Celebrating Under Stress

For those who cling to it, Christmas is the most stressful time of year.

You know the routine: make the poncha creme, grind the seasoning and the pepper sauce, cook the ham and pastelles, decorate the tree, buy and wrap and label the presents, buy the wine and spirits and distribute them, send out the Christmas cards, deck the halls, bring out the VAT 19, strum the cuatro, attend all the parties, fight the traffic and the crowds in the malls, be lucky you don't get mugged or robbed...the joys of Christmas!

Who can deny the additional stress brought on by Christmas to it's celebrants? Still, I have read of no correlation between the holiday season and the frequency of death due to stress factors, so it seems that Christmas and heart attacks and strokes and the like are not linked. I wonder.

So much additional activity should make a difference in the routine which could result in health factors coming into play.

Yet I remember a gentler time, a softer time when things did not move quite as fast as they do now. Little chance of the health issues then. That was a time of little traffic and less crime and more hope and joy and comfort, a time when family meant almost everything, and strangers were not nightmares to be feared. A time of a feeling, a mood and an outlook which really believed in good will towards all men. Perhaps the sun was brighter and the nights were safer and the living was easier back then. All mostly gone now sadly.  

In Trinidad and Tobago, now is the time to put up our cages and our walls to keep the increasingly hostile human element out. Time to say goodbye to the village culture and say hello to the global ghetto, coming our way soon.

Hope For Change

Today marks several events which may turn out to be significant for those of us who live in this part of the world.

In Florida, small bones were found close to the home of Caylee Anthony, missing since July, a find which may finally resolve a criminal law case which has troubled many worldwide.

In Cuba, a malignant tumor was discovered in the body of Patrick Manning, a discovery which may have far reaching consequences for our political future. Should the diagnosis prove to be positive it may be a good idea for Manning to make a plan for the short term, and who knows where such a course of action may lead?

In Trinidad and Tobago, the widening split between Basdeo Panday and Jack Warner is something which may result in change within that seemingly gutless institution referred to as the opposition. Opposition indeed. More like a joke, ha ha! But this is a jokey land that we live in.

I feel a change coming somehow, just as as I did before the so called economic meltdown. After all, things cannot go on and on growing indefinitely. Any economist worth his salt will tell you that. It seems that the present government does not have a sensible economist on board. That woman they have seems to me only to be a puppet of the great leader. Our very own local Sarah Palin, a failure. You can tell by the way she gesticulates. Not only her. Most of them are not competent.

More reason for change.

If Manning gets serious pain and health worries he is going to have to hand it over to someone and that can only be good as I believe that even Roger who runs the parlor selling the pies down the road (read Jack the Plumber) will be better than him. And if Jack Warner withholds his financial support,  Panday will go down.

Who knows? 

Yet today was a day of good news. Maybe it's the spirit of Christmas. Maybe what goes around really does come around. Perhaps poetic justice works. 

Orenthal Simpson just pulled a considerable jail term. Who knows, will Casey Anthony get one too? Will Manning be held to account for his mismanagement of our country? We have only to take a look at Panday and know the answer to that question. What about Imbert? Will he be held to account, for his arrogance and for his failures? What about all the rest of them, perhaps taking a little something on the side, perpetuating the bobol. 

I ask you, is this good for our society, for our morality as a people? Do we even have such a thing?

So while today was full of good news, I hold out hope for better news on the day when all wrongdoers are held to account for their wrongdoing. There are many. We know who they are, and yet we continue to allow them to rob us. That's just what they do. It's the status quo and not likely to change, because some segments of the society "like it so" to quote the maestro Sparrow.

Not Manning. Not Bas. Who? Rowley? Me?

Time for a change. Time for a cool change.