It's fair to start this off with the fact that before the end of August, 2010, I will be leaving Trinidad and Tobago. I'll be moving on to Beloit, Wisconsin. There it is.

So, some will ask me 'why' - and there are many reasons. Life has taught me to never do something for a single reason and in this decision - made some months ago - I weighed many things. I'll write of some of the reasons over the course of time on KnowTnT.com and other sites as appropriate.

Suffice to say that I have many good reasons to leave and few good reasons to stay. Professionally, it is not only a no-brainer- it has been a no-brainer for close to a decade.

Like my father before me, there were promises made to me when I came down, some implicit and some explicit. Neither panned out. Later, others made promises both implicit and explicit. Those, too, failed, creating a bed of lies upon which I do not wish to rest any more. In this I go further than my father did.

The experiences haven't all been bad. There have been good times. There have been good experiences. There have been good people. It simply hasn't been sufficient.

So for those of you who did not know, now you know. For those who did know and who honored my request for privacy, you are now off the hook with my deepest thanks with my only request being that if you are trusted with the dates I have set that you say nothing until the dates have passed.

And for those who have been obstacles and hindrances - I bid you adieu and feel sorry that you mistook me for a fellow crab in your cramped barrel.

Exact dates aren't provided for a variety of reasons, some of which I will write after my departure. You just need to know I'm not a fugitive. :-)

Living in Trinidad and Tobago, if you remark on the idiocy of something there are a litany of responses that come. When you thwack all of them out of the way, you get to the common explanation:

'Dis is Trinidad'

As if that explains it all. And, to a point, it does. It's usually said in an exasperated tone, though I do encounter it off and on in a defensive tone - as if doing something stupid in Trinidad and Tobago is a right. Judging by Trinidad and Tobago parliament, this may well be true. But it doesn't make it... right.

Up until today, I've just shook my head at the phrase. Finally, I've come to an appropriate response.

And it will always be this way unless you decide to make it better.

Going out to the smoking area in Miami, having lost my lighter to a cult of security in Trinidad and Tobago (who probably have a shrine of lighters that they have found), I bummed a light from an American Airlines employee named Geovanni. So we start talking - something the healthier and less social non-smokers wouldn't understand. We talked about all sorts of things; he on his break and myself awaiting a connecting flight while drinking coffee and trying to singlehandedly decrease the percentage of damage that bovine flatulence does to the climate of the planet.

We talked about Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba (where he was from), Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, and many other things. We talked about how people can never simply get along. We laughed about life, smoked our cigarettes and blew smoke at the universe. We spoke of places we'd been, people we've met - be they Palestinians in Greece or Jews in Miami or Barack Obama or Fidel Castro. We agreed that the world made less sense than people generally thought it did because when you peek under the soft lace that the media dresses many things in... it's naked. And naked, despite what testerone powered adolescents may think, is not always good. But to see the world naked is a passion for some of us, and by pure chance and addiction to nicotine, we sat there and talked for about an hour. An hour passed idly between strangers at an airport discussing the world, the people of the world, and so forth.

He was a teenager when he left Cuba; he tells me the first 10 years in the United States were hard but that his dream was being fulfilled: by working with American Airlines and the nature of his work, he traveled the world. He and I are alike in that we don't stay on the beaten paths - we want to see how people live, how they think, what they think and why they think it. The world is an open ended question.

When you leave through Piarco International Airport in Trinidad, after you pass through Duty Free and are about to enter the gates, there's an old fashioned roller type advertisement on the top left that tells you the things that you can't bring into the country. When you're leaving. It's a bit late for that, isn't it? Here's a hint: There isn't one that's located where people come in.

And then there's the security to the gates. A swarm of security, numbering no less than 7, greets a traveller when entering the gates - and during all of the fun of pulling out one's laptop and assuring no metal is on you so that you can minimize contact with these people, they find reasons to make contact with you. Let's face it. Security at airports, as well as some airports dress them up, are still... not fun. Unattractive. But you have to deal with it, so you do. In this instance, I'd removed all metal from my person aside from some pins that would take a surgeon to take out. I pass through the imaginary doorway that security revolves around.

No beep. No surprise for me. But that simply wasn't enough for an enthusiastic wand wielding woman. "Are your pockets empty?"

"Yes, aside from my wallet."

"Take out your wallet!"

"OK", taking out the wallet and holding it away from my body.

I get a pat down which, under different circumstances, might have been fun. Nothing, which I knew. She seemed disappointed. In my out loud voice - my mistake - I said, "I don't understand why I needed to take out my wallet."

"Allyuh hear dat? He doh know why he have to take he wallet out!"

No, I really didn't. For one, it didn't set off the metal detector. In fact, I did not set off the metal detector. And the amusing part? The wand wielding woman... never used her wand. She patted me down by hand. No wand. Why?

When you give someone some power, they go nuts.