Posers in dominoes and life
IN DOMINOES, pose is all important. I won’t play “winners pose” because that’s for weak players who, if they can squeak a first-game win, get to decide which partner has the best hand and poach an often unassailable lead. My house rules: Double-six poses the first game and afterwards, the holder of double-six poses whatever. This emphasises technique over luck.
Your pose, like every first impression, is crucial to how you’re assessed by partner and opponents. Since doubles are the hardest to jettison during play, you’d best pose one but avoid posing “bareback” (for example, double-six without another six). If no feasible double, you’re forced to pose a two-sided domino. Please don’t pose four-blank if you hold double-blank. Pose the double!
If you hold, for example, five fours, including double four, it’s permissible to pose one of the two-sided fours but only if holding at least one more of the other side. The strategic reason for this is to keep your invulnerable double-four in reserve in case left-hand opponent pushes a card you don’t have with four at the other end. Double-four protects you from cutting four.
As it is around the domino table (where you must qualify to pose then your subsequent play is scrutinised to evaluate your pose’s sincerity), so it is in life. When your “game” involves offering professional services in exchange for filthy lucre, your background and qualifications are usually vetted by a regulatory agency to ensure
compatibility with your intended activity and ferret out red flags.
QUALIFYING FOR LAWYER
In order to qualify as a lawyer, I suffered through five years of specialised tertiary/ post-graduate “education” then my character and qualifications were vetted by the General Legal Council (GLC) before I could represent any client. Then I served an apprenticeship mentored by seniors before attempting unsupervised lawyering. Every lawyer is regulated and controlled by the GLC. Additionally, lawyers and law firms must pay income and other taxes for the collective good.
Doctors undergo five years of specialised education then internship and“residency” to hone skills. They are regulated by the Medical Council and subject to disciplinary sanction. Teachers, nurses, soldiers, police are all trained, certified and subject to legislated regulation. All must pay taxes, often from meagre wages.
One Jamaican business with practising professionals requiring zero training, qualification, certification, regulatory, accountability, or taxation is Religion. Business owners are regularly selfappointed and succeed by using silvertongued oratory to convince ordinary folk to surrender minds, bodies, and assets in exchange for snake oil.
This defies reason. I’ve heard argument that legislation/regulation alone won’t solve the problem of errant or even perverted pastors. Maybe not. But lack of regulation certainly encourages them. What blessed reason, save fear of political reprisal, can exist for not treating religion like any other profession and the Church like any other business?
Fer Crissake, some church leaders claim to be “healers”! Ain’t THAT a medical practice? A church and its leaders should be subject to due diligence before allowing start-up operations; regulation and control afterwards; and should pay taxes.
UNQUALIFIED POSERS
No church, not even the highly organised and successful Roman Catholic Church, notorious for protecting child sex abusers, is regulated. Every church regulates itself. Regulators’ due diligence would prevent convicted sex offenders from passing themselves off as pastors. Regulations providing for subsequent monitoring would include sanctions for misconduct.
All crimes can be forgiven if criminals repent. Some crimes, like sexual assault, disqualify the criminal from acting as a religious adviser. This is especially true where the criminal is unrepentant or conceals the conviction. Only thorough background checks can ferret out disquieting personal histories and protect us from scammers. Paying taxes (including tax credits for genuine charitable work) would ensure fiscal justice to society by church leaders developing ostentatious erections and lusting for lavish lifestyles.
In dominoes and life, rules must be followed before you can pose anything. Or as anybody. Let’s not permit any more unqualified posers.
Peace and Love!