Many cards, not only race, at play in politics

THE EDITOR: Playing the race cards are as outdated as women wearing can cans under their dresses and men in flared trousers.

Present-day political playing cards in Trinidad and Tobago are the climate change and property tax cards. Is social media guilty of adding new cards to the blame-and-shame political cards? Yes and no, depending on who you ask this question.

The political atmosphere is now so toxic as soon as you rest any card down, you get a whiff of smoke.

Then there is the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) with his four-per-cent cards. As we say in local parlance, right now, that man playing bad and winning hard.

In this financial guava season, post-the pandemic and the very healthy ongoing war in the Ukraine, four per cent is better than no per cent.

Check back later and you might get more as the hunger games expand to more and more government players play their cards. Goods and services are already marked up and Christmas is still six months away.

Will the property tax card win again like the "axe the tax" cards did in 2010? Debatable.

In all my years in "foreign" I cannot remember ever turning on a pipe and water not flowing. The lights never went. But your utility bill had to be paid on time, no excuses. Nothing is for free.

The climate-change card will eventually dissolve into nothing, as you can only prevent severe soil erosion for a limited number of years.

So what is the cry in TT? We suffering, we too poor to pay for anything? Are you, the taxpayer, being encouraged to vote for the party dressed up like Santa Claus and who will remove his red suit and beard the day after the party wins? Think about it.

You can run from property tax but you cannot hide forever.

So, truthfully speaking, race cards are dead, in my opinion. The four-per-cent man is boss and the climate-change man is carded to win the political lottery.

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin