The Tribune

By NICOLE BURROWS

I was born in the 70s, and I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Life in The Bahamas was so much simpler then. Everything appeared cleaner, easier, purer. It was long before we knew what a storm our leaders were brewing for us, though we would soon find out. And the Pandora’s Box has been spilling over since then.

On the island, in our daily island life, traffic was unheard of in most places. There was no hustle and bustle. A drive out to Adelaide or South Beach or Yamacraw was like a journey to another island, and therefore, a weekend treat. There were still trees everywhere. The air was fresh and fragrant with greenness. We could still see all the stars every night and it was wondrous. We watched stars instead of television. Now we can hardly see stars and televisions are never turned off.

In many ways, we were still very much an island paradise in the 70s and 80s. The influence of America existed but it had not yet taken a stranglehold on our haven like it does today. Being more like an island and not being so connected as we are today with modern communications networks, we were still pristine in many areas, still untouched and unaffected.

We were remote enough to not get the latest television, music, and movies from the first world nation closest to us. And we only had the propaganda station to watch. Though it was something to have as a source of local news, as opposed to nothing, ZNS TV programming left much to be desired.

Children of my generation grew up watching Sesame Street, and we were a good ten years behind in the programme. In the 70s we were watching 60s episodes, in the 80s we were watching 70s episodes, and I don’t mean as highlights, I mean exclusively.

I have many favourites from Sesame Street, and many of them cross my mind on occasion for various reasons, depending on what I encounter every day. One favourite that’s been on my mind for the past week now, looping over and again as I watch Bahamian news, is the episode with Henry (purportedly played by Jim Henson, muppet master himself) and Liza (purportedly played by Rita Moreno) – ‘The Hole in the Bucket’.

Backstory

Henry and Liza live on a farm. It seems a remote and peaceful life. In the opening scene, Liza is kicked back in her rocking chair, staring at the great outdoors, and Henry is about to start a day’s work on the farm. But he has a little problem.

Henry wants to go fetch water from the well, but the bucket he needs to carry the water has a hole in it. Henry is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Dimwitted may be an understatement. But Liza, good old, reliable, Liza is nearby in her rocking chair, waiting to impart the wisdom she most surely has if the grey hairs on her head are any indication of her experience in solving problems for Henry.

So Henry, clueless Henry, tells Liza there’s a hole in the bucket. Liza, tells Henry to fix it. Pretty straightforward, right? Apparently, not so much.

Henry, in spite of his many years on the farm, doesn’t know how to fix a bucket hole, so he asks old faithful Liza. Liza tells Henry to fix the hole with a stick.

Henry walks to the nearest bush, pulls out a random stick, lines it up against the bucket hole, and then goes back over to Liza and tells her the stick is too big for the bucket hole. Loud enough for Henry to hear, and obviously accustomed to the imbecile she’s married to, Liza says, “Any fool woulda known that.”

Henry, who by now we can already guess would be non-existent were it not for Liza, waits for Liza’s ideas on what to do next before making a move. He’s frozen without her, yet everything she offers to him to do, he is incapable of implementing.

Liza, beginning to unravel, tells Henry to cut the damn stick so it fits the bucket hole, after which Henry might be able to use the bucket to carry water.

Of course, Henry doesn’t know what he’s supposed to use to cut the stick, so he asks Liza. Liza tells Henry to cut the stick with the hatchet. Oh yeah, Henry’s face lights up as if it were his own idea. And he says to himself, “Oh yeah, sure, I coulda told you that.” We are not fooled.

Alas, Henry brings the hatchet to Liza along with the complaint that the hatchet is too dull to cut the stick. Dull hatchet, dull Henry. Go figure.

By this time, Liza is seething. Anticipating his madness, Liza mutters, “Say it, say it, say it!” When he finally says what she knows he will, she tells Henry to go sharpen the hatchet if he expects to be able to cut anything with it. But, in spite of the fact that they probably go through these motions every single day, Henry doesn’t know what tool he must use to sharpen the hatchet, and so he asks Liza.

Liza is always there, and she seems to have all the answers, never mind he is the one representing their household on the farm. But Henry won’t learn from Liza’s answers and keeps asking the same basic questions.

Liza tells Henry to sharpen the stick with the stone.

At this point, we can completely understand Liza’s frustration. The man lives on a farm and doesn’t know how to do anything there. He is not her champion.

Henry dawdles on over to the stone and gives it a whirl, trying to sharpen the dull hatchet, but of course, it ain’t workin’.

He goes back to Liza, who is now on the verge of losing it, as well she should be to have to put up with this man who is void of any useful thought. Liza, poor Liza, says “I can’t take it….. I can’t take it”. We know Liza’s pain. We are all Liza. We can’t take it.

Liza, popping a gasket, tells Henry to wet the stone, in order to sharpen the hatchet, to cut the stick, to fit the hole in the bucket so Henry can get water from the well.

Henry again. He asks Liza what he’s supposed to use to wet the stone. Liza flips, trembling with rage at this point, yet still hanging on by a thin mental thread and tells Henry to use water to wet the stone, to sharpen the hatchet, to cut the stick, to fit the hole in the bucket to get water from the well.

Henry, brave yet insane, asks Liza another question. What is he supposed to use to carry the water to wet the stone?

Liza screams, “the bucket”. We can imagine what she really wanted to say.

But Henry comes back yet again to Liza, because he has to tell her... there’s a hole in the bucket, so he can’t carry the water, to wet the stone, to sharpen the hatchet, to cut the stick, to fix the hole in the bucket. And he points to the hole, as if Liza never saw it before and no one knew it was there, even though it has been the source of the problem from the start.

In the end of the story, there is no resolution to the original problem. In fact, the only resolution that seems viable is actually the problem.

Henry is left holding the bucket with a hole that can’t and clearly won’t get fixed. And Liza leaves with her rocking chair on her backside to go find the man she should have married for a better life.

There is a lot of analogy in storytelling. And here is how I cast the characters in this Sesame Street episode.

Analysis

The farm is representative of The Bahamas.

Liza represents Bahamian citizens, namely the progressive, thinking people, not to be confused with the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). They just want a peaceful existence and for people with brains to use them to solve problems which they more often than not create for themselves.

Henry is The Bahamas government, the current administration, the Prime Minister, the cabinet, the PLP.

The well Henry needs to go to is Parliament.

The water he has to fetch at that well are useful, innovative ideas and policies.

His bucket is the method of governance, the management of government, and systems, institutions, and industries - like tourism, banking - that must work in harmony.

The hole in the bucket represents all the problems and failings of government, mismanagement, poor governance, the things that make for weak governance.

The stick, the hatchet, the stone, the water, are all ideas… policies... considered to fix the problems of government. But none can work without another/ something else working before it.

The last possible idea to solve the problem, another bucket, is the same as the problem... the failing systems, industries, governance, resource management. And in the end the problem never gets fixed.

Visit the link online and see how simple stories can be used to understand a complex life. Maybe, you can even write one of your own. At the very least, be entertained.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sesame+street+there%27s+a+hole+in+the+bucket&view=detail&mid=648626A695F4C57D8A60648626A695F4C57D8A60&FORM=VIRE

E-mail: nburrows@

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