The joker is in the pack

07.DEC.10

Editor: With all the pressures of life weighing us down, something to make us laugh at times, is very welcomed.{{more}}

This was the case while viewing SVG TV on Monday, November 29 evening news. The leader of the Green Party, Ivan O’Neal, really made me crack up, when he fumbled on the names of his slate of candidates and had to be prompted from behind. Also, I burst into a fit of laughter when the candidates were interviewed.

I want to applaud O’Neal for making light what is serious business. Maybe he reasoned that the atmosphere around election time is too tense and heavy and decided for Vincentians to be jovial and lighthearted, by his amusement. It is with much restraint that I stop short of thanking him and his team for making a difference. They are well deserving of an award called “The joker in the pack”.

I was very amused how he could not have called the candidates names; how “Bongo Shine” is tipped to take the heavy weight of Transport and Works; how Ms. Simon is equipped to take the more weight and strain of agriculture, and also how the young man who never voted is in waiting for his share of whichever weight. My laughter almost went out of control and I felt I was turning green.

Green Party, at this juncture, I cannot resist saying thank you for the amusement at this tense period. Thank you to O’Neal, thanks “Bongo Shine”- shine on, thanks to the agriculture lady, and to the young -not yet voted. “Laughter is good medicine.”

However, on a serious note though, O’Neal, as you can see, election politics is serious business for serious people. If you are serious to persist, and now to field a slate of 12 or 13 candidates in these harsh economic times, you should be

serious enough maybe to stop “making a mockery of democracy.”

The era of pappy-show politics has long gone. Remember too, the old adage which says “willful waste makes woeful want.” Think about some examples from before.

I say no more, except to encourage you to use your creative joking talent for amusement and entertainment on other fronts. Maybe you will make a good stand-up comedian.

I end by pointing out that, it is the joker, not politics that is in the pack.

L.B. Williams (Mrs)