FOLKS, this may well be the first and only time that a politician receives honourable mention in Nette Effect. I find in a lot of cases their offerings are not a right fit for this stop-and-smell-the-roses column.
In other cases, I’m afraid people may accuse me of being politically incorrect, politically correct, politically left, politically right, politically motivated or politically unmotivated.
Any mention of a politico or their activities may also lead to my being accused of politicking or politicising. Then I may become a political prisoner but certainly not a political scientist, which is better than being a political hack.
Anyhow, does anyone need to know my political compass?
I well imagined that to make this space, though, a politician would have had to do something of such global proportions that it would be Nobel Prize-worthy and that to overlook the heroics would be all too obvious.
But last week I found a cape crusader as I listened to the late-night session of the House Assembly debate on the Sanitation Service Authority Amendment Act. The Prime Minister was wending his way through a rather euphemistic speech, considering the topic.
I must be honest: the late hour and the topic combined to intensify the risk of my dropping off to sleep. But I persisted through his circuitous contribution and found one nugget that elicited a bit of admiration on my part. By the next day, I realized that others who spent the night listening or read online were similarly rewarded.
The Prime Minister, as he called on his fellow Bajans to clean up after themselves, talked about paying the “princely” sum of $5 for a garbage can so that the SSA workers’ task of collecting would be easier. in addition, it stopped stray animals from scattering the garbage about. Good going, I thought, but still not enough to make me want to continue through the late hours.
Then he recounted an incident that occurred while he was travelling, I presumed, to some part of St Philip since he mentioned being in Sterling. As it happened, someone in the car ahead of him tossed a box through the window.
Immediately, the PM had his official security detail activate the siren and pull over the car. The person was instructed to pick up his garbage.
I applaud Mr Stuart for this.
It may seem a small thing, but littering becomes part of a larger problem of illegal dumping that breeds staggering health and environmental problems.
But how many times have we travelled on the road and observed someone do the exact thing or commit some other infraction and thought, if only I had a siren, or I wish a policeman was around?
Seems the Prime Minister had both at his disposal.
Ever since we were in our youth, we knew the excitement stirred by the wailing of a siren. It represented not just a sense of urgency for someone in distress but authority. That authority was brilliantly captured in Mr Stuart’s response to the litterbug.
And how embarrassing for the offender; pulled over by the country’s leader and for the ignoble gesture of littering.
Oh, the indignity!
How can you ever work that into a conversation if you are asked if you ever encountered the Prime Minister?
But, on the other hand, could you imagine the Prime Minister pulling over some of his own ministers for certain violations? They may seem small indeed but, like the litterbug, add to the greater problem.
Water problems sweeping the island? Pull over the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resource Management so that St Joseph, St Peter and other rural areas don’t have to wait on the water tanks at Christmas and New Year’s.
Bus blues? Pull over the Minister of Transport to ensure that people won’t still be in the bus terminal two, three or longer hours awaiting a bus.
Justice delays? Pull over the Attorney General with forthwith instructions.
• Antoinette Connell is a News Editor. Email [email protected].
