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.
2 comments:
We can fight this, but nobody seems to want to wake up. Trinidad went downhill the day burglar proofing became normative.
Anyone who has ever been "abroad" would know that burglar proofing is not a normal thing.
This is sad.
We need to lower a heavy foot on the criminal element in this country. Let them feel the way we only talk about feeling.
I grew up in Trinidad in that "gentler, softer time" and like you I look back on its passing with nostalgia. I also am aware of the savagery and primitiveness that seem to have taken over.
While I agree with "A. Friend" that the criminal element has to be dealt with forcefully, I think that the rampant crime is only one of the manifestations of the complete absence of a sense of personal responsibility in the mindset of the majority and the failure to demand competence and accountability of business, government, religion and of oneself.
There are a lot of gripes in the newsmedia and blogs, but no informed and sustained analysis and discussion. No attempt to define objectives and goals, and so no viable Action Plans.
One might have excused this mentality in the colonial days, but Trinidad has been master of its own fate for more than forty years now. Information and expertise are easily obtainable if one seeks them in the right places.
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