'Flood politics' is an empathetic response

THE EDITOR: “What the flood is wrong with our Prime Minister’s brain?” is the question a friend asked me recently. Of course, I don’t know, but a review of some of his responses in the recent Ria Taitt interview raises a concern about references made to Ted Cruz, Maduro and “flood politics.”

What the “flood” does Maduro and Cruz have to do with the Prime Minister being functionally absent in supporting any of the 100,000 citizens who suffered from the flooding?

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (renamed Fled Cruz) was fiercely criticised on social media when he left Houston with his children to get away from his freezing home caused by an electrical failure that left hundreds of homes bitterly cold during winter.

Nicolas Maduro is the contentious president of Venezuela. After the elections in 2018, the word “usurper” of authority was used by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice in Venezuela to describe the National Assembly he leads.

About 320,000 people voted for the PNM in 2015 and 2020 and all you can say as Prime Minister is: “Not me and flood politics…I not in dat.”

In "Keithspeak" this might well be interpreted as “I have put in all the infrastructure and instructed my four ministers to do what is necessary, so I am off to the golf course where I often spend a lot of my time.”

On November 26, 2022, the OCHA website (the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reported that as a result of floods “100,000 people have been affected with 15,000 in need of support, which represents approximately 5,100 households in five key municipalities in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The following is the list of affected areas (area affected and number of households):

Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation – 2,700

El Carmen, St Helena, Madras Road – 1,200

Kelly Village – 300

Caroni –200

Real Spring, Valsayn South – 200

Bamboo #2 and #3 – 800

San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation – 200

Sangre Grande Regional Corporation – 1,000

Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation – 500

Penal/Debe Regional Corporation – 700

Despite this data, our Prime Minister is locked into the view that showing up for flood victims is using flood politics to gain a photo opportunity. Or is it that he is so disconnected that he can comfortably say “flood you” to 100,000 flood-affected citizens?

Several years ago, Ataklan sang Flood on de Main Road as a white lie to excuse his tardiness of arriving late to meet his girlfriend. Today that is no longer a white lie, it is the reality we all live in. In the slightest rain, there is “flood on the main road” in every part of our country.

Men who have been fathers, husbands and grandfathers experience family members needing to feel their presence. Well, this is exactly what the sufferers, flood victims and 100,000 voters needed – to feel the presence of our leader.

When the empathy part of your humanity has shut down it is time for deep reflection and rework. Make the right choice!

DENNISE DEMMING

Diego Martin