The Seerman got it right!

(Published in the T&T Guardian on January 5, 2022)

The Seerman of 2022

I have noticed that, so far in the mainstream media, we have been mercifully spared the views of clairvoyants and mystics on the prospects for T&T in 2022. I might have (thankfully) missed them.

It could be that the usual suspects have chosen other private and public platforms to predict everything from the painfully inevitable to the outlandish designs of omens and dreams.

I have even noticed studious avoidance of satirical projections. This is perhaps out of fear that, at this time, nothing remains out of the realm of the eminently possible.

In the absence of the usual local contributions, and with due respect to our weatherman, Kalain Hosein (who is mostly accurate), I therefore wish to make one simple prediction of my own, having stared long and hard into a Grenadian conch shell:

On December 31, 2022, there will be firecrackers, “squibs”, bamboo bursting, and unauthorised use of fireworks almost everywhere in T&T. Animals will cower and some will die. A house or two will burn. A teenager will suffer injury to his/her hearing/vision. The police will not respond to complaints. A government official will promise yet another inquiry or legislative review. 

This will end 12 months of pyrotechnics at sundry occasions when people decide that the plight of the ill, the aged, the disabled, animals (both wild and domesticated) and other vulnerable groups is not worthy of consideration.

I am almost certain I can take this to the bank because I have been keeping tabs on this issue for decades now. Not one prime minister, minister of national security, attorney general, police commissioner, business chamber or religious community has ever been serious about this.

This is the only available conclusion, following years and years of so-called “zero tolerance” and other forms of public mamaguy.

The parliament even went as far, in 2017/2018 as convening an “Inquiry into the adverse health effects of fireworks” by a Joint Select Committee.

This exercise focused almost entirely on human health, but at various stages in the proceedings captured expressions of concern about private and public property and the plight of animals.

Last week, one social media wag addressed the point about pets as something of an idle bourgeois concern – à la Chinese Cultural Revolution (when keeping pets was banned).

What could possibly be wrong with making noise in your neighbourhood? We did it back in the day. We turned out fine. Hard luck lady who is now unable to walk, boy who lost full vision, homeowner whose property was destroyed, pet owner in search of her lost dog, asthmatic who endured poor air quality for days and days.

This is the “tradition” argument against serious action and the need for an official blind eye turned to collective pathological pyromania in order to preserve “de culture.”

I have heard equally passionate defences of “tradition” from proponents of annual “baby throwing” in India, female genital mutilation in Egypt, and child marriage everywhere. Over here, we more routinely have the burning of houses, the wounding of children, and the harming of defenceless animals as part of our glorious traditions.

The 2017/2018 inquiry made 16 “short-term” recommendations including the identification of “public spaces (recreation grounds and parks) where residents may gather to discharge fireworks under proper supervision.”

There were also 20 “medium-term” proposals that spoke of promotion of “the proper care of animals especially those that are domesticated.” And two “long-term” recommendations addressing the subject of an Injury Surveillance System and an expanded mandate for the EMA’s Policing Unit.

There had been “public hearings” of the JSC on March 15, April 19, and December 15, 2017, before the 201-page Report was laid in both houses of parliament in March the following year.

Five years to the day, and prior to all of this, I used this identical space to script, as fiction, the deliberations of Cabinet on this very subject as key ministers emotionally called for decisive action.

When, earlier this week, I saw the AG promising “public consultation” on some draft Bill or the other as the houses burned and as the injuries were recorded, my seerman pores raised. Here we go again, I thought.

So, on this day, without the candles or the crystal ball, I sadly declare yet another year of mamaguy. I see property damage. I see injuries. I see the haze of smoke and the invasion of peace and quiet. I see animals, of all classes, lost or wounded. I see “tradition” prevailing over good sense, law, and humanity. Forget about this as some kind of prospective victory in 2022.