THE EDITOR: The virus continues to rage the world over, hitting back at countries that seemed to have been putting it behind them, which tells a story about its nature, whether it will ever be something of the past or something that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.

Here in TT we seem to be getting a bit of a reprieve with less than double-digit deaths more often than not recently, although the number of infections keeps rising. Still, there seems to be some measure of relative 'stability,' no doubt due to the big-stick policy of those in charge, the people succumbing to the all-embracing 'lockdowns' and the perennial sword of Damocles over their heads: vaccine or death.

Justified as this deprivation of liberty seems to be as desperate situations often require desperate measures, it would have been more welcoming to the people, I am sure, if the appeal would have been more to their sense of responsibility and discipline, taking charge of their lives which, even in the simple-mindedness of some, they must recognise as being in dire jeopardy.

And the people, with all the threatening and blaming which will have been coming their way, have shown themselves to be fairly responsible, masking up, physically distancing and now willing to take the vaccine, despite all the uncertainties and misinformation surrounding it. For, believe it or not, they simply want to survive and live, and not to die by just being indifferent and careless.

Yet even as we have cause not to panic there are certain signs and symptoms which tell us that all is not well. Like the pristine Palmiste Park in the South, normally manicured and well maintained, having been abandoned and now a sore to the eyes. And the doubles vendor having to deal with long lines in the past, now with eyes lighting up at the sight of one, or the busy and bustling High Street now with a stony silence on any given day, or the proliferation of vegetable stalls as a way to make a penny because of a lost job with hardly anyone to buy.

And there is so much to disturb you all over the country, like the Georges suspending operations and one hotelier in Tobago asking this telling question: 'Open yes, but to whom?' And with many calling down the delta variant on us when its nowhere near, forgetting even the accustomed illusion we love to indulge in the God is a Trini, there is that feeling of impending doom, as Cassandra felt for Troy in the classics of old.

But Trinidadians and Tobagonians are a good people and even as those who manage our lives continue to see our seemingly never-ending problem with a jaundiced eye, beating us into submission instead of shepherding us through it, for the people who in unison would cry for Andrea Bharrat et al or band together to save the children of Rookery Nook, or even in their own want continue for those in need, there is a poetic justice about their seeming oncoming fate, and they will survive.

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

via e-mail

<