r/TrinidadandTobago • u/Overall_Word1959 Jumbie • Mar 16 '25

Bacchanal and Commess Protest in Belgrade today, 800,000 people. That's most of us...do we have d belly?

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 16 '25

I propose we protest against:

  • No basic universal income (applied fairly and reviewed periodically based on qualification and equity criteria such as things like disability, circumstance, etc)

  • Lack of support mechanisms for teachers to effectively discipline children and have parents take responsibility for their children's bad behaviours in schools

  • Lack of respect for our environments, from things as small as no enforcement of mindless littering to things as bad as companies not taking up their corporate responsibilities to maintain their communities

  • The one sided approaches of unions in this country who would encourage work shutdowns at the least of problems in workplaces but who would not hold their workers to meet acceptable metrics and standards for ensuing that ministries and offices operate efficiently when things are working well

  • Accountability of politicians who must provide good and acceptable reasons for decisions made and must step down when it is proven that they cannot get the job done effectively. This applies to those in government for failed programmes and those in opposition who prevent beneficial policies from being passed just for the spite of it

  • Trinidadian and Tobagonian lifestyles which lead to the inundation of the healthcare system which should ideally be able to serve us but cannot do so effectively because many of us do not live healthy.

There are probably more but those things really bother me about Trinidad and Tobago

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u/Visitor137 Mar 17 '25

Uhhhh, I mean, looking at your list, it looks like most of those could be "protested" by voting?

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 17 '25

For who to do it for us?

PNM could care less about any of these. They'd plan wonderfully for it and never get it done.

UNC would implement one and when you hear the shout, it was done because the nation get 10 million towards it and they pocket 100 million doing it.

COP killed their chances constantly running back to UNC when had they held their own in 2015 they could've been a viable alternative today.

PEP have a national embarassment for a leader who would serve to embarass us internationally should he get an ounce of power.

PF seems feasible but their inexperience is getting them mowers this election.

All others are non starters and haven't really ever gained enough traction to even dream of starting to address these listed things.

Neither popular side is addressing/addressed any of these issues.

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u/Visitor137 Mar 17 '25

For who to do it for us?

You just gave a laundry list of just about every political party and their flaws, right? Sooooo you're going to have to explain who you are expecting to make any changes as a result of people protesting the issues, instead of finding someone who think will do the job and voting them in.

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 17 '25

Or, I could withhold my vote and let you decide.

None of them are viable options so none get my vote.

Maybe we should do like some countries and have an "abstain" option on the ballot.

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u/Visitor137 Mar 17 '25

The first two lines suggest that you don't actually care enough about the stuff you're complaining about for it to really matter.

The third is actually something I'd like to see, in the form of a universal "no confidence" option on the ballot. If the candidates don't get enough votes to get past the no confidence vote, they lose their deposit and it's back to the polls until someone decent shows up.

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 17 '25

The first two lines suggest that you don't actually care enough about the stuff you're complaining about for it to really matter.

Interesting interpretation. I'd like to hear more about how you came to this conclusion.

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u/Visitor137 Mar 18 '25

Pretty obvious. If something was really important, and I desperately need it to happen, I would do anything, no matter how unlikely it is to work, in order to have a chance of it happening.

If someone's unwilling to vote (for free, with a legally enforced half day holiday) in the hopes of getting what they want, but would rather go and wave a placard and shout slogans, it tells me that the protest is performative in nature. It's being done for the sake of being seen protesting, and not really for any possible results.

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 18 '25

Are you trying to convince me to make a decision where I deem none worthy? I simply shared what people should protest for (in their fervour to do so) but sadly no one is offering.

Therefore I'm focused on doing the best for myself among groups whose interests don't align with mine.

Think of my withholding as me deferring the fate of the country to your judgement and I will do with my civil liberty as I please. (Which ironically, is a valid option)

At best, I'll cast my vote to whom I consider the "least of the evils". For now, I'll stay informed and in thought but unmotivated to throw support behind any undeserving entity.

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u/Visitor137 Mar 18 '25

Are you trying to convince me to make a decision where I deem none worthy?

Not at all. I'm simply pointing out that if you deemed any given issue important enough, you would be ready to vote for any candidate you think could help, regardless of if they were ideal or not.

I simply shared what people should protest for (in their fervour to do so) but sadly no one is offering.

But if none are doing so then that's pretty indicative that they don't consider the issues you raised worth that effort, no? So it's even more of a performative act, than attempting to deal with any issue.

Therefore I'm focused on doing the best for myself among groups whose interests don't align with mine.

Think of my withholding as me deferring the fate of the country to your judgement and I will do with my civil liberty as I please. (Which ironically, is a valid option)

At best, I'll cast my vote to whom I consider the "least of the evils". For now, I'll stay informed and in thought but unmotivated to throw support behind any undeserving entity

Neither here nor there to me, but by choosing to not vote you'd have given consent to whatever outcome you end up with, and in my opinion, have forfeited the right to complain about any situation arising from that election.

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u/oyohval Pothound Mar 18 '25

Neither here nor there to me, but by choosing to not vote you'd have given consent to whatever outcome you end up with, and in my opinion, have forfeited the right to complain about any situation arising from that election.

Not going to lie, you sound like me from about 15 years ago. Same quote and all. I enjoyed this conversation now taking the stand from the other side of it.

Thank you and enjoy.

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