Political sycophants and petty bureaucrats

THE EDITOR, Sir:

SOMETIMES THE actions of political sycophants and petty bureaucrats do more damage to those who they are trying to suck up to than help them.

Take the situation we ran into at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues festival held at the Trelawny stadium last week. On Saturday night, the festival had a long interruption because the rains came and came and came. After sitting under plastics on the soggy field for quite a while, we decided to join the smarter members of the audience who had sought refuge under the covered stands. However, by the time we got up there, we found that that the covered section of the first floor was full, so we headed to the stairs, only to be stopped by a man who pointed to a sign saying prime minister's floor or suite, or something to that effect.

However, we were not impressed since we had seen about 100 empty chairs above, and we reminded him that, after all, the prime minister is just one man and it was not right to condemn so many people to the elements when empty seats were in the covered areas. He, however, remained unmoved as the numbers of upset music fans grew and the mumbles and criticism of the prime minister and, indeed, all politicians, grew louder.

In the meantime, a lady with an ID appeared, but she, too, was no help. However, it seems that after hearing about 15 minutes of non-stop angry mumbling about the wickedness of politicians, good sense prevailed and she instructed him to open up the stairs. The funny thing is the reserve, restricted or secure area was on the second floor which we were told to bypass, while no one at all was on the third floor.

Now, do these bureaucrats/security or whatever really think they enhance the image and endear their political leaders to the general public when they keep rubbing the 'more equal' philosophy into the face of the populace?

Maybe these petty bureaucrats need to start paying attention to what is happening in places like Tunisia and Egypt, where the people have finally decided that they are no longer prepared to be treated as lesser mortals than those who 'rule' them.

I am, etc.,

Joan Williams

gratestj@gmail.,com