If I may share with you a literary tidbit I came upon, quite by accident: “A glory hound will happily get countless others killed in pursuit of glory, often with no remorse. Bonus points for stealing the glory that others have legitimately earned. Disproportionate retribution on those opposing his plans.” For reasons yet to be determined, reading the preceding brought to mind a certain presumed honorable, not-so-gentle man.
He was not born yesterday. Obviously. If in his various roles he never took the time to contemplate the soul of our people, our idiosyncrasies, then I say, too bad. Many of us have been studying him for several years. Close-up as well as via social media. His unrequited love for the spotlight, his unforgettable public pronouncements, his often laughable, unlearned arguments in relation the practice of law, his tendency to launch assaults on windmills from the safety of his HTS base, have long been popular conversation starters. But it is his unbridled arrogance, a sure sign of a raging inferiority complex, that is perhaps his most disagreeable characteristic.
While the majority of Saint Lucians may be unfamiliar with the circumstances of his upbringing, other than what he has chosen to spin during his endless self-advertising campaigns—”I’m a CDC boy . . . I grew up in George Charles Boulevard (also in Vieux-Fort and Laborie) . . . I always carry my gun . . . my father was a policemen . . . Kenny Anthony is my friend . . .” and so on—we certainly know his recent history.
As a glory hound, he may not enjoy the spoils of war, so to speak. He may not believe in what he’s fighting for. He may be an all-talk coward that revels in the slaughter. But the defining trait of the breed is its craving for mass adoration. Not being respected by his peers is what the glory hound most hates.
This vain and pushy individual is his own greatest fan. Conveniently blind to the numbers that scorn him, that laugh at him behind his back, and ridicule his repeated failed attempts at law-school enrolment, he continues, by the guff he constantly dishes out to sycophantic callers to his twice weekly TV show, to pretend he is what he desperately sought but was never good enough to achieve. Not that he has not had his victories, however hollow. By hook or by crook, he has wormed his way onto chairs once held in general high regard, if at great cost. But there are consequences to forcing square pegs into round holes. His latest fiasco was his obvious mishandling of another ill-fated attempt to bring down the United Workers Party leader, also Leader of the Opposition in the House of Assembly.
Despite several published warnings that he could be heading for deep hot water, that his understanding of Privileges Committee rules was at best dangerously flawed, he insisted on full steam ahead, titanic icebergs be damned. Even when it was pointed out that his actions were seriously at odds with established procedure, such warnings fell on ears determined not to hear—or even listen.
It took a judge to rein him in. But right after a court order had set him to rights, his immediate reaction was to summon a meeting of his media friends to tell them what, from all I’ve read, the judge did not say. He went as far as to suggest he was being especially accommodating of the Leader of the Opposition, even though he could not see how that would be “advantageous to the LOO.” If nothing else comes of this latest embarrassment to the nation, at least it will serve as further proof that things are not always as they seem. Also, that Saint Lucians must be more discriminating in our choice of public officers!
I formed the impression, while watching our glory hound on the news soon after he received his court order to put the brakes on his latest misadventure, that when he was on TV fulminating about dwarfs and bazookas, the weapon of mass destruction he had in mind was his uncontrollable mouth. And now, with bated breath Saint Lucia awaits the predictable outcome of Bazookaman’s next sortie!
