One reason why civil society has not been able to influence life in T&T as much as it should has been the weakness of its professional organisations, whether scientific, cultural, sporting or otherwise. The only one to have made its mark is the legal profession. It is really the lack of professionalism of the people who control these organisations that is at the root of the problem.
In the case of medicine, it's not only some of the lay people who manage the NGOs that are the problem but the medical men or women who are as guilty of non-professionalism as their lay counterparts. In my first year as a paediatrician at Port-of-Spain General Hospital (POSGH), I had an experience that typifies this. One morning I read in the Guardian that the then teachers' union, now gone the way of the dodo, during the course of its annual convention at the Hilton Hotel, was having a certain doctor, an adult surgeon, give the keynote address the following day. The topic? Learning problems in Trinidadian schoolchildren! Much impressed by the ability of a surgeon to be able to give such a talk, which at the time would have been difficult if not impossible for me, I mentioned it to another paediatrician at POSGH, and was surprised at the ironic smile and non-committal comment he gave.
The reason became clear the following morning, a Saturday. After ward rounds I retired to the medical library to look up a reference. On entering who should I see but the surgeon in question, busily looking up books in the paediatric section. Noticing me, he approached and to my amazement boldly asked me if I could give him some references about learning problems in school children, because he had to give this talk tonight and he really knew little about the topic. Flustered by the embarrassing question, I mumbled something and watched in astonishment as he continued in this vein to the medical librarian, complaining about the talk he had to give some eight hours later. It was clear he had no idea about children, schools and even less about learning disabilities. Yet there he was, absurdly trying to find out something about the topic he was scheduled to talk about just a few hours later at a major conference.
Was this the way he prepared for surgery? Did he not see how stupid he appeared? Why had he then agreed to speak on the topic? Why, in the first place, had he been asked? The answers to these questions explain much of what has gone wrong with us. He was family to the head of the then teachers' union. And he was a poor professional, an amateur really, a boy trying to do a man's work. Race, or your politics or your family or because you are "friend" with someone, have an unbalanced advantage over competence. Race and politics divide us and, to some extent, always will. Family is important and friendship is useful. But professionalism is more. One needs to be serious about one's job or profession. In T&T we believe you are serious if you are a foreigner, especially if you are white and talk with an accent, or if you dress in a long-sleeve shirt, suit and tie, or try to look serious whilst avoiding serious questions, like the so-called Independent senator who voted with the Government so as not to "thwart" its will, or spend time making official statements on unimportant topics, like swine flu, whilst avoiding the serious issues of dengue fever and overcrowding in hospital.
"Habitus non facit monachum," says Shakespeare. Little has changed since that Saturday morning. If anything it has become worse as far as lay people are concerned. Despite the presence now of committed medical personnel, most NGOs have blithely gone their own way and make their decisions based on somebody's personal opinion, often taken from a quick read from the Internet, about what is important and useful in a particular sphere of human activity. We have organisations that pretend to know all about assessing children with disabilities based on a single incomplete assessment done on a child in their care by a local paediatrician. Because of this they now proclaim their expertise in understanding disabilities. The potential for further damaging children under their care is limitless. Other examples abound. One of the most common is the diagnosing of children as "autistic." This diagnosis can only be made by experienced paediatricians and child psychologists, preferably as a team. Nowadays, every other teacher, social worker and guidance counsellor in T&T seems to believe that they can diagnose "autism."
This not the way to go. We must learn to co-operate and trust each other. That may be difficult as long as we have incompetent professionals and arrogant lay people more interested in personal gain, economic or otherwise, and who are selfishly willing to further hinder the development of our children. Until we come to terms with that legacy we are destined to wallow in mediocrity.