Finding flags to fly

Nothing like a big sporting event to ignite emotions typically associated with the flying of one’s own national flag and tearfully rendering the national anthem.

For some, like my nephew “B” and people I am sure you know, the latter exercise includes notes not reflected in the official music score. That is probably because the anthem was written with phenoms like Ella Andall in mind! Lesser mortals change keys when we reach “here every creed and race.”

But it does not always require authentic credentials to stimulate this level of sentimentality when it comes to sport. I remember for instance, back in 1989, almost being ejected from Radio 610 when people thought the “red” shirt I wore on the day of the decisive (and losing) T&T vs USA World Cup Football qualifier had not been red enough.

I simply had not found time to procure a cheap T–shirt on Frederick Street and I rather liked the one I had – which I did not stop wearing until only a few years ago.

There were on-air colleagues claiming the occasion was the most significant in the country’s history! A public holiday was declared even before a single boot touched a ball. Flags and red cloth sold and sold and sold. I was, apparently, the only person on the face of the portion of earth occupied by T&T that did not have a shirt the correct shade of red.

Wayne Brown wrote that the whole affair closely aligned with what we recognise as ultra-nationalist “fascism” of the type that in later years led to serious calls for the flying of national flags at all homes. A whole government minister was given the brief to pursue the “patriotism” agenda.

Wayne and I tried discussing what was happening over lunch one day. But it was a silent affair with lots of head shaking, grunts, and groans. Two people known for talking your head off … beaten into disgruntled silence.

In more recent times, with no Wayne Brown in sight, came the CPL and the fake names and brands. I warned right here in this space that inciting nationalist fervour over pickup sides from everywhere would take us nowhere. I rooted for the “T&T Amazon Warriors” on purpose to make the point.

Yet, a real T&T flag was trampled in Guyana, and we realised there would come a time when the sentiment would harden and threaten a sense of fraternity between close communities. Oil eventually came and tore the masks off … and took some flesh in the process.

Then you realise that the Manchester United folks of Diego Martin were doing the same to the Gunners of St Joseph. Black eyes among friends. A few broken teeth. Flags and buntings waved in scorn at each other. What, then, becomes of red, black, and white? Who of the TKR has not cheered for the KKR? Where, by the way, is this “Trinbago” of which they speak?

The indomitable Fazeer Mohammed also advised last weekend about the power of money in professional sport. How international sport has integrated genuine feelings of loyalty to spin vast financial surpluses through contrived scheduling. The composing of tournaments in such a manner as to attract eyeballs and advertising dollars.

Nothing wrong with any of this, of course. It has always been that allegiance based on nationality has had the potential to convert competitions into wars with illusory stakes that imperil pride.

It must eventually be that the Man United crest will be as recognisable as a KKR gold and purple Viking helmet or as the birds of T&T’s Coat of Arms.

Then comes the West Indies. Not the one with the blue background with four horizontal stripes of black, white, and gold of 1958 when the West Indian Federation was born. Not even the one with the yellow stars and coconut tree adjoining a grey mass along a green ocean of the pre-1999 WICB generation. But the one with the yellow sun, three cricket stumps and leaning coconut tree registered by CWI Inc.

Yes, that one. The one with the anthem (a genius offering from David Rudder) that precious few in Haiti, Belize, The Bahamas, or Suriname know or understand. I can imagine the Caricom meetings at which cricketing nostalgia reigns and the puzzled and bemused looks around some corners of the table.

Yet, there are passions to match the hurts and triumphs of the EPL, the IPL, and even the CPL. Flags to fly over the ICC and FIFA. Anthems to be sung. Money to be made. This evening at the game I wear my own shade of maroon.

Dying for the records

There are several highly instructive points to be noted concerning the recent court experience of blogger/activist Vishal Persad’s Millennials for Change (MFC) in a freedom of information matter imaginatively labeled “Closed Cases: The Dead Speak.”

Persad had said at the start of the project in question that he was embarking on an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) exercise “to compel the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to disclose investigative files” in several past cases in which the suspects/accused “are now deceased.” This, he said, was “to help foster transparency and accountability in law enforcement.”

MFC then attempted to get its hands on police files related to investigations on people such as Dole Chadee, Yasin Abu Bakr, former chief justice Satnarine Sharma, and the late police commissioner, Randolph Burroughs.

Effectively spurned by the Police Service (“thorough and diligent searches were made for the requested information, (but) searches proved futile”), and in an effort led by attorney Keron Ramkhalwan, attention turned last September to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Now, before we go there, the response of the police happens to be one helluva thing. Hopefully, this situation has either changed by now or there are firm plans to pay greater attention to securing such records. “Searches proved futile” is not a satisfactory response from a public authority of this nature. I thought securing intelligence was a key part of police work.

Meanwhile, the Office of the DPP acknowledged the request, then nothing happened for months and months. That was that. Or so some thought.

In January, MFC filed for a judicial review based on the lack of responsiveness of the Office of the DPP. Last week, Justice Devindra Rampersad ordered delivery of a firm decision by the DPP on whether the request would in fact be pursued. It was clearly not enough to say, “request received” and leave it at that. What makes employees of a population believe they are entitled to behave that way? If they say “no”, that will be another story.

This particular angle on the pursuit of public records, held in trust by a public authority, was inspired by the “FOIA the Dead” efforts of US advocate Percy Higgins who, since 2017, has filed freedom of information requests with the FBI on every public personality whose obituary appears in the New York Times.

A Freedom of the Press Foundation article on the project morbidly describes the website on which the findings are found as: “the transparency site public figures are dying to get into.”

The website now houses close to 6,000 pages of FBI records on 60 public personalities. I warn you, if you don’t have lots of time on your hands, do not venture onto that site.

It however appears that Persad was prepared to go there, and impressively so. So, point number one of my “highly instructive” argument: The Freedom of Information Act – whatever its flaws – is one of the most important tools for citizen access to the records of public authorities with few exceptions, as described in the legislation.

The Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC), which I serve as vice president, recently published an analytical report on the nine English-speaking Caribbean countries in which such a law exists.

Its principal author, attorney/journalist Dionne Jackson-Miller of Jamaica, noted in successive workshops with journalists that the basis for much of the official lethargy on this subject is a pervasive “culture of secrecy.”

Additionally, our FOIA is at the disposal of all citizens – not just journalists and others interested in publicising the material that reaches their hands.

Impressively, MFC, as an NGO engaged in blogging its activities, has also been able to access records on the employment practices of several government ministries and the Police Service.

It is also currently sorting the findings of an investigation into the granting of Firearm Users Licences; and pursuing more detailed information on the incidence of murder in T&T.

These kinds of public interest activities are to be commended. MFC is one of several organisations active in this area. Traditional journalists and mainstream media are not sole principals of such an obligation and its accompanying rights.

For this reason, among others, the current public communication landscape offers positive outcomes not previously available. It includes content produced by a wide variety of online operatives – especially those who consider themselves to be under a presumed obligation, as is the case with most journalists, to be honest, fair, balanced, and accountable.

Outside of that, it becomes more difficult to defend their work. Persad and his MFC team appear to be on the right track.