By Raffique Shah
July 05, 2017
I am convinced that God, in whatever manifestation the people of this multi-religious society pray to him, has given up on Trinidad & Tobago. How else can we explain the near-total breakdown of systems that define a functioning nation? The economy is in a mess. Criminals are in control, striking at will. Lawlessness reigns supreme. And rather than work together to rescue the country from collapse, the politicians resort to jammette-like behaviour in Parliament, cackling like yard-fowls, literally saying to us, well, didn’t you elect Jean and Dinah to represent you?
I am convinced that God read Dante Alighieri’s epic poem Divine Comedy, and decided that the natives have turned the Trini-paradise He had gave them into Hell as described by Dante, from the small-but-powerful Mid-Eastern elites, through the political overseers and buffer middle class, to the masses who, mired in poverty, turn on each other like crabs in a barrel, slaughtering the innocent and the guilty in an orgy of violence even He finds unimaginable.
For the uninformed, in Dante’s Inferno, “Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the ‘realm … of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen’.” (Wikipedia)
It is as if the legendary poet, who lived in the 14th Century, long before Columbus accidentally “discovered” Trinidad, possessed a futuristic periscope through which he saw images of T&T in the 21st Century. Being agnostic, I cannot comment with authority on people’s rejection of spiritual values. But even the blind can see too many in the society yielding “to bestial appetites (and) violence”, and “perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen”.
The politicians, the wealthy and the plebes have reduced a country that was bountiful in resources—hydrocarbons, fertile land, marine life and considerable human capital—into a wasteland, having squandered or stolen our patrimony in a short 60 years or fewer. The said Philistines have spawned generations of beasts-in-human-form who unleash unspeakable acts of violence on their fellowmen, worst of all on helpless old people and innocent babes, descending into a kind of barbarism that resembles Dante’s tormented Hell.
What probably sealed our fate with God was that these Trini-sinners engage in their excesses in His name.
Pray to God, the politicians tell the nation, for the price of oil to rebound and rescue the blighted economy…and give them more money to squander and pilfer. Pray for an end to the tidal wave of crime that threatens to drown us all. Pray for our children so they may choose school and education instead of the crime-labs that exist in most communities. Pray that the health institutions magically save lives. Pray for safety on the roads, for potholes to be repaired… Pray, pray, pray.
The acting Commissioner of Police leads his officers in prayers for an end to crime, and calls on the public to join in. Taxpayers pay them not to stop or solve crime, but to pray for divine intervention. Trade unionists pray for wage increases. Workers spend more time praying than producing. Judges and magistrates pray, presumably to lighten their case-loads and speed up justice since they are powerless to do it. And in this country where God/s name is invoked for every venture, I won’t doubt that bandits and murderers pray before they commit crimes.
T&T must have the most places of worship per square kilometre anywhere in the world. Cathedrals, churches, mosques, mandirs, palatial Pentecostal edifices litter the land. The business of praying is thriving such that churches are among the biggest advertisers on television, and pastors live in luxury off immoral earnings, robbing their flocks at bible-point.
Last Sunday morning, just to confirm what I thought, I scanned cable television from channels one through twenty, and every local station, even State-owned Channels Four, Six and Twelve, featured preachers in full flight. Based on advertisements I see on the local commercial stations, their overnight programming is all prayers. Every night.
So much bible-thumping, Koran-recitals, Gita-chanting and God knows what else, yet the nation sinks deeper into decay, rotting from head to tail. Doesn’t that tell those who insist that people must pray more, that God no longer listens to Trinis? That He turns the proverbial deaf ear to the mass of hypocrites that we are?
As I stated early in this column, I am not knowledgeable in this sphere, so I seek guidance from the good priests, imams, pundits, etc.
Convince me that God-de-Trini has not abandoned us, maybe even switched allegiance, fed up of our hypocrisy, our double, nay, quadruple standards. Tell me that Trinidad and Tobago is not the latter-day Sodom and Gomorrah, a den of iniquity, a haven for thieves big and small, white collar and no collar.
Assure me that patriots should not flee this cussed country, and not look back lest we turn into heaps of dung.
Shah once again you spin things according to your emotions stemmed from the unfolding of evil deeds in T&T. God does not turn his back on his creations. In fact God has no back to turn. Even God made man in Jesus Christ could or would never turn His back on us. We are the ones that turn our backs on God and the evil that is allowed in us by our free will that God gave us then consumes us. Prayer is our only way out. Prayer will open a door to God so that he can treat and retrieve our belief in Him; only then can we benefit from His power of true love for Him, his other creations and ourselves as Jesus said in the greatest commandment of all. Only then there will be normalcy in T&T. Like most of us you are lost and consumed IN ALL THE SPIN THAT CLOTHES THE TRUTH TODAY. Lies, stealing, sex, greed, selfishness etc. is consuming T&T. Evil always destroy. The government is totally out of control and is taking us down a difficult road to nowhere. We, the people has to say enough is enough and ask them politely to resign. Like in Romania and elsewhere we must flock in numbers before the governmental assemblies like MLK did in the sixties and get the government to resign. They have clearly lost their way. We are just two dots in a huge ocean. WE MUST COME TOGETHER AS A 1.3 MILLION STRONG FORCE OR WE ARE DOOMED IN TODAY’S WORLD. THE WORLD IS STILL A GLOBAL VILLAGE DESPITE BREXIT. We are a tiny nation and MUST COME TOGETHER OR ELSE THERE WILL BE CONTINUED CHAOS. Essentially however when we bring God back in our daily lives things will change dramatically. Other than this because I am NOT GOD and do not have all the answers I KNOW WE MUST CONTINUE TO BELIEF IN HIM. You must remember your biblical stories by Jesus Christ (parables etc.) especially when He says IN YOUR LOWEST MOMENTS I AM MOST THERE WITH YOU. I LOVE You DESPITE WHATEVER YOU DO. I WILL NEVER ABANDON YOU> I WAS CRUCIFIED SO THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE TO THE FULL. We are our worst enemy. There are so many around us heavily charged with emotional sickness. We need special doctors in T&T to treat this destructive sickness where particularly killing is way out of our control.
The issue of God in any discourse is one that need to be spoken on with a level of spiritual knowledge, Brother Raff, God has not abandon this CUSSED country, its the other way around.Colonial people were taught that God is a foreign entity, always looking for HIM/HER to show up at any beck and call, but in reality God is in the midst and within, covered by the DARK forces of the human spirit.A reasonable person studies the commandments of God and makes efforts to transform oneself in accordance with them, An unreasonable one only worships the books where these commandments are written. There are three obstacles that not every one can over come (1) The lack of desire to acquire knowledge (2) The lack of knowledge of God (3) The inclination to do evil.In Trinidad, the Chinese have the TAO, Indians have variations of transformational books, if read the proper way the true GOD the SUN could brighten the hearts and spirits, The Africans was given the the contaminated book of the EUROPEAN white GOD, one that was used to enslave him/her physically, now used mentally to keep him/her captive perpetually.Only one by oneself can overcome one’s emotional chaos and eliminate disorder within the soul.In Trinidad,the so-called worshipers of GOD show themselves, the ancients tells us, God must be Worship in secret and silence, we were also told that if we want to speak to God, say it to the wind.If you look within T&T this is what is available, all anti GOD values, (1)Ignorance (2) Grief (3)Intemperance (4)Concupiscence (5)Injustices (6)Covetousness (7)Deceit (8)Envy (9)Cheatery (10)Wrath,(11)Rashness (12)Malice, this is what governs T&T today, all man made, who you are in the valley is who you are. People believe that crying out emotionally in prayer changes things, the answer is NO, you change yourself firstly, then replace with prayer, the ancients called it REGENERATION, T&T is adorned with distractions that have the spirit FETTERED, God only work in a clean clear heart, if one should search through out T&T, maybe one or two are liable to be found.T&T the land of Bacchanal, commess ,canalism and PAN, yes PAN the GREEK GOD of EVIL is the name of our national instrument, so in reality, the island is endowed with EVIL, from its inception, ethnic cleansing, slavery, and presently murder plus.RELIGION is regarded by the common people as true,By the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful . OH OH by the way, SANSKRIT, means PERFECTED. Hotep.
It just dawned on me that a 100yrs ago this year the SHOUTER BAPTIST was banded by the colonial authorities.Yes, it was against the law for my great great great grand parents to worship in the way they saw fit, even though they were using the very King James version BIBLE, they were ostracized by the conservative so-called christian denomination colonial Trinidad. “HAS GOD ABANDONED THIS CUSSED COUNTRY”, the REBELED young black men of today, are the descendants of the cast off SHOUTER BAPTIST of yesteryear, instead of having a WHITE man at the head of the constabulary, today a BLACK man is at the head but doing the same dirty work, killing, jailing and ostracizing. Today, you will hardly see any of the young black males attending any church services, unlike the slaves who were forced to accept a foreign GOD, the young black men of today have realized that it is the CHRISTIAN CHURCH that are starting WARS and HATing.The SHOUTER BAPTIST, don’t have to worship in the hills or under ground anymore, but the children have been lost to societies system. When your GOD an SAVIOR looks like your master and enslaver,you become the principal agent in your destruction.HOTEP.
Curse is too powerful a word to use as a description of a nation that was once the “New York” of the Caribbean.
Dr Keith Rowley recently boasted that everytime the PNM in charge the nation progress. To me that means things are getting better. Trinidad was recently named the worst Caribbean country for crime. We have stolen the first spot from the Jamaicans. It is a record of the deleterious kind. To the PNM that is progress.
Mr. shah in all the years of reading your Colum this is the first time you actually made me think and not see you being bias base on political party thanks for you refreshing approach
Lt. Shah(that’s all you was and are, I stop addressing you as comrade) you need to hang up your guns (pen), your last 3 or 4 articles were total garbage.Senility is stepping in.
The problem with this country is there has been a serious lack of thinkers. UWI has churn out degrees by the thousands yet within the hallowed halls of academia they have not created a research department that is par excellence with the rest of the world.
The American military took the best German scientist and basically fulfilled Hitler mission of global domination. With this tyrinical war machine today they create wars to test weapons system. They invent enemies in the desert and the paddy fields to commit atrocities of the worst kind. Unchecked by anyone. Putin and Trump joined together to introduce an era of white domination over the masses.
At our academic institutions we still teach indept European History but shallow Caribbean history. What does anyone know about Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham Guyanese experiment? Perhaps nothing and so in TNT we see the history of Guyana slowly taking shape. People don’t know what to avoid so we plunge headlong in the propaganda sphere. Critical thinking verse mass hypnosis aka Kamla bad Rowley good. When will it end.
Dr. Williams understood the mental impact of slavery and sought to change that with his books on the topic. But that is one sphere of academia. Why no research on the impact of heat on the human brain and its causal effect on aggression. Or why the police highly paid yet not solving or stopping crime. What role does the donkeys leading the lions play in this?
I hope the New UWI chancellor will consider a new course instead of “status quo”.