The ghoulish picture of our police commissioner over the dead body of a murder suspect (Express, 28 December) reminded me of Nietzsche’s aphorism: ‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster… if thou gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze into …
Read More »Daly Bread: Are the malls becoming crime hot spots? T&T’s state of anxiety is growing
Two ladies in the early afternoon—to which we refer colloquially as after lunch—park a vehicle in an area, not isolated from one of its entrances, and enter a shopping mall. An hour later, as they are exiting the mall, they see a man standing adjacent to their vehicle. They have …
Read More »Noble: The blackest thing in Laventille; how decades of neglect shaped a ‘hot spot’
Dr Eric Williams’ last tome, The Blackest Thing in Slavery (1973), tells us that there were many more shady dealings in slavery than the African slave. This is analogous to the Laventille situation; there are more criminal dealings than those who live there. While there is an undeniable need for …
Read More »Noble: Kickstarting Laventille; why Hinds’ ‘poverty of imagination’ stymies their development
“In a diverse society, aiming to do well, African people are not doing as well as we expected or as well as we might,” intoned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the same day that Fitzgerald Hinds, member of parliament for Laventille West, gave an expansive interview in the Sunday …
Read More »Noble: The deafening sound of silence; Colleen’s cry exposes the hypocrisy all around us
In the mid-60s, Paul Simon wrote: “And in the naked light I saw/ten thousand people maybe more/ people talking without speaking/people hearing without listening/ people writing songs that voices never share/and no one dared disturb the sound of silence..” These lines are about us, our crime situation and the impertinent …
Read More »Noble: How to create a ‘hotspot’ 101; why HDC must do right by Oropune and other developments
Like a socially awkward dinner guest who knocks down the glass of water, Colleen Holder and her committee have disrupted the myth of public housing management. Oropune Gardens is not a den of ‘do-nothings’ who live off the public purse. The residents want to live there and have created several …
Read More »Dear Editor: Make the criminals leave Temple Street, not the students!
I read recently that the Ministry of Education has ordered the Arima Hindu School, located on Temple Street to be closed, as consequence of an upsurge of crime in that community. Now I don’t want to jump the ‘gun’, since there was to be a meeting at the Arima Town …
Read More »Noble: The Sad Story of slain Akil Phillip, victim of T&T’s crime factory
That Akil Phillip was shot ostensibly for his cell phone is sad. But the greater sadness is missed in the midst of the outcry by elements of the wider population against the ‘deafening’ silence of the Laventille community. They seek to chastise the residents for not ‘making noise’ comparing the …
Read More »Demming: The East Dry River voted PNM for over-40 years and what did they get?
“It’s true that things are always changing, but I expected that some of the change would have been for the better. Instead the evidence of poverty was ‘in yuh face’ as ‘halfway-falling down’ homes, piles of garbage on the corners, roaming stray dogs, and the vine-covered trailer truck that once …
Read More »Noble: T&T must address childhood trauma, or risk being outnumbered by criminals
Trinidadians are amazing people. Glorifying each raid led by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, we ignore his 21 November prophecy, in Chaguanas, of 100,000 new criminals in the next five years. “It is really important for us… to look at secondary crime prevention… If we do not deal with this …
Read More »Dear Editor: T&T needs more thoughtful, collective response to crime, not blustery overreaction
“Being poor or even living in Laventille does not cause one to engage in crime or any other behaviour, but they make certain lines of conduct easier or more difficult. When poverty or unemployment is treated within the context of strong families and an active socialising church, crime and vandalism …
Read More »SSFL 18: Malick down Speyside to eye promotion, aim to bring back love in community
“Move over Bago, and let Malick pass!” The chant streamed out from the dressing room at Serpentine Road, St Clair yesterday afternoon, as the schoolboys from Malick Secondary celebrated a deserved 2-nil victory over Speyside High School in Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Shell/FCB Big 5 action. The victory took …
Read More »