“Foul deeds will rise, though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.”

—William Shakespeare

Well whole week I seeing red. Meh eye red, meh fingers red, meh assignments red, and on Triniscene.com meh hair red. It’s been a helluva week—assignment after presentation after assignment. I can’t wait for mid-semester break to take me from this torture.

Then I go to school on Friday and I seeing even more red. I rubbed my red eyes with my red fingers, and still I seeing red. Wait, nah: is a next Red Day? Where the locks and chains and racial slurs?

There weren’t any. Of the sprinkling of students on campus drifting about depressingly, a handful honed their fashion skills into blazing scarlet ensembles. It was the sign of protest!

And I wondered how it took so long. All semester I’ve been waiting for the bacchanal to begin. Where were the shouting matches and angry arguments? Whither the libelous placards and racist rabbles?

Faster than you can say “The vet tief we money,” bacchanal bubbled up hot and steamy and set the campus on fire. The UWI St Augustine Guild of Students election has begun.

And, of course, when I say election, I mean protests, cuss-outs, corruption, name-calling and UWI girls crying on camera. This is what the brightest people of our generation in Trinidad and Tobago do when it comes to representative democracy and decisive elections. Yes, even as I look to the future, I seeing red.

Ghost on TV

Wow! Look who’s on TV! It’s Guild president Glenn Ramadharsingh!

The first time I saw the vet was last year at the candidates’ debate. Before? Since then? Nada. And, to think, he's been at UWI all these long years: since I was in Form 2, in fact.

The ghostly Glenn appeared on camera, arguably the only place he is seen by most UWI students, in a suit, gold shirt and oversized tie. I think he uses the same gel I do, too. He responded on TV (not to the students who give him their money) to accusations of $1.8 million gone missing by saying: “Every single cent will be accounted for.”

But I wonder how? It’s been years since the Guild took time away from its busy schedule of functions and fetes and river limes and trips to audit its finances. And here’s a Guild council with an auditor who was ejected from candidacy last year for poor grades!

The news also reported the Guild’s travelling expenses amounted to $75,000, to which Glenn said cavalierly: “Every Guild president has to travel. We’ve had Guild presidents who went to South Africa. We’ve had Guild presidents who went to Europe, uh, Paris.”

According to the last financial report in my possession, done by the Mobafa Baker council in 2003, foreign and local travel totalled to $14,622.50. Gee, Glenn: that must be plenty airport tax.

Let’s not forget that when Glenn last was president, the Guild’s phone bill was reported to be in excess of $90,000. Glenn has never provided proof to the contrary.

To compare, the Mobafa council, a year after Glenn’s first try, had a phone bill of $6,322 and spent $80,000 on the entire Inter-Campus Games.

And last year, when the Glenn side was accused of illegal campaigning by using electronic media, there was flat renunciation. The Guild constitution prohibits use of certain “media” in the campaign process, but Glenn’s side said that how it don’t define what media is so take that. Somebody please get a dictionary.

Secret election

And how come out of the blue an election pops up? And on Tuesday? Nah! There have been no debates, no publicity, no nothing.

Now that the secret election has finally been made public, UWI students are still at a loss. We don’t know who the hell is going up, and can’t tell a candidate from a cascadu.

Something is fishy about the whole thing. Is it that only friends and nenen of the candidates would vote? Will incumbent Guild people simply be reelected?

The fact that in recent history no info on finances or even the very election has emerged means one of the following: the Guild is lazy, the Guild has no interest in accounting to the students whom they “represent,” or the Guild has something to hide.

Or it could be a combination of all of the above.

The Guild must provide answers to these, as well as the cornucopia of other accusations: not only to the UWI students who have given it well over $2 million, but also to the public at large, whose taxes help support our university.

The fact that the Guild has so many indictments over its head; the fact that there are so many cries of nepotism; the fact that everything about it is hidden away, from its aloof president to its finances; the fact that it is incapable to rid itself of an association with indecency and corruption and theft in the minds of thousands of students; and the fact that the Guild has provided us with zero answers means it has failed.