Asking for covid19 vaccines is not about ego, PM

THE EDITOR: Our PM didn’t ask for the free vaccines because he didn’t want to be seen as “begging for free vaccines.” Now I am not in the habit of criticising the PM, because he is normally level-headed and logical while adhering to “good” principles. But does this vaccine thing sound like someone concerned about saving lives or does it sound like “ego” – how it go look.

In my opinion, “how it go look” does not fit this picture when it comes to saving the lives of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. If this is about ego, then do we have a problem or not?

I would have thought that international relations between the more advanced and Third World countries had reached the stage where receiving help for natural disasters and pandemics is to transcend those backward ideas that accepting humanitarian aid is begging. I think we could do better than that. Don’t tell me that the world has not gotten rid of its egomaniac leaders as yet.

With regard to the Opposition Leader writing the Indian PM asking for vaccines, yes, it is a breach of protocol, but one would be hard-pressed to find any mal-intent or pernicious ideas behind this, as the only result would be a humanitarian act of beneficence, and the only negative fallout would presumably be embarrassment to those whose responsibility it was in the first place. Anything beyond that would be, in my opinion, political in nature.

By the way, I believe that the Indian PM did not respond to the Opposition Leader. Therefore this discussion is a moot one.

Without this breach of protocol thing, I think the PM got a good score generally for his handling of the pandemic, until things got out of hand, not in terms of positive cases but in the administration, in particular the “exemption to re-enter thing.”

May this be the twilight days of this pandemic affair, and may our countrymen live long and prosper.

JOEL QUINTAL

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