RECENTLY at a Canada/Caricom meeting in Canada, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was seen in casual dress attire whilst other members were formally dressed. The reason given was some kind of ad hoc timing issue.

As a result of this mismatched attire, there was a lot of picong on social media.

Subsequently, there were also many admonishing statements by persons of higher authority concerning the perceived pettiness of this picong.

The picong may have been petty, but one should not fault the population for choosing to make fun of the Prime Minister’s dress code, because the general population is still subjected to ridiculous and archaic dress codes when one has to visit a government office to transact business.

Rules such as no open-toe footwear, or no pants of a certain length, and no exposed shoulders for ladies do not exist anywhere else in the tropical-climate world.

Until those in authority wish to make modern changes to such dress code rules, then expect the population to make fun of anything dress-code related.

J Deering Maraval