So a 15 year old girl who was minding her business get snipe in a cross fire yesterday. This happened so close to my house I should have heard the shots if I was listening out for them. Assylum, I see you were asking Disgruntled to share some of his conversation that he and i had some time back on the seeds planted by Eric Williams. Well let me see if I can share some of it and maybe bring some of my perspectives to the discussion.
First of all, the institution known as the PNM is NOT, in my opinion responsible for the crime situation in the country. I will, however, lead with the "thesis" that they are responsible for the attitudes that prevail heavily in this country which speak directly to a blatant lack of respect for order and discipline in Trinidad and Tobago. Hear me out...
When the late Dr. Williams was faced with the dilemma in the late 60's of alienating his African supporters and the 'Black Power' revolution took place, he made it his business, after realizing the power of numbers in a demographic society, to appeal to the psychological conscience of the Afro-Trinidadian. He took a number of steps in attempting to creolize his cabinet, getting rid of the Montano's and O'Halloran's so the the Afro' Trinidadian could identify better with their representatives. This is why, to this day you would never see a non-Afro Trinidadian member of parliament in any of the East Port of Spain Constituencies. As a matter of fact the most crime laden and poverty laden constituency in the country belonged to the good doctor himself. To this day, nothing had been done to uplift that area both in terms of crime reduction and economic assistance, but they still love him too bad. He say he could put a crapaud to run in that constituency and it would win.
When we experienced our first economic boom during the 70's, many dreams were sold. People got pay raises, money was spending left right and centre, yet basic issues were not being dealt with, because the policy was to spoil the children and keep them happy (distracted) while we rape the economy, because we don't know how long these good times will last. In the mean time, the citizens were forced to deal with an unreliable phone service; the private transportation services were shut down while people lined up for hours after work, unable to get home; not enough beds in the hospitals; widespread flooding during the rainy season. For those of us who live here at home or even read the news of home, does any of this sound familiar? In the mean time, the only policy was to throw money at every problem and hope to get some solution, while very little strategy or implementation was applied. (Older heads, if I going wrong here tell me, I do some reading and talk to plenty old people in my time, so I hope all of them didn't lie to me.)
Meanwhile, people partying and having a time, cause when your house flood out, you could buy new stove and new fridge and everything cash, cause "Money eh no problem." The ones in charge don't care, and as a matter of fact, the lack if discipline displayed by those at the top was an indication to many below that anything goes and it was all right to have a time.
Fast forward to the recession, and when NAR came into power. All of a sudden there was a need to tighten up the boot straps and actually work. Things bad, but we cya call the Doctor for a prescription anymore, HE DEAD! I remember the first week the NAR was in power. Garbage truck coming on time everyday, water not locking off, people working. I was a child then, but I remember hearing my folks and others talking,things were hard still, but people working. Then they decided to tell people that they would be forced to raise taxes. If you notice now in the US, along with foreign policy, this is the hottest subject of the presidential debates, especially because they are well into a recession themselves. Many of us here have kids, nephews, nieces etc. When a child has been spoiled for so long, how do you begin a programme of discipline? How do you tell them that in order for your Government to help you out of your current situation, one which is already dire, they are going to have to pay? For the second time since independence, the population was alienated from the Government, and for the second time, we had an insurrection. But something else happened with this insurrection... instead of simply demonstrating, somewhere along the line, it became all right for people to use violence to get what they wanted. (Now older heads, I know when the young man, Basil Davis, was shot by the police in the riots in the 70's that his funeral was the largest attended in the country, and while it was an intimidating presence, no real gun violence was present in the aftermath of that killing am I right?) But it was a different story after the coup of 1990. Every year since then, we have had an increase in murders with the exception of 3 years at the most, but what is even more important is that we have not realized just how much that event had an effect on our current way of life down here. Members of the Jamaat who joined the expanding drug trade already understood the power of the gun, and taught it to many others who taught exponential numbers beyond that. It is no wonder why kids are running around with guns here.
This is where we come to the relation between indiscipline and crime. The 1990 coup showed us how fragile we are. But the fact that the main perpetrators of that exercise are still alive and well also showed that there are no real consequences for our actions. Psychologically that must ring bells in the minds of a population. Since then, with several other factors which includes (as much as it pains me to say) mass media blitzing the minds of our youth with garbage, and a lack of household guidance, we have seen our discipline levels deteriorate each year and the corresponding crime statistics back up that statement. Simply obeying the traffic codes is beyond many of our citizens and because there is little enforcement, they don't have to follow them. Petty theft during carnival, football games, concerts, etc continues to escalate. Car theft, break-ins, robberies with deadly weapons are now things you simply must be aware of at all times. General unease is rampant after dark where there is no security. Places have beefed up security for Xmas shoppers because they know there will be an increase in crimes targeting shoppers in the next two months. I not just talking this, this is really what goes on down here, among the good times and the liming and drinking and shit talk. You ask any police officer in the know about the reported crimes to solved crimes ratio and see what he or she says. Even scarier still, ask them about recent murders and where the gun men are aiming, and they will tell you that the large percentage now are aimed at the victims head rather than chest. With the amount of guns in this country and the ability for a young man to simply pull a trigger and snuff out a 'trouble-maker' it's only logical that we would come to this. Crime is easy and there is relatively no reason to fear any legal repercussions from committing a criminal act. The real question is why the powers that be are not dealing with it effectively. Some of us here can guess the answer to that too. But I go leave it here for now, and await comments/criticisms.
Peace (if you really believe it can happen).
