They can keep their head in the sand, because the decay has been affecting them for a long time now. Whenever you have to think about whether you can wear your new gold chain in town or not, that you have to roll up your window in traffic, that you have to scan the area carefully before you use an atm, or that you need to go jogging before it gets dark. The decay is there and everyone believe it's not their problem, that it's "them" and not "we". But we rather hide than address the sickness.
elan, the wealthy of south africa have been doing the same thing for decades. the wealthy and not so wealthy in the U.S. the same for hundreds of years. europe, india, china....pretty much the same thing for thousands of years.
the penalties for turning one's back....peeping out from behind an atm, jogging before dark or what have you...appear to be worth the price.
i asked a question on this same thread a few days ago about the existence of a citizen's coalition to address issues of crime and put pressure on politicians and police. not one man jack could answer, or be bothered to answer.
we celebrate, vote for, and trust men like jack warner to oversee our most important civic institutions. we have lawmen killing women and children on the road. our courts, the very instruments that are supposed to uphold justice are powerless to act in the face of blatant evidence of corruption on the part of this same warner, who already excusing these deaths as 'accidents'
the collective as it is often used is a purely academic notion. real unity comes from shared blood and sacrifice. the nation state in T&T is pure fiction. our history is essentially that of a bunch of dogs thrown into a cage to fight over scrap meat.
the reality is that nobody from westmoorings, valsayn or ellersly park is really that inconvenienced. money and power affords safe space and protection. and what do you really expect those folks, or anyone else from the outside to do stop this decay?
for me the answer lies squarely on the shoulders of each individual, within the reach of intelligence, age, and environment to protect and raise their children in a manner that will lead them to become productive citizens. not because of rigid ideology, but because of history and the complexities of the human condition.
this is no joke. much like the civil rights movement in the U.S., the struggle for self-rule in india, and the abolishing of apartheid in S.A. it will require many individual acts of courage and sacrifice to even begin to sort out the mess. not just the elites and middle class, but also those we identify as being oppressed.