Don't worry, be happy

I'D SAY it might be worth a shot to start a petition to have the Bobby Mc Ferrin hit song Don't Worry, Be Happy replace our national anthem.

However, it would probably be pressure getting Trinis to care enough to sign it. That's how happy we are. Anyone interfering with that quality of bliss by interrogating our state of affairs or challenging the brittle veneer of socioeconomic harmony in TT is practically seditious.

Critics of governance and dysfunction of the wider society threaten dispositional disequilibrium. To wake from slumber will dull glitter-dusted posteriors and smother the gaiety enabled by our delusion therapy.

The outspoken and sceptical are all traitorous, embittered and agenda-driven, agents of chaos who want to shatter the illusion of “sweet TT.” What so few are willing to accept is that a compulsion to question and challenge, to expose oneself to public opprobrium, is often the very definition of patriotism.

In my long life, I have discovered there are many people in TT deeply invested in the status quo. Stagnation is both acceptable and desirable. Trinis will torpedo almost anything that can actually move the country forward. This doesn't make much sense because a rising tide lifts all boats. More appropriately, crapaud can breed just fine in both stagnant and fresh water. Yet, here we are.

Reactions to former Olympian Ato Boldon's remarks on the reasons for the disappointing performance of our Olympic contingent were a sharp reminder of our distaste for truth. In unvarnished language, Boldon condemned our “how-it-hang-is-so-it-swing” mindset. The sport commentator and coach flayed our failed athletics and the institutional lethargy mirrored in our showing on the international stage.

Boldon may be abrasive, but those traits don't diminish the validity of his appraisal. This is a man who has made a life of understanding competition in athletics at the highest level. He's widely respected in his niche in the US, no easy feat in a society where Caribbean professionals are just as easily dismissed as dark-skinned interlopers.

While some were willing to consider his frank assessment, many others excoriated his character, asking, "What he evah do for athletes in this country?"

That's how Trinis process actual expertise and a commitment to quality. Driven individuals like Boldon can find neither peace nor promise in a country like ours, where ambition encounters violent opposition from mediocre minds.

It's tempting to believe our affinity for stagnation and nonperformance is a bequest of the political culture. Like Ato, I've experienced microcosms of defiant mediocrity across public and private life in TT.

Years ago, I pitched two public education video series to the Ministry of Health – Battle of the Belly and Dinner in a Snap. They were conceived to help tackle the high rate of non-communicable diseases in TT by showing audiences how to make meaningful adjustments to their diet, exercise, and lifestyle.

My first meeting with the ministry staffers I was meant to work with turned out to be one of the most unprofessional encounters I've endured throughout my career. They openly objected to my public education series having been greenlit. With me seated at the table, ministry officials argued among one another, saying I should never have been hired; the ministry could have produced the video series.

Well, I created the concepts, one of which was predicated on my personal campaign to lose weight and, as such, was meant to feature me. How could the ministry have thought up and executed my idea and lost my weight?

Even though the project moved forward, it did so painfully. There were repeated, open efforts at sabotage and delays – all with the purpose of telling me that no one should be instructing people in the ministry how to not do their jobs.

Enterprising citizens, those who speak out against the “we-like-it-so” ethos, are problematic. They represent undesirable work and learning a new way of thinking for those accustomed to neither. Therefore, such voices must be drowned out and exiled.

It will be too late before TT realises that the people most committed to the change we need, with the expertise and belly to actually deliver that change, will all be gone, giving their best to other countries. That exodus of excellence is already well under way. What TT will be left with is the masses happy with the way things are in a country incapable of adapting to a changing world.

The task is too great to even try, the challenges too daunting to even bother. So don't worry, be happy!