A force-ripe society

THE EDITOR: Swamp Dogg decades ago sang about a synthetic world. Today I wonder if he was predicting what TT was going to be. The society is divisive and the thinking scattered as these indicators show:

Gender violence: Loving mothers nurturing violent boys, husbands and daddies. A hasty cure suggested that women arm themselves with pepper spray and apply for a firearm user’s licence. This is reflective of a society where patience is growing thin.

The justice system: Is it fair, fleet-footed and rehabilitative or does it represent vengeance by a third party? Are violators of the law given a fair chance (when caught) to avoid incarceration or, if convicted and housed at the expense of the State, still able to enjoy decent living conditions? Or are perpetrators left languishing in jail for a trial longer than the period of atonement? Where are the human rights activists?

Communities: Human beings are gregarious by nature, pooling their resources to enjoy the primary necessities of food, clothing, shelter, water and services to preserve health. Politicians have redefined the priorities in order to balance budgets.

Health: This is an illusive dream with polluted air and the land and the water contaminated. We have become robots fuelled by chemicals produced in factories. Remove the artificial foods and motion ceases.

Greed and stupidity: Businesses increasing prices but paying peanuts to workers. Survival for the latter means stealing, gambling, counterfeiting or investing in ponzy schemes. A former commissioner of police has described this direction of John Public as greedy and stupid. Doesn’t this umbrella cover the whole of our society?

Animals: These speechless beings are now protected by a fine of $100,000 if abused. Hunters are still shooting them as game and those disguised as “protectors” are luring them from their natural habitat and domesticating them in zoos. Well?

Society: The foundation of the society is truth and trust. Information peddled by the guardians of health has given a whole new spin on knowledge and ignorance and deepened the chasm alienating us from the truth.

Discrimination: The artificial screens of race, religion, colour and status have given profiteers, pirates and those marginalised the freedom to claim special rights and privileges. Are they not of the same ilk?

Corridors of power: There is either collusion or confusion among the executive, legislative and protective arms to control the masses. Energies for managing the country have been misdirected to accusing, suing and mudslinging.

Ten-year development plans rarely outlive changes in government and 2020 vision cannot be drawn up not even with the aid of binoculars.

Parliamentarians, decked in fine garments, crash-landed in the gutter, using derivatives of the English language to address each other and cannot agree on interpretations of the very laws they were hired to observe.

Motions intended to dislodge high-ranking officials who allegedly misbehaved in office fail depending on which side of the divide the movers and shakers are. Conscience is no longer a factor to evict the guilty (behind closed doors). The man-made chaotic process rules.

Public servants get a slap on the wrist from the Integrity Commission for not declaring their assets, liabilities and interests. John Public will get a $5,000 fine for not filing property tax forms.

The society hires ministers to provide utilities (water, roads, etc), yet they say only if the rates are paid up will we enjoy the service. Another minister by delegating 75 per cent of road repairs to the county councils and corporations relieves himself of the blame for all potholes.

Pot and kettle. Each complaining of the other’s black bottom. The Prime Minister telling a citizen which part of his anatomy to kiss sees this as different from the raucous behaviour of the Opposition.

Tolerance and forgiveness: These fruits we should dispense freely to mankind we never extended to the late Yasin Abu Bakr yet politicians who have “mashed up de place” for decades are voted back into power every five years.

Covid19 and climate change: For once in my life political leaders have been called upon to account for their actions and inactions and avert the destruction of the planet.

They have dodged the non-material demands of covid19 by creating irrelevant monetary road maps that tried to camouflage the spiritual awakening that covid19 is asking.

Leaders now have a second chance to be truthful as their labours would be measured physically by Mother Nature.

Success or failure will be seen in their curtailment of global warming or the continued abuse of Mother Earth.

What are we living for? Is this what life is about?

LENNOX FRANCIS

via e-mail