Trinidad Elections

Like all other political issues, I followed this one just a little more keenly. I guess deep down, the Trini is there in me and my nostalgia for my homeland and growing up days played a part in wanting to see this change. My family left Trinidad for good while the UNC was in power when we realized that our vote for them did not help us any bit. I believe that I can pinpoint exactly when Trinidad's fragile system of law and order began to tear apart at the seams.
Ami's major is political science and when there is an election, one with that major will be talking from start to finish. Apart from that, he happens to be closely related to a key politician and hence, his interest was somewhat more peaked than mine. In order to get him to stop analyzing Trinidad politics so much, my idea was to get rid of all the old farts and bring in a wave of fresh blood and progressive thinkers. Ami went into more details about checks and balances and how they should limit the number of terms that the prime minister and president serves. I agree with him.
Frankly, this situation seemed hopeless from the start. Elections are always exciting to follow up on but I think most of the people in our community already believed that PNM was going to win again. See, in Trinidad we like to think that we are not voting based on race but when we look at all our rationalizing (honestly!), we see that we are voting along racial lines. There is nothing more to it. Really, I wanted Dookeran to win this one. His party seemed to have some hope for the country as opposed to what I have read in the news for the past five years.
One wonders to what level a voter's brain must have disintegrated if he/she failed to remember all the wasted money, time, energy, blimps to monitor crime, aluminum smelters, PM's mansion, crime, kidnappings and whatever else I have left out. To anyone who would dare to say that Trinis vote based on issues, I would say think again. The helplessness is almost the same as what we felt after the 2000 elections when Florida went from Democrat to Republican in a matter of minutes...all at the will of Daddy Bush and Baby Bush.