You ever looked at a freshly sculptured WASA pothole or mud-mound and wondered what in the inner workings of the human mind/soul/psyche/consciousness could ever conceive of such an act as being even remotely acceptable?
Now, I am not only speaking
about the workers and supervisors at the site immediately responsible for the artwork,
or the bosses back at headquarters who think it’s all okay, for a week or month
or year. But there is a case to be made about our national penchant for
vi-ki-vy (let the linguists settle this one … it’s from the French “vaille que
vaille”) and ratchifee (the etymology of which appears to be undetermined).
Likewise, what can
possibly lead anyone to believe that the ad hoc, vy-ki-vy arrangements for “regularising”
the stay of Venezuela immigrants (though they are not the only victims of immigration
policy at variance with international law and convention) are justifiable as a
way of assuring their integration into T&T society or prospective safe
return?
How does anyone - including
the “close de borders” crowd of 2019 (who should never be allowed to fade
comfortably into the background, however much their messaging changes) – argue in
favour of denying the children of immigrants the right (and it is a right under
at least one Convention to which we are boastful signatories) to an education?
There is also my
continued amazement at the open rejection of digital solutions by politicians,
senior public servants and many business leaders to some of the issues that render
us prone to inefficiencies, lethargy, and chronically unfinished business.
Make no mistake about
it, there is no real commitment to promoting remote work … wherever possible. Not
every time and everywhere. Nobody, for instance, advocates work-from-home modus
for WASA pipeline replacement. As far as I know, there has been no audit of the
possibilities in either the public service or private sector. So, what accounts
for the quick resort to “no”?
The prime minister does
not believe this can work, and there is nothing sensible on this subject that
has been uttered by any of the other political contestants or their numerous surrogates
in the public space.
Listen. It was believed
by somebody in a position of influence that the online appointment system at
the Licensing Offices for drivers’ licence transactions should have reverted to
the customary hours-long torture of the pre-pandemic era.
True, this return to
arduous “normalcy” did not last long but note that it entered someone’s thoughts
(without apparent opposition from Cabinet come down) that an online appointment
system that worked should have been eliminated.
It is quite a charge to
accuse an entire nation of not only governance by vaps (as a function of the
collective body politic) but of considering vi-ki-vy and ratchifee as acceptable
in the face of ‘too much to do with too little’, ‘incompetent leadership’, ‘small
size’ or a ‘complacent clientele’ (citizens) who won’t fuss too much after initial
emotions are fully vented – typically after 10 days of griping.
There are too many other
examples for limited op-ed space. But one of the more crippling characteristics
of countries in transition from one stage of development to another, is the
degree to which citizens are accepting of unfinished, shoddy public business –
even as “leave dat jess so”
is accepted creed in personal spaces awaiting divine intervention.
This phenomenon spans a
causal spectrum including sloppy lawmaking and enforcement, anachronistic public
and private leadership, obsessively pragmatic political principles, sleazy
partisan favouritism, and a general view that everything will be okay …
eventually. So, “leave it so nah.”
“There might be a mound
of mud or a big hole, but at least we fixed the leak”; “they t’ief but they
performed”, “we give the immigrants time to stay and work, we never talk about
children”; “we agreed to the CCJ but not THIS CCJ.” Unfinished business
aplenty. Ratchifee. Improvised value systems. Spinning top in mud.
This might all sound
funny, and it would probably have been, If not for numerous potentially injurious
impacts. Official sloth and procrastination have cost us much in the public
health system, policing, public policy, and numerous other areas of national
and community life.
There is something that
happens to the souls and minds of people who believe that vy-ki-vy, ad hoc
decision-making that moves quickly from one bit of unfinished business to the
next is somehow acceptable as a way of advancing the development game.
That suspension-bending
pothole or mound of mud is barely the tip of a psychic trash pile of unfinished
business. It is among the products of ratchifee, vy-ki-vy, and postponement of
opportunity.
