Hear ye! Hear ye! My fellow Trinbagonians, as we embark on another journey around the sun, can we please try to do a little better?
Granted there is much that isn’t in our direct control but to help guide us into hopefully a better decade I have come up with a few…eerrr… resolutions that I implore you all to adopt!
Stop murdering
Are you in a gang? Having a turf war? Why bring guns and death into your disputes? Might I suggest a slap off. That fellow opposing gang member and you meet in an empty field and just slap the crap out of one another. Get that anger out. Whoever cries first loses.
*Please note I said cries, not dies.
Having a land dispute with a relative? Put that weapon down and call your cousin’s aunt’s neighbor who is in their final year of the Hugh Wooding Law School. Try to find a legal way out of it and if you can’t then perhaps you and that relative can just be reasonable and work something out without either of you being greedy.
But again there is no need to bring a cutlass or kerosene and matches into this situation.
Tired of your gf/bf/wife/husband? Feel like pelting a hand? Do yourself a favour and go find your nearest police officer and pelt a at hand and him or her. Bail will be cheaper and you won’t be filled with a life of regret.
Don’t take a life, you can’t bring it back.
Don’t be a racist
Not a day goes by when I don’t read some ridiculous comment on a news story that isn’t riddled with racism.
Fun fact: no one is better than anyone else because of the colour of their skin, texture of hair, religion or cultural practices.
If for some reason you think you are superior to someone else because of your racial or social background, please refer to the third paragraph of this commentary and go slap yourself silly.
Do you know what all this racial tension does to us as a society? It makes it harder for us to come together to fight for a common goal.
It is used as a tool by slick politicians and public figures to keep the masses fighting amongst themselves rather than standing up against all the bobball that continues to plague our nation. It makes us bitter, it fills us with hate and you have to wonder does any of this benefit us in any way? The answer is nope.
Voting based on race is purely idiotic and if you do this, then you too should go slap yourself.
If you are a politician or public figure who likes to stroke the flames of racial division or does nothing when you see your supporters do it, slap yourself twice.
African, Indian, European, Chinese, South American, Arabic, it doesn’t matter where your ancestors originated, you are Trini. So stop all this hating and sing the national anthem a couple of times and let the verse “Here every creed and race find an equal place” sink in.
Stop being greedy
Do you know what the number one driver of corruption is? If you answered greed make your way to the front of the class.
To clarify, this point is mostly aimed at public officials and others who simply cannot do or get anything done without an envelope of money being passed under the table.
To contractors who go into projects with overly inflated profit margins.
To business owners who use every opportunity to dig out people eye.
To union leaders who make unreasonable and unsustainable demands.
When your lust for fortune consumes you and you begin to act illegally or unethically you need to take a long hard look at yourself.
Your actions may keep your pockets full but it is at the suffering and hardships of others.
I call on you to change your ways, lest you find yourself in a lady Mac Beth situation forever trying to scrub the blood from your hands. (Said in an ominous voice).
Be a little nicer
We are an angry people and in many ways we have a right to be. Unfortunately this anger we have has done nothing to improve our lives but has rather continued to hold us down.
We have lost all empathy, all sense of community, we relish at other people’s failures and have become incapable of genuine kindness.
Maybe this year we can be a little kinder, a little bit more helpful to those in need. Maybe we can step out of ourselves and help others.
That fried chicken order taking long? Instead of stuepsing and throwing attitude, take five minutes to put yourself in the shoes of that lone cashier/box packer. He/she has been working forever, is tired of smelling like grease and the last thing he/she needs is a customer making their life harder. You don’t know his/her battles, they don’t know yours, so just keep your lips together and chill.
Times are tough, we are all fighting just to get by, but we’ve lost our light and it’s time to let it back in.
We need to stop waiting for a super hero to save us. The onus is on us and the only way things can get better is if we start taking personal responsibility. It is only through this cultural shift can we as a people get better and in turn make our country stronger.
2020 Resolutions: No Superhero to Save Us
Hear ye! Hear ye! My fellow Trinbagonians, as we embark on another journey around the sun, can we please try to do a little better?
Granted there is much that isn’t in our direct control but to help guide us into hopefully a better decade I have come up with a few…eerrr… resolutions that I implore you all to adopt!
Stop murdering
Are you in a gang? Having a turf war? Why bring guns and death into your disputes? Might I suggest a slap off. That fellow opposing gang member and you meet in an empty field and just slap the crap out of one another. Get that anger out. Whoever cries first loses.
*Please note I said cries, not dies.
Having a land dispute with a relative? Put that weapon down and call your cousin’s aunt’s neighbor who is in their final year of the Hugh Wooding Law School. Try to find a legal way out of it and if you can’t then perhaps you and that relative can just be reasonable and work something out without either of you being greedy.
But again there is no need to bring a cutlass or kerosene and matches into this situation.
Tired of your gf/bf/wife/husband? Feel like pelting a hand? Do yourself a favour and go find your nearest police officer and pelt a at hand and him or her. Bail will be cheaper and you won’t be filled with a life of regret.
Don’t take a life, you can’t bring it back.
Don’t be a racist
Not a day goes by when I don’t read some ridiculous comment on a news story that isn’t riddled with racism.
Fun fact: no one is better than anyone else because of the colour of their skin, texture of hair, religion or cultural practices.
If for some reason you think you are superior to someone else because of your racial or social background, please refer to the third paragraph of this commentary and go slap yourself silly.
Do you know what all this racial tension does to us as a society? It makes it harder for us to come together to fight for a common goal.
It is used as a tool by slick politicians and public figures to keep the masses fighting amongst themselves rather than standing up against all the bobball that continues to plague our nation. It makes us bitter, it fills us with hate and you have to wonder does any of this benefit us in any way? The answer is nope.
Voting based on race is purely idiotic and if you do this, then you too should go slap yourself.
If you are a politician or public figure who likes to stroke the flames of racial division or does nothing when you see your supporters do it, slap yourself twice.
African, Indian, European, Chinese, South American, Arabic, it doesn’t matter where your ancestors originated, you are Trini. So stop all this hating and sing the national anthem a couple of times and let the verse “Here every creed and race find an equal place” sink in.
Stop being greedy
Do you know what the number one driver of corruption is? If you answered greed make your way to the front of the class.
To clarify, this point is mostly aimed at public officials and others who simply cannot do or get anything done without an envelope of money being passed under the table.
To contractors who go into projects with overly inflated profit margins.
To business owners who use every opportunity to dig out people eye.
To union leaders who make unreasonable and unsustainable demands.
When your lust for fortune consumes you and you begin to act illegally or unethically you need to take a long hard look at yourself.
Your actions may keep your pockets full but it is at the suffering and hardships of others.
I call on you to change your ways, lest you find yourself in a lady Mac Beth situation forever trying to scrub the blood from your hands. (Said in an ominous voice).
Be a little nicer
We are an angry people and in many ways we have a right to be. Unfortunately this anger we have has done nothing to improve our lives but has rather continued to hold us down.
We have lost all empathy, all sense of community, we relish at other people’s failures and have become incapable of genuine kindness.
Maybe this year we can be a little kinder, a little bit more helpful to those in need. Maybe we can step out of ourselves and help others.
That fried chicken order taking long? Instead of stuepsing and throwing attitude, take five minutes to put yourself in the shoes of that lone cashier/box packer. He/she has been working forever, is tired of smelling like grease and the last thing he/she needs is a customer making their life harder. You don’t know his/her battles, they don’t know yours, so just keep your lips together and chill.
Times are tough, we are all fighting just to get by, but we’ve lost our light and it’s time to let it back in.
We need to stop waiting for a super hero to save us. The onus is on us and the only way things can get better is if we start taking personal responsibility. It is only through this cultural shift can we as a people get better and in turn make our country stronger.