Letters & Opinion

When hope is in short supply!

Image of Carlton Ishmael
By Carlton Ishmael

We have a tendency to believe in hope, which no doubt helps ease our frustrations. But what we hope for or wish for is usually more about our wants than our needs.

We hope that God will answer our prayers and we hope to win lots of money every time we play the lottery and we hope for the best in everything we want. But the truth is that if we don’t agitate or protest — and in some cases demand — our hopes can die.

It is not wrong to hope for governments to deliver on their promises, or to hope that the Covid 19 pandemic will go away. There’s nothing wrong with hoping, but the reality is that people have so many hopes, yet no one knows when or if, or the order that they will come — and in some cases what we hope for never comes in our lifetime.

You and I may think our hopes can be made into reality through some basic, simple measures that can be used to just make things happen or improve, but the system has its own agenda and because of that, most of our hopes get dashed.

I have always hoped and wished that Culture and Entertainment as it relates to the Visual and Performing Arts would get better and would become a means of survival for many. But this has become a false hope.

I also hoped that the criminality and ‘bobol’ would be dealt with by the powers that be, but again, that has also been a false hope. I also hoped that the more of our people got educated, that our development would grow by leaps and bounds, but again I was wrong.

I had hoped that our lands and our country would have been controlled and owned by us nationals, but again, that too has been a false hope.

When the mases voted for political change not too long ago, I had hope to see meaningful change, and yet again I have been wrong because things have worsened.

I am slowly getting to the point where I won’t believe in hope presently or futuristically because of all my failed hopes, but it is only faith that keeps me going, just as I do hope that many of you who do read my articles understand and share my frustrations.

We all should always faithfully hope for a better tomorrow and it should be natural to hope for prosperity, more love amongst our people and more protection from the Law and the law makers, but Lo and Behold, we live in a time when laws are broken daily, dreams get shattered by day and night, deceitful Governments exist and evil reigns above goodness.

I still pray, I still hope, I still wish with faith and hope for everything but charity. But if the truth be told, most of my hopes have not been forthcoming, leaving me no choice but to remember the old days when those of us who said we had hope were told that ‘Hope is a motor boat’ that came and left Castries Harbor without waiting for anyone with nothing more than just dreams and wishes.

Today, hope is indeed in short supply!

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