APNU+AFC at 3: The things I see

Jun 05, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

So the coalition government rides on after three years in power. Has it been a failure? This is where complex concepts come in and the methodology of deconstruction becomes relevant. Why is the new horizon ushered in by the 2015 election results a failure? Why can’t the three years be classified as an optimistic success?
I don’t think one can compare evaluation of films and literature with analysis of power. I say this because if you say the three years have been a failure or a victory, you run the risk of the accusation that you see it from your perspective. But there is a flaw in that approach. The review of a film, book or song, definitely carries certain cultural input on the part of the reviewer.
An Oxford-trained Englishman who was a middle class youth during the counter-culture days would have had little exposure to Black pop music in the US. His/her review of British and American pop music would hardly see genius in many Black American artists. His/her Freudian bias would tend towards British and American rock as opposed to American Rhythm and Blues. There is an American pop culture magazine, Rolling Stone. It has a list of the top 500 songs of all time. The omissions and inclusions I find simply horrible.
This is where hidden Freudian instincts are at work. American reviewers find Philip Roth the most outstanding writer of the latter half of the 20th century. I would not put Roth even at number five. It must be remembered that Roth wrote about the nature of his country. Is there such a thing as western bias in the review of arts as opposed to Third World perspective? I think there is. Those who read Edward Said’s “Orientalism” would tend to agree. Brilliant artists and writers from India and the Third World suffer from deeply Freudian prejudice in the West.
I am sure the approach to analyzing power has a different methodological fulcrum. In determining whether a three-year-old government is a failure or an achiever, there are factors to guide you that the arts reviewer does not have. There are things like statistics, legislation, policies, GDP, GNP, measurable levels of poverty, measurable levels of income, infrastructural developments, infrastructural facilities, educational statistics, the condition of the rule of law, extravagant expenditure etc.
If I was to state whether I think the years of the APNU+AFC regime was a success or failure, I would say failure. I would base my reasoning not only on statistics, but measurable factors. One, I think very violent crimes are on the increase from the days of the PPP in government. 2- I believe there is no discernible elevation of the living standards of the citizens who are at the bottom of the economic ladder. On the contrary, I think the poor classes are feeling a tighter squeeze than under the previous PPP regime. Lower income owners of cars have to buy new tyres and vehicles less than 8 years old. Tax on animal-drawn carts has gone up. Vendors have been consistently displaced over the past three years.
There are more blackouts than when the PPP was in power. I did a column with this very caption last year. The only explanation I can think of is when the PPP left office they installed a ghost into the GPL. That apparition is secretly destroying the GPL, thus the nation cannot get a continuous flow of electricity. I live in constant fear of readers claiming that I do embellishments because some descriptions are beyond imagination to be true.
What you are about to read is true. This column is being typed at 6.40 a.m. on Monday, June 4. I started it at 6.10 a.m. and blackout came. I went downstairs, fed the cat, washed the cat’s plates and did a few other chores. At 6.40, lights came back, and I am now continuing to type. We get blackouts daily where I live at Turkeyen. This never happened under the PPP. The ghost has damaged the credibility of the APNU+AFC regime.
I see no improvements since the APNU+AFC coalition took over, in many, many areas of life. The Botanic Gardens is falling apart. The National Park is deteriorating. I told one of the guards that long ago my routine in the park was that I used to jog around the park, right on the perimeter, that is, on the border with the trench that runs alongside the park on Thomas Road to the south and to the north on Carifesta Avenue. I can’t do that anymore. The bushes and the grass there have not been weeded for years. More in a forthcoming column.

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