Are we too focused on rear-view mirror?

THE EDITOR: How good we are at creating a distraction when something good is taking place. For instance, the recent senseless debate about what Prime Minister Rowley was wearing at a press conference in Canada, or the equally foolish comments a decade ago about the shoes former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was wearing at the time.

Surely, Dr Rowley was not in his pyjamas at the press conference. And even in casual wear he was the epitome of sartorial elegance.

I agree with international relations professor Andy Knight that the apparent controversy reflects a part of the colonial mentality of some people that continues to persist in the Caribbean. Some of us feed an inferiority complex that says we are only well dressed when we wear a suit and tie. Or if it comes from “foreign” it’s better.

This latest silly-season spat reminds me of an anecdote from my extra-mural history lecturer, Malcolm London, 60 years ago. He related how a colonial secretary in Port of Spain received a telephone call from his boss in London, but at the time he was not wearing a jacket. He apologetically asked his boss to hold the line and moved swiftly to put on his jacket in order to resume the call.

I do hope that after 61 years of independence we are not too narrowly focused on the rear-view mirror. I may be wrong, because I read recently that the organising committee of the annual University of the West Indies (UWI) Carnival fete decided to restructure the event and possibly rename it a garden party.

Does it sound like a colonial garden party reminiscent of Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace or the governor’s residence in vintage Trinidad?

HARRY PARTAP

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