Skip to main content

Me Tarzan. You [Not] Voting


Go ahead, ask me why I'm not voting. Ask me why I would give up my constitutional right to choose the 'lesser of two evils. Ask me if I am aware of the importance of Democracy and why I NEED to take part in this, another ‘Mother of Elections’. Speak to me all the things I've thought about or believed in and I'll tell you two words: Space Program.

I have a belief system that says: Leaders are meant to provide a framework for an actual future instead of merely pandering to the public's present. This fabulous secret was revealed to me, not as I held aloft my magic sword but as I listened to ads about pipe-borne water, community centers and of course, housing developments. It dawned on me that any government bent on taking their citizenry to a First World/Self Sufficient/Scientifically and Spiritually sound future must have a vision or else a working hypothesis of where they want the nation to be. This vision/hypothesis may be considered outlandish or downright impossible to some but it should still be pursued anyway. In the private sector, as a Creative Advertising Writer, I learned early on that it is better to go the client with a supremely creative thought (that can be implemented with a little care and investing) than to do just enough to keep them happy. So when I see roads being paved and houses being distributed, I realized that that falls in the category of ‘just enough’ and nothing of note that adds innovation is being offered. The masses will still cheer because new roads beat having no roads but isn't that what you're SUPPOSED to be getting already?
You're SUPPOSED to have adequate housing. You're SUPPOSED to have more than decent healthcare. You're SUPPOSED to have schools that are infrastructually and intellectually sound. You're SUPPOSED to have a decent working wage and have acceptable standards for living for the elderly. These things are called BASIC amenities for a reason. So if these are basic, why then are our voting patterns still based on them? Why do we still get excited upon hearing that our prospective candidates want to 'give' us these amenities? Shouldn't we - after 50 plus years of independences- be looking forward to an actual future?

As I've said before on this blog, I'd like to hear our politicians say something like, "we intend to position Trinidad and Tobago as the authority on scientific research in the Caribbean by 2019. Starting with..." (list policies, plans etc.).

Which brings us back to the matter of a Space Programme. I believe that Trinidad and Tobago has the resources to invest in a future where we become a hub for the development of space exploration. So I wrote a note to the leaders of the prospective parties and placed it on their respective social media pages and also on their websites. The question was as follows:
“Good day all; I have a question that I’m sending out to all the Political Entities/Leaders contesting the General Elections. If you’d be kind enough to lend me your thoughts, I would be ever so grateful.
Q: I believe that Trinidad & Tobago has the resources (human and natural) and the potential – with the right push – to launch a dedicated space program within a few years. Do you think this is possible and if so, what steps are you putting/would you put in place to make the T&T Space Centre a reality?”
 ....
I got nothing. No response from anyone. To date. What's truly amusing is that I've gotten emails from the Government inviting me to join and vote for Team Kamla. Letters where they call me by my first name, “Tracy J, join us in…” blah blah blah. Now they have my email address and such because A YEAR AGO [or so] there was a big JOIN THE NATIONAL DISCUSSION campaign. I clicked the website. I answered their little questions. I figured, “treat this as if this was the only time you’ll ever meet the Prime Minister”… I got no response. None. Forgive me, but I ASSUMED that a CONVERSATION implied feedback. How daft of me. Not that I expect the other side to treat with little ol’ me any better. Yet here we are, in the throes of election (yes, ‘throes’) and I’m – on the regular – being sent emails about my vote but NOT about the things that matter to me. …. So if no one cares about the things that matter to me, why am I voting again? For new roads? Better houses? Oh, you mean stuff we’re meant to have already… no thanks. It’s been swell but… no.

FROM THE P.P. SIDE...



THE PNM SIDE...


I also sent the question to the THIRD FORCE people. Hilariously, the day I finally posted this question to them was the day, they all called it quits.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Me Tarzan. You List

--> I’ve been listening to SKYFALL since the radio edit dropped on Thursday. It tore through me indeed. But somewhere around Friday evening [maybe earlier], I realised that while most people were loving the song for it’s Adele/Bond value, for me it was an actual plea to Heaven. "Please, let the sky fall already." I had had enough. I wrote a short piece for my [name: classified] project and while doing so, I asked myself, “what would it take to make you happy?”. I wrote it on my phone.. Here now is the list. What would it take to make you happy? 1.               ACTUALLY seeing God I remember, the days leading up to the surgery thinking, what would happen if i went under and had some kind of Divine Visitation? What then? If I sat down to it, I can almost rationalise every faith experience. Almost. I think about how many times I was supposed to be dead - literally - and I think, it had to be God. Of ...

Me Tarzan. You 2025

I don't know if you're watching. I don't know if you care. I certainly don't know if blogs are sexy anymore but ... here we are. It is March, 2025, and like Carrie Bradshaw, I too don't fully know what I'm doing. Which is hilarious when I look back on my old posts and still didn't know what I was doing. This is and election year in my country. I have a lot to say. Maybe even videos to produce ... but I also have nothing to say. It is 2025 and I am apparently 43 and I've appropriated that one song to say, "nobody likes you when you're 43" because ... really.  [hums to self: "the state looks down on sodomy" hahaha. ah that song was good, wasn't it?" I didn't intend to come here now with word vomit; probably later I'll have something actual to say. Probably I'll exchange procrastination with discipline and RESUME my bloglike ways because it used to be FUN. Circumstances... not so much, but blogging? Yes. Anyways,...

Me Tarzan. You Preacher Politics

                                  Valley of Decision by Christafari. Appropriate me thinks. On the night before the American election, while walking towards the taxi-stand, I became depressed by religion in politics. Actually, I became depressed by the thought of RACE in RELIGION but since that flowed into the political stream, one can say that I was sorely depressed all the way around. Here’s why: A prominent “Father of the Faith” so to speak, sat down with Mitt Romney. Now, tradition has shown that he’s the kind of guy that Presidents and Presidential hopefuls go to at some point in their careers, so it should come as no surprise that Master Mitt and the “Father” wold meet. It is said, that after meeting with him, though he didn’t give an all out public endorsement as other members of his family seem to have, he did advise the [Christian] public to vote according to Biblical Views/Beliefs....