Kei­th An­der­son

If you see me with a wor­ried look it has noth­ing to do with a ta­ban­ca but every­thing to do with the way things are get­ting tight like an old, rusty pli­ers. Life in Trin­ba­go is tough, al­though I was promised a bet­ter life by the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment. I am yet to see and feel the change. All I am get­ting is ole talk and ku­choor, not sta­bil­i­ty and per­for­mance from the coali­tion. I get the feel­ing that aus­ter­i­ty mea­sures have al­ready kicked in and cut­backs are the or­der of the day. I al­so get the feel­ing it is a mat­ter of time be­fore some smart alec in the Gov­ern­ment moves on pub­lic hol­i­days, tak­ing his cue from the Por­tuguese gov­ern­ment which has scrapped four of 14 days, for five years in an aus­ter­i­ty dri­ve. You know how we like to fol­low for­eign coun­tries in terms of ideas. We, too, have 14 hol­i­days and from time to time there's talk by busi­ness­men about too many hol­i­days and its im­pact on the econ­o­my, but noth­ing has come of it.

But over in Por­tu­gal it is a dif­fer­ent ket­tle of fish. Two Catholic fes­ti­vals, one of which is Cor­pus Christi and the day to mark Por­tuguese in­de­pen­dence from Span­ish rule have been thrown out the win­dow, along with the day to com­mem­o­rate the for­ma­tion of the Por­tuguese Re­pub­lic. It is hoped that the sus­pen­sion of the hol­i­days will boost com­pet­i­tive­ness and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty. But don't tell that to Tri­nis, they love their hol­i­days and it has noth­ing to do with a lack of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. It is about time the be­hav­iour­al sci­en­tists get down to find­ing the link be­tween a Tri­ni and a pub­lic hol­i­day. The more, the mer­ri­er. They have un­of­fi­cial­ly de­clared Car­ni­val Mon­day, Car­ni­val Tues­day and Ash Wednes­day pub­lic hol­i­days. They love to cool down by the beach­es, a riv­er lime or just drink rum on pub­lic hol­i­days, far re­moved from the hurly burly of na­tion­al pol­i­tics and stress. Long be­fore a pub­lic hol­i­day, a Tri­ni knows his plans for the day. What else but rest and re­lax­ation?

I won­der what will hap­pen to gov­ern­ments who tam­per with Tri­nis and their love for pub­lic hol­i­days. I have been go­ing through the days with pen and pa­per, seek­ing to cut out a cou­ple days, but it is a tough task. I have looked at Cor­pus Christi and Christ­mas Day and said no. Those days are close to Catholic hearts, you don't in­ter­fere with the Vat­i­can. The Pope will pray on your head and you will turn va­grant for the next 199 years. Count Fin­bar Ryan will get up from his grave and haunt you for life if you even think about touch­ing Good Fri­day or East­er Mon­day. I have looked at New Year's Day and of­ten won­der why it is a pub­lic hol­i­day. Fac­ing a new year is a chal­lenge and wor­ri­some. You don't know what the year will bring and if your num­ber will call. Why cel­e­brate a new year? Box­ing Day is the day Tri­nis "start the mas" and you won't want to tam­per with the Tri­ni pen­chant to fete. The day could al­so be spent with politi­cians putting on box­ing gloves and set­tling dif­fer­ence, not pelt­ing pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ters.