Being a public speaker must indeed be a very, very hard thing I told My Friend P. And people who only listen and criticise can say all that they want, but it is not an easy task to get those words right when you are standing in front of critical eyes.
It is with this in mind that I can say I do feel a twinge of embarrassment for our most worthy minister of agriculture, Dr Chris 'Cassava' Tufton.
Unforgettable goof
Oh yes, he did enter his real public life in politics with an unforgettable goof. Yes, unforgettable - Tufton, a member of the green, bell-ringing Jamaica Labour Party, was caught on tape telling a crowd of labourites to put their X on the ballot 'squarely beside the head', the symbol of the now opposition orange and red People's National Party.
Ribbing
Now we can imagine what sort of ribbing the young Tufton must have received from his party friends and party non-friends who know that now and forever the reality of a JLP figure telling someone to vote for the PNP will be etched in the annals of history. Hard break for Dr Tufton because we all know that it was just a slip of the tongue. Unforgivable slip it might have been, but it is one of the perils of public speaking.
And so, when again Dr Tufton in promoting the eat what you grow, grow what you eat [age-old adage] campaign he managed to communicate that Jamaicans must get into the production of cassava because that is what they will have to eat, he again missed the mood.
And so he has been ridiculed in every way most dangerously in song - and so the minister who told us to eat cassava will live long and we hope prosper - because he will not be forgotten.
Dr Cassava
So, he is now known as Dr Cassava. Well, I did not know this until he said so while speaking again at a public forum recently. Another goof, I would think.
Anyway, he tried to put a positive spin to it as he said he doesn't mind if they call him Dr Cassava, Dr Sweet Potato or Dr Banana.
Yes, he expressed that if Jamaicans start eating what they grow and growing what they eat they could call him what they want, he did not mind!
I thought that this was quite funny. I could only bring to mind images of Toy Story I and Toy Story II with Mr and Mrs Potato Head that had an image of Dr Tufton's face across the wind-up potato's head.
You know, while he is to be commended for pushing what has got to be the only rational approach to the direction the world is going in, I would do anything to see what is eaten for dinner at the Tufton household.
Seriously, Dr Tufton, do you not have bread at breakfast and rice and peas on Sunday? Come on Dr Cassava, fess up here - are you eating what you speak [you would have wished you could have eaten some of them I am sure]? Oh Jesus, I would love to be a reporter because I would find some way to be invited to the Tufton house for dinner!
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