Skip to main content

Written Writing! The Constitution 101 -2

Years ago a friend gave me a joke about a watchman he had on a job site. The guy told him ' Mr. Barry, doh worry, deh cyar fool me, I have everyting in written writing!'

Well today proved 'Watchie' right. If the recently fired USA FBI Director did not make notes to self and write everything down, keeping a file on his meetings with the POTUS then he might be in serious trouble. What I thought was very scary was the fact that he states that after his first meeting he realised that he could not trust him, the POTUS.
Of course I have to bring everything back to home. Who can we trust in this beautiful country of ours?
The President, the Chief Justice, the PMOTT, the Cabinet, the LOTO, the Members of Parliament, the heads of the various security agencies, customs, immigration, Permanent Secretaries, Chairmen and Directors of state owned companies, who? When asked about anything all seem to have a different story.
Is that not something? We the electorate have zero idea about what is happening with our country. I am talking about a situation that has been going ever since 1962. Every election we the 'jerseyed' numbers go out and support our party and then that's it. The promises of transparency, accountability and bringing the government to the people flies out the window at about 10.08 pm that election night, never to return. If a citizen wants to find out about anything to do with government and they cannot get a straight answer, they can then file under the Freedom of Information Act. Yeah right, if I want to find out who gave the directive to fire the 'Galicia' I have to go through the process of the FOI.
And that people is how the Republic runs or in our current position does not run.

Now back to Constitution 101.

There has been a lot of talk about Proportional Representation [PR]. In 2010 I believe the Peoples Partnership committed to bringing PR to the fore when dealing with Constitutional Reform. Well, we know what happened there, no Government with a constitutional majority in Parliament will bring the necessary changes, especially when talking about PR. Why, because they don't need it and they don't want people questioning what they are doing, at least definitely not people with real power under a PR system. So you end up with a system where once in power, even with a simple majority of one, you are in and to hell with everybody else. I am the boss or more famous 'when I talk no damn dog bark' Eric Williams, whenever.
In nine [9] different general elections in Trinidad and Tobago 46.64 % of the electorate have been disenfranchised by the first past the post system. This system works well in horse races and the Olympics, not with a country's future. In some cases minority governments have been elected where that particular political party did not win the popular vote, but formed the government.
The concept of a PR system works well. You still have a government, with a leader etc but you have a Parliament system that does not allow a runaway horse. In many cases the government is made up of a coalition. What you do not have is close to half your population vex for five years. If you look at T&T that is our main problem. The main political parties are divided into the two main ethnic groups and story done. When one party loses you have all the accusations of race against the other one and then next election we reverse the result then you have another five years of accusations. This makes no sense especially when in the last population census approximately 30% of the population is mixed. This mixed percentage is growing every election so the time is right for a well thought out PR system.
The time to put racial voting away is now!

I really have to mention the issue of the elderly gentleman left to die outside the main hospital. How come? Someones father, son, grandfather how about simply being a human being. I guess in this land of ' it wasn't me' that's it. Man was born lives then dies!

We keep with the issues of the Constitution because we will never escape this mediocrity, if we do not demand. I hate being referred to as a banana Republic.

' Day-O, day-o
daylight come an me wah go home'








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'aghhhhhhhh'

This week has me feeling so down about the rock and what really is our future. I have always considered myself to be Mr. Optimistic. Things would be bad, sometimes downright terrible with little or no hope and I would be there battling it out. The hard part is our present and future position is all man made [excuse the gender] and it seems that no matter what we do, how we vote, who we put our trust in, it somehow ends up bad. In 1956, the hope was there, a mass appeal, in 1986 it returned and was destroyed by 1990, in 2010 432,026 electors voted for the Peoples Partnership, in excess of 60% of the population. By 2015 a lot of the love disappeared and we found ourselves in a position of no-where once again. I use these years because the popular vote was there, the majority voted overwhelmingly for the winning party. Even though the winner in 1956 did not win by any semblance of a majority, over 80% of the electorate cast their vote. It is interesting to note that in 1956 the PPPG...
1 comment
Read more

the Isle of Spice

We ran away, again, to the Spice Island, for a couple days. Work and play. Our first day there was the day of rain. I have never witnessed steady rain, a bucket a drop, like what we experienced on Wednesday. It started just after 7.00am and continued down to 5.00pm. Of course, the drainage system was put under severe stress and there was substantial flooding in many low lying areas, in addition to landslips on the hills. The videos of a guy on a board surfing on the street was real as was the guy attempting to tie his car in order to prevent it from being washed away. What was very noticeable was the fact that people who had to report for duty did in fact report. We stay at a small hotel and the staff were all present and accounted for. Speaking with other travelers the situation was the same throughout. This morning on leaving the hotel again everyone reporting for duty. Speaking with the GM she said that she had to pick up a couple people who were marooned in their homes, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ADD

A great thing happened today. I washed my car and it did not rain. OK, so other absolutely great things made history today, I am sure something was discovered that will change mankind, decisions by world leaders for world peace. None of that is of interest to me because the simple task of washing my car was what was of great import and I marvelled at the sun and dry weather. It is the little things in ones life that give the greatest joy. Tomorrow should be the same with a prediction of only 20% precipitation. Two days with a clean car is good. I am one of those who curse WASA who has leaks on the main roads with spray flying all around and dirtying up my clean car. WASA should have zero leaks, that should be WASA's goal, I don't think that they are interested in any of this as the leaks continue and the complaints from the citizens continue. I remember in the Manifesto of the ruling party a commitment was made to increase the truck delivery of truck borne water. Go figure! ...
Post a Comment
Read more