Quality assurance

I am leaning more and more towards not voting at all whenever elections are announced. I have looked and listened and all have been found wanting.

It is not to say that I seek perfection but standards of some decent level are a reasonable expectation. What the hell is being fed to us by the persons driving after political governance of this country? The utter drivel that flows from the mouths of men and women that we all know are intelligent, socially aware but maybe not wise, or fully cognizant of the effects of their conduct, their words, their omissions.

I am tired of the stories and the fairy tales of tracking, following, creeping, cheating, suspecting and depositing. I want someone who has the ovarian or testicular fortitude to handle the issues, offer a realistic perspective, propose to find the truth, or adopt the phenomena of fairness.

But as I said in a previous blog, the means by which our limited Westminster system operates demands that we sell our voices and consciences to achieve Parliamentary milestones. How many retired (whether forced out by scandal, loss of constituency seat, or voluntary exit) politicians have track sheets of their acts or omissions in the name of party loyalty that would have spun the lives of Vincentians amiss?

So it comes back to the title, where is the monitoring system in this country? We have the Chamber of Commerce and the Bureau of Standards that theoretically are in existence to maintain certain levels of fairness and representation on behalf of certain entities and consumers alike. Even though we all know the misnomers that can arise from believing that these systems are the sure fire way of addressing the concerns of their relevant stakeholders - at least they do exist.

So where is our truth regulator? Where is the person or the persons concerned with demanding the maintenance of some standard of quality among our leaders? The irony is that a government may have to be the one to formulate, fund and facilitate the creation of this dire need.

And then that entity would be subject to criticisms of unfairness or unwarranted suspicion, like J F Mitchell's indictment of the Supervisor of Elections, according the media coverage this week.

And then where are the masses in this whole fiasco? Sitting back nonchalant, cussing, quarreling, defending, rinsing of our brains, requiring nothing further than a hype, a momentary flash of angry at the unjustly actions of the reds and yellows. We have not determined within ourselves the need to be treated better, found the ability to demand a higher level of discourse.

Why? Maybe we are fearful of our own voices, our minds? Do we think ourselves unable to express our concerns for ourselves, families and country? Are we so intimidated by the titles, the flash and the misconceived notions of 'me-reach-high-above-u' that we silence our cries for our communities?

So here we are, stuck in the maze of confusion, filled with endless communiques of useless information that accomplishes the flushing of our mental cheeks, making us undertake a temporary indignation but not a righteous one.