Mai'khi C'Nia, Contributor

In those days the comrades rallied together to make Sista P's first general conference as party president a memorable affair, and the pundits were at one saying that only the late great conceptualiser himself hath pulled a larger multitude at a party confab and that was way back in '76. And the premier was in the pink of form at the podium, with a devastating display of party gimmicks bolstered by administrative largesse.

Now all of Jamdown was on election watch, but the Labourites were previous out of the blocks. Yea, the starter was yet to raise his gun, but already they were pell-mell down the track for they sought to take advantage of the comrades' apparent disarray which resulted from an acerbic internal showdown for the post of party president and the time which was required thereafter for bruised egos to be massaged. But Labour was likened unto a hare executing a 100-metre dash down the straight when the event at hand was really a quarter mile around the track.

Dearly beloved, the politics of this day art not defined by cold war considerations but by the individual relevance of nations within a global perspective.

Behold, Jamdown's politics hath failed to evolve beyond its violent and homicidal past and now the precedents from its dark history hath become the tail that wags the dog; for every violent criminal activity in certain parts art accorded a political label and society instantly dust off the ombudsman who initiated that knackered symbolic walkthrough.

Side-splitting hee-haw

Meanwhile, the perpetrators art off to the side having a side-splitting hee-haw and being entertained by the political jesters getting at each other's throats in an unendearing and juvenile display of déjà vu.

Hear O Jamdown, for in diverse places of depression 'tician hath kept their constituents vulnerable by giving them fish instead of teaching them how to fish. Yea, where the people art famished they appear unto them bearing curried goat, mannish water and white rum; but after the ballots art cast they go AWOL on the people never to be seen or heard again till its time to fly the gate once more.

Behold, these are the days when 'ticians art forced to come clean and admit to the nastiness that they have been up to in the name of the party, but be ye not deceived by their new found sense of honour and reconciliation, for without a falling out with the party such admissions would not be forthcoming and thou would still be perplexed as to the origin of certain of thy aggravation.

Verily, all political patronisation is equal unto the people, whether it be a crash programme extended over six months or a low-budget carrot on a stick strategy of inducement.

But the people must recognise the pork barrel for what it is and know that the path to true empowerment is not through their stomachs, but through the application of wisdom in the utilisation of the constitutional and democratic processes available at their disposal.

For on the day that thou get behind the curtains to make thy X, thou will be accompanied only by consideration for thine own future and that of thy dependants, and those preoccupations should guide thy hand when thy mark is made and none shall be the wiser unless thou disclose of it otherwise. Selah.