Spinning out of control

THE EDITOR: It’s that time again — the time we say our proverbial goodbyes to one year, era, way of life and broken/ignored/unfulfilled resolutions. It’s the time of preponderance, when we promise ourselves to be better, evolved, kinder, more diligent and balanced (mind, body and heart).

For some, it’s a full-throttle stampede into the wild unknown of 2018. For others, there’s a cautiously optimistic amble forward. However, despite how the new year finds you, be it super excited or uncertain, I would like you to take a moment and ponder on this: what defines our time? What is the spirit of our age, our Zeitgeist (so to speak)? Would the future define us as a people whose culture and morality became irrelevant in the post-positivist age?

I always wonder at this time of year, what have I done to add to the growth of my country for the past year? Growth in relation to moral consciousness as well as cultural and ecological preservation. I wonder about that because, more and more, as shades of grey blur the lines of morality, respect, responsibility and accountability in our country, the less hope I feel for our survival! Let’s consider this: the media’s preamble to Christmas. In Christmas past, parang signalled Christmas, very much like the way soca/calypso signals Carnival.

Parang meant Trini Christmas. Sadly, I have found that, this year, our parang struggled to be heard. Some media moguls in fact opted to play lots of “gabba gabba” music throughout the season, with mainly the “pone” parang teasing the airwaves in sporadic intervals. Others, treated our parang like a foreign celebrity, airing it primarily on Christmas morning. Now don’t get me wrong TT, I myself, from time to time, listen to the “gabba gabba” music and admittedly I like it, but, come on, our music must be heard and given its fair space. You see, to me, the thing that defines any age, despite trends, progress (globally), of a country, is the ability to preserve and respect the cultural consciousness and morality of that country by its people.

As we aggressively chip away our identity to sooth the millennial “everything is everything.” the moral compass of the country continues to spin. Soon, I fear, it may not be able to find North!

For the new year, I urge you to consider your actions, the ways we interact and the messages we send. Think on them with the consciousness that every action should lead to the growth and preservation of our culture and morality. Let us respect ourselves by respecting each other and our home. Then TT, our age will be defined as the age of reasoning, respect and preservation. The age during which we held firmly to the truths of kindness and cultural worth. The age when we refused to become thoroughly sucked into the matrix of post-modernism and “open spaceness.”

The age when the labels of “new world/developing country” became irrelevant in relation to us. Happy New Year TT!

Kezia Reece via e-mail