Back in the 90’s, a boss, speaking on our society’s inability to progress as we should, gave an example as to why we, as a people, perpetually continue to “spin top in mud.” He said, imagine a group of people tied together where one set wants to go north, another set wants it to go south, another wanting east and the others wanting to go west. “There will be a great amount of action, but the group will be going nowhere” he explained. He continued, “If they all decide to go in one direction, then there would be movement.” This analogy has stuck with me over the decades as I have seen too many times how our mindset has retarded our progress. Our fighting for dominance, be it race, politics, academic, artistic, sporting or commercial, has often times prevented deserving citizens the opportunity to excel in their field and to carry Trinidad and Tobago forward, to the benefit of all. This, however, is the real world, so one wonders if we could ever have a thinking where we all agree on a measure to move forward, even if it means putting aside your own agenda. Maybe, as we have had instances in the past.
During our colonial period, there was a unifying thought – independence. This drove our spirit in one direction and the dream was realised. After Independence, the new dream was for a better quality of life by the masses, so education was the singular driving force that moved us forward.
We are in a new era but our visions are scattered. Many opportunities are passing us by because of that. We need a new singular nationalistic mission to move us forward. What could that be? We really need to aspire together for us to achieve.
