Chester Connel Responds to Proud Sailor Man

I CAME ACROSS what I consider the best piece of political commentary I have read for a long time. Chester was responding to a piece written about Travis Harry, captioned “Travis Harry and the Dangerous Delusion of Cocktail Credentials.” I tried desperately to find the original article but was only able to hear it read by Luke Boyea of HOTFM 97.1 on one of their programmes. This obviously attracted me for the author who signed as “Proud Sailor Man” was lambasting Travis Harry who one might easily describe as a Sailor Man, ‘proud or not’! How dare Harry who used to wipe down tables on a ship and mix drinks for patrons criticise the PM of this country who has attained commanding heights in his political career. Travis, he claimed was unable to “decorate a sentence with proper grammar” and was trapped in the “echo chamber of his own imagined importance.” His ego, the author declared was bigger than the cruise ships he cleaned. Chester informs us that Travis was “a trained and experienced manager who worked in a 168-billion-dollar global industry… on one of its floating cities, a ship that costs anywhere from $500,000,000 million to 1.5 billion to manufacture, a floating city that costs one million dollars a day to maintain.” I am prepared to stick with a Travis who might at one time been “sling(ing) margaritas and wip (ing) down tables.”

I had for long bemoaned the absence of meaningful participation in our political conversation by ordinary people. We seem to think that only some people, based on their profession or qualification, could comment on issues in the society, and so many leave it up to the politicians. Travis in this sense was like a breath of fresh air using his phone camera to draw our attention to infrastructural short falls and daring to do his own commentary, considering it his duty as a citizen of the country. We might not agree with every comment he makes, but even his videos at times tell their own story. He often expresses disgust with Opposition politicians for not taking up these matters. As an individual he is free to go in any direction he wants, but a responsible opposition party cannot operate in that way. He is nevertheless doing his job, hopefully as a concerned citizen in a society where fear seems to overwhelm the ordinary Joe Bloke.

Chester seems convinced that the author of the piece is the Prime Minister and writes with that in mind and probably has his reason for coming to that conclusion. One has however to ask why a ‘Proud Sailor Man’ would want to demean another person who seemingly falls into the same category of ‘Sailor Man’. Proud Sailor Man writes well. I like his “echo chambers of his own imagined importance.” In this piece he has entered the political dialogue, why therefore should he deny this role to Travis? I assumed he never wiped tables or served drinks, but he considers himself a Sailor Man.

Chester having convinced himself that the PM is the author uses the language and context of the piece to good effect, digging into also aspects of the PM’s past.

“Ralph was a skilled but unpopular political barman mixing (not margaritas but) socially destructive cocktails of an intoxicating Communist ideology, bending the bitters of politics, brewed of watered-down Stalinist spirits …”. What strikes me here is how he was able to use his view of the PM’s early entry into political discourse and link it with Travis’s work as a bartender.

One can argue with his view of Travis being “as perceptive as a philosopher”, but why not? He goes even further and states that Travis “exemplifies the same brave fighting spirit, courage under fire and winning attitude exuded by His Excellency Joseph Chatoyer, our only national hero.” Is he positioning Travis Harry as a Messenger of Chatoyer? I wonder what Chatoyer’s message and focus would have been if he was alive today. I applaud Chester for his defence of Travis Harry, hoping that it will encourage others to be part of the conversation in this Silly Season. Let us hope others will stand up and be part of the conversation regardless of their place in the society. One does not have to agree with everything Travis says or does, but must applaud him on his courage to speak up and out. Let us hope “Proud sailor Man” will continue to be part of the conversation and to acknowledge that to wipe tables or serve drinks should not disqualify you from participating in national affairs.

Chester offers Proud Sailor Man a daiquiri. Perhaps even though he might never have served one it could lift his spirits and realise that we all have minds of our own and are capable of expressing our views once we do not get carried away with a false sense of whom we actually are and expect that one’s voice was all that mattered.