News from the Turks and Caicos Islands for
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Commentary: Walk among lions or scurry along with hyenas - a choice for Turks and Caicos citizens
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| Published on Monday, December 28, 2009 |
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By Ben Roberts
As with anywhere in the world, some people walk among lions while others scurry along with the hyenas. People in Turks & Caicos, both the indigenous citizens and those coming to ’solve’ the problems in our country, should make a special effort to know which is which.
On my most recent visit home with one of my long time close associates, and fellow T&C Islander, I got to see this up close. We had made the trip mainly to address our concerns, ideas, and suggestions to the new Interim Government.
After our scheduled official meetings had ended, my associate arranged meetings with a few of our fellow citizens, mainly some who had been recently chosen to assist the newly-formed Interim Government in duties of leading the country. He listed these appointments and wanted to know if I would consider meeting with them as well. I indicated to him a few that I would not have minded seeing, but one in particular that I would, without question, accompany him in having a discussion with. Someone who he had known from his formative high school years.
The meeting did not disappoint. Here is what took place:
I knew this person all of my life, saw them, heard them speak often, sat in primary school class with one of their younger siblings, but had not recalled sitting down with them for any lengthy conversation. This would be the first. I knew this person to be supremely intelligent, articulate and expressive, and passionate about their ideas. This individual welcomed us warmly into their presence, and was genuinely happy to see us, as we were to see them. They commended us on our activities and diligence in regard to our home, and applauded us on our personal achievements. I remember telling this fellow-citizen that though I had not included them on my ‘list,’ (see the earlier Friday, August 14, 2009, TCI Net News article titled: ‘Turks & Caicos: The wannabe list and the proposed list,’) and that it was an oversight, I was more than delighted and enthused that they had been chosen in their capacity to serve on a panel to assist the Interim Government. We talked a bit more about life and the passing of time, and then we got around to their new job of assisting the Interim Government. This person described how they did not want our fellow T&C citizens to be stand-offish to them on being selected to this panel but to shower them with their complaints, issues, and ideas so they could be a strong voice, sounding board, and a standard-bearer for the change needed to get our country out of the quicksand. This individual spoke with a strong passion of being committed to the well-being and the best interest of our people. My associate and I felt right at home in this conversation with our host. They mirrored exactly our passion and mind-set.
What got me about the interaction with this citizen was their undeterred spirit, their thirst for knowledge after all these years, and their incisive and illuminated mind in a Turks & Caicos where horizons can become limited after a while. What a treat! T&C citizens and the Interim Government should feel lucky to have such a person on a panel having to do with our country’s governance. I know I do. This compares starkly to a meeting some years earlier between a well-educated T&C citizen and this same associate and myself. The conversation broke down into a pile of useless rhetoric and theories that had nothing to do with real life. When we left that meeting my associate, stunned and reeling, turned to me and said, ‘You mean to tell me that is what our country got for all its years of scholarship money spent educating this citizen.’ The person on this run was a hundred and eighty degrees the opposite. Definitely someone who walks among lions. Then in Provo, at the airport on our way out, we had a long conversation with a fellow-citizen who spoke with us right up until we exited the building for the plane. A quiet person who is very articulate and feels very strongly about their ideas. A definite asset to their country. Again, someone who walks among lions.
As to those who scurry along with the hyenas, I choose not to recount any events or individuals, but I will only speak generally. These would be those who are quick to appropriate the ideas of others and cast them as their own creation. These would be the people who would rob, deceive, and short-change their fellow-citizens of even the clothes on their backs, and the land they rely on to feed themselves and their family. These would be those who would rip their fellow-citizens to pieces for a scrap, or a few bones, if it means their self-preservation. These would be the ones who would sell their grandma at the drop of a hat, if it means a few pennies for themselves. Unfortunately we have more than we wish of such people in our T&C, and our citizens need to be able to tell the difference between the ones who walk among lions and those who scurry along with the hyenas. Incidentally, which will the British choose to deal with, in their stated goal of rehabilitating our T&C? Will it be those who walk among lions who are strong in their convictions, confident in their abilities, and who cannot be pushed around? Or will it be those who scurry along with the hyenas. Those with few scruples who they can throw scraps and bones to, with the result that they will quickly degenerate into squabbles and confusion and can be easily manipulated as they tear each other apart, resulting in the overseers getting to maintain ultimate control. I guess for that we will have to wait and see.
Ben Roberts is a Turks & Caicos Islander. He is a newsletter editor, freelance writer, and published author. He is the author of numerous articles that have been carried by a variety of Internet websites and read worldwide. He is often published in Turks & Caicos news media, and in the local newspapers where he resides. His action adventure novel, Jackals of Samarra, can be found at Amazon.com, and most of the major Internet book outlet sites. | | | | Reads : 541 |
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