Dey’s Dignity In Labour, Oops! In Work

Trinidad elect-shuns over. PNM is out again after nine years, and UNC led by Calm-law is back in… again. Lie-Za say “Six-ah One, Half-ah-doesn’t ah de Other!” De only excitement bout here is dat de Come-Red has created ah new bar-tender, Travis Harry. Ah youthman from Shatto who went Petit Bordel Secondary, den

Community College. Lie-Za say he love Law and was called to de Bar at Mustique Resort way he learned to “to wipe down tables, wash glass and dishes,mix drinks , and serve de Rich and Fear-most, Movie stars, Five-star General, World Boss, Actors, far-rain and look-all Par-liar-men-tearrun. Den de youth-man tried widout success to get into de Coast Guard, but found employment at Vinlec Accounts Dept.

Determined to move on, and inspired as well by de lines of Dr AB Cyrus Calypso “ doh look down on ah man unless yuh picking him up,” Travis joined hundreds of young, unemployed Caribbean men and women, desperately looking foh honest employment on de Cruise Ships Lines. Dey were unskilled, untrained, fuss time ah lot ah dem were goin pon ah Steamship, but dey were all proud citizens of de Carry-Beyond determined to mek something of dey lives, and indeed most ah dem succeeded. And as Faith and Luck would have it, Travis wid his earlier Bar experience was recalled to de Bar. He received on de job training in management and was promoted to Management .Travis is ah conscious young man, ah practicing activist, ah Vincy to de bone, who is very vocal on pull-it-tek-all and nah-shun-all issues. He boasts of having de genes of his dad who on de invitation of de late P.M.Maurice Bishop, joined de Grenada Rev-all-yuh-shun in de 1980’s. However, his Shatto villagers see in him, more of de genes of his grand-father, Bishop Raval Harry, ah great Spiritual Baptist Leader.

But widout any doubt Travis is fearless and he is out-front, up in arms wid de ULP Go-venom-mint foh ah most wutless and wicked betray-all, ah hysterical- wrong, dat was done to de 31 Shatto farmers who were kicked off dat 60 acres of prime agricultural lands at Richmond Estate, and given to ah Sin-Lou-Shun company to operate ah Quarry foh $ 1,200 ah year. And herein lies de root of de war of words between Travis and de Go-venom mint. Ah felt wrathed when ah saw de TV clip at de Press Con-friends wid de PM was hitting back at someone, who had beaten up pon him, wid fearless verbal aggression. Dey he was trying to hit back in his derogatory style, describing de individual as someone “who used to wipe down tables on a ship and mix drinks for patrons.” Lie-Za says ah must remind us all dat no matter how small, how menial de task on de job might suggest, “dey’s dignity in labour, oops! dignity in Work!” And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy