Dear Editor,
I read a news report in the Trinidad Express (February 2) in which a Trini had a chance encounter a year ago with then presidential candidate Barack Obama. She described Obama as a simple, humble individual who rejected special perks and privileges meant for politicians and who loved to engage others. I doubt our politicians display such humility.
Trini flight attendant Jair Massair said she was working a Washington DC bound flight on a February morning last year, when she noticed Barack Obama seated in the economy class. She invited him to sit in first class but he politely declined. Obama’s Senate colleagues sat in first class. To save taxpayers’ money, Obama apparently bought an economy class ticket. Massair quoted Obama as saying: “I only sit in first class if it is absolutely necessary.” Obama is now President and has his own aircraft called Air Force One, a 747 jumbo jet that is a travelling White House – necessary for governing the most powerful country.
The Express quoted Massair as saying that she was taken aback by “Obama’s humbleness and it was one of the things that had impressed her the most about the new President.
This story reminds me of a conversation I had in Guyana with a sitting PPP Member of Parliament. Shortly after Dr Jagan passed away, he told me that suddenly, ministers grew long legs and needed to travel first class, but when Jagan was alive they had to travel economy.
The Obama story also reminds me of a public meeting in Jamaica, NY I attended with Eusi Kwayana as the main speaker. I asked someone to kindly bring a glass of orange juice for Eusi as he had just spoken for a lengthy period of time and was losing his voice. Ravi Dev was one of the organizers of that meeting. Eusi humbly declined the juice saying he would only accept the juice if others were also served juice.
How many politicians in Guyana possess the humility and simplicity of Obama and Kwayana and who will willingly engage with the common folk?
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
