THE 4 HORSEMEN OF OUR T&T APOCALYPSE

These musings were prompted by a good friend who challenged me recently to name the five most important problems that we in Trinidad and Tobago need to confront and manage. In order to make T&T nice again. No, I am not proposing a winning Trumpian slogan for the next election cycle.

But his question and our subsequent discussion of my choices, triggered a thought that sent me to the biblical story in Revelations Chapter 6, in which John of Patmos reveals the breaking of the 7 seals by The Lamb of God and the revealing of the prophesy of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who are seen by scholars as symbolizing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, respectively.

 The White Horse

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. (Revelation 6:1-2)

 The rider on the White Horse armed with bow (and arrow) represents CONQUEST the evil that has taken control of all our governance systems and institutions using the combined forces of anarchy, greed, corruption, mistrust, misplaced loyalties, and an apathetic benumbed dependent citizenry.

How else can one explain our two honourable houses of parliament, an upper and a lower, that seem to be ordained, like east and west, ‘never the twain shall meet’; where parliamentarians and some senators too, seem to spend more time in the highest courts of the land, trying to embarrass each other, to win pyrrhic verbal battles, rather than in serious debate on pressing national issues.

What sort of devil wields the power that has prevented 2 or is it 3, separate teams (I have lost count) of 41 honourable men and women from agreeing over more than 48 months and how many parliamentary sessions, on the criteria and procedures that will govern the selection, and allocation of resources for the appointment of a tenured Commissioner of Police, while citizens continue to endure a constantly deteriorating crime situation, and the incumbent is in to his eighth, or is it ninth six month acting appointment, with all the uncertainty and inaction that such a situation implies?

The situation is even worse at all levels of local government, where what should be the nurseries of political training for service, and the places where more citizens can become directly involved in managing their local communities, have deteriorated into areas of political skirmishing, where resources are more likely to be allocated by spite and favouritism, to the party in temporary control, rather than by consensus on community needs and solutions of merit. Promises for local government reform are regularly made at each election season. then just as regularly disregarded and moth balled, only to be conveniently dusted off and included in manifestos of vague promises at the next election season.

Meanwhile, name any branch of government services and you’ll find hundreds of citizens who can recount chilling stories of malfunctioning systems, waste, disappointments, malfeasance and favouritism. And at the same time, I guarantee that there are thousands of hardworking public servants and police and counsellors, citizens who share the same concerns.

 The Red Horse

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come and see!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. (Revelation 6:3-4)

 The rider on the fiery Red Horse is he who was called “MR DIVIDER” by calypso griot Stalin. He continues to swashbuckle his way across our two islands, using his big sword of divisiveness, constantly cutting the ties that bind families, friends, neighbours, communities, ethnicities, religions, and economic groupings; preventing us from working together, pooling our thoughts, ideas, cultures and resources in the interest of finding solutions for the benefit of the common good.

 The Black Horse

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Revelation 6:5-6)

 On the black horse rides yet another ‘divider', INJUSTICE carrying the balancing scales that should symbolize justice equally balanced and administered, but unilaterally proclaiming loudly, the sole right to determine the terms and conditions under which such justice is disbursed; a situation that has guaranteed continuous friction between owners and workers, masters with mistresses and servants; that has left us with recurring seasons of labour versus management strife, obstructed the growth of institutions like the still born Tripartite Commission, stunts our creativity, imposes limits on our productivity and keeps us close to the bottom of any international measurement scale of competitiveness.

 The Pale Horse

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)

 On the pale, colourless horse rides CRIME - the ‘cleaner’- who takes advantage of the trails of chaos and confusion created by the anarchy and divisiveness of the three apocalyptic horsemen who preceded him, to cleanup and spread death and destruction; whose handiwork we now experience every day of our lives as we read about, listen to, and view the gory details, now no longer described as killings or murders but intellectually upgraded to the Latin derived term, homicides and collateral damage.

While we live in constant fear. we gather and bury our dead, shed our tears, share our frustrations, continue to call on our leaders and ‘validating elites’ to create solutions, but not realizing that each one of us has a role to play in finding solutions, and that in the end IT’S UP TO ME.

Maybe there is some significance for us that three of the horses in the prophesy are in our national colours, WHITE, RED and BLACK — our horses. The problems and the solutions we may therefore conclude. are in the riders, and they are us, you, we and any change must start with ME.

In following musings, I will reveal my choices of the fundamental problems that my friend and I discussed. In the meanwhile, if you have read this far, I suggest you determine your own suggestions, discuss them with family, friends, co-workers, party members and trade union comrades. It’s up to all of us to begin the engagement in sober and useful discussion and debates, with a view to finding practical solutions, and taking positive actions, keeping in mind always that IT’S UP TO ME to be the change I want to happen in T&T.

Ends.

Author’s note:

This was written in March 2017 and published in 868wired blog. I remembered it as I was watching the nightly television bad news. Since then with the help of a few friends I have been able to continue posting my comments and observations to this Facebook page. But it’s obvious that WE have not made much headway in solving OUR problems. I reread it for my own benefit and decided to share it again, with a few minor edits.

Your comments will be welcome. More so if you have some positive suggestions to share.