‘I am tired of hearing about so and so was known to the police or this area is known as a crime hotspot. If all of this is known, why can’t something be done’
IT should be made mandatory that all members of the Government, Opposition, Parliament and all other law makers of our country, attend the funerals of the people who were “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” especially those of the children whom according to Minister of National Security are not being targeted by gangs.
They should be made to look into the eyes of every grieving mother, father and child. They should be there to hear the wails of grief. They should be there to see the coffin lowered into the ground, enter the crematorium or be laid upon the pyre.
Maybe they should be forced to hold the baby, whose parents were murdered this week, whose parents used their bodies as shields to preserve the life of their child. That baby who was found hours later soaked in the blood of its parents. That baby who went to bed between two loving parents, who is now an orphan, who will forever be shadowed by the trauma of their parents’ demise.
I wonder if when confronted by the actual loss, just not a report or photo in the newspaper, that they’d understand that being in “wrong place at the wrong time” or this whole gang members are only killing other gang members isn’t good enough.
Our murder toll is fast approaching 500 and all we hear from our leaders is “we are concerned.” Well, concern doesn’t do jack. I am tired of hearing about so and so was known to the police or this area is known as a crime hotspot. If all of this is known, why can’t something be done.
We have let crime and gang violence spiral beyond control in T&T. We are seeing our children being murdered in parks, we are seeing entire families being wiped out by assault weapons, we are living in fear that at any given moment we will be “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Concern isn’t enough. Is it that it is too hard to investigate the corruption in the port system, where guns and drugs keep sliding through? Is it too hard to investigate the corruption our police service? Is it too hard to investigate the corruption within our public programmes that engages gangs and other proclaimed community leaders? Is it too hard to take a holistic look at our society and create educational, occupational and other social programme to tackle the root of crime, to help steer at risk youth away from crime?
It’s a lot, I get that and, no some people may not be happy, but it needs to be done, because we are on the verge of anarchy. Crime has gotten to the point where it is uncontrollable and the fault lies solely on the men and women who have sat in parliament and allowed this to happen, because they are so disconnected from the people they serve.
Maybe they can explain that dealing with crime is hard to the parents of nine-year-old Jomol Modeste and three- year-old Nazim Owen. Wonder if they would have the gall to tell them their sons were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they should choose their friends better.
Likewise, I think that this same group of people should have to visit every flooded area armed with shovels, water pumps, and dry vacs. And they should have to work, not ride around in canoes for well timed and orchestrated photo ops. They should be made to help people try to salvage their possessions; they should be made feel the loss their citizens feel.
Clearing waterways isn’t going to cut it. A huge problem we have is that our drainage infrastructure has not been upgraded to accommodate the growing population. Take for example Maraval, in the last 20 years the population has more than doubled, with more housing developments and businesses being built. And guess what? The main drainage has stayed the same, so instead of it having to deal with the runoff from 1000 buildings, it has to magically accommodate the water and down flow from 3,000.
This is not rocket science. But nah, lets keep building on old roads, old drainage, old water systems, old electrical grids and hope for the best.
Perhaps if our leaders were forced to walk in the blood stained, flood soaked, barely holding by a thread shoes their citizens wear, concern will turn into action.
Pleasant afternoon,the truth put amazingly well, if 20,000 plus children writes the S E A annually it means that close to that number graduate annually,We needs to have job opportunities for these kids or face the present situation!