Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 04/Nov 09:30

Playing a dangerous, costly game for keeps

THE EDITOR: When we were children most of us pitched (played marbles) for fun, but there were some, usually boys, who fancied themselves marble sharks and played for keeps. One of my brothers actually once took my stash of speckled "pretties" and lost every last one of them in a game. It pained me tremendously. But they were just marbles. Today, in the sphere of politics, people tend to believe that they can say or do anything at all to advance their party's agenda. There is neither right nor wrong, good nor bad, fact nor fiction. Nothing really matters except winning an advantage for their team. Unfortunately, however, though they may not know it, individuals and even countries are playing a dangerous and costly game for keeps, with their souls being the marbles here. No one can indulge their basest instinct for racism and other hatreds, twist themselves into pretzels in order to pretend to believe lies or to sell them, or champion unjust causes without their souls metamorphosing accordingly. Similarly for our country. Have we thought out what would happen if we sent our army into battle against, say, Venezuela, as part of perhaps a "coalition of the willing" or under the pretext that we or Guyana are being attacked? Not only would we be sucked into a guerilla war, both there and here, but our country would certainly never be the same again. The soldiers we complain about only spending their time shining boots would quickly become battle-hardened troops inured to blood. Will they now look at us differently and will they now begin to believe themselves to have a power that they never did before? Can our people continue to trust to have them as our protectors or would they become wolves among sheep that we now have to look at askance? We are playing for keeps and the choices we are making today can metastasise and contaminate not just our own souls, but the soul of our country forever. JOANNE K JOSEPH San Fernando The post Playing a dangerous, costly game for keeps appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.