The Secret to Happiness
I have not blogged for some time.
I have been busy with work, but a few weeks ago Pappy said something that really had me thinking.
How did it all begin?
After a particularly difficult day on the job, I needed to decompress. My whine of choice that day was envy. That is, envying people who do not seem to be very bright, but who always seem to be fortunate enough to land that cushy job, that managerial / supervisory position that requires them to do little work (all of the underlings do the hard stuff), but offers a satisfactory salary and often times, many perks (Blackberries for all?).
In a small pond such as T&T, the truth of the matter is, success for some may depend on how well-connected you are, who you know, what you can do for them so that they can do for you.
Want your child to get a transfer to a particular secondary school? Better have a friend in the Ministry of Education.
Want your child to go abroad to study? Best have to have a family member who has an in with the scholarships section of any Ministry (Ministry of Culture…).
Don’t want to wait all day trying to get your driver’s license renewed? Good thing neighbs is working there.
Want to have a block-o, but cannot be bothered to get the relevant permits? A nice case of something for the Officers.
And so I went on venting until Pappy suggested that my lot in life might improve if I just linked up with a high-ranking PNMite and become a PNM member myself.
Surely he said that in jest!
But the more that I thought about it, maybe he had hit on something…
Things here have been getting worse (crime, education, food prices, health care, housing, public utilities, social services, you name it) and their attitudes have not wavered much, their policies and practices have not been overhauled (if you can read between the lines).
Can the belief in the PNM myth (“This is PNM country.” “Great is the PNM and long shall it prevail.”) be so powerful that it acts as a cure for all ills, a panacea (Rowley and Calder Hart aside)?
Is that the secret to leading a happy life in this place?
Mango
What I really want to know is if I become a PNM member, will my eddoes now taste like stewed chicken?
Nope, but you’d get stewed chicken with the eddoes.
How true.
I would get extra helpings too, free of charge, from the nice ladies at the Femme du Chalet (Breakfast Shed).
Interesting blog post. I was told the same thing by one of my “parental units”.
To date, I haven’t joined, but I did think about it!
“What I really want to know is if I become a PNM member, will my eddoes now taste like stewed chicken? ”
this is the funniest thing i have read in a while.. hahahahh