by Raffique Shah
December 17, 2006
I have been thinking about my approach to Christmas which many have described as being that of a Scrooge, not a Santa. True. I dislike seeing people exhaust all their earnings and savings on this one occasion, only to have to resort to borrowing to survive the few months afterwards. It happens to most low-to-middle income earners. With portents of global warming soon bringing an end to all life as we know it, what the hell? So let the masses overeat, drink excessively, and be merry. As for me, I shall join the fete, even transforming myself into Santa. I’m sharing gifts aplenty, too-starting, as usual, with the big boys and girls.
For Prime Minister Patrick Manning, I have six smelter plants, all approved by the EMA. I can see Patos happy like pappy, playing with the gas and steel and alumina and emissions and effluent. A little boy’s dream, really, especially when you will have grown up in the environment (delete that word!) he and I did, when boys had to settle for home-made guava tops and twenty-five cents caps guns. Mammy! Santa gave me six big smelters, all working, all spewing smoke and dust. Oh Gawd, I want you to thank Santa for me.
Mammy, look! Santa also brought me all these completely built skyscrapers-no Lego blocks, these! Now mih skyline looking good. But wait: what are those little smudges he left at the base of these buildings? Looks like some grimy drains, scores of vagrants, shoddy sidewalks, and even raw sewage flowing free. Santa probably didn’t sleigh-in with his potty. But say what? Mammy, now, from the tops of these tall buildings I can reach the Lord, directly. No more church for me. I can now communicate with The Man himself.
And whatever I say, it’s like words that cometh from the mouth of The Master. Mammy, ah could cry with joy! Ah feel ah in heaven. Wake mih up ah not ready for that trip yet.
Colm Imbert will find under his bois bande tree (I am told he guards that tree with a gun!) a mass of rail sets to have fun with, no “choo-choo” these, real electrically-driven ones. Little Colm does not have to go through any tenders procedure, feasibility study (what’s that?) or waves of criticism (except, perhaps, from jealous waifs in the neighbourhood). It’s all there-rapid rail, monorail, light rail, heavy rail, even a damn rail that snakes into the sky, with a label that says ‘pie-in-the-sky’. Ah never see so many trains in mih life, Mammy. Best of all you and I didn’t have to spend any of daddy’s money to buy these expensive toys. Santa and his helpers, poor sods, paid for it all. Mammy, can I invite Patos over to play with the free trains? Ah know he too likes trains, especially when he does not have to pay for them.
Santa Shah skips across the country to another “big” fella, who, I’ve been told, likes human toys to play with. I pop through the window (no chimney here), and there he is sleeping with a devilish grin on his face. But wait, nah! Somebody set me up! This fella they call Bas is a little boy. No wonder he likes to play games with marbles and people. Well, I have a bagful of miniature humanoids for him, although my helpers had difficulty reducing some of them to toy size. Under Bas’ tulsie tree I set down a stout woman, no Sita she, but a devotee of the maha guru nevertheless. I can see Bas pawing away at her. Hey, what the hell am I seeing here? Boys with no balloons? Here’s a fella looking like a football, but with no balls, maybe Bas will kick this one around. And in this bag there’s a mass of miniatures, almost like pawns. I guess these are the expendables and disposables he uses in place of toilet paper. Oh, well, when he emerges from his stupor, he’ll know what to do with them.
Off I go again, blimp afloat, drifting in the sky at taxpayers’ expense. What’s this name here, Rudy? Martin Joseph? Who he? Any relation to Jesus’ dad? Strange if he is because his wish list has guns, guns and more guns! Oh, well, I have the works here. There’s this Heckler & Koch MP5. Oh, and in that bag is an array of hardware I picked up when we stopped off earlier in Bethlehem. The birthplace of the Lord has become an arms bazaar. Look at guns in here Uzi, Galil. I see cluster-bombs. Seems that this MJ fella is a sadist. Anyway, our job, Rudy, is to deliver, not seek explanations.
Blimp lowers, I step out on MJ’s lawn. But what the hell is this? Four fellas with bigger guns than these. And they are rushing us, Rudy! Get this damn blimp into the sky fast!! Whew! Being Santa is no longer fun. I could have been mugged on MJ’s lawn. (more on Christmas eve)
Shah forgot to give himself a gift this Christmas – the gifts of coherent thought and the ability to express them in writing.
Hmmm…I like this thing they call “Free Speech.” Because of fredom of speech, men like Rafik, with no solid educational background can say what they want and be a columnist for a major newspaper. It gives people the right to go shooting their mouths off without doing proper research. I like how meh padna Riaz state it in the above comment.
What’s up with these comments? Is this some personal grudge against Raffique that you are trying to vent here? Raffique is usually an ok writer and I am sure these negative comments cannot harm him in any way. Come clean with your motives.
MR. BALTY SIR, I like what you said about FREEDOM OF SPEECH, is this same FREEDOM you’ve taken, to write this pack of S… What you know about BRO.SHAH? how do you know he has no SOLID EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND? before shooting of your WATER MOUTH, you better do PROPER RESEARCH, because like is only SHAH you know; you don’t know REX LA SALLE. I should leave you sleeping, and don’t even try waking you up. I have no choice but to agree with HERU, this is some PERSONAL GRUDGE/ENVY against BRO.SHAH. So Panday, Ramesh, and you MR.BALTY, can’t put those SIX FEET in BRO.SHAH BOOTS; ’cause you don’t know where he was TRAINED, or where HE CAME FROM OK. (STOP WRITING CRAP ON YOUR PC, IT’S BEST YOU PLAY SOLITAIRE)
Heru, have you read this piece written? Honestly go back and read it carefully and you will see that his thoughts are very disconnected. I suppose you have since you sian, “Raffique is usually an ok writer,” which also says a lot about what you think of his writings. Though I must admit, my comment above was harsh and slightly below the belt but I couldn’t resist, in the same way he couldn’t resist poking at Manning, Imbert, Panday and the rest.
I don’t have anything against Mr. Shah personally but I have a problem with anyone who utters misinformation and refuses to acknowledge it even when the truth is in plain sight. Look back on recent articles written by Shah in this Blog, I have pointed out errors in his logic and reasoning where they are plain to see.
I have also pointed out instances of inaccuracies in articles written by S. Kangal, Linda Edwards and Dr. Nantanbu. So it’s nothing personal against Mr. Shah. I have been pointing out his errors since 2001 when he wrote the article “Priceless historical artifacts” (http://www.trinicenter.com/Raffique/2001/Mar/142001.htm) where he matter-of-factly stated that “titans like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan could see the towering statues” of Buddha in what is now modern day Afganistan. I pointed out to him that these statues were built long after Alexander’s time and by the style in some of them you can see Greek influence in the art, proving (along with other archeological evidence) that they were built after Alexander had come and was long dead. He mentions a couple more inaccuracies which will take too long to go into now. Nevertheless I had e-mailed him these errors, he admitted that he was no expert on Asian history or art but the article remains without amendment.
My reason for making these comments is not to “harm” Raffique. It’s so people reading his articles will realize that he (and sometimes others) gives wrong information at times. – Look back at the article where he dismissed the U.N. figures or look at Mr. Kangal’s most recent article.
Trinidad already has too many misinformed and ignorant people.
Clone, I know a lot more than you and I can tell by your posts. This paragraph you wrote must have take you a couple hours to compose as I have seen your standard of English and you thought processes (or lack thereof) in previous comments made by you. – you appear to be against freedom of speech and human rights, or more likely you do not undestand what they represent, as is evidenced by your comments in the past.
I know where Rafik was trained and I am not impressed. If you want to call that a solid educational background then you either have very low standards or are easily impressed.
P.S. what is with the CAPITALIZATION of letters in certain words. The only other person I knew who did that was a bona fide idiot. But then my knowledge is limited as you have pointed out.
Heru
It, may be a personal grude even though I have never met the man. As far as I’m conrened, he and LaSalle should have been convicted of treason a long time ago. But that’s just my opinion. I’m utalizing the mechanisms of free speech and freedom of thought. In a country where Abu Bakr could walk free, I suppose no less should be granted to Rafik.
just leave shah alone i have been reading his articles for years and anything he has to say is worth listening to or a good read . thank u shah for keeping it real after all these years .
I read this article and the comments only recently. I have no idea where some of those who believe Shah is a fool come from, but here in TT he is a “must read” for most Sunday Express readers. I’ve never encountered major errors in his writings. But every time I listen to Ramesh Maharaj or Winston Dookeran, I hear them in each sentence. These two, among so many others, are supposed to be highly educated. Shah, like CLR James and Winston Churchill, did not attend a tertiary institution. But the latter, while they may be icons in literature and language, are vastly superior than tons of academics. Incidentally, from what I have read, Churchill attended only Sandhurst, which is where Shah graduated from. CLR attended QRC college, Shah Presentation. If you are looking for intellectual masturbation, there’s a phalanx of writers in the local and Caribbean media. Point is their thoughts are expressed in language the common reader does not understand. Think Lloyd Best. I’d rather read Shah any day. I do so every Sunday. Maybe he’s earthy tonic for those whose heads are in the sky and brains buried where the sun does not shine.