Un-Commissioned

Greetings one and all. I hope that the holiday season passed safely for you all. Here in Trinidad, there were many who were missing safety from their season. Indeed, it seems that to crime there is no end in sight. My question is how can their be?
It becomes easy for the public to blame the police, since they are in charge of crime some of the responsibility lies with them but not all of it. The entire population, young and old, must accept responsibility for crime being where it is. The police service is not omnipresent nor omniscient, they cannot be in all places at all times nor can they know all things. Yet to hold policemen fully responsible for crime is to assume both of these things.
This, however, is not a vindication for a police force that is sluggish, corrupt, and misleading. How is it that a gas station can be robbed on a main road, separated from the police station by one building. Yet when the gas station attendant runs to the station to alert the police of the robbery, he is told 'We have no vehicles.' How does that man feel, after he just run to alert them and no one is willing to run back with him to assist?
Commissioner Paul made an appeal for public support very early into the new year. Indeed, a crucial aspect to getting a handle on crime. After this appeal, however, he authorized the raiding of Beetham Gardens and Chafford Courts in Port-of-Spain. Both of these areas are low-income and do have criminal elements residing in them. Yet, the warrant-less search of residences, the ransacking of homes and violence used toward residents does anything but build public support. Ironically enough, these are the very areas where public support needs to be built. The police need residents in the Beetham to be confident that they treat suspected individuals fairly or else how will they receive valuable information? If public support is raised in higher income areas like Lange Park or West Moorings or Valsayn or Gulf View, how does this help when, largely, criminal elements tend to come from lower income areas?
No Commissioner Paul, your approach is wrong. The support that you pleaded for has to come from the low income areas, you already have the high income area support since they want you to do your job and protect their investments and homes. In the low income areas, where people do not have, there is a higher chance of criminal activity. A higher chance of a young man consciously deciding to join a gang. How can his grandmother feel about turning him in when not more than a week ago your officers broke down her door and ransacked her house? Will she feel like the police will rehabilitate her grandson, or will she see them as only an oppressive force that don't care about poor people? And when the poor feel uncared for, what direction is left for them to turn?
You cannot treat low-income citizens as second-class citizens simply because they live in high-risk areas. Whether or not we like it, this country's constitution affords the same rights and respect to all of its citizens, even criminals and undoubtedly those living in criminal areas. To subject these individuals to the fear and trauma that is an unexpected, early morning raid, and not even have a legal document to back it up gives the impression that the police can do what they want when they want. Just as fire brings fire, the unfair treatment will only serve to increase bitterness that will be turned against the police service and the general population. Thank you Commissioner Paul, for 'protecting and serving'.

Will we hear you?

So that's it. The polls are closed, the results are in, the people have chosen. Civic duty has been exercised, or so it has been said. Amazing that such an important 'duty' lasts for only one day. If you exercised for one day every five or so years, what kind of shape would you be in?

We have three political parties with very similar agendas, and the difference comes in how they propose to achieve these shared goals. But, the PNM is not socialist, the UNC is not green and the COP is not liberal. There is no ideological difference. There is, however, enough perception of a difference, and this is why the system triumphs. All of the podium speeches and the verbal battles through the mud work at achieving one thing. Trivializing real issues and giving importance to minor aspects. For instance, Manohar Ramsaran when speaking about Kelvin Ramnath who recently had heart surgery tried to convey the idea that Ramnath was not healthy enough to represent a constituency. Ramnath's response explicitly directed Ramsaran to ask his wife about Ramnath's health. To my knowledge Manohar Ramsaran's wife is not a member of the medical profession.

The witty comebacks on the campaign trail, displays of bravado and machismo by both men and women, get the attention of voters. This latest election proves that. The voters, the body of the electorate that exercised on Monday, November 5th, indicated satisfaction with the choices given to them.

And yet, almost 45% of the population that was eligible to vote did not. With everything that was spent on political rallies, newspaper ads, entertainers, what a spectacle. And still almost half of the nation was not satisfied with the choices available, which is significant. For another five years, we will be sitting in Trinidad. Five carnivals will come and go, five Christmas seasons, five birthdays, five years of marriage, five of our own years, however we choose to measure it, time will pass. As this time passes, do we forget about our civic duty or does it become a daily exercise? Is the choice of voting the sole manifestation of our right to democracy? Where is our voice?

Red Pill Politics

When it comes to rabbit holes, everyone has basic choice. Either you go into the rabbit hole to find truth (blue pill), or you choose to stay in Wonderland with its well-manicured lawns and all-inclusive fetes (red pill). The choice of the red pill, then, means that reality is not wanted. Red pill users don't want to deal with everyday situations. For them, life is the constant fete; how they vote IS how they party. These are the masses, the crowds that politicians pander to and play for. Red pill users form the bulk of diehard, card-carrying, 'juhsey' wearing supporters. Whether it be balisier, the rising sun, or a bullseye for a cross-eyed man, whatever emblem you waving, once you waving it, red pill politics is for you.

When your choice of leader can work you up into a frenzy with a vague promise to control crime, you have taken the red pill. When your logic is suspended so that you believe that by increasing spending on prisons and nothing on social programs, criminal elements would be magically controlled, you have been red-pilled. A red beret appeals to the red pillers, so too do secret polls and walks around the community. A red pill solution is only temporary and based in the non-real, the imaginary, in Wonderland. Our roads are a mess, every party speaks of infrastructure, which is a concern. But any driver on our roads know that the main problem is driving mentality. The measures of wider lanes, rapid rail or ferry will not address this. Man does stop car on d highway like how tantie does stop in d market. Jes "BRAPS!", drop all she bag, and eh even realize ah whole family of 4 was behind her. In the market, it provides for a light Sunday morning moment to make you think of ole time days. On the highway...

We have many drug-related shootings, and now political shootings have begun. Last week in Enterprise, a young man who was a welder and a part time poster-boy for one particular party was shot to death. Two men in a car drove up to him and opened fire, when he fell, one man got out, stood over him, and emptied his gun into the young man's motionless body. Red pill politicians scrambled to release statements expressing remorse and concern for the family left to mourn. Yet to this date, has anyone visited the family, or offered any real help? What about members of the party that he was working for? The young man was his family's main breadwinner. As they all vie for power and first place, each trying to appear more compassionate, none of them ever gets close to helping the family in a meaningful way.

A favourite of the red piller is the question, "So who yuh votin' for?" Which is always rhetorical. There is only one right answer to this, and it can only be the acronym for the particular party that the red piller addressing you at the time supports. Now as a blue piller, you will know that there is no real difference between the parties. That everything focused on showing difference is all a sham. A red piller does not see this. Minor discrepancies become ideological gaps. Somehow, we end up with African and Indian parties in a land forged from the love of liberty, where every creed and race supposedly find an equal place. And how is it, with Trinidadian society in consideration, do the demands of any of these groups truly differ?

The good thing about red pill politics is that you always have choice.
YOU can choose to take a blue pill one morning, but it may make the choice of going back difficult.
YOU can choose to talk to your fellow Trinidadians and see commonalities rather than differences.
YOU can choose!

When it comes to elections, don’t allow the illusion of making a choice be the definition of what you do for your country. A once every 5 years choice is not voice, and voice is what democracy is about.

“Bluuuueee, We go paint d tong Blueeeeee
Turn d wholeworld upside down!” – 3 Canal