The more I listen to certain government ministers and their defenders, the more I realise that a lot of people have never stopped to wonder about their purpose. Naturally, these government ministers are relying on this lack of curiosity to get away with the bare foolishness they say and do. So long as it never crosses our mind to consider why we employ a group of representatives or how they should be representing us, they can do as they please. Which, of course, is precisely what many of them are doing.

For example, Trinidad and Tobago is a country where 10 minutes of heavy rain in any one place will produce flooding. We all know this.

On Sunday, the Met Office warned us that a tropical wave was on the way. On Tuesday, the Met Office issued a yellow-level adverse weather alert from Wednesday to Friday. Yesterday, the weather hit and severe flooding spread across the East and Central areas of Trinidad and parts of Tobago. Four schools in Trinidad were flooded and schools in flood-prone areas of Trinidad (of which there are many) and all of Tobago, sent kids home early. Yesterday evening, the Met Office followed up with a yellow-level riverine flood alert lasting until Friday evening, giving us the heads up that Trinidad’s major rivers are nearing 80% capacity.

Now. To any adult waking up this morning to the sound of falling rain after all of the above, it should have been apparent that it was best not to have children in schools and large numbers of people on the roads today. After all, flooding + water = more flooding, right? Simple math.

That’s why many parents would have immediately decided to keep their children home. Those of us in a position to stay home or leave our children with a relative or in childcare would have made our arrangements despite the silence from official channels. Surely many of those without children would also opt to work from home or take a casual day because the commute was obviously looking sticky.

However, we know everyone isn’t that fortunate. There are also many of us who work for organisations that insist on seeing our faces in the place until or unless it looks like the world is coming to an end. In the absence of official word that schools/offices are closed, there are many bosses who don’t care what you do with your child once you find yourself at your desk/counter/post on time. Worse yet if it wasn’t actively raining where you woke up. No rain coupled with silence from the ministry might suggest that the worst was over.

For that significant portion of the working population, the school closure notice posted on the Minister of Education’s Facebook page (not the Ministry of Education’s Facebook page, eh) at 7:08am came hours too late. Under pressure to show up to work, without any official word from the ministry responsible for ensuring their children’s safety and facing the usual 2+ hours of traffic to get to work, they likely left home by 6am at the latest. By the time that notice was posted, their children were likely in a driver’s van or at the school itself, waiting for teachers who would not be arriving.

Assuming those parents got a heads up about the notice on the way to work, they’d have to spin around and head back to their children as they updated their workplaces.

Small thing, right? They’ll pick up their kids and head home and their bosses will deal.

Sure, so long as you don’t stop to wonder about the purpose of the Ministry of Education (to say nothing of the wider government) in situations like this. Amont many other things, the government is tasked with leading the response to emergency situations. If, in the face of serious weather conditions, the government declares schools closed, that sends a signal to the private sector that puts the population in a position to make decisions that will keep themselves and their families safe. If, however, the government remains silent in these circumstances, then the onus rests on individuals and individual companies to decide what to do based on their own understanding of the circumstances (and their own concerns—or lack thereof—about the safety of their staff).

See how that could be a problem?

If I live in Central and work in Port of Spain, my boss might be inclined to conduct business as usual, given that Town was spared the worst effects of yesterday’s weather. However, putting the 80% full Caroni river between myself and my family might not be the best decision. If, on top of that, my employer is the government and no official statement has been made… what’s my position?

Of course, there are those already flying to the defense of the Education Minister, pointing out that she couldn’t have made a decision earlier given that the Met Office’s latest update—the one referenced in the Minister’s post—only dropped at 7:02am. I refer those people to the third paragraph of this post. We all had the same information and we all presumably have common sense. I would imagine that the Minister of Education should have more of both than most. Even if she wasn’t in a position to directly seek advice from the Met Office (she is), even if she had to wait for a public update like the rest of us (she doesn’t), she surely had enough information with which to make a decision and issue an official statement through official channels very early this morning, if not last night. After all, it’s the same information we all had, the same information that certain folks were quick to point out was enough to not require ministry guidance in the first place.

Given how much time our leaders are spending pointing fingers at everyone except themselves for circumstances they also claim are beyond their control, I think it’s important for us to pause and ask ourselves precisely what their purpose is and whether they’re fulfilling that purpose. If the people tasked with guiding our nation (and us, by extension) are instead throwing up their hands and declaring us spoiled, violent and indisciplined, while also failing to provide critical guidance or maintain the nation’s infrastructure and facilities, then what exactly are they doing up there in the comfy seats we’ve granted them?

I’m genuinely asking, as I do every time I hear a government minister make yet another excuse for yet another avoidable catastrophe happening on their watch. It’s a lack of accountability that few of us, the indisciplined masses, could get away with at our own jobs. How many of us could look at our bosses and shrug when asked why we completely failed to handle a significant part of our job descriptions? How many of us would continue to draw a paycheck as we spent year, after year, after year blaming someone else for our failure to get the job done?

How many of us would continue to employ someone who would do such a thing?

Apparently, the answer is all of us.

‘Cause guess who keeps hiring them?

I want to take a moment to be very clear because, although I already told allyuh that the other side of the aisle eh checking for me (nor I for them), I see folks running around declaring anyone who dares to criticise the current government an Opposition plant. The governance of our nation is not a matter of party politics, no matter how much the two major parties try to pretend that it is. Anyone sitting in those seats pledges to govern in the best interests of everyone without fear or favour. They literally swear those words with their hands on the holy book of their choice. And then, without fail, the majority of them proceed to do the opposite, secure in the notion that their supporters will support them no matter what and the rest of us won’t hold them accountable.

Because we haven’t so far.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t.