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Current reality is significantly at odds with the much touted joy and unity of Carnival. It is front and centre of its own stage, which grimly rivals the dazzling Carnival stages. Such reality can no longer be easily pushed aside and become invisible during the Carnival season.
The murderous challenges to our quality of life will not be fleeting and fold neatly back into the memories of a joyful Carnival and into the anticipation of the next “pardy” to come.
Photo: TTPS.
In these circumstances, it is particularly difficult to write a column during the course of this Carnival season of 2025.
Confronted with the difficulty of burying my concern about the unravelling state of our country in a good Carnival event and going home and sleeping well after that, despite these present violent and unstable times, a faithful reader advised me that I must continue to call it as I see it.
This person as well as other well-wishers—who subject only to their repeated cautions to be careful of what I write about the pervasive criminal infrastructure—know that I will not abandon analysis and constructive criticism when necessary.
Neither the smears of “unpatriotic” nor “mischievous” will give me pause; nor have I ever wanted a Hyatt Lime ticket (now priced at US$649).
In a time of foreign exchange crisis, how discreet is the Hyatt Lime boasting about “access to sushi, lobster, caviar and premium champagne” and being “catapulted” into that world?
As readers will be aware, in pre-revolutionary France the ultimately doomed Queen Marie Antoinette allegedly said about the peasants who had no bread: “let them eat cake”.
Three urgent questions in many unblurred minds are: what will we have to face when the current State of Emergency (SoE) is over; what, realistically assessed, has the SoE accomplished; and what, if any, permanent positive results will remain for our benefit thereafter?
Dr Darius Figueira and Dr Randy Seepersad, two of the nation’s criminologists who regularly and helpfully comment on gang-related issues, warned against premature celebration of the drop in murders during the SoE.
Photo: TTPS.
Figueira succinctly related the relationship of the drop in murders to the wider police powers of detention under the SoE. He then asked two questions about the future after the SoE ends:
“Will the game of death recommence? Will we see a spike in violence?” (See Trinidad Express 6 February 2025.)
Meanwhile, there is spectacular irony in the current, but belated, awakening to the contribution that the steelpan movement can make to the repair of the social fabric.
Photo: Pan Trinbago.
These expressions come at a time when the authorities have little or no clue about what type of investment is required and into which aspects of the steelpan industry such investments should be made and from which sources the investments, grants and other incentives should come.
For example, the current freight increase for the shipment abroad of pans made in Trinidad and Tobago has left small entrepreneurs in pan exporting potentially devastated.
The Ministry of Culture and Pan Trinbago only think superficially. Such superficiality is reflected in the controversy over the allocation of space in the North Stand for Panorama semi-finals to corporations to the detriment of general patrons.
Photo: Pan Trinbago.
Merely reserving corporate spaces in the North Stand is so obviously not an investment strategy. Moreover, did Pan Trinbago disclose to the public upfront that this was being done?
These boastful authorities do not understand how to build and market a fan zone for Panorama, using the North Stand supported by the Greens, in an innovative interaction without classist and exclusionary overtones.
Over a decade ago I made an input into what was required to make the Greens successful as a fan zone.
Photo: Pan Trinbago.
That particular input was a small part of my continuous advocacy for an in-depth understanding of the part the panyard plays in our social fabric and the need for enlightened investment in the panyard model.
My advocacy for investment in the panyard model has acknowledged what was proposed by Lloyd Best. I have kept my concept front and centre in these columns, including a seminal statement in one published in February 2007 entitled Potential Peacemakers.
Such investment is where corporate help could best assist.
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
Dear Mr. Daly,
Your article is on point, personally I am completely exhausted by the State of our Country. We continue to place people in positions of power who have no clue as to what they are doing, think they are doing a fantastic job and therefore refuse to take any form of advice! We the population are caught between a rock and a hard place with no-where to go!