The Summit of the Americas is just down the road and I am up a creek without a paddle. It’s just so unfair. I, the original Obama Mama, who wrote a column that Barack Obama would become President even before he won his national Senate seat, will have no opportunity to catch a glimpse of the President of the US. I worked so hard to help elect President Obama, and look at my luck:I’m here, in Trinidad, virtually under “house arrest”.

No one is officially using the term “house arrest” when it comes to the nudge we’re getting to stay home during the Summit, but it sure feels that way to this Obama Mama. Come this weekend, I’ll be thinking about what it might have been like to catch a glimpse of the Obamas. I’ll be wondering why Government is depriving the Obamas of seeing the real sights of Trinidad – like the vagrants in Tamarind Square.

That whole vagrant plan has been one of the most baffling aspects of the preparation for the Summit of the Americas. You’d think that Government would have bigger fish to fry than hiding vagrants while getting ready for the Summit. Instead, they cooked up a plan to stash a few vagrants in the St Ann’s hospital. What a silly idea. Patients from that hospital wander around St Ann’s. It’s too bad my St Ann’s vagrant friend Jub Jub is no longer with us. He would have known just how to handle the police. Some vagrants were supposed to be packed up and deposited in Piparo. Residents protested.

Can you imagine that? Shame on those people from Piparo who said they didn’t want vagrants dumped in their village. Where’s their sense of patriotism? Any village in Trinidad should realise that it is a privilege to have vagrants in their neighbourhood. I’m sure Westmoorings would have taken in all the vagrants without any fuss. They could have been housed in the Chamber of Commerce building and given vouchers for Food Court in West Mall. For that matter, I think Cedros would have taken them too. Cedros always seems to feel closer to Venezuela than Port of Spain, and if Hugo Chavez could say he’d take all the detainees in the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, then I think Cedros would have thought, what’s a few vagrants?

I just don’t get it. We don’t try to hide vagrants from tourists during Carnival. As a matter of fact, we pride ourselves in how well vagrants blend in with the J’ouvert crowd. So why hide them now? Perhaps, the vagrants are really being moved for their own safety while the police have their practice runs for the Summit. And when the police are finished, they’re bound or should I say bong to have practice runs for all the crime that is going on in Trinidad. And hear the latest: the red zone extends into the ocean now that Mrs Obama will be getting a ride on the water taxi. And stay away from the Wild Fowl Trust. She’s visiting there too.

I’m wondering: aren’t the Obamas going to notice there aren’t any people around? Are we trying to give the impression that this is a deserted island? It seems to me that when the Obamas went to France, the Sarkozy’s met them on the street. And what about those big crowds wherever Obama goes? Is he going to be deprived of that here in Trinidad? There’s something very sad about the feeling that Trinidad and Tobago wants to hide us. Yes, I know there are security issues. We want the Obamas to be safe, but is there anyone out there besides me who is feeling like we are carrying this all a bit too far?

And what happens after the Summit of the Americas? Is it business as usual once again? Will Government bus the vagrants back to Tamarind Square? Will we be hard pressed to find a police vehicle on the streets again? I can’t help but feel that we have gone about this whole Summit the wrong way. Government should have tried harder to apply a little Carnival mentality to this Summit. Government should have mandated that everyone don their Carnival costumes and take to the streets. Let the vagrants blend in once again. Let the Obamas see some Dame Lorraines and burrokeets – the closest thing we have to their representation of American political parties.

Government could have used a helicopter to fly Obama from place to place. This would have made him feel right at home, like he was landing on the White House lawn. Helicopter rides would have given him a great view of Carnival. We could have cut the cost of all those police on the streets and just given Obama the blimp for an escort. I’m certain I’m right. If we had to stage something, it should have been Carnival in April. Everyone would have been too busy feting; so they wouldn’t have been in the way. And then, we could have really shown our true colours.