Commentary - "Spinner George" - May 31, 2001

Let’s talk about spin. About spinners and spin doctors. And who’s really the chief spinner.

But let’s not go there -- as yet. Instead, let’s start with a little story from my days growing up in Fou-a-Chaux, not too long ago. I used to like to play marbles. In fact, I was good at it. Of course, there were others better at the game than me, but I was better than a certain older guy. Let’s just call him George.

That George liked marbles. But clearly, marbles didn’t like him. He always had lots of marbles. His parents bought them by the packet. We would go to his yard to play and we would win him most of the time. But George didn’t like to lose. If he lost too regularly or too much, he would simply take all his marbles, tell us to go home and call his younger sisters out to play in our place. And boy, he would take advantage of them. He would win them every time. And he would laugh his belly full...

One day, George came up with a plan for us the smaller boys who played the game better than him. Since his hands and fingers were bigger than ours, he came to play “for good” with us, meaning, we were playing for real, to win. We drew the lines, we “op” and we spun a coin to decide who would play first.

After “plumbing” our marbles to decide who would play first, George placed one before the last. But, surprisingly, he didn’t seem vex. When his turn came, George shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a “go kax”, meaning, a glass marble three to four times the size of the ordinary ones we the smaller guys played with. He won us that day and he laughed all the way home.

The next day, George came to play even before we were ready. But we too came ready for him. We played this time with “ball bears”, meaning cast iron ball bearings. In the very first game, we attacked his “go kax” from all sides, chipping it off systematically with some very hard “tecks”. Eventually his “go kax” broke to pieces. George was livid. But this game was for real. The marbles were not his. He couldn’t take them and go, this time. And besides, there were more of us as against him alone.

George broke down, cried and went home to play with his sisters.

That was one George. Now, let’s talk about another George.

This George has anointed himself a Baptist or priest of sorts. He christens people right, left and centre. All his life, he’s given people names. Never mind what name your parents gave you in church as a baby, he reserves the right to give you a name that sticks with you – for life. Names like Voleur Terre, Voleur Vote, Jab La, Tou Ju Sou, Foup Dem Young and so on...

To this George, everyone else is always wrong. Only he is right, all the time. A friend named Peter once told him that he (George) was the most qualified person to lead his country because he had degrees in Politics, Economics and Philosophy, from England. Since then, George has done everything possible or imaginable to realise Peter’s dream for him. But each time he climbs the ladder and gets that close to the heaven of his dreams, George takes his eyes off the prize and kicks down the ladder. Twice he fell to the floor from the top; and twice he’s paid the price. But this George, like the one I played with as a boy, is persistent. He just wants to win. He must have his way, or no way!

Having left home twice and burnt his bridges the second time, George the prodigal son is finding the going tougher than he bargained for in his latest new home. As such, he has resorted once again to what he did best in the past: turning the truth on its head – and calling others “spin doctors”. (As Sam Flood would say, “E ka kwiye toot moon jamette avan yo kwiye’i jamette...”

But even though George is the original spinner, he is not the only one spinning yarns about the Government and the Labour Party?

How about the others who, like George, have developed a tremendous ability to stand the truth on its head? Like those who would have us believe that the Prime Minister was wasting precious pipe water on his lawn while asking others to save the precious resource, when, in truth and fact, only rain water, stored in an underground tank, is used for irrigation purposes at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence, as reporters who chose to find out found out on Friday.

Or those who would have us believe that a man was arrested outside parliament last Tuesday, simply because he demonstrated against the government, whereas, in truth and fact, the disgruntled gentleman was arrested because he broke the law. (I wonder if anyone remembers what happened in the Cathedral the last time people put on masks to protest.)

Or those who would have us believe that the few hundred people who attended their regular Sunday mass at the Church of St. Joseph the Worker in Gros Islet last Sunday, went there to support the launching of the Alliance.

So you see, Dear Viewers, this thing called “spin” is not only about those who support or defend the government or seek to explain its policies and achievements. It's also about those who would bend the truth and stand it on its head when they cannot handle the truth.

But then, as I always say, those who think that spinning yarns and standing the truth on its head is something to be proud of are only fooling themselves. The people of this country have matured politically over the past 20 years and there is nothing that no George or no Spin Doctor can say or do that will pull wool over the people’s eyes. As the saying goes, you can fool some people some times, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. And I daresay, you just can’t fool the people at all in these times.

With Commentary, I’m Earl Bousquet.

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Search Prime Minister Press Secretary ] [Site Help]

© 2001 Government Information Service. All rights reserved.

Read our privacy guidelines.