The Joshua Factor

The announcement of a State of Emergency on Monday appeared to undermine my plan to spend time here stretching the Joshua Regrello metaphor to a place from where we could better understand the true state of T&T civilisation.

But maybe this does not have to be so, after all.

I had noted the fact that some people could simply not find in their souls the time and space to even acknowledge such an accomplishment. I believe there was difficulty in doing so partly because of emotions associated with low appreciation for the steelpan and what it means for all of us, together with a not disassociated assertion of ethnic under-achievement.

Today is not the day, and Happy New Year by the way, to restate all I have previously said on the latter, contentious point. But examine your heart while preparing to rebut and explain to a friend or family member exactly what you mean in plain language.

Let’s also be clear, 31 continuous hours on the pan was not “the greatest thing to happen to our country.” Would it be August 31, 1962? Or the football match on November 19, 1989, right? Or maybe not. Maybe elections on December 15, 1986? No?

Yes, we’ve heard the declaration before, but to be sure, that moment is yet to arrive.

However, what young Regrello did was to redirect achievement in, for some, the disquieting socio-cultural spaces occupied by the young, black men of T&T, employing the assets of a musical instrument born out of open defiance and victorious cultural revolution now claimed by all.

Even if you do not enjoy music as played on the pan (a shortcoming to which anyone is fully entitled … I don’t like the accordion), the display of human endurance and employment of an insanely vast musical repertoire alone is sufficient for accolades beyond those on offer from Guinness or Skiffle or PanTrinbago or T&T. 

Yet, there are so many who skipped effortlessly to arguments over SOE 25. Go back to the top to have a clue why this is so. There are disquieting connections on their part.

For those of us who champion human rights, even the mention of suspending civil liberties under legal authority is troubling. We’ve long opposed measures that curb free speech, reproductive rights, gender equality, and children's rights, together with the vast spectrum of civil, economic, social, and cultural rights.

Yet, disturbingly, some who were silent about the 2011 State of Emergency are now vocal about the current version, while others who disapproved of SOE11 are now doggedly supportive of SOE25. All without reference to the potential impacts of both on wider civil liberties.

Despite differences in context, the arguments for and against these States of Emergency are strikingly similar. In the end, what matters to many is the desire for an end to the violence, extortion, and corruption that plague us all.

In other parts of the world, extreme measures have been tested with mixed results. For example, in countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Jamaica, the verdicts are not entirely impressive. El Salvador has seen some success at the daily street level, which absolutely boosts citizen and visitor confidence, but organised criminal activity remains largely undisturbed.

Honduras, on the other hand, faced an increase in extortion even in the early phases, and Jamaica’s years of SOEs have yielded results ranging from the limited to the ineffective. However, there remains widespread recognition of the daily violence that still characterises life there.

From these examples, it’s clear that no easy answers exist. This is a long, hard path to peace. Police performance here, for instance, does not inspire much confidence. State interventions need major upgrades, and there’s a pressing need for better cross-sectoral collaboration across the board.

People also do not believe they have anything to do with either the underlying causes or the actions required to frame the outcomes. After all, we elect governments to do that, don’t we?

Everywhere this challenge exists, they are all finding, as we must, that this is not an easy road paved with quick fixes. A Joshua Regrello level of endurance, skill, versatility, harnessing of collective assets, and self-belief are among the indispensable qualities. The young man and his supporting acts showed us how some of these qualities are not beyond our reach.

A Tall Christmas Tale

Joe and Marie lived on Bethel Road in Sandy Grandy with their son, Christopher. The couple had arrived in Trinidad 20 years earlier aboard the Admiral II from St Vincent. Six years later, Christopher was born in the wooden shack they called home, on a mattress in the space that doubled as dining and living rooms.

By the time he was 14, Christopher, skinny and tall, had already surpassed his short, chubby father in height.

Life was difficult for the family. Joe often found casual work, clearing grass verges and painting rocks white at the base of struggling palms. But such assignments were sporadic.

Adding to their struggles was the fact that Joe and Marie had entered Trinidad without their “papers” having hidden alongside crates of yams and sweet potatoes. They faced years of trouble securing proper immigration papers.

Fortunately, help often came from their neighbours, Judd and Trudy. Judd ran a successful used-car sales business, and Trudy, was a homemaker. They were childless.

On weekends, Judd would help Joe with yard work and, because he was tall, took on tasks like pruning the Chinese bamboo hedge that separated their properties. The chore became exclusively his after Joe fell off a ladder while cutting the bamboo, fell on the burning pile he had lit, broke his wrist and sustained second degree burns to his arms.

That time of year was particularly eventful on Bethel Road. When Christopher was about 10, he stepped on a rusty nail while laying linoleum on the uneven floorboards at home. The ensuing injury left him unable to wear shoes for years. At home, he wore rubber slippers, and for school or outings, his parents bought him leather sandals.

Judd was particularly present at Christmas time, helping to paint the house, boiling hams on outdoor fires in a Crix tin, and setting up decorations in areas Joe could not reach.

Though Judd avoided pork due to his belief that it was “nasty meat,” he made exceptions for Christmas ham and beef/pork pastelles, claiming they were “not exactly the same thing.”

Marie made new curtains every year. She spent hours at the old Singer sewing machine Joe had found discarded and repaired.

Arguments over curtains were frequent. The house was festooned with curtains - on windows, doorways, and one covering an untidy living/dining room wall. One curtain also hovered midway along the length of the bed Joe and Marie shared, serving as a barrier at times of unresolved disputes.

During one shopping trip for curtain cloth, Joe slipped away to watch an entire football match at a nearby bar. He drank too much, fell off a stool, was robbed by newfound “friends,” and ended up in the hospital with a concussion.

Marie visited him on the ward, shopping bags in hand, while Trudy, suffering from a back strain caused by heavy Yuletide groceries, occupied a bed in the women’s ward across the corridor.

After Christmas, the old curtains became rags for Christopher’s car wash job, where he earned weekend cash. Joe later bought him an Ego ST1511T Power+ 15″ Powerload weed whacker with a telescoping shaft and adjustable handle to expand his work.

Joe later got Christopher a PowRyte Electric Pressure Washer with a foam cannon, multiple pressure tips, and pushing a healthy 5000 PSI. The machine was so powerful it could strip paint off a car and the sound of the motor was capable of stimulating emotions up to one kilometre away.

Christopher’s early-morning work attracted complaints of “noise pollution” from Bethel Road residents, leading to frequent visits from the police and the EMA.

Seeking business elsewhere, he managed to do well every December, eventually employing up to a dozen casual workers. However, disputes over late and unpaid wages and responsibility for noise violation fines led to the eventual dismantling of the team – each member later acquiring their own washers and whackers.

Tensions on Bethel Road also increased over time. A major fallout occurred after Judd, while cleaning paint brushes with pitch oil after Christmas painting, threw the bucket’s contents over the hedge, drenching Christopher. Joe defended his neighbour, asking Christopher “what you doing there in the first place?”

Matters worsened that very Boxing Day when one of Judd’s “Roman Candle” fireworks landed on Christopher’s whacker and destroyed it.

Furious, Christopher, already estranged from his parents over financial disagreements and the pitch-oil incident, grabbed the burnt-out whacker and his pressure washer and stormed out of the neighborhood. “I coming back just now,” he told his mother.

Years have passed, but Christopher has not returned. Joe, Marie, Judd, and Trudy remain united in their hope for his return. Such expectation is disappearing.