Here in T&T yes­ter­day, mind­less­ly an­noy­ing fire­crack­ers notwith­stand­ing, we had the com­fort and de­lights of Di­vali even as vot­ing and the en­su­ing counts con­tin­ued in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, and Grena­da—where two ref­er­en­da were un­der­way on ac­ces­sion to the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice.

One feels for some mod­ern moth­ers. Buf­fet­ed by ad­vice from fam­i­ly, friends, tanties, nurs­es, milk com­pa­nies, the old la­dy from down the street and that en­e­my of chil­dren, so­cial me­dia, she is en­cour­aged to talk to the ba­by be­fore birth but not to pick up af­ter birth.

The Chi­nese gen­er­al and mil­i­tary philoso­pher, Sun Tzu (6th cen­tu­ry BC), in his sem­i­nal work ti­tled The Art of War, pos­tu­lat­ed that “If you know the en­e­my and know your­self, you need not fear the re­sult of a hun­dred bat­tles.” When tak­en be­yond the realm of armed con­flict, in any ad­ver­sar­i­al en­counter, un­der­stand­ing can of­ten be the key to suc­cess. This no­tion holds spe­cial mean­ing when ap­plied to pol­i­tics, a fo­rum whose tac­tics and strate­gies can be just as dif­fi­cult to mas­ter as those prac­tised on the re­al-world bat­tle­field. While com­pro­mise is of­ten tout­ed, the re­al­i­ty is that both sides, ie, par­ties, want to achieve their own goals on their own terms. Mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing thus be­comes a ca­su­al­ty in the war of agen­das, and pol­i­cy ends up be­ing made by the tyran­ny of the ma­jor­i­ty. What fur­ther com­pounds this par­ti­san strife is when the par­ty faith­ful al­low them­selves to be over­come with the fer­vour of loy­al­ty and aban­don sim­ple de­cen­cy to­wards any­one in the op­pos­ing po­lit­i­cal camp. The end re­sult is a coun­try whose pop­u­la­tion is deeply di­vid­ed, a sit­u­a­tion that's akin to a blood­less civ­il war.

Here in T&T yes­ter­day, mind­less­ly an­noy­ing fire­crack­ers notwith­stand­ing, we had the com­fort and de­lights of Di­vali even as vot­ing and the en­su­ing counts con­tin­ued in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, and Grena­da—where two ref­er­en­da were un­der­way on ac­ces­sion to the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice.

One feels for some mod­ern moth­ers. Buf­fet­ed by ad­vice from fam­i­ly, friends, tanties, nurs­es, milk com­pa­nies, the old la­dy from down the street and that en­e­my of chil­dren, so­cial me­dia, she is en­cour­aged to talk to the ba­by be­fore birth but not to pick up af­ter birth.

The Chi­nese gen­er­al and mil­i­tary philoso­pher, Sun Tzu (6th cen­tu­ry BC), in his sem­i­nal work ti­tled The Art of War, pos­tu­lat­ed that “If you know the en­e­my and know your­self, you need not fear the re­sult of a hun­dred bat­tles.” When tak­en be­yond the realm of armed con­flict, in any ad­ver­sar­i­al en­counter, un­der­stand­ing can of­ten be the key to suc­cess. This no­tion holds spe­cial mean­ing when ap­plied to pol­i­tics, a fo­rum whose tac­tics and strate­gies can be just as dif­fi­cult to mas­ter as those prac­tised on the re­al-world bat­tle­field. While com­pro­mise is of­ten tout­ed, the re­al­i­ty is that both sides, ie, par­ties, want to achieve their own goals on their own terms. Mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing thus be­comes a ca­su­al­ty in the war of agen­das, and pol­i­cy ends up be­ing made by the tyran­ny of the ma­jor­i­ty. What fur­ther com­pounds this par­ti­san strife is when the par­ty faith­ful al­low them­selves to be over­come with the fer­vour of loy­al­ty and aban­don sim­ple de­cen­cy to­wards any­one in the op­pos­ing po­lit­i­cal camp. The end re­sult is a coun­try whose pop­u­la­tion is deeply di­vid­ed, a sit­u­a­tion that's akin to a blood­less civ­il war.