About 140 Trinis in Brooklyn had an intimate face-to-face with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night. In town for United Nations business, the PM squeezed in the visit in a quest to greet nationals here. For those “Trinis in foreign” who keep abreast of T&T governance through family phone calls, and T&T online radio stations and newspapers,” it was difficult to reconcile rumblings and even evidence of great corruption with this bright, stately, and extremely charming leader who easily swatted what opening speaker Raymond Luke had coined as a “battle with Brooklyn.” She was to give a speech with a question and answer period to follow. If charm can win elections (as we have seen happen in the United States) the leaders of the opposing parties should hit the books at the Persad-Bissessar School of Allure and Magnetism. Her speech caused hard questions to evaporate, and questioners to stew-down like bagee. Hours earlier, one questioner had made me privy to her question: “How do you feel about your legacy as the most corrupt government in the history of Trinidad and Tobago?” I held my breath as she approached as the last speaker wading in a warm sea of charm. When the question squeaked out it just rambled and invited Persad-Bissessar to speak about corruption in Manning’s government … you see charm! There was one protester Wall Street Trini, or Anselm LeBourne, a main organizer for the PNM here in New York. He held a sign that called the PM “Kam—liar” (see photo). If he had supporters or sympathizers were very, very silent like mice-in-a-Catholic-church. The loudest I potential sympathizers was when they were ordering a drink from the bar. The general sentiment about Wall Street Trini was probably more akin to “whappen to he… Trinis in Brooklyn does only carry placard at jouvert.” The only discordant notes of the evening were the lone placard and the national anthem on an untuned pan. So this was a win for the Prime Minister, who conducted herself with aplomb and disseminated information about the new state of the art teaching hospital in San Fernando, where the Black Stalin is currently recuperating; the building of the first Children’s Hospital in the Caribbean with a state of the art burn unit; the new baby bonus on tap for families and more. It is going to be an interesting election.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:59:40 +0000
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