There is a phenomenon called unboxing or unpackaging that’s growing in popularity across the globe. According to the Toronto Star, “it’s increasingly popular among technophiles to video a commentary – a first impression, a review – as they open the box (of their new gadget like the ipad) for the first time. This event, if you care to call it that, is then posted on YouTube.” The Star also reports that “the unboxing appeal, marketing experts have observed, is the shared experience – you watch someone unpacking something you long for, you feel you are unpacking it, too. It’s a sense of communal pleasure.”
Well in Trinidad and Tobago, we’ve been doing some unpackaging of our own and engaging in some communal pleasure. We have been unwrapping a brand new prime minister. For me it’s been quite a treat. The biggest turn on for me is how real this lady is. And of course the comparisons to her immediate predecessor make her even more unbelievably charming and inspiring.
Firstly, it’s the little things she does. Like how she tells the press to move back and let others come into the bubble. And it’s not just to be nice, she actually holds up the press scrum for minutes to make sure they all get in. And her telling about her family wedding in Tobago this weekend. Her warm embrace of Anil captures what we all think when we see how he has risen; “Look where Anil reach nuh”. Her banning of party symbols at all state functions and in the parliament. Her choking up when she says “where every creed and race find an equal place”. This is not behaviour we have come to expect. Will her gender be a strength rather than the advertised weakness?
Then we unpackage some of her serious stuff; her mandate to her troops to hit the road to visit flood areas. Her sense of urgency that cut short her moment of glory to prioritise serving flood victims.
And her all inclusive Cabinet: Young/Old/White/Afro/Indo/Muslim/ Christian /Hindu/Labor/Business/ Military/Civilian/Civil Servant. Where was this lady all our life? Is she for real? She sure looks that way. I’m very excited by what I see. She will have a hard time satisfying all her Partnership interests and something tells me she’ll do alright.
We’ve been watching our own version of unboxing and this shiny new PM is giving me thrills. Something tells me I’m not alone.
