As I am seeing Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh everywhere, while watching the birds recently it occurred to me that the Blue Jay would never in its wildest dreams deny itself the bare necessities of eating and drinking and even less, the supreme, triumphant pleasure of hogging what ought to be shared with others. This bird is a startlingly beautiful, burly, noisy, rambunctious creature that will eat and/or carry away every single nut that I put out on mornings. This bird does not share, does not seem to have the slightest awareness of the concept. It demonstrates a selfish, scorched earth approach to the bounty made available to all.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a creature living in nature to adopt the nobler of our values? And why do we human beings hold ourselves to a higher standard and expect to be different from the creatures in the wild? Is it thanks only to nurture that we have been socialized to be saddled with the sometimes hopeless pursuit of a "humanity" that includes selflessness? Is the difference as simple as that? Are we in fact much less than we think we are? Is that why surrender to our baser instincts is often the preferred option?
What, I ask myself, makes Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh unlike you and me and and the rabid Blue Jays of this world? Could it be that contrary to our PM's assessment, this man's family, more than many families in Trinidad and Tobago, actually owned their parental responsibility and took it extremely seriously? Can we consider and admit that what we are seeing in his action is the culmination, not of neglect, but of an extraordinary spiritual nurturing on their part?
What, I ask myself, makes Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh unlike you and me and and the rabid Blue Jays of this world? Could it be that contrary to our PM's assessment, this man's family, more than many families in Trinidad and Tobago, actually owned their parental responsibility and took it extremely seriously? Can we consider and admit that what we are seeing in his action is the culmination, not of neglect, but of an extraordinary spiritual nurturing on their part?
The days flash by for me as I anxiously follow the news from home. I imagine that the hours pass more slowly for Dr. Kublalsingh, surrounded by many yet deeply alone in so many ways and especially in the inner struggle between nature and nurture.
I still urge him to guard his health and life but I want to assure him that even if he were to walk away today, those of us who are still teachable have already learnt valuable lessons.
Today I want to speak from my heart to thank teacher Wayne Kublalsingh for the things he has been showing me. For the past week and more as I have sat unwillingly and often distressed to tears before the chalkboard of his increasingly emaciated chest, I have been forced to trace and retrace with growing dismay the things which I already knew but which have been manifested in his flesh.
I was among those who, valuing Dr. Kublalsingh's life more than this country, more than this cause, more than we Pawi, more than my beautiful and sometimes ugly countrymen, more than this government, urged him to let this cup pass from him. But perhaps being more optimistic, more hopeful and more generous than even those who love him and certainly more than those who continue to deride and dismiss him, he put our concerns aside and persevered patiently with his lesson.
He has reminded me that although this is what we have come to accept as normal, it is unnatural, if not calamitous for any man to believe that he has an existence separate from his country, from just causes, from the fate of the Pawi, from his countrymen and from his government. In this "eat ah food" world, he has done the unthinkable and little wonder then that the shock of it all has thrown many into disarray and has caused some of us in high and low places to retreat to the usual refuges of cynicism, disrespect, vitriole, puerile humour and callousness.
In turning his back on the opiate of the ubiquitous pot of pelau, he has threatened to drag us also from the warm comfort of that prison of belly full and asked us to reflect upon other forms of nourishment of which we have been starved. Another human child of God comes to mind and it was He who reminded us that "Man cannot live by bread alone."
Thank you, Dr. Kublalsingh for allowing the nation once again to witness that the truth means NOTHING to many. Not only will they avoid it to save their skins and that of their cohorts but they will avoid it even when a fellow citizen's life is on the line. They will avoid it in the quiet of their own consciences and they will ineluctably avoid it even when the whole interested world's gaze is upon them.
Dr. Kublalsingh, you have become for me the soul of a Trinidad and Tobago that has been struggling to ascend - not any furtive or touted ascendancy being arranged for a particular race, class or creed, but a lifting for ALL - for this country, for all just causes, for the Pawi, for all countrymen and for a leadership yet to blossom that will be a reflection of the best in us.
Despite the efforts of the revisionists, history cannot be repealed and regardless of whether or not the distorted written or remembered record of this matter is amended, the history of this struggle has already been written in the psyche. I will not qualify psyche with 'national' or 'individual' because if I had learnt nothing else from Patriot Wayne Kublalsingh's struggle, this is the one lesson that will lie glowing in the ruins of his camp/health/life:
Everything and everyone is connected and if you can destroy one man, you can destroy a nation.
People, we ALL have a government to run.
..............................................................................................................................
Today I want to speak from my heart to thank teacher Wayne Kublalsingh for the things he has been showing me. For the past week and more as I have sat unwillingly and often distressed to tears before the chalkboard of his increasingly emaciated chest, I have been forced to trace and retrace with growing dismay the things which I already knew but which have been manifested in his flesh.
I was among those who, valuing Dr. Kublalsingh's life more than this country, more than this cause, more than we Pawi, more than my beautiful and sometimes ugly countrymen, more than this government, urged him to let this cup pass from him. But perhaps being more optimistic, more hopeful and more generous than even those who love him and certainly more than those who continue to deride and dismiss him, he put our concerns aside and persevered patiently with his lesson.
He has reminded me that although this is what we have come to accept as normal, it is unnatural, if not calamitous for any man to believe that he has an existence separate from his country, from just causes, from the fate of the Pawi, from his countrymen and from his government. In this "eat ah food" world, he has done the unthinkable and little wonder then that the shock of it all has thrown many into disarray and has caused some of us in high and low places to retreat to the usual refuges of cynicism, disrespect, vitriole, puerile humour and callousness.
In turning his back on the opiate of the ubiquitous pot of pelau, he has threatened to drag us also from the warm comfort of that prison of belly full and asked us to reflect upon other forms of nourishment of which we have been starved. Another human child of God comes to mind and it was He who reminded us that "Man cannot live by bread alone."
Thank you, Dr. Kublalsingh for allowing the nation once again to witness that the truth means NOTHING to many. Not only will they avoid it to save their skins and that of their cohorts but they will avoid it even when a fellow citizen's life is on the line. They will avoid it in the quiet of their own consciences and they will ineluctably avoid it even when the whole interested world's gaze is upon them.
Dr. Kublalsingh, you have become for me the soul of a Trinidad and Tobago that has been struggling to ascend - not any furtive or touted ascendancy being arranged for a particular race, class or creed, but a lifting for ALL - for this country, for all just causes, for the Pawi, for all countrymen and for a leadership yet to blossom that will be a reflection of the best in us.
Despite the efforts of the revisionists, history cannot be repealed and regardless of whether or not the distorted written or remembered record of this matter is amended, the history of this struggle has already been written in the psyche. I will not qualify psyche with 'national' or 'individual' because if I had learnt nothing else from Patriot Wayne Kublalsingh's struggle, this is the one lesson that will lie glowing in the ruins of his camp/health/life:
Everything and everyone is connected and if you can destroy one man, you can destroy a nation.
People, we ALL have a government to run.
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
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