Sending the fool a little farther

THE EDITOR: On April 1 (All Fools’ Day) long ago, people played a game called “Send the Fool a Little Farther.” This entailed fooling a hapless victim by informing him that someone was looking for him. When he found that person, the mischievous individual sent him on to another who supposedly was the one who really wanted to see him, and that one sent him on to another. On and on he went on a fool’s errand so that he never arrived at his destination.

Trinidadians love to play “Send the Fool a Little Farther” even today. No one wants to give up their fireworks, so close down the zoo instead, a costly, hugely complicated and time-consuming exercise. Send the fool a little farther.

We must be able to continue to threaten to bomb the country when we want to, so repeal the Sedition Act and pass something else some day.

Or tomorrow when someone whose political agenda does not dovetail with ours utters threats, we can quarrel about how better countries than ours don’t allow these things to happen. Send the fool a little farther.

Complain that the Government is too stupid to deal with flooding. But complain even louder when it harasses “honest” businessmen and “hardworking” farmers for blocking water courses; and when it won’t lock up the murderers among us but want to interfere with “poor people” dumping appliances and tons of plastic into rivers. Send the fool a little farther.

The fool keeps going on and on unendingly. That’s probably why TT has not arrived as yet.

JOANNE K JOSEPH

San Fernando

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"Sending the fool a little farther"

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