Chapter One – Allegro
There is so much to talk about this week, that
I decided to present a few issues as separate micro “chapters.” It’s a liberty
I claimed some years ago by describing the process as a series of “movements”
(à la classical symphonic arrangements which typically require four discrete
renditions).
But I have chosen to abandon such a rigid
formulation and go for the flexibility of literature while retaining the
relative orderliness classical music brings. So, this was my quick opening
“allegro.”
Chapter Two - Budget Andante
This slower, slumber-inducing movement focuses
on the annual budget presentation, side-talk, and “debate” which I followed
from a safe distance this year. Full of hubris, privilege, and affected rage,
it was difficult to extract from most of it any semblance of a distinction
between separate nonsenses.
So, the prime minister - hopefully against the
advice of the designated ministers purporting to embrace the marvels of an
already ageing “digital revolution” – believes that “infrastructure” and
“indiscipline” provide major barriers to the digitalising/virtualising of
processes and public conduct, including the world of work.
For sure, he is not alone. Some captains of
business and industry still apparently contemplate an elusive Millennium Bug
and clearly embrace a notion of “the good old days” of office sweat shops with
hapless minions at the other end of officious whips.
The storyteller would bring this chapter to a
screeching stop with the summary statement: They spent a considerable amount of
time saying absolutely nothing. At least not anything that will be remembered
as compellingly as how hot the pepper was in the last doubles.
I would add: Read Terrence Farrell’s recent
newspaper thesis on the perils of “gradualism” for one of the few sensible
responses to this year’s slothful budget andante.
Chapter Three – CPL Minuet
This dance-inducing movement emerges with
fluttering flags and jingoistic delight. No T&T Amazon Warriors but a
promising T&T Patriots and, of course a TKR.
So, we went to the Oval in neutral colours to
avoid the taunts and the absurdities. A South African bowled to a Pakistani and
the catch was taken by a New Zealander and the crowd erupted with patriotic
zeal!
Franchise banners and national flags wild in
the wind, the way once displayed side by side in Europe, but this time minus
the murderous results. Slaughter left to the field of play.
Put on repeat my 2018 melody: “If you use a
national flag in the branding of any product, you can convert support into
passion, affection into love, and a simple contest into a war.”
In Guyana, where one flag lay trampled some
years ago, there flew in the Final the black, yellow, and green - more as
political statement than cricketing wisdom. “Local content” now as forgotten as
the Bangladeshi’s heroics mere days before.
How, I had asked, does Shakib prefer his
pepperpot? Has Shai caught the minibus at Stabroek Market? And maybe Tahir
prefers life in the marvelous Essequibo?
Enough, no more. ‘Tis not so sweet now as it
was before!
Chapter Four – Genealogical Allegro
Long curious about numerous aspects of my mixed
heritage, I have been engaging the activities of the T&T Genealogy Facebook
Group in order to excavate specific clues about the story of my enslaved
ancestors. Even in casual online exchanges, the richness of the discourse is
abundant.
Being the product of Africa, India, China and
Europe means there are numerous - most times previously unexplored - adventures
to experience.
Last Sunday, group curator Ann Dardaine took
more than one hundred of us through an audit of available resources to aid in
researching our past. Excerpts are to be posted on the Group soon. Let me tell
you, Dardaine’s presentation, as a researcher, provided valuable, authoritative
guidance on adjoining the myriad chapters of our stories.
The Group is paired with like-minded amateur
and professional practitioners in St Vincent and the Grenadines – where resides
one arm of the expansive reach of the Neehall clan that first touched Caribbean
soil in St Kitts in 1863 and emerged latterly as family matriarch in Curepe.
How does all this come in the final orchestral
flourish? Nothing to quicken the heart more than the micro bits and pieces of
our own stories. Some day I will tell you more about my Uncle Greg who
journeyed to China to live and work in the very village my late grandfather
left behind for his brave sea journey to our shores.
*Energetic cadenza and taper off as at the
final flow at the end of a Port of Spain traffic jam or Caroni flood.
