May 14, 2005

Dear Sir,

I cannot express the depth of my anger and horror when I read in the paper that yet another child has died as a result of Shaken Baby Syndrome and that no one will be held responsible for her murder.

The news that little Samira Daniels was brutally murdered came on the second anniversary of the death of my precious granddaughter, Cassidy, who was also the victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome with impact.

All of us who loved Cassidy were able to get some degree of closure when her father was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for her senseless murder. It appears that Samira's untimely death will go unresolved and that the person or persons responsible for her murder will be allowed to go free.

How is it that this society failed Samira? We owe it to this innocent child to ensure that the person who committed this heinous crime is held accountable and appropriately punished.

May 16, 2005

Dear Sir,

People like to accuse politicians of "playing politics".

Attorney General Sen. Larry Mussenden, told opposition MP Trevor Moniz that he was playing politics when he criticised the recent report on the island's judicial process. The PLP got accused of it when they were in Opposition. Often they "played politics" by suggesting alternatives to UBP policy that ended up being UBP policy. This was usually after a period of time deemed to be the limit of the public's attention span. It's very hard to imagine an activity for a politician other than "playing politics".

They go together like mud and rain. Usually when politicians get accused of doing exactly what they were elected to do (play politics) it means that their criticisms are alarmingly close to the truth. A politician has the wonderful privilege of saying anything and having people pay attention. He or she has permission to be a fool if they so choose. If that happens they get unelected. But if their accusations do not sound, foolish, but are plausible people will keep them around.

Since no one is calling Moniz a fool, we can assume he is playing politics; unless he is being a statesmen, in which case he is doing nothing. To be accused of playing politics is the highest honour a politician can achieve. He is doing what he should be.

For clever Government MPs there is one way around a critic who is doing his job. You get him on your side. The clever government MP says " I am so glad the UBP has finally recognised the problem (that they helped create blah blah. etc.). I extend my hand to MP Mr. Shoesonbackwards, and hope he will cooperate with us in solving the problem."

This is all preceded with secret deal making to make sure that Mr. Shoesonbackwards actually takes the extended hand. It's facile, it's funny, it's not completely transparent, it's playing politics. Hurrah! e