CATEGORY: COMMENTARY
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By Lloyd Noel



“Things are bad, I must admit, but as a people with some level of faith in a Supreme Almighty - I cannot believe or accept it is beyond redemption; we therefore cannot give up all hope but must persevere, regardless of the odds.”




There was an old saying, by those wise old folks of yester year, to the effect that if care is not taken of the tree trunk - there will eventually
be no branches, or flowers and fruits to admire or enjoy.

Another way of putting the old saying, was that there must be a solid foundation, a dependable base, a proven tested and established set of
principles upon which the Society can rely for guidance, and entrenched provisions for ensuring compliance, and relevant sanctions for enforcing
obedience.

And those of us old enough to recall and remember those good old days - when standards and character and honesty ruled the order of the days - we
can all look back both with fond memories of the settled satisfaction we inherited, as well as the painful strokes and bruised backs and bottoms we
had to endure, when we failed to honour and live up to those standards and principles. And I doubt very much, that anyone of those vintage years would today complain - that he/she did not benefit tremendously from those character building days and times of old.

Strangely, curiously, co-incidentally,revealingly, or whatever other adverb may be chosen in the context of then and now - politics and the
political gymnastics we have had to endure, since our so-called coming of age and or Independence, never had any part to play in the general make-up
or workings of the systems, and the principles of those who were responsible for getting things done and ensuring that the system functioned as they
should.

And the ripple effect, that begins from the very top of the contaminated political tree, seems to have now even penetrated throughout the branches,
while the tree trunk itself is just rotting away.

I feel almost certain, that when readers got their weekly papers last week and saw the front and back pages of them all - they must have been shocked,
taken aback, or disillusioned at what they saw, depending on their ages and what they have been used to. And as they opened those papers, to see the inside pages referred to by the front and back pages, they would have been even more alarmed at the contents.

There, on all the papers, was an attractive young lady, on her way to and from the Court house to answer a host of Criminal Charges - involving
allegations of fraud, and forgery, and dishonesty in the course of her former employment as a Bank clerk.

And thereabouts were other pictures, and stories and headlines, of policemen charged for a variety of offences involving drugs and sexual mis-conduct - in the course of their duties as law enforcement officers.Those two sectors of our society’s structural make-up - the Police force
or Service and the Banking establishment - have been the pillars on which young and old alike depended for over-all security in their daily lives. The Police to protect your person and property, and the Bank to secure any extra
moneys you may have earned, and wish to save.

In days of old, if you did not want to be a Policeman or woman, or at least revered and so admired them with adoring respect, then you dreamed of being a Bank employee. That is if you had the right skin colour, in the days before Uncle Gairy came into prominence, and later on if you had the educational subjects and a big godfather to back up your application.

In to-day’s setting, I am sure even those on the payroll of the Force and the Bank’s are having serious second thoughts - in their embarrassment.
And this is not to say that all Police Officers and Bank employees are anything like the very, very, few who go off on the wrong road.But as with everything else in life, it only takes one bad apply to poison the whole basket, and one or two or three weak and dishonest employees - to
so damage the whole structure, that even those who had given many years of dedicated and loyal service to their Employer Bank, they had to be
sacrificed in the clean up process, for not having detected the fraudulent scheme sooner.

And as one reads through those same papers last week, the news and statements did not get any better. Yes, there was the report that the Chinese will soon be starting the first Five Hundred or so houses, of the promised Two Thousand to be built for Grenadians as a result of ‘Ivan and Emily.’
But it did not say how soon is ‘soon,’ nor where they would be built, nor who would benefit and so on. And judging by the high level significance of the “CWC 2007" programme - to be ready in time for those deadlines we are always hearing about - I cannot see those houses coming very soon.

And as Dr. Alexis opined in one of those papers, ‘the said World Cup wont wash away our many worriers’ - because they are far more deep-seated, than whatever amount of profit the Six Scheduled matches could ever bring us, whether in the short, middle or long term. But the distressful reports and news items got even worse as one went on reading further.There was a published letter, from an Ex-Court of Appeal Judge who retired about three years ago, and who is still waiting to receive his Gratuity and
Pension from the Government, which he chose as his home base for that purpose. His complaint was that political interference was responsible for that
disturbing state of affairs.

And as one read through that letter, it seemed that a lawyer-politician was involved somewhere in the plot, for holding up the retired Judge’s just
payments after giving over thirty years service to the OECS Court System - which included many years in Antigua and Barbuda.

So the terrifying and sickening message coming out of that distasteful state of affairs - is that once those un-scrupulous politicians decided in
their revengeful wisdom, to bring their malice and discriminatory hateful tactics into the equation, then there remains no room for any exception and
no respecter of persons.

And if you were also able to see the Trinidad papers for the weekend before and last weekend, then the news about the judiciary and the political ’hanky-panky’ taking place in Trinidad and Tobago - would have been more than enough, to stifle all your hopes and reliance on the rule of law and the administration of justice, among our so-called Independent Caribbean Nations that are on the verge of completing their sovereign status, by abolishing the last vestiges of Colonialism in England, and declaring that they are free, at last, to do as they dam well please. And that is all because we foolishly put them there by our ‘thirty seconds casting votes in a polling booth’ - once every five years.

The saddest part of the foregoing alarming state of affairs, is that those guys have been able to get away with their corruption and enslavement of our people for years - but no sooner some poor small man or woman attempts to enrich themselves by foul means, the whole weight of the law comes down on them - even to the extent of conviction before trial.

But what I am seeing, is all these increasing incidents of violent crimes, on the one hand; as well as those more daring and cleverly thought out
schemes of fraud, and theft, and mis-use or abuse of positions of trust and authority, on the other hand - is that the body politic that controls and
manipulates the Society, has become so rotten and contaminated that even the little people in the System, are putting aside the old fashioned fear and respect they once had for law and order and authority, and they are now imitating and emulating those on the tree tops as role models, and doing the same dam things regardless. And therein lies our major problems and mammoth tasks, in trying to turn that tide around - so as to bring back some semblance of sanity, and decency, and propriety, to our once God-faring and law-abiding Society and way of life.

It makes one wonder, how it is, or why it is, that those in authority are not seeing the resemblance between their reckless and ‘couldn’t - care-less’
ways of ruining the Society - by their mis-management and short-sightedness in the administration of the Systems of Government; and the now widespread repetition of the same kinds or types of criminal offences, that nearly all
stem from the same or very similar genesis - of persons in authority, mis-using or abusing their positions of trust and confidence, bestowed upon
them by the same Society, in the form of the jobs or professions they hold or enjoy.

If the happenings in the same Trinidad and Tobago are anything to go by, as possible guidelines, it must mean that sooner or later the bubble will be
busted, and once close friends or subordinates will spill the beans or talk out of turn - and the un-ruly horses will somehow bolt out of the stables and all hell will break loose, as even their health seem to suddenly deteriorate and close families dis-integrate.

Surely, those persons forming the tree trunk - that is now bursting at the seams, or rotten to the core, even though some healthy branches and flowers are still visible - they, or some of them, must be able to see through the shambles and save our people and Country, including their own families and close friends, from further punishment and degradation, by calling it a day
and walking away.

At least history will remember them, for having saved the tree and the branches from collapsing all at once, and making it possible for those below the trees to take some remedial measures at the roots to try and save them all.

Things are bad, I must admit, but as a people with some level of faith in a Supreme Almighty - I cannot believe or accept it is beyond redemption; we therefore cannot give up all hope but must persevere, regardless of the odds.




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