to consider what he is saying; and he alone is telling the truth.)
The Cabinet should consider its place in history before it consents to ads like this.We have had a long line of autocratic, pompous and cruel governors-general; but at least Patrick Manning meant well; and Basdeo Panday represented progress; and Governor Picton used to admit he was responsible for the lives of the men he beat to death. Whereas Kamla Persad-Bissessar will cry copious crocodile tears at Wayne Kublalsingh's funeral; and name the Debe-Mon Desir section of the highway after him.
BC Pires is a sitting duck for Cabinet shooting practice now. E-mail your Kevlar vests to him at bc@winetonline.com