By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 29, 2022
“The weeping horn man; Someone horn de horner man…”
-Anil Roberts on Keith Rowley
“I can get a trumpet if I get one. I am not sending anyone to kill anyone.”
— Dr Keith Rowley’s response to Roberts
These are the sentiments of our two leaders on the eve of the Diamond Jubilee of our Independence. Serious people treated Roberts’ characterization of Sharon Clark-Rowley, the Prime Minister’s wife, with the contempt it deserved. There was no reason to drag him into the ditch, as there was no need to raise such false nonsense to the level of serious national discourse. As we say – if you play with the dog, the fleas will bite you.
Many more important issues face our people as we enter the next 60 years after our Independence. While meeting our material needs is important, we should be more concerned about the diminishing value we, as citizens, place on our spiritual and cultural life.
Many of the challenges facing our nation can be discerned from the headlines and news that appear in our newspapers every day. A few examples should suffice:
Guardian: “Horror in Palo Seco as a drowned seven-year-old girl.” The story continued: “Terror struck him [Palo Seco] community yesterday morning as McKenzie’s visions [Hope Rechier] the frail, lifeless body now haunts the minds of relatives and police who found her on a dirty mattress inside the 10×10 ft wooden shack that she and the suspect [her mother, Michelle Alexander] called home.
“Inside a dirty room, they found McKenzie lying in a fetal position with a red mark on her neck and her face swollen.” The suspect may be “struggling with mental issues.” (August 21.)
Express: “After finding the newborn in a garbage bag at the hospital, the shocked job seeker says: “It was moving, sounds like a baby were coming out of the bag.” ABANDONED GIRL.”
Emanuel Pierre who found the abandoned child said: “The child was wrapped in a yellow blanket and had a hat on his head.” He further emphasized, “We cannot judge anyone’s situation. Maybe they feel they can’t take care of the baby, but they could have done it in a more humane way than resting the baby there in a bag.” (August 23.)
Last week the Express reported that five people were shot dead in separate incidents along the East-West Corridor over two nights. The victims were Darryl Jessop, 30, Dennis Nero, 43, Brian Carter, 57, Avery Weekes, 27, and Delano, age unknown.
Weeks was on the way to the Observatory when he was confronted by a masked person, who shot him and left him for dead. Jessop was confronted by an unknown man who shot him several times around the body. Delano, who was employed by the Port of Spain City Corporation, was also shot several times. He died on the spot.
Nero’s mother seemed resigned to her son’s death. Asked why someone would kill her son, she said: “When you don’t hear, you feel. And God knows best and Allah knows the reason. God rest his soul.” (August 24.)
Her grief was palpable; her absolute resignation. God was her only savior and redeemer, but her grief emphasized the hopelessness she felt.
A similar grief gripped Shpresa’s grandmother when she learned that her granddaughter had drowned. She ran to the suspect’s house. She said: “I am calling my nephew, and she is not answering me. I didn’t know what to do again.”
Hope enjoyed getting her hair and nails done and spending time at the beach with her grandmother. The grandmother mourned her loss: “All I know is that my princess is gone. She will never come back.”
Express: “The mother of the 8-year-old boy shot in the Morvant attack prays to God: LET MY SON LIVE… two men killed; The 11-year-old also shot.” The boy, it seems, was preparing for a football match. Speaking about the gunmen who carried out the attack, the boy’s mother said: “They are just fueling hatred and they don’t care. I’ve lived here all my life and growing up, it was nothing like this…
“Right now the young people are traumatized… No one is walking in the area as usual. Everyone is at home.” (August 18.)
The nation has reached a point where nihilism has begun to seep into people’s lives. They are traumatized and scared. Eugene Rivers III, a friend of mine, speaking of the killing of 13 black men in Boston over the Fourth of July weekend, America’s Independence Day celebration, says that Boston’s escalating violence is “a statement about the growing importance of leadership. black politician in Boston. “.
He continues: “In the long run, violence is an expression of the nihilism and decay of a largely ignored underclass of politically orphaned youth. Public health models of violence prevention are necessary but insufficient to address the spiritual and political sources of violence.” (Boston Globe, July 22.)
Nihilism, a philosophy that suggests that all values are baseless and life has little meaning, has a tendency to denigrate the meaning of life. We may not be at that point, but we need to pay serious attention to where we want to go, as a nation, over the next 60 years.
Faced with such daily threats to our humanity, who “remembers” and who can take a snow, are futile and out of time. Instead, we should be more careful about what we do and say about each other. Verbal violence is not the answer. Hope and nihilism are entering people’s lives and this is not good for our country.
We must be extremely reflective of our words and actions on the anniversary of our republic.
