We con­tin­ue to tell a lie. It might on­ly be a lit­tle one but the fre­quen­cy with which we lie in Trinidad and To­ba­go is such that we have be­come delu­sion­al. Most peo­ple will tell you there are much more im­por­tant things and prob­lems and is­sues be­dev­illing Trinidad and To­ba­go. We are to­tal­ly disin­gen­u­ous and dis­hon­est. We have de­val­ued the truth to the point where we ei­ther don’t re­alise it or even care. Liars have the as­cen­dan­cy—they are shame­less.

As a so­ci­ety, we no longer val­ue the truth. We don’t dare ques­tion or dis­agree with our clique or group. Get­ting to the truth no longer mat­ters. There are cer­tain things that we hide and ought not to be ques­tioned. Most peo­ple are more afraid of be­ing shunned, can­celled or os­tracised.

So stand­ing up for the truth no longer mat­ters. It’s bet­ter to be liked than to be truth­ful. It’s far bet­ter to re­main un­der the tent than to be kicked out of the tent.

So we main­tain the il­lu­sion that the truth mat­ters when it re­al­ly doesn’t mat­ter.

The more cre­ative and in­ven­tive the lie the greater the re­ward of re­main­ing wel­comed.

I had in­tend­ed to de­vote some space and words to the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed first Caribbean Games which took place in Guade­loupe- from June 29 to Ju­ly 3. There was so much good and pos­i­tive that came out of the his­toric Caribbean Games. It was a huge state­ment of in­tent. It showed that when the Caribbean is unit­ed and has a com­mon cause and fo­cus- all things are pos­si­ble. That is con­trary to the over­rid­ing view that we in the Caribbean can­not or­gan­ise any­thing. We can!

That’s the truth but it doesn’t mat­ter. Peo­ple pre­fer to point out all that was wrong so that the lie that we in the Caribbean can’t or­gan­ise any­thing must pre­vail. The lie is more im­por­tant than the truth.

Short­ly af­ter the 3rd of Ju­ly Caribbean Games clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny came the 5th Ju­ly Olympic Re­al­lo­ca­tion Cer­e­mo­ny for the Bei­jing 4x100 men re­lay team of Ke­ston Bled­man, Aaron Arm­strong, Em­manuel Cal­len­der, Marc Burns and Richard Thomp­son.

It took four­teen years for the TeamT­TO ath­letes to re­ceive their de­served gold medal. That for the first time in Olympic his­to­ry the steel pan ver­sion of our na­tion­al an­them was played at an Olympic medal cer­e­mo­ny added sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal im­port. But the pro­found rel­e­vance of our third Olympic Gold medal. Is a pos­i­tive the coun­try need­ed giv­en the neg­a­tiv­i­ty that is con­sum­ing the coun­try.

But the lie that Trinidad and To­ba­go cares about sport is more im­por­tant than the truth that we re­al­ly don’t.

Then came the news that An­tho­ny Har­ris—a sports pho­tog­ra­ph­er and cy­cling and fit­ness and well­ness and ac­tive lifestyle en­thu­si­ast had suc­cumbed to in­juries suf­fered when he was the vic­tim of a hit and run ac­ci­dent around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Sat­ur­day.

There are no words that can be said to of­fer com­fort to his be­reaved fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues. In a coun­try that val­ues the lie that sport, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and keep­ing fit is im­por­tant and mat­ters.

The truth is that mo­torists in Trinidad and To­ba­go don’t re­spect cy­clists, run­ners and walk­ers who dai­ly live their com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to a health­i­er, fit­ter and safer Trinidad and To­ba­go is not im­por­tant.

The lie mat­ters, not the truth.