Page 157 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

142 Francio Guadeloupe

They wanted to control and direct the movement of Capital. They also
wanted to establish hard boundaries between insiders and outsiders.
Theirs is an impossible politics on an island consisting of newcomers and
where most locals practice exogamy. And to add to the impossibilities, an
island state, officially run by Paris and The Hague, with little resources,
dependent on wealthy newcomers bent on keeping the island open. The
Baines know it. For all their rhetoric they willingly do business with the
wealthy newcomers, exploit the working-class migrants, and walk around
with mistresses from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Most SXMers I
spoke to interpret the Baines’ politics as one of greed. They wanted to climb
the economic ladder and earn as much as the wealthy Americans did, and if
that meant promoting a politics of differential privileges then so be it.
Tonight the Shadow goes out of his way to remind us that the brothers
B (he doesn’t mention their full names), are the worst kind of politicians.
They want to share the wealth with a privileged few: their friends and fam-
ily. Other politicians who thief seek to hide from God, but Carlton and
Clayton have forgotten that Conscience exists. The Shadow ended his dia-
tribe against the Baines by reminding his audience that God loves all colors
and has never put a fence dividing the earth. No state officials should seek
to do so. As far as the other politicians were concerned, because they at least
knew Conscience, they could and continued to fool us time and again.
The Shadow turns to his band, raises his hand and they let loose raising
the volume and the tempo. “Stop Fooling, stop fooling” is being sung
louder and louder and we are summoned to join in. Blacks, whites, and
browns of various nationalities and faiths have lost their inhibitions. The
wealthy tourists and SXMers of all classes are in frenzy. They are gyrating,
screaming, waving, and the most fanatical even wetting themselves down
with beer and rum. Everyone can relate to the Shadow, for critique of and
being fooled by politicians is a universal. One of the most eloquent rendi-
tions of this truth was offered by Nestor, a Texaco worker from
Providencia:

A little boy come from school ask his father what is politics. His father say
boy you’re too young to know. But let me explain it to you this way. Politics

is like our household. I is your father, I am the prime minister. You is the
country, your mother is the cabinet, and your brother the people. Oh yeah
and the maid the working class. The Boy say daddy I don’t understand.
Then the father said I know you wouldn’t understand. That night his little
brother shit all over him. So the boy went to the maid room to let her clean
him. He saw his father screwing the maid. He went to his mother but
she wouldn’t wake up. So disillusioned he went back to his bed full of shit.
The next morning he told his father, daddy, now I understand politics. So
the father said tell me what you understand son. The boy said daddy while