This failing state | Columnist

I’ve said, “We may not be a failed state, but we’re certainly getting there.” And four weeks ago, after Dr Keith Rowley claimed he had “done the job” as Prime Minister, I asked: “What job has been done? In every critical area of ​​national life—the economy, society, the state—this country is sinking into brink of disaster.”

As I write, 3,782 people have been killed in this country in seven years, and nearly 60 citizens have been massacred in the last four weeks. “Not even babies and toddlers are escaping gunfire,” says one observer.

Indeed, last Monday at Rose Hill RC Primary School in Laventille, a two-minute video revealed terrified children under desks as gunshots echoed in broad daylight across the hills as a teacher urged: “Ssshhh… keep calm, child. Down, down. Ssshhh.” As the gunfire continued in the distance, the teacher insisted, “Shut up kids, the other side is answering. Ssshhh.” Moving around the classroom, she pleaded, “Oh god, come down baby, come down.” And as the gunfire got closer, she screamed, “Oh my God, oh my God. Baby, down, down, down. Ssshhh, baby. Just shut up.”

Heavens, has it come this far?! A newspaper reports that rapid bursts of gunfire from warring gangs in the area are the norm for those attending the school. Teachers have introduced an “exercise” for students to crawl under their desks, covering their heads, eyes and ears. Is this job done prime minister?

Children themselves are becoming violent, rampaging criminals. Court records from February 2018 to May 31 of this year reveal 1,771 criminal cases filed against children between the ages of 7 and 18 for possession of firearms, robbery with violence, intentional shooting, robbery, domestic violence, drug offenses, kidnapping, murder and murder. . This is the result of the deepening of social degradation that I have repeatedly warned about, stressing the need for social and cultural regeneration in this country.

And a month after the prime minister’s astonishing claim, the number of murders crossed 500 for 2022. I have warned: “The institutions of the state are failing in their sacred obligations to the people.” Take the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, the Ministry of National Security, the National Security Council and the Office of the Prime Minister. All ringing but empty in their promises, attitudes and pronouncements, failing miserably in their most sacred duty to protect citizens from the criminal elements who now operate with impunity.

Nothing epitomizes the failure more than Homeland Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, a senior member of Rowley’s intellectually impoverished cabinet. Seeking to save his political skin by downplaying the recent trauma of the children at Rose Hill RC Primary, Hinds said the video was “quite misleading”, the gunmen were about 200 meters away and the children were never “at risk of any danger physical”. An Express editorial described the minister’s remarks as “utterly baffling”, “stunningly tone-deaf”, “insensitive and emotionally numb”, “flying in the face of reason” and “a massive mispronunciation”. A Guardian editorial says that as minister, Hinds has “one of the lowest credibility and public trust ratings in T&T”, always seeking to “shamelessly” distance himself from his failings and calls on him for “real action or your resignation”.

Our officials loudly detest the term “failed state,” a sentiment that is expressed everywhere in this country today. And what are they waiting for? Five months ago, after 15 murders in one weekend, Rowley admitted that violence was the “number one” issue affecting the population, that his government’s efforts had had little effect and that the time had come to declare violence a public health emergency. The following day, an Express editorial said “we look forward to his government’s swift and credible action plan” and recommended, more appropriately, the Prime Minister “could start by removing the acting national security minister “, Fitzgerald Hinds, “a gap. appointed”, “an uninspired decision” which “has presided over a rapid deterioration of the security environment”.

What happened after five months Prime Minister? What work is done, pray? Instead, “murders have galloped forward, violent home invasions and armed robberies have become the norm, while other forms of violence, including fraud, rape and human trafficking, continue unabated,” a report said. the latest editorial of the Express.

And folks, $54 billion of your money has been spent on the nation’s national security over the past eight years. With such vast resources expended, must we live in fear behind closed doors in our vulnerable homes, where our children must hide under desks to avoid bullets at school?

Trinidad and Tobago is today among the countries with the highest crime rates. Simone de la Bastide, the wife of the former chief justice, recounting her terrifying experience of a home invasion, says we have “a crime pandemic of enormous proportions. Everyone is now a target – poor, rich, old, young, vulnerable. The scary question is, who’s next?” She fears for children and wants “people in leadership positions who really care and who will bring our society back to a semblance of what it used to be.” Really! Sixty years ago, on achieving sovereignty, Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams asked the nation: “What will you use your Independence for?”

They’ve made a mess, Doc. Now we have this failed state.

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