Editorial: And the band plays on . . .

It is with a great deal of dismay that we hear of plans for another so-called ‘ONE NATION’ concert. To say that we need this concert as much as we need an outbreak of chikungunya is grossly understating our outrage. For one thing, we see no redemptive value in this concert. To our thinking, it serves no useful purpose, save as a cheap and tawdry distraction for the people from the growing realisation and sentiment that “All’s not well in Mudville!” At a time when the government, never mind its bravado and ‘blame the UPP-yapping, is beset by fiscal woes and a moribund economy, it appears that the cynical in officialdom are banking on a red-herring  . . . well, in this case, a ‘sweet-sounding nothing,’ a ‘wink-up, wine-up’ interlude to take the peoples’ minds off the grim existential reality of ordinary men and women in our beloved state. Hence, the striking-up of the band in the form of this ‘free’ (and nothing in this world is free; someone is paying for this, and many are gleaning a financial windfall) concert.
Naturally, with all the grumbling and complaining surrounding the disbursement (or lack thereof) of monies for pensioners and those owed back pay, and those who claim not to have been paid overtime and so on and so forth, one would think that sober heads in the administration would mount some sort of opposition to the notion of a bizarre concert extravaganza right smack in the middle of a financial crisis. Alas, seems there are no sober heads in this administration. From all appearances, they are all of the same mind that this obscene (some say ‘criminal’ distraction from the real bread-and-butter and quality-of-life issues is the right thing to do. There are no men or women with some modicum of courage and backbone to stand up and say, “Meh Lawd, this is a bad idea; the optics are poor!” Au contraire, they all ‘knock one head,’ much like the officials who go along with Donald Trump in his wrongheaded governance. Thank God for men of principle, like soon-to-be-former US Secretary of Defense, James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, who quit the administration rather than compromise his morals and values.
Of course, would that there were more men and women like ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, not only in our neighbour to the north, but in our fair state and in the capitals of the Caribbean. We are looking for a few good men and women who will quit singing from the pernicious hymnbook and leave the band. After all, who wants to be “Fiddling while Rome burns?” Who wants to be providing cheap entertainment in the middle of a crisis?
Apparently, those who derive some sort of perverse benefit. Consider, even as the Titanic was going down, and the deck chairs were sliding into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, the band aboard the doomed ship is reported to have continued playing. Talk about a divorce from reality! Good grief! Similarly, even as bombs were dropping all over Berlin, and the allies were closing in on his bunker, it is reported that Hitler and his closest henchmen danced and drank (Hitler even tied the knot with his longtime mistress, Eva Braun) to the strains of one of his favorite composers, Richard Wagner. As a matter of fact, so delusional was the poor fellow, that he was still looking at maps and giving military commands as though he was still the invincible Fuhrer atop the military and ‘economic powerhouse’ . . . er, the thousand-year, Third Reich. He wist not!
So he commanded the faithful to dance. He commanded his decimated military to ‘fight to the last breath.’ He knew that his grand promises and plans and policies were an abject failure, but he commanded the band to play on. And the band played on . . . a macabre German One Nation concert!