By Raffique Shah
November 9, 2017
Two Thursdays ago, at around 11 a.m., one of my brothers was robbed at gunpoint as he pulled up at the entrance to his home off Beaucarro Road. He had returned from First Citizens Bank in Couva where he had withdrawn a few thousand dollars to pay farmers who supply him with hot peppers. Three young men, one armed with a gun, rushed him and threatened to kill him. They searched his pockets, stole the cash, his wallet (with vital documents) and phone. After seizing his keys from his car and telling him to run for his life, they bolted to a car parked nearby and made good their escape.
Why am I writing about this? After all, I am aware of the fundamentals of journalism: dog bites man, no story, man bites dog, big story. Another routine robbery, one of maybe a thousand committed that day, hardly merits newspaper coverage, or, indeed, commentary.
Which is precisely why I am addressing it. Crime has grown to epidemic proportions in this country, so much so the society has become inured to its deleterious effects, its numbing of our sensibilities as human beings. It has imposed a level of anxiety on the citizenry such that we accept its inevitability. We expect to be violated somewhere, sometime.
My family had hardly absorbed the distressing news about my brother when, a few days later, a thief broke into a nephew’s vehicle, smashing a window and stealing his high-tech phone that is critical to his professional life. He had earlier conducted business at the same branch of First Citizens (the bank’s security may want to check if some gang is targeting its customers), and had stopped off at the nearby Couva Regional Corporation’s car park to return a few books his children had borrowed from the mobile library.
That would take less than five minutes, so he left his phone and laptop in the vehicle. As he returned, he observed a man walking away from his vehicle. He unlocked the car-to see the shattered window and missing phone. He shouted at the man, who ran off with another person, presumably an accomplice. Someone in the car park told him such break-ins were not uncommon.
And later that day, a niece who had attended a funeral at the Waterloo cremation site returned to find her vehicle’s rear glass shattered and a few valuables missing.
Now, I can only conclude that such thefts and banditry are commonplace in Central Trinidad, likely all of Trinidad, and that many of the minor incidents go unreported. I should add that the police did respond promptly to my brother’s report, but it is highly unlikely that any arrests will be made.
What bothers me is our reactions to these violations of our persons and properties. My brother and the family were thankful that he was not harmed. In other words, we have reached the stage where we accept the bandits’ rights (I can’t think of another word) to relieve us of our hard-earned money and valuables, once they spare our lives.
We should be angry, outraged that a few thousand young louts armed with seemingly easy-to-obtain guns, can make our daily lives a living hell. We should be fuming, fighting back, hunting down the predators and taking them out by any means possible.
But that is not going to happen: I realise that I’m thinking of another lifetime, of my youthful days when I didn’t need the police to intercede when I felt violated.
Jouvert morning, Carnival 1968, upper Frederick Street, the 22 years young army officer in the midst of a mass of humanity entranced by the sweet music of Despers, chipping with my then fiancée (now wife). I feel a hand sliding slowly into my side pocket where I have a few dollars. I allow the hand to go deep enough, grab it and whirl with lightening speed. In a flash, the culprit is down.
“What the *%$# you doing in my pocket?”I shout. A kick to the butt. Other revellers add some punishment and order: get out of the band, you thief! A virtual blip—and the jamming continues uninterrupted. Seems like a lifetime ago, eh?
It is. Today, the thief would more than likely shoot me, and revellers might join to loot the fallen corpse. There were other, similar incidents in which I took matters in my hand, not bothering the police with relative trivia.
But note from the Jouvert episode, it was an era in which the community, in that instance Despers’ fans, joining in action against the criminal.
It is that vital element that is absent from today’s crime-ridden society. Families and communities not only breed criminals, they also shelter and protect them. Hell, many of them share in the spoils of the lucrative criminal enterprises, not just the cash, but those who buy the stolen items, the jewels.
While the bandits and burglars may number a few thousands, the enablers are many more, spread from the slums to upscale residential enclaves to business districts.
They have no scruples, no consciences, no compassion. They are why we are mired in such an unholy mess.
Mr Shah, you complain about the few thousand bandits and burglars roaming the country but what about the big men who have looted and are looting our country. We see them driving in their BMWs and Range Rovers, living in their posh million dollar houses (how did some of them get to the lap of luxury?). We see senior executives of public companies and others in high places being accused of sexual harrasement and getting away with these criminal actions. The white collar criminals can buy their innocence by paying high priced lawyers and setting up their own investigative committees. How can we have a reduction in crime in this country if the rich and privledged members of society can get away with any crime. Crime in this country is from the top to the bottom.
Shah I do console you on your recent experiences as well as your family experiences but this is the small pictures of what is happening in T&T. But I have been discriminated for so long here in Trinidad I am reduced to seeing the bigger picture. In T&T where I lived from 1950 to 1970. And from 1977 to 2008 and now from 2015 to present I have sweated out my bad experiences here having lost my health in Yara as I was medically boarded in 2006 migrated and after having come back here in 2015 lost most of my household and personal items ( in crooked CUSTOMS)along with my $40,000 CAD Honda vehicle on the PoS port now 15 months after consulting with Ministry of TII, Customs and the ministry of Finance. Why I was targetted by the PNM since 1977 when they and Ish and UNC stole $70 million USD from the Tringen 11 plant. I spoe out SHAH of the poor designs they were bringing to our country. Ish as you know brought about section 34 where we were all played. I have documents Shah where they cheapened the 250 million USD project re Tringen 11 Plant and stole the Capital monies of 70 USD million in plain site. You will recall UNC was formed in 1988 (club 88) as Robbie and Bas could not get along as deals were on the table. Greed was rampant. Ish and his Northern Construction mastermined the theft. I was targetted for death (dead men tell no tales) in a 16 foot diameter tray bought for the plant that was made by a contractor who like Ish could not even build a fowl cowb. But yes the big picture starts in Government and big business. And of course the lead slave owners both the French as in the French Creole and the black bourgse African amongst us. And yes also the Indian and foreign groups starting with the 1% filthy rich. Shah do you realise that sending your son or daughter through a university level education no longer makes any sense. When he or she has to come back here and report to a Harewood or a Loquan who are staunch PNM and knows little and are their bosses or for a Syrian who has little formal education or experience life becomes frustrating. And of course the French creole who owns about everything. So as a mixed person in the middle class fold we are faced with working hard for little while these other groups literally sit on their arses the entire day and earns a bundle. Only a couple days ago we were told of the high end cars our tax dollars are used while they kicks in Parliament all day. And of course no laws are enforced among the rich in T&T. Will Ish ever like Panday ever make a serious jail for their crimes? But Shah God works. These so called high class bandits like the ones your family suffered under put the same squeeze on your pockets. However they do it every day. I lost my 1.3 million TT severence in court from Yara. The French Creoles lied to the court and bargained with my lawyers. I lost 500,000TT in the courts. My judge discussed my NIS injury benefit fight in court with talk show host on FM 104 and forced me to pay 40,000 in losses to the case saying I submitted statements to the court late even though he allowed the case to go to trial and my new lawyer said she had other matters before him so she refused to appeal. Yes I lost my shirt and became a pauper Shah. I scraped up a loan and migrated and as a returning resident as the PNM threatened my foreign employers with reduced projects here and I was laid off and forced to eventually return home pennyless in 2015. So Shah there are small bandits and big bandits as in white collar crime and blue collar crime and everything starts in the Judges and Judiciary system and of course the government as in the PNM and UNC. Shah when the government took away the small contractors who built houses from as far back as the 1940s ( 1949 was the Land and building tax entry to T&T)to 1970s (the NHA times) governments from under Eric Williams to now made a killing took over the industry just as they did in the oil and gas sector and left both industries in tarters now after making billions for them their family and friends. Virtually all the HDC ministers became filthy rich including your current PM. But God doh sleep as you need no proof as to who these people among us are as they became fat ugly old looking and and very sickly. Some call them fat rats …..some call them fat pigs. The more they see the more they want. They enslave their own people. Some like our PMs cannot keep their business in their pants and like in the USA have no respect for our women folk. By comparison I went to a funeral of a former teacher. He was a total giver of self. He was humble and from a big middle class family. I was told he missed the maths island scholarship by a very small margin in the mid 1960s. Yet he managed to attend university in his later life and contributed immensely to our society. But you know Shah there is no award of merit for him here…..only for the PNM, UNC and their friends and family. So Shah doh dig nuthing all ah we suffering from just a few slave drivers. But yes God doh sleep!
At an Emancipation Day celebration recently, the Prime Minister called on the nation to reflect on the contribution of the African community to national development.
He opened his message by stating: “On the occasion of Emancipation Day, I believe it is imperative that all of us, who call this twin-island State of Trinidad and Tobago our home, take some time to reflect on the rich and colourful history of people of African descent and the indelible contribution they have made to national development thus far. Our African forefathers laboured without pay. They struggled to make their own way after 1834. The generations that followed have built on their legacy in every area of national development and today, even in the face of new challenges and struggle the people of African descent stand side by side with their brothers and sisters of every other creed and race, ready, willing and able to overcome adversity and build this nation.”
Well, that “African Contribution” is not only indelible as Dr. Rowley says, but it significant and substantial as well. It is the major contributing factor to Trinidad and Tobago being the violent Third World latrine it is today with one of the highest random crime rates in the world. It stares us in the face every day in the newspapers, on television and news about it like what Mr. Shah has written about assaults our sensitivities every day in one form or another.
Yes, that African Contribution” is cutting our backsides every God forsaken day and it scares the hell out of us.
Am I being racial? Yes! And I make no apologies for that.
Am I being racist? No! Because there is an indisputable ethnic dimension and reality to crime in this country that justifies and legitimizes my comments, and the sooner the local apologists for African underachievement in this country accept African-TrinBagonian criminality for what it is and address that phenomenon with a view to correcting it instead of trying to justify or irrelevantly explain it, the sooner we may see a reduction in attacks like what Mr. Shah’s family sustained and thousands of us experience every day.
Maybe then we can begin to see the type of change that would make us truly appreciative of the African community (as a whole) and their contribution to national development.
In the meantime, we suffer in silence.
mirror, I think you missed one of the biggest stories this week..
Where is Gypsy when yuh really need him.. little black boy.
I think they need to get his gun/s and do some ballistic.. it might just show a pattern that little black boy is just a hired hitman in a bigger ‘plan’… what they call it, GENTRIFICATION? All battles are fought over LAND.
Westmoorings pharmacist on five rape charges
…granted bail
Published on Nov 8, 2017, 12:01 am AST
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20171108/news/westmoorings-pharmacist-on-five-rape-charges
” it might just show a pattern that little black boy is just a hired hitman in a bigger ‘plan’…”
So what?
The little black boy allows himself to be hired. That title “hit man” appeals to his ego ..stupid little boy, just as he likes the idea of being the ‘snatcher’ in a kidnapping, doing the actual abduction .. always the minion never the mastermind, except when it comes to random, violent street crime, acts of banditry and rape, home invasions and murder committed in the course of those criminal acts … those are entirely of his doing. He commits those acts of his own volition. He ent part of no ‘bigger plan’. The orgy of self destruction that has been playing itself out in gangland communities is entirely of little black boy making ….Rasta City Gang, Muslim Gang, Unruly ISIS .. ah set ah duncy head clowns …..”Dis is JIHAD yuh kno, we killing orl ah dem because we waging jihad”, said one idiot from Enterprise .. don’t know his ass from his elbow, can’t even spell ‘Jihad’ but he waging Jihad. And even if there is a bigger plan and he is just a paid minion, that also speaks to his stupidity.
Yes mirror, you got it… it is by design to make little black boy the JACKARSE.. It’s why you have 13 radio stations and little black boy don’t have none to appeal to his inner-sense.. But, ‘big black boy’ can talk for over 2 hours and never even mention policies to elevate little black boy ( well, I got bored after 20-30 minutes with the same horse tou tou bout an all-inclusive PNM… but little black boy seems invisible in that ‘all-inclusiveness’) And the ting seem so rigged, they even pulled this ONE story in the Guardian..and not a darn video of ‘Wayne Griffith’ speech (who is he?) to be found… This thing is sooooo Rigged..
Heh…
>He said what many PNM activists have known. That the elite within the party forget about the foot soldiers. That brought him the biggest applause of the day. Not even Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley with his long and boring speech could have attracted that applause.<
http://ttwhistleblower.com/sustained-applause-pnm-convention-remember-foot-soldiers/
TNT Monitor you hit the nail on the head, but what you say is nothing new. Selwyn Ryan report a comprehensive on at it over 400 pages states “The report indicated that the young African males in urban hot spots such as Laventille were more at risk of being directly caught in the criminal world of drugs, guns and deadly violent crime if something was not done immediately to stem the problem” To date nothing is being done and we see the whole sale slaughter of many young black males!
“To date nothing is being done and we see the whole sale slaughter of many young black males!”
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Well, at least there are than many young black male criminals around to terrorize the rest of us. Say what you want, but the gangland slaughter of its own does not bother me one bit. I see it as a blessing in disguise as long as the killings are confined to gang members.
The gangland justice style is by far more efficient and effective than our sluggish judicial system.
Crime will only increase as the Christmas season dawns upon us. Get us to it. The criminals in charge of the nation. By mid next year the nation will run out of money. Already people are not getting paid on time. The engineer don’t know what to do. Money scarce, the criminals will only grow bolder.
Mamoo:
“the criminals will only grow bolder”.
They usually do whenever the PNM is in office.
Brother Shah, Your column is laced with emotionalism, that if not checked could elevate the blood pressure, in your life span, you have practically seen the transformation of Bank Village, where you grow and live, also the wider Trinidad. Morality, a subject you have frequently written about over your writing years, have been replaced by a level of materialism, never thought that we would see in our lifetime, with great disparity among the have and the have nots, all the ills of an emerging society is placated. Some of us, who have had our vehicles vandalized, know the feeling of remorseless, that if not checked, could lead to greater consequences. From the USA to the Caribbean, this problem is one hard nut to solve, the Police record books will show this fact, plus the high level of not reporting when these incidences occur. The high Drug intake among perpetrators, and the easy means of getting stollen items off their hands, shows how vast the illegal commercial sector is in the country. Can this battle be won? the risked involve in not turning a blind eye, is enormous, detrimental in most cases for both the victim and perpetrator, are the good old days reclaimable? i answer in the positive, a lot of input will be needed, People, will have to stop hiding in their burglarproof buildings and recreate the lost community, have a born again moment, yes, hard work indeed,it can, and must be done, ourselves the starting point. Will it happen overnite? i doubt it. Like the dawn of day, when it emerges in the morn, many of us will not be around to see, but like a baton, it must continue to the finish line. WE have no other choice , but to reeducate.
Cooper:
“People, will have to stop hiding in their burglarproof buildings and recreate the lost community, have a born again moment, yes, hard work indeed,it can, and must be done, ourselves the starting point. Will it happen overnite? i doubt it. Like the dawn of day, when it emerges in the morn, many of us will not be around to see, but like a baton, it must continue to the finish line. WE have no other choice , but to re educate”.
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Pure high falutin, idealistic nonsense. Wishful thinking.
You can be the starting point if you see yourself culpable or as having contributed in some way to the deep sh*t we’re in today. Not me!
I have done my part by moulding my off-spring into decent, law abiding, productive citizens that this country can be proud of. Let others do their part starting with the PNM taking responsibility for the several generations of Balisier monsters they have created and nurtured over the years.
There is a quick fix to this crime scourge but we will never see it from any political party that seeks re-election. What this country needs is a political party that seeks only one term in government during which it will sanitize our criminally polluted population once and for all and leave the “long term holistic measures to another party, hopefully not the PNM, to implement.
You Folks cannot be persuaded about anything. Sad. Trinis sound, and act like Americans.—–HATE HATE, HATE.its Them, not us. any WONDER why THIS country CANNOT SOLVE ANYTHING. Be-careful, FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE WISE MEN FEAR TO TREAD. So much LONG WINDED FOOLISH WORDS.
“MONITOR”, can mean whatever the word is meant to connote, in your case sir, are you a cathode ray tube, A person who watches or notices particular happenings, or a big Lizard type Reptile? take your pick.You have shown your xenophobe self with cast comments, only the people of your kind are willing to put in print. “”Yes, that African contribution” is cutting our backsides every God forsaken day and it scares the hell out of us” like a Lizard, you are too low on the ground to see whats happening above. You see the street petty crimes on your cathode ray tv, thats the basis of your rant, the wider crimes perpetrated by your kind, like a race horse you are blindfolded, A vast percentage of businesses in your cabal, derived from both from Ganja and Cocaine illegal trade, that have been transform into legal commercial entities, have you Monitor that? the greater percentage of fraud, who are the culprits? Vehicular larceny, and the parts that goes along with it, who control this sector Monitor? More white collar crimes were committed in the Panday and Kamla’ administration, than all the previous Gov’ts put together NAR included.” Am i being racial? Yes! And i make no apologies for that” Monitor, yes you are a BIGOT, you have been one all along, who you are in the valley, is who you are.Tell your off-spring, that he/she is not isolated, and each one should teach one, again, we all are in it together, and we have a part to play in changing it. Stop being a MONITOR (REPTILE).
Cooper,
You will get no argument from me in defense of the thieving UNC and their corrupt Goddess. Likewise, none in respect of the white collar criminals that both the PNM and the UNC have embraced.
However, the PNM stands more condemned than the UNC when it come to crime and I’ll tell you why.
The PNM has ruled Trinidad and Tobago for 46 of the last 60 years and is therefore held to a higher standard. The PNM is more than just a political party, it has become an institution and a way of life. No other political party has stayed the course long enough to have moulded the national psyche the way the PNM did.
The very corruption and white collar crime that you speak of today have their roots in the Eric Williams era. The PNM under Williams wrote the book on corruption and white collar crime; remember the Lock Joint, DC9, Gas Stations, Tesoro, Caura Dam and other scandals that Eric Williams turned a blind eye, if not a deaf ear to? The UNC merely fine tuned PNM’s crude and primitive corruption to an exact science.
The marijuana and cocaine trade that you speak of, the illegal trafficking of arms, ammunition and prostitutes began, flourished and became entrenched under the PNM, not the UNC.
Gangland activity and the kidnapping industry also started and flourished under the PNM, not the UNC.
For 15 of the 19 years between 1991 to 2010 the PNM led by Patrick Manning, strongly supported by Rowley, presided over a worsening crime situation and did absolutely nothing to contain or eradicate it. In fact, they nurtured and encouraged crime by funding criminals through lucrative State contracts, involving them in the administration and execution of official State funded programmes.
Again, the UNC fine tuned that practice into an exact science proving yet again that anything the PNM could do, good or bad, the UNC could do better.
The PNM turned a blind eye to the bloodshed and orgy of destruction that played itself out for those 15 years, refusing to confront the criminality of its ethnic support base even as the violence spilled over into non gangland communities shedding the blood of innocents.
The pro PNM bias of most public servants has ensured that non PNM governments are doomed to one term tenures, their policies and programmes undermined and sabotaged, making it impossible for them to last long enough to influence and mould the national psyche away from the blighted PNM Mentality that is responsible for the sh*t we are in today.
The PNM’s greatest sin for which it can never and should never be forgiven is its creation of the phenomenon known as “The PNM Mentality”, that “gimme gimme and if yuh do gimme ah go rob and kill” syndrome, which was unknown in the colonial pre-PNM era.
Today, it is rife, particularly in traditional PNM strongholds; it has unleashed on all of us an unprecedented nationwide ‘cut-arse’ that is no respecter of electoral boundaries; it has law abiding Society under siege, wreaking damage on the national psyche and the economy that is unquantifiable, irreparable and may very well prove to be irreversible for several decades. It is a mentality that is so detrimental and debilitating that it rivals the pernicious illegal narcotics trade for first place as the greatest blight to have ever descended on this once beautiful country.
That PNM Mentality has no outlet for noble, constructive, progressive expression. Mash up, breakdown, tear down, shoot, stab, murder, rape and banditry are all that it has demonstrated that it is capable of and wishes to engage in if we dont “gih dem what de demand”. And those who have tried to change it have been rejected, vilified, castigated, beaten and tortured (ANR Robinson) and even killed (Leo Des Vignes).
The PNM has been a festering sore on the Nation’s backside for the past forty years but whether through fear of being criticized or otherwise vilified, or maybe even because of their own personal views and the desire to be circumspect and always politically correct in the expression of those views, people like you, Cooper, are loath to acknowledge, far less discuss, the ethnic reality of crime in the country and to place it in the context of PNM institutionalism and its cancerous impact on Society.
Because of that reluctance, the PNM cancer has remained untreated, bringing us to where we are today on the brink of a social catastrophe with an ethnic dimension that could turn Trinidad and Tobago into a Caribbean Rwanda.
I hold no brief for white collar criminals but when I retire to bed at nights it is not because of the white collar criminal that I barricade myself behind burglar proof, prison like conditions.
If I am attacked and killed in a home invasion, it would not be the white collar criminal pulling the trigger of the gun that kills me.
CORRECTION:
the PNM stands more condemned than the UNC when it COMES to crime and I’ll tell you why.
The problem with young criminals the world over is because too many children are growing are up with single parenting and no parenting.Real role model fathers are in the minority.My wife and I are both uneducated but we raised three children who graduated from university, and not one of them has had any run-in with the law.My wife is a stay home mom, a twenty-four hour mom.Children are not getting the parental training they must have.This epidemic is worldwide and there is no easy fix.
There is an easy fix, at least to our crime problem as we are a small country, but neither the PNM nor the UNC has the political will to do what is necessary.
TnT Monitor,I agree with your first comment, but disagree with the last, The Gov’t, the schools,the churches, the mandirs, the mosques, the atheists, can’t fix a disease that starts to grow at home(if there is a home).God’s program is for a man and his wife to raise children, we can’t get smarter than God.There is absolutely no government(or politician) that can fix a moral issue.Name me one today.Humans have to start taking their responsibilities seriously. It’s not children delinquency, but parent delinquency.I could go on…..
Kennedy,
We can fix a problem by simply getting rid of it. We can eradicate crime by getting rid of the criminals but politicians/governments lack the political will to arbitrarily deprive criminals of their miserable, useless, worthless, parasitic lives.
When some one hates, or is a racist, he/she can’t think right, can’t talk right, can’t see right, can’t hear right, can’t sleep right, can’t’ wake right, can’t eat right, their friends will be like minded and worst of all their children will be well indoctrinated.If one is a racist, and make no apologies about it, can there be an objective discourse? having studied what you had to say MONITOR, it seems that you are in your waning years, a mindset of ignorance that will soon transition with you , only to be reincarnate as a MONITOR ( REPTILE), the way we live and think ,precedes our reincarnation. Should we hate or teach our children to loathe? i beg to differ MONITOR, Trinidad is to small a country to be harboring the hate you presently live with daily, I pray that the siblings you moulded differently, see things differently, and put an end to your life of HATE.By the way, Brother Shah’ blog was named, “NO SCRUPLES,NO consciences”, you have turned it into hate MONITOR.
Tsk,tsk,tsk …. Poor you, Cooper… You can continue living in La La Land if you want.
To address this criminal scourge, there needs to be widespread education about the history of the different groups of people in this country. The education should focus on eradicating racism, colourism, gender prejudices and many other social ills that contribute to people of all races lacking the confidence and social skills to do better.
Criminal activities are no respecter of race and economic standing. The people who are the most visible faces of crime are usually the foot soldiers of wealthy and politically-connected criminals of all races.
The rich folks who are involved in drug dealing, money laundering, tax evasion and financing on all sides of the political spectrum, make it very difficult for those with better character and ideas to be the political servants of the people. They prefer politicians who would protect their corrupt activities. They rob the country of resources to invest in better education and social services.
An objective, closer look at crime reports and court reports will clearly show that no ethnic group in T&T has a monopoly on crime of all types. Criminal activities of all types have transcended race, economic status and geography in T&T.
Let us not turn this into a racial issue.
.
EDITED.
“An objective, closer look at crime reports and court reports will clearly show that no ethnic group in T&T has a monopoly on crime of all types. Criminal activities of all types have transcended race, economic status and geography in T&T.
Let us not turn this into a racial issue.”
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!!
Do we have Chinese, Caucasian or Syrian bandits in Trinidad and Tobago? Do we have gangs comprising those ethnic groups shooting each other in the streets or engaging the police in shoot-outs? While we have criminals of East Indian descent, we do not have East Indian gangs.
Like it or not, there is an inescapable and indisputable ethnic dimension to crime in Trinidad and Tobago. We have a 38 percent demographic committing well over 80 percent of the serious, violent crime and comprising over 70 percent of the prison population.
No group has a monopoly on crime and no one, certainly not I, have suggested that. I challenge anyone to dispute that African-Trinbagonians have not progressed or kept pace with the other ethnic groups in the country and for whatever reason criminal activity seems to be their preferred option.
Do not allow the optics to deceive you.
How many of these Africans are hired guns?
Who is behind the activities of these “hired guns”?
Those behind the “hired guns” have tentacles which reach far into the Police service.
Do you ever wonder why so many crimes remain unresolved?
Regretfully, I honestly believe this blog will go the way of the Express and Guardian before.This racial “cussing” will get this blog shut down.A REAL PITY.
If that happens, and I seriously doubt it would, it would mean that the blog is not about about fostering serious and frank discussion of a burning national issue.
In Trinidad like other countries the politicians engage the criminals to partner in the stealing of the country’s wealth. we now see where it is alleged that one of the highest holders of office is implicated in giving favour to one of his friends. The politicians of all parties UNC and PNM know that they can only carry out the rape and plunder of this country by partnering with the criminal element. We see the big wigs having a great time living in high class areas and houses, driving around in high class cars, travelling the world and to hell with the affairs of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. It is time we the people demand that all politicians declare how and when they got their wealth. The small man is seeing the example of the big man stealing and committing fraud every day.
I believe that crime can be arrested and minimized. The problem is THE WILL. Do we have the will to abate it? Can we address the problem of crime strictly from a social and economic point of view? Can we approach the scourge of crime without finger pointing? Can we avoid the politics of I gotcha in determining what methods are to be adopted to fight crime? Can we avoid, totally the politics of crime? If we can settle on most of these aspects of crime then I believe that we can truthfully arrive at some semblance of true crime fighting structures.
We are known for our NGOs in this country but how many of those are geared towards public policy? Most NGOs are either single issue based only on satisfying a particular segment of the society or satisfying one ethnic group or the other. But can we develop NGOs based purely on public policy that will give advantage to the public at large and not one particular entity?
In this race conscious, ethnic conscious, religious conscious and class conscious society I doubt that we can be broadminded enough to achieve such a noble cause.
The scourge of crime can be abated if the population at large decide that they can confront and fight it themselves. We start that by being not afraid of the criminal. As presently organized we are more accommodating to the criminal minds than averting them from criminal activity. We approach life as though we re always afraid of the criminal than preventing them from their nefarious activities. To being with, we start ALL business activities at one time and END at a particular time. By so doing, we are allotting a time for genuine business activities at certain times of the day and allowing the other part of the day for any other kind of activities. There is no staggering of business operations timing in this country. Either you do everything between 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and dismiss business operations for the rest of the day or wait till the next day to continue. In so doing the criminals are free to operate as they very well can.
Public NGOs can engage the business and social sector in coming up with solutions that can avert or minimize the opportunities for criminal activities by using methods of prevention that will thwart crime. This method can be the source of creating important legislations where we can more easily identify crimes and criminals before getting to the point of creating criminal empires. There are enough honest and non-partisan activists in the country to begin such public interest organizations. If we show criminals that we are not afraid of them they will back off but if we continue to show how afraid we are of them, then we are encouraging them.
“I believe that crime can be arrested and minimized. The problem is THE WILL. Do we have the will to abate it? Can we address the problem of crime strictly from a social and economic point of view? Can we approach the scourge of crime without finger pointing? Can we avoid the politics of I gotcha in determining what methods are to be adopted to fight crime? Can we avoid, totally the politics of crime? If we can settle on most of these aspects of crime then I believe that we can truthfully arrive at some semblance of true crime fighting structures”.
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I don’t know if Kian is living in T&T but governments from both side of the political divide have been tackling crime from a socio/economic perspective for the last twenty years.
There is no shortage of social assistance, self help and self improvement programmes in addition to a number of educational assistance programmes, entrepreneurship training and financing all designed to lure young people away from a life of crime.
Thousands have benefited from those initiatives; those who did not chose not to do so, and those who became involved in crime or who remained in crime did so deliberately out of sheer worthlessness.
People keep overlooking the fact that there is a percentage in every population that is inherently bad, spawn from bad seed and from whom nothing good or noble can be expected, and they are the ones who need to be excised from our population.
As far as politicizing crime and finger pointing are concerned, both are absolutely necessary if we intend to identify the real causative factors of crime, poverty not being one of them.
To do otherwise would be to operate blindly, in a vacuum.
But there is hardly anything to be said about crime and criminals that has not already been said. From headlines that glorify criminal conduct, to editorials that condemn the very crimes glorified by the headlines, to myriad opinions about the causes of crime and the solutions, we’ve read, seen and heard it all.
There is no emotion to vent that has not been already been vented, no plea to make that has not already been made, no stern warning or threat from the authorities that has not already been issued and no anti-crime plan that has not been tried, tested and proven a waste of time and resources.
Its time we stop trying to understand crime and start dealing with the criminals, ruthlessly and decisively.
The State has both the Right and the Might to impose a violent solution to the problem of crime.
It’s time to speak to criminals in the only language they understand, respect and fear: the language of violence, State imposed, uncompromising, punitive and of unprecedented magnitude.
When the full force of the State’s iron fist in all its retributive fury comes crashing down on their miserable, lowly backsides, human nature being what it is, all dem ‘bad boys’ from Morvant, East Port-of-Spain, Sea Lots, John John, Laventille, Beetham Gardens, Cayacoo, Beverley Hills, Canada, The Congo, Jones Town, Bangladesh, Boot Hill, Gun Hill, Enterprise and Africa, all dem Rasta City Gangstas, all dem Unruly ISIS idiots, criminals in general, would be shocked into a state of awe, followed by panic and compliance, if not total submission, to both the letter and spirit of the Law.
Big Gangstas would literally sh*t themselves
Criminals who survive that initial assault would readily welcome the State’s secondary approach, the holistic ‘velvet glove’, forever mindful and fearful however of the smouldering iron fist still couched within.
Lest we want the national wailing and gnashing of teeth to continue over the wanton slaughter of our children, our elderly, our productive citizens at the hands of the criminal element, we need to grab that runway PNM Bull by its PNM horns and drive a dagger between its blood-shot PNM eyes.
You are not unlike what I am taking about TnTn Monitor. Every Trinidadian thinks he or she can do better than the government in power. Why? Because it it easy to criticize and THINK they know others who can do better. What TnT has shown is that, like most of those who feel that crime is a run-away problem, they have the easy job of just to blast away at the people at the helm and look for political solutions. Crime IS NOT A POLITICAL ISSUE. If the goodly gentleman would read what I said he would see that I am NOT looking one hundred percent on the government OR ANY POLITICIAN to solve the problem.
What I said, is that we should establish public interest GROUPS that have as their mission, the elimination of crime. In so doing there would of course be need to liaise with the government in power to pass legislation (if need be) to empower the laws. I also advised that public policy as currently constituted be looked at from the point of view of staggering essential patterns. Since government will be a part of the solutions, these public interest groups (non-aligned), should establish rules that can be legislated into law. Such rules may be targeted towards corruption and corrupt politicians as well.
I would agree with TNT Monitor that many things have been tried in the past, but is that a reason for not trying another way to deal with it? There is no denying that Trinidad is a corrupt place. There are two essentials to corruption – MONEY and POWER. ALL corrupt practices hinge on these two elements. So, it goes without saying that it is the ONE place law enforcement MUST look to solve the problem.
EDITED:
“Crime IS NOT A POLITICAL ISSUE. If the goodly gentleman would read what I said he would see that I am NOT looking one hundred percent on the government OR ANY POLITICIAN to solve the problem”.
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Kian,
Let me correct you. CRIME IS A SOCIAL PROBLEM but it becomes a political issue and assumes political dimensions when political parties both in opposition and government hobnob and get into bed with criminals, and in that regard the PNM has earned itself the dubious reputation and distinction of being Grand Masters of the art.
As we debate, there are no fewer than three sitting PNM MPs, two of them Cabinet ministers with proven criminal connections.
How therefore can crime not be a political issue in this PNM blighted Banana Republic.
NGOs? … Most of them a waste of ****ing time!!
Kiian,
Crime is a social problem but in PNM blighted Trinidad and Tobago, as in any banana republic, it assumes political dimensions when politicians and political parties hobnob and get into bed with criminals. And as I said in another topic, the UNC has demonstrated that anything the PNM does, good or bad, it can do better.
Monitor, one of the best advice that my parents have always taught me is that I should never argue religion or politics, because it always comes down to what a person believes. If you were to read what I wrote in this series of conversations, I have never mentioned the (politically hot button words) PNM or UNC. IN other words, I tried to be objective (and innovative)in my conversations. I re=iterate, non-partisan public interest groups is not something that is covered in the media. There are partisan or professional interest groups. What I speak about is approaching the problems from the man in the street.
You are obviously political and more so UNC in flavor. I am not prepared to go that route with you because there is no point in going there. If you truly are interested in fighting crime, we MUST by virtue work with the government in power because they do have a great interest in so doing. If you want to be innovative, I am with you but I will leave the politics that you appear to be engaged in to others. For now, I continue to say that it is time that people realize that they have power too, that can be exercised in different ways that have not yet been tried.
It will be foolish for me to get side tracked by the always foolish (PNM/UNC) conversations. Such arguments is and will always be subjective. I am not your guy if you are intent on taking the conversation in that direction. I will engage you when that topic arises but as of now, I consider it a foolish conversation. WE THE PEOPLE have powers that we are unwilling to use because we are trained to LET THE GOVERNMENT DO IT FOR US. My conversation is about saying that YES WE CAN do things differently. Are you on board or you only want to talk about UNC and PNM?
After writing what I thought to be an objective and calculating piece commentary. I decided to read some of the xenophobic language of one clearly self identifying individual who calls himself TnT Monitor. When people like this take upon themselves to be morally superior while denigrating a whole race or class of other people, one has to take notice and wonder about their upbringing. Yes, it is true that our young African males have fallen far below their ancestral counterparts, relating to how they prepared themselves for their futures. But, is that reason to condemn Emancipation? I don’t think so. History is replete with those who make contributions and those who take every opportunity destroy our progress. In every race, color and creed, we can find individuals or groups who have made the most negative contributions available towards destroying civility. Based on his conversations, one can make assumption on which groups he belong to, but that is besides the point because he appears to be a very sick individual.
In Trinidad and Tobago we have experienced all kinds of criminal behavior, ranging from the era of Boys Singh to the Poolool brothers. We experienced piracy, Mano Benjamin and many other eras of criminal behavior, but when one chooses to use emancipation as a means to denigrate a race of people, it is foolish to consider himself morally equipped to make such a judgement. Such individuals lack integrity and circumspection in the first place and the only way they can elevate themselves is by trying to downgrade the lives of others they view as lacking in comparison to theirs.
We should have pity for people like Tnt Monitor and consider them as people who need help with their own identity. There are many institutions in this society where people like Tnt Monitor can be offered help and we should pray that he seeks the help he obviously needs. In that respect, we should offer him our prayers and hope he finds a way to cleanse his sordid mentality.
I have not seen anyone here put forth a solution.Just spewing their racist venom.Maybe the great Professor Dr. Selwyn Cudjoe could use his intellectual expertise to take care of this growing problem. Give him a million dollar contract with all the perks.And let’s see what the learned doctor would order.
Read properly and digest. You will see the suggested solutions.
Greetings All,
I have read with interest many of the contributions put forth on this blog and I believe there is validity in all contributions. TnT Mirror may have taken a very strident, harsh tone in his denunciations and of their ethnic dimension, but there is substantial truth in what he says as unsettling as it is me.
I find myself in agreement with many of the ideas proposed by Kian and I believe that there are an excellent starting point from which to stem the relentless tide of crime which has besieged this country. T-Man also made an excellent point that many of the figures at the top of the crime pyramid in our country may or may not be of African ancestry.
If one were to tackle the scourge of young, African male criminality, I think the first thing to tackle is the sense of ENTITLEMENT that many of these criminals seems to have regarding the possessions of many law-abiding citizens in Trinidad and Tobago. A colleague of mine recounted his experience working in the prison system in Trinidad and Tobago. He said, out of his extensive conversations with many inmates, a common thread that emerged was a deep sense of entitlement that the inmates felt. They had the impression that society OWED them something.
Closely allied to this is the instant society we live in; everyone wants everything now. This is another mentality that has to be attacked, destroyed and replaced with something more positive.
Lastly, I want to remind everyone that there was a time when our country enjoyed very low levels of crime and this was a time when there were many people of African descent living in the island. Thus, although there are clearly many deviant young African males, the root cause of their anti-social behaviour has to be identified as an interruption in the transmission of values from earlier generations of Afro-Trinbagonians.
Its TnT Monitor NOT Tnt Mirror
TriniAmerican’s point about that sense of entitlement that many many African-TrinBagonians have is absolutely correct and we all know from which quarter that mentality has its genesis; it is from none other than the Nation’s founding Father Eric ‘Useless’ Williams and it is rooted in the PNM’s philosophical underpinnings.
That is why crime in Trinidad and Tobago cannot be divorced from the politics, and why the PNM cannot be part of the solution. They are simply too much the cause of the problem as even today the Party continues to feed the mentality that the Nation owes the African component of the population some imaginary and unquantifiable debt that will forever be on the national ledger, never to be retired.
Is it any wonder that the criminal element has absolutely no compunction about simply taking what it wants from Society and killing in the process of doing so.
We have had more than twenty years of talk about the causes of crime and suggested solutions from among the Nation’s top sociologists, psychologists, criminologists and virtually every religious denomination. Nothing has worked.
How much longer will we keep pussyfooting on the issue?
What Trinidad and Tobago needs is a government, not the PNM and not the UNC, that is prepared to come in, clean up and get out; a government that will provoke and goad the criminal element in open confrontation and then allow the security forces to blast them into oblivion, every single one of them, man woman and child.
If it is subsequently determined that the Government acted ultra vires the Constitution, let there be monetary compensation. The country can afford it; it would be decidedly cheaper than continuing to bear the costly burden of never ending criminal activity in its many facets.
|I have never mentioned the (politically hot button words) PNM or UNC. IN other words, I tried to be objective (and innovative)in my conversations. You are obviously political and more so UNC in flavor. I am not prepared to go that route with you because there is no point in going there. It will be foolish for me to get side tracked by the always foolish (PNM/UNC) conversations. I am not your guy if you are intent on taking the conversation in that direction. Are you on board or you only want to talk about UNC and PNM?
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Kian,
I guess you’re “not my guy” either because sensible and fruitful discussion on crime in Trinidad and Tobago cannot, I repeat cannot ignore its political dimensions.
You are seeking to exclude the most glaring and obvious of contributing factors to criminal activity and to do so would render the debate intellectually sterile and meaningless.
Regardless of how much power you think “We the People” (including the public interests groups, the professional groups the NGOs) have in influencing policy, the Government is the final arbiter on whether the views and machinations of those groups see the light of day or whether they would be suppressed.
And unless those groups are willing to engage the Government openly and frontally, the old saying “Power talks and Bull-shit walks” kicks into force.
If a government draws its supports from a particular segment of the population a substantial percentage of which is engaged in criminal activity, do you really think that it would jeopardize that support.
What we need is drastic, draconian action in the short term to decimate the criminal population and shock would be criminals into a different mindset. Thereafter, the measures suggested by you, those very long term measures might have a better chance of success.
But let us not prolong this discussion further as my pragmatism is diametrically opposed to your idealism.
My suggestion will bring about a near total cessation of crime in the immediate short term.
Yours will take years to bear fruit, undermined as it surely will be by vested criminal interests and personalities, politicians and political parties included.
“What we need is drastic, draconian action in the short term to decimate the criminal population and shock would be criminals into a different mindset. Thereafter, the measures suggested by you, those very long term measures might have a better chance of success.”….TnT Monitor
Before responding to this comment, I believe that this character has given us a lot of information to draw some conclusions about him:
I am willing to bet that he is either moneyed or come from a moneyed background where he enjoyed privileges, not afforded to normal middle class people. He is obviously comfortable in social settings where few, if any challenge his bravado behavior. There is no doubt that materialism is no problem for him and he feels that nothing should stand in his way of getting what he wants. It is also obvious that he may have benefitted a lot from whatever political alignment he or his family enjoys, he does not have to worry about the favors he desires.
I would rather use my time to address issues but since this character chose to engage me and my ideals, I wish to make a conclusive examination of him and what he is saying. Lets examine this statement, “What we need is drastic, draconian action in the short term to decimate the criminal population and shock would be criminals into a different mindset.” This is not just radical, it is careless and mindless. We are a society governed by laws. If every one of us who feel as he does, go out and become destructive and destroy everything we don’t like, what kind of society might that be? It is an unimaginable answer to that question because chaos will be the answer. We do not live in Lebanon or Syria. We do not live in Iraq or Yemen. We are governed by a democracy, where the rule of law prevails. To suggest a proposition of this magnitude by this individual is definitely a threat to good governance.
It is an insane suggestion that has consequences which he or I may never be able to survive. It is so abhorrent to conceive of this idea that is result will end civility as we know it.
Kian, or is it Gyan ..I suspect the latter
You still on me, Betah? You think I engaging your ideals?? Doh fool yuhself Betah. Me ent doing dat …So save yuh efforts, Betah .. Doh waste yuh time analyzing me..
Kian, or is it Gian .. I suspect the latter.
You say you want to deal with issues yet you choose to waste bandwidth analyzing me. Crime is the topic not me. I simply stated that my pragmatism is diametrically opposed to your idealism. There is nothing wrong with idealism. Not all of us are pragmatists and Idealism has its place. I have not used your idealism to attempt to draw conclusions about you and where you come from and how much money you might have or not have .. Betah, relax yuihself, use yuh analysis to save yuhself from de PNM bandit’s 9mm.
“We are a society governed by laws. If every one of us who feel as he does, go out and become destructive and destroy everything we don’t like, what kind of society might that be? It is an unimaginable answer to that question because chaos will be the answer. We do not live in Lebanon or Syria. We do not live in Iraq or Yemen. We are governed by a democracy, where the rule of law prevails. To suggest a proposition of this magnitude by this individual is definitely a threat to good governance. It is an insane suggestion that has consequences which he or I may never be able to survive. It is so abhorrent to conceive of this idea that is result will end civility as we know it”
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Historically, governments in the democratic world have done much worse and survived. Even today the US, UK, France, Germany and Israel are no strangers to creative executive action.
In 1810 United States President Thomas Jefferson wisely wrote the following:
“Circumstances occur when officers of high trust must assume authorities beyond the law in keeping with the “Salus Populi”, the laws of necessity, or self preservation, of saving our country when in danger. On these occasions a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means”.
This has nothing to do with what Kian says about people becoming destructive and destroying everything they don’t like”. I am speaking (writing) about the State protecting the law abiding majority from a murderous, savage criminal minority.
Terror does not belong in the minds of the innocent law abiding majority. we must recognize this fact since no one, whether man, woman or child, the young, the elderly or the infirm can be regarded as safe from the mindless ravages of the PNM savages.
The State has the authority, the power and the obligation to impose a violent solution to the nation’s crime problem and put Terror right back where it rightly belongs, in the hearts and minds of the murderous criminal minority. Put neither the PNM nor the UNC will never do that, albeit for different reasons.
Listen to PNM Opposition Leader, now Prime Minister, Keith Rowley In 2011 in response to the then government’s attempt to reintroduce hangings, “the PNM will not support Government’s move to amend the Constitution to resume hangings. The Opposition is not supporting any amendment to the Constitution, we not doing that. We will vote against it. It will fall,”
We propose to them to go back, draft a proper bill, ensure a proper consultation process, let the public comment on it and then we go to Parliament.”We are not going to be bullied into following the Government’s PR agenda. We say it before and we say it again; this attempt to come to Parliament with this bill to talk about hanging was done as a PR exercise in response to spiralling crime,”
That was Dr. Rowley speaking in 2011.
The PNM has been consistent in its refusal not to support any legislation that it perceives as a threat to its criminal ethnic support base. They have been doing that since Manning’s first time in opposition.
And people want to discuss crime and ignore its ethnic and political reality and connection to the PNM?
EDITED:
“We are a society governed by laws. If every one of us who feel as he does, go out and become destructive and destroy everything we don’t like, what kind of society might that be? It is an unimaginable answer to that question because chaos will be the answer. We do not live in Lebanon or Syria. We do not live in Iraq or Yemen. We are governed by a democracy, where the rule of law prevails. To suggest a proposition of this magnitude by this individual is definitely a threat to good governance. It is an insane suggestion that has consequences which he or I may never be able to survive. It is so abhorrent to conceive of this idea that is result will end civility as we know it”
——————————————————
Historically, governments in the democratic world have done much worse and survived. Even today the US, UK, France, Germany and Israel are no strangers to creative executive action.
In 1810 United States President Thomas Jefferson wisely wrote the following:
“Circumstances occur when officers of high trust must assume authorities beyond the law in keeping with the “Salus Populi”, the laws of necessity, or self preservation, of saving our country when in danger. On these occasions a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means”.
This has nothing to do with what Kian says about people becoming destructive and destroying everything they don’t like”. I am speaking (writing) about the State protecting the law abiding majority from a murderous, savage criminal minority.
Terror does not belong in the minds of the innocent law abiding majority. we must recognize this fact since no one, whether man, woman or child, the young, the elderly or the infirm can be regarded as safe from the mindless ravages of the PNM savages.
The State has the authority, the power and the obligation to impose a violent solution to the nation’s crime problem and put Terror right back where it rightly belongs, in the hearts and minds of the murderous criminal minority. Put neither the PNM nor the UNC will ever do that, albeit for different reasons.
Listen to PNM Opposition Leader, now Prime Minister, Keith Rowley In 2011 in response to the then government’s attempt to reintroduce hangings, “the PNM will not support Government’s move to amend the Constitution to resume hangings. The Opposition is not supporting any amendment to the Constitution, we not doing that. We will vote against it. It will fall,”
We propose to them to go back, draft a proper bill, ensure a proper consultation process, let the public comment on it and then we go to Parliament.”We are not going to be bullied into following the Government’s PR agenda. We say it before and we say it again; this attempt to come to Parliament with this bill to talk about hanging was done as a PR exercise in response to spiralling crime,”
That was Dr. Rowley speaking in 2011.
The PNM has been consistent in its refusal not to support any legislation that it perceives as a threat to its criminal ethnic support base. They have been doing that since Manning’s first time in opposition.
And people want to discuss crime and ignore its ethnic and political reality and connection to the PNM?
Kian/Gyan speaks about Democracy, but as I wrote elsewhere,
“We must be realistic, the dynamics of Democracy very often dispense with static theory and concept about the nature, function and processes of democratic governance in a world under constant bombardment by criminal forces.
Democracy can be its own worst enemy; the very freedoms and protections it guaranties are the ones it must take away, arbitrarily at times – if it is to survive – from those who seek to use those freedoms and protections wrongly.
If people wish to continue enjoying the democratic freedoms they take for granted, they must make up their minds to tolerate some degree of infringement of their rights at the hands of the State.
People talk about Democracy as though it were an absolute and Utopian concept, but this is not Utopia, our democracy is not absolute and neither is any of the rights it confers.
The USA, long considered a bastion and protector of world democracy, is also the world’s greatest violator of all accepted principles and codes of democratic conduct, committed however, in the name of ensuring the survival of democracy within its borders and preserving the American way of life.
Guantanamo Bay, Abu Garif and the secret interrogation/torture centers operated and maintained by the US Government around the world are ongoing testament to the fact that undemocratic actions are sometimes needed to protect the democracy people enjoy.
In the real world, it is an unwritten but clearly understood principle in virtually every democratic society that while Democracy and Tyranny may be the very antithesis of each other, the former cannot exist for long without some element of the latter.
Make no mistake, governments in the world’s recognized democracies have to continually strive to strike a sensible and delicate balance between respecting the rights of the few and the overall preservation of democracy in their respective countries.
The rights of the few must give way to the protection of the many. And it is no different in Trinidad and Tobago. I insist that the rights of the criminal minority must give way, in fact, be taken away arbitrarily if necessary to preserve the rights of the law abiding majority. And I make no apologies for advocating the wholescale elimination of criminals, be they man, woman, child or unborn baby in the womb of a criminal mother.
I really like to stay away from the politricks , ….but…. TnT monitor speaking a lil more frank as i would,but he speaking truth.Some bloggers are up in arms over this. need i remind them that they do the exact same, from a different perspective…Do so ent like so….Ent.????
TnT MONITOR should move to the Phillipines and join Duterte who called Obama “the son of a whore”.
Duterte sound like TnT MONITOR:
“Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I’d kill you,” he said at his final campaign rally. “I’ll dump all of you into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.”
Mr Duterte said he would “fatten the fish” in Manila Bay
He also said he would give himself and members of the security forces immunity from prosecution when they leave office, saying: “Pardon given to Rodrigo Duterte for the crime of multiple murder, signed Rodrigo Duterte.”
Civilized societies do not act this way without any regard for international laws or human rights.
“Mr Duterte said he would “fatten the fish” in Manila Bay”
And we could fatten our fish in Carli Bay.
Trinidad and Tobago is no longer civil or civilized. We have descended into a state of barbarism. And whom do we have to thank for that? …. The criminals whose rights so many of you misguided, bleeding hearts are bent on protecting.
“TnT MONITOR should move to the Phillipines and join Duterte who called Obama “the son of a whore”.
The US media sought to sensationalize Duterte’s reference to Obama whom he simply called a “black son of a bitch”. The word ‘whore’ was the US media extreme translation of the expression “hijo de puta”.
Most people like to think that we live in a technological age where, by reason of the advances made in almost all areas of civilized behavior we ought to be better people, but recent events the world over, have given reason to ponder on the kinds of people we choose to guide our destinies.
The United States have given us Donald Trump. A person who by all accounts is lacking in almost every faculty required to be “the leader of the free world”. In Zimbabwe a nine plus, ex freedom fighter who have lost touch with his population, is insisting that his young bride succeed him to lead a developing nation. The Philippines, where a confessed killer, now turned politician, thinks that he is the model or morality. Kim Jung Un, a young inheritor of his father’s dream, is rushing to develop ICBMs to become an international player in the nuclear fight. In Myanmar there is Aung San Suu Kyi, who is managing the displacement of over 300,000 Rohingya muslims, who are being denied citizenship in the country of their birth and as such are seeking entry into Bangladesh. In the Dominican Republic “The veil of ethnicity is being cast out in the public purview to justify a migrant and naturalization policy primarily rooted in skin color. The consequences have been steep. There’s reportedly been a rise in public beatings, burnings, and lynchings since the Dominican Constitutional Tribunal ruled in 2013 to retroactively revoke naturalized citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent – a population which constitutes large swaths of the country’s black inhabitants.”
The above is just a few of how the world is affected when leaders, both elected and unelected take the mantle of power. There are those right here who, if given a chance, would feel empowered to promulgate policies by people those quoted above, but therein lie the dangers we are faced with. Just with two immature leaders as Kim Jung Un and Donald Trump, we can be facing nuclear annihilation, who knows? We face our own challenges with the country’s finances, immigration and the fallout from bad leadership in Venezuela, Dominican Republic and other neighbor states. This will only exacerbate our already volatile political situation which has its basis on race, religion and culture.
In this regard, we need to exercise some degree of objective calculation how we handle issues of national importance. Our thinking will always be tied to our ethnographic experience, but this is where leaders make a difference, in knowing how to temper our natural instincts when matters of importance affect us all.