Glenville Ash­by

Brook­lyn, New York: the Mec­ca of West In­di­an cul­ture in the Di­as­po­ra. You may think T&T pol­i­tics is far re­moved from those who live there. But no... it is as close to them?as their jugu­lar vein. From ex­press­ing sup­port of Prime Min­is­ter Man­ning to a haunt­ing plea to the gods to "rid the na­tion of a can­cer,"?in­ter­viewed Trin­bag­o­ni­ans proved in­formed and as­tute as they nav­i­gat­ed the chop­py wa­ters of a po­ten­tial po­lit­i­cal mael­strom on the twin is­land state. With bite, flair and colour, they con­front­ed the is­sues head on.

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Pro PNM

Tall and as­sertive, De­bra Hayes is a re­al es­tate con­sul­tant. She of­fers a glimpse in­to this po­lit­i­cal labyrinth: "I am ex­cit­ed about a pos­si­ble PNM win but af­ter that we must get rid of the Prime Min­is­ter." She con­tin­ues: "He is the prob­lem, not the PNM."?She paus­es, and adds: "I am re­al­ly an­gry and dis­ap­point­ed that some peo­ple went over on the oth­er side....you know what I mean." Like many work­ing on Nos­trand and Church Av­enues, she cites crime as one area that is par­tic­u­lar­ly per­turb­ing. "The PNM must re­build the East Dry Riv­er area. Maybe prop­er hous­ing will change the mind­set," she says.

Hun­gry for more pow­er

"The rough­ness of a neig­bour­hood cre­ates a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on things." A block away, renowned pan­nist and tran­sit work­er Mar­tin Dou­glas is un­abashed­ly sup­port­ive of the in­cum­bent par­ty. But he, too, wants the PM re­moved. "We no longer have a mid­dle class in Trinidad. Dat gone. I don't know how you could sur­vive with some of the salaries there. I still back­ing meh PNM, but we need some se­ri­ous soul search­ing. Ab­solute pow­er cor­rupts ab­solute­ly," he says, rais­ing his hands for em­pha­sis. In Brook­lyn, the PNM un­doubt­ed­ly holds serve. There is nev­er an end to par­ty loy­al­ty there.

Hair­dress­er De­bra Quow laments that she is un­able to vote: "Re­gard­less of what they say, PNM has done a lot for the peo­ple. I was home a month ago and I could tell yuh–things re­al­ly de­vel­op."

Noel Black­man, 45, of Nel­son Street, echoes her sen­ti­ments. He is an­a­lyt­i­cal, weigh­ing in on the Judge Vol­ney mat­ter, adding a tinge of dark ho­mour to the po­lit­i­cal in­trigue: "It's mad­ness... the man just hun­gry for more pow­er. Hon­est­ly, peo­ple on­ly want to get their hands on what left in the trea­sury." Oth­ers were more re­served. "I on­ly wor­ry that the prop­er­ty tax­es don't go up," says Eileen Charles of Guayagua­yare. And, Miguel Del­lam­ore of Mara­bel­la on­ly seemed to care that vi­o­lence does not rear its ug­ly head: "It's all about uni­ty–To­geth­er We As­pire...isn't it so?" he asks rhetor­i­cal­ly. A train ride away–Lib­er­ty Av­enue, Queens–mosques and mandirs are as com­mon­place as the daf­fodils that emerge on the on­set of spring.

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Pro-coali­tion

In­do-Trinida­di­ans are equal­ly an­i­mat­ed about the loom­ing po­lit­i­cal show­down. The vibes there are marked­ly dif­fer­ent. The Peo­ple's Coali­tion en­joys en­dur­ing ad­mi­ra­tion. Ni­ta Ji­bodh, of St Au­gus­tine, works at the pop­u­lar Son­ny's Roti Shop. "Too much cor­rup­tion," she says. "My fam­i­ly have al­ways been UNC sup­port­ers....Humphrey was our man. I per­son­al­ly al­ways looked at Bas­deo Pan­day as a fa­ther fig­ure. He did so much for us. He is a re­al fight­er and I sad that he's not with the par­ty. I don't like what they do to him but I will sup­port Kam­la nev­er­the­less." Dona Ramkhelawam, of Siparia, agrees: "I speak to my son every day and I was down there re­cent­ly...things re­al­ly hard un­less you mak­ing big bucks. When Pan­day was there things were so much bet­ter."

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No vot­ing in the Ap­ple

Bar­ring the odd?in­sin­u­a­tion here–and the eyes that speak vol­umes there–the race card is hard­ly in­ject­ed in­to most opin­ions ex­pressed.

You will not find po­lit­i­cal ap­a­thy in these parts ei­ther. Frus­tra­tion? Yes. Trin­bag­o­ni­ans here want to get out and vote. But they can­not. A call to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Con­sulate con­firmed that much. "We should at least be al­lowed to mail our votes...Oh God man," says one on­look­er, vis­i­bly up­set. In truth, the count­down has be­gun. Some?are ner­vous as if a back break­ing event is about to be­fall them. A PNM de­feat is very pos­si­ble–hard to even imag­ine. For oth­ers, a UNC/Coali­tion vic­to­ry is im­mi­nent. They can on­ly wait and watch.?Sure­ly, May 24 will be the de­cider of all man­ner of things!

(Glenville Ash­by is the New York cor­re­spon­dent for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Guardian)