With election day drawing closer and closer, the rhetorics, accusations and name calling as well as mudslinging contests keeps getting more and more heated and intense and downright foolish, if not frightening!.

...as it escalates, in lockstep along with the increasing vandalism and crime, killings and murders, we can tell that it is "serious business on the line", the "game" along with the "rules has changed for keeps"and this is where...

... I become totally confused, cause I don't know if to LAUGH or CRY!

...to LAUGH because we are now seeing the "light at end of the tunnel" ahead, because some of the politicians now promising "the moon and the stars" on the milky way road to the "land of milk and honey"...with barrels and barrels of oil money over-flowing in the treasury!.

...("the cup runneth over" as the good Pastor speaketh)?

...and to keep us "holy and happy" on this long perilous journey in this "pipe dream"! and to keep us all safe and sound, wining and jamming and fete for so! good ole' bacchanal for so, but no "gambling" at all ok? with no end in sight!

..."the Emperor" is now the "bus driver" on this trip on our bumpy pot-hole filled and very dangerous roads & highways leading to nowhere!

...and it is filled with "soft spritual music" from the "Emperor's own Divine Echoes million dollar band", just what he thinks we need to forget our troubles and daily woes, crime, robberies, murders and kidnappings, and even thirst and hunger pains etc, etc, etc.! 

...or to CRY because we heard it all so many times before, and had held out such high hopes on the many many promises to eternal peace and happiness , but somehow it did not happen, he lost all the money on the way to the shopping spree, or so he says, and instead came home broke, empty handed and left us sadly dejected and hungry too! and we still are!.(just as the "emperor" dictates?)

...and now with nothing to show for it, except the "Emperor's Mansion", we are back in the same boat, same place and heading in the same direction....down the river... and with the same "skipper" (emperor) and now he telling us he have a "new back pocket" to hold all the money, and don't be afraid, don't worry, he'll keep it safe this time for us and spend it wisely for all the good stuff we said we wanted before, but did not get to see!.

...and furthermore, he has a "master plan", in a "draft only",it is "not secret" but he can't tell us about it yet, and its really good, it will work, but if only we would let him...

.... and just trust him, "again" one more time!

(he won't even say please,because he's not a "dictator", just "Executive President!. El Presidente! si)

...and like the "good father" (or is it "godfather") he said he was, he takes all our money again and heads off to the "rum shop" to get into a "drunken spending spree" (just like the "drunken sailor") and when all the money gone, he forgot and did not buy anything for us on the shopping list, but only for himself, just like the last time and the time before that too! ..but don't worry!

...don't worry, because we have tons and tons of oil money, so lets do it all over again!

...and this is where I become so confused again, because I don't know who or what to believe anymore, I don't know if to jump for joy and laugh because our luck turned for the good!...

...or to cry like hell because I have a gut feeling that we would wind up hungry and broke again, just like the last time, all over again!

... and to make matters a lot worse for me, growing up as a child in the country side, when faced with these choices, I always asked my late father for his advice!

...and his reply to me always was, "LAUGH and CRY lives in the same house", now if only you could find which one you looking for, your problem will be solved, ok?   

...questions, questions, questions?

...if only it was that simple?

...if only my father was alive?

...then all of a sudden it hit me right in the face. I had the answer!

.... if only we could always and forever keep "LAUGH" in our houses and leave "CRY" behind in the "EMPEROR'S MANSION", our problem will be solved!

...I think that would have made my late father laugh his head off! 

...yet for sure I know we are being taken for a ride on his bus, but one which we did not ask for, nor do we want, period!

...time to get off this old noisy bus and dump the silly "bus driver" too, right into the hands of a good COP!  

... hope the ride's over soon! at least on Nov. 5th, if not sooner!

...goodluck!

Trini.t.o.o.