Archive for October, 2006
Monday, October 30th, 2006
Oh gosh Dwayne, yuh make meh shame yesterday. I mean really, dread. Was that necessary? So I’m not sure how many of you got to watch the West Indies play their final group game of the ICC Champions Trophy yesterday against England, but there was an incident yesterday involving Dwayne Bravo that I’d rather just forget.
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| Dwayne Bravo |
England’s innings, Michael Yardy is at the crease and Marlon Samuels has the ball. Yardy lofts Samuel over to somewhere around long on. Bravo runs for it and slides and seems to come down with it. He lies face down on the outfield with his arms underneath him which can be construed either as a silent celebration or self-disgust depending on how you look at it. After a few seconds he gets up and he doesn’t wave off the catch or smile to acknowledge it. He does however look very much like a man who just found a fat wallet in the bushes and doesn’t know whether he should keep it for turn it in to the police.
So he walks towards the pitch like an FBI agent - neither confirming nor denying. Before he could get there, Lara approaches him and seemingly asks him whether or not he caught it to which Bravo seemingly nods “yes”. All this time the umpire has already signalled the fall of the wicket, and Michael Yardy has already walked off the pitch.
However television replays on the big maco screens surrounding the big maco playing field show that Dwayne Bravo did not in fact catch the ball. What it shows is that Bravo is either too slow off the mark or the ball is simply uncatchable. Bravo slides, misses the ball completely, the ball drops to the ground, bounces and falls into Bravo’s grasp. Hmmm.
After that incident I ceased to care about the outcome of the match. We had already qualified for the semi-finals anyway, but if we won this match it would have been said that we won because Bravo cheated for us - something that would have been very hard to argue. But it was most disappointing because although the West Indies have been bad over the last fifteen years or so, no one could say that we were cheaters. Whether or not we batted or bowled poorly, we played our game right.
We all knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of a cheat especially in the late 90’s when Jeff Healy was at the stumps for Australia. To my memory he claimed at least one bump ball catch and on one occasion stumped Lara when the ball wasn’t even in his gloves. So I wonder especially how Lara felt after seeing the replay. I wonder if he feels betrayed.
Afer the game Bravo was interviewed and said about the catch,
“I thought I had it clean but after coming back in dressing room and seeing the replay I saw the ball bounce before it got to my hands. I immediately went to the England dressing room and apologized to Michael Yardy because I really did not know the ball had bounced. He understood and accepted my apology. While taking the catch my eyes was not on the ball because I was diving and I did not see the ball hit the ground. Naturally I feel bad about it because it is not something that I would ever do intentionally and it is not something that is part of my game. If I knew the ball had bounced while taking the catch I would have told the skipper right away.”
Now, I’ve been watching Bravo play cricket for a long time now, and I’ve seen his celebrations, and that face down in the turf thing coupled with the guilty expression is definitely not the Bravo I know. I strongly suspect he knew that his catch was not clean hence why he waited to see what the umpire did before he showed his hand. I’m not sure how exactly he “did not know the ball had bounced”. Whether or not he was watching the ball, can’t he distinguish whether the ball comes into his hands from above or below?
I tried to Google the incident but only one other website I found mentions it at all. CNC3 didn’t even mention it in last night’s sportscast. Hmm. I wonder if they would have mentioned it if it were the other way around and it was Andrew Flintoff who claimed a bump ball catch to dismiss darling Lara. I’d like to say “no” but I’m not delusional.
*Addendum - Bravo was charged with failing to ‘conduct play within the spirit of the game’ and was today
cleared of all charges by match referee Mike Procter saying,
“From my experience as a player I know that can happen, but we needed to ask the question to make sure it was a genuine mistake by the player.
“For that reason the umpires were right to lay the charge but after we all talked it through I had no reason to disbelieve Dwayne’s version of events.”
I’m not as convinced though. For me, the guilty look speaks volumes more than the explanation.
Posted in Cricket, Sports | 10 Comments »
Friday, October 27th, 2006
I found this sad story today about a Trinidadian student in Pittsburgh named Shiron Cooper. She needs a liver transplant urgently. If anyone can help out I’m sure she’d appreciate it.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »
Friday, October 27th, 2006
Alexia, you asked me about the weather today. Well it’s hot as always. So this is to all of you up in foreign. I know allyuh start feeling the bite in the weather already, so here is a little warmth to get you by.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 22 Comments »
Friday, October 27th, 2006
Is there a a new discovery in household laundry that involves slapping yourself around in the laundry room and arguing with the clothes? If not, then my neighbour’s a obeah woman.
I know she’s not slapping her son around because he’s at school all day long, and I know it’s not her father because he’s dead. She definitely doesn’t have any pets, so what else could it be?
Posted in Humour, Personal Story | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Well the Silver Fox is gone. Not gone as in dead, gone as in no longer in Parliament. This is the first time in thirty years that Basdeo Panday will not represent the constituency of Couva North in the House of Representatives.
I’ll be honest. To some tiny extent, I did like Basdeo Panday. He has a sense of humour that is unparalleled in politics. He is quick and witty and can dish out insults faster than other mortals. But that’s where my admiration for Basdeo Panday ends.
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| Basdeo Panday |
In today’s Guardian former Speaker of the House Nizam Mohammed is talking about how great a loss it is to the country that Basdeo Panday won’t be in the House any longer. I’m sorry, but did I miss something? Are we talking about the same Basdeo Panday here?
In Trinidad we such loyalty and dedication to people and parties over our own country that we tend to completely ignore their failings and instead sunbathe in some magic euphoria of what they did once upon a time.
Does no one become disenchanted anymore? When someone turns up with millions of dollars in a foreign bank account, doesn’t that turn you off a little? Why people still revere Bas I can’t understand. Why people blame the Government I can’t understand either. Maybe the Government was a little too enthusiastic in prosecuting him, but had Bas kept his nose clean, the PNM would have had nothing on him. However he screwed up, and the Government was all too happy to pounce on it.
Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do? Find the rotten ones and throw them out? And that’s what we did. So yay for us, Trinidad is a better place. The people won.
It was Bas’s Government that passed the Integrity in Public Life Act back in 2000. Bas knew what was going on, he knew what was expected of him and he knew the penalties. What’s there to feel sorry for? During the trial what was the excuse? It was scholarship money given as a gift to my wife on my daughter’s behalf. No your honour, I guess my wife forgot to mention it to me. Yes for three years, your honour. Yes, $10m your honour. No that’s not really unusual for her.
Right.
Occifah, daiz not my drugs. Daiz ah padna own. He jes tell meh hol’ dis bag fih he and I holin’ it fih he. Dah eh my gun neida. Daiz he own too.
Well you have to admit there are some similarities.
I won’t bemoan Basdeo Panday’s absence. I’ll bemoan the person he wasn’t but could have been. I’ll bemoan the scars it left on our country. That’s what I’ll feel sorry for. Not Basdeo Panday.
Posted in Crime, Politics, UNC | 42 Comments »
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Well at least someone is taking the bull by the horns. At least someone’s thinking. In light of the Carifesta IX fiasco which resulted in hotel rooms for the 1200 performers being scarce, someone has decided that cruise ships would help solve the problem. Because if we had trouble finding space for just 1200 performers it will be chaos with the thousands of Indian spectators alone.
I think it’s actually a good idea. In lieu of building massive new hotels which I’m pretty sure Patos has been itching to do, utilizing the instant hotel that is a cruise ship, is the best thing.
The best part of it is that it shouldn’t really cost the Government anything since the ships themselves would be earning revenue from the bookings themselves. Sounds great if you ask me.
I’m sure that I like many other people would love to get through this Cricket World Cup and not be embarrassed. Although I want Grenada, Jamaica or Barbados to also shine, the vast majority of my concern is set aside for Trinidad. It’s almost like a cricket version of Room Raiders and I don’t want for us to be caught with our pants down.
For sure, you and I know that there are embarrassing situations just waiting to happen. Hell, I walk down the streets of Port of Spain all the time and see things that are potentially embarrassing. Whether it’s how we treat the homeless or the filthy streets, there’s always something. And oh gosh that filth is something. I will hate for the thousands of tourists to come to Port of Spain or even drive along our highways and see how dirty and smelly Trinidad is. I honestly hope that the Government is planning to do a lot of clean up work for the country in preparation for the World Cup - a NARescent National Clean-Up Day if you will. The clean up of High Street in San Fernando was a great start, but Trinidad definitely needs more.
In fact, think we’ll do well to take a few lessons from Rotenburg, Germany, the city that hosted the Soca Warriors during World Cup 2006. But I won’t hold my breath for that one.
Posted in Cricket, Development, Environment, Infrastructure, Social Issues, Sports | 7 Comments »
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
- Despite making an appearance at FIFA World Cup 2006 the football gods have conspired against Trinidad and Tobago and in the latest FIFA rankings released this month T&T has been dropped 24 places and is now ranked 80th in the world. Now we all know that the FIFA ranking system is a little flawed, but come on. You would think making it to the World Cup and leaving with a point would amount to something. Not so.
However CONCACAF on a whole only just manages to break the top 20 with Mexico coming it at 19 followed by a more suitably-ranked USA coming in at 29. Brazil of course is at #1.
Somehow I think it’s a size issue. I think we’d get a lot more respect if Trinidad was a larger country. But what are you going to do? You can’t argue with FIFA.
In other happenings, Leo Beenhakker is featured in a story appearing on FIFA’s website concerning his Poland job. It’s a good read if anyone’s interested.
- West Indies pulled of a great win against world No 1 Australia to win their Group A round 1 match against the Aussies in the ICC Champions Trophy. Runako Morton and Brian Lara both had good knocks of 90 and 71 respectively to help raise the Windies total to 234 at the end of the 50 overs. Australia, with a 101 run partnership from Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke, looked like they were going to be able to steadily make the 235 necessary, however that was until Gilchrist’s was run out with him on 92 and then it was all downhill from there. In the melee, Jerome Taylor picked up the first West Indies hat-trick in a One-Day International and finished off with figures of 4-49.
Australia was eventually scuttled out for 224/9 in their 50 overs.
- Well Rehanna Ramlochan has been found dead. The 22 year old woman’s body was found in a shallow grave at the Tunapuna Cemetery 12 days after she went missing. Police are saying that it wasn’t a kidnapping but actually a domestic dispute that resulted in her death.
Since the Prime Minister’s “anyone who kidnaps someone for ransom will be caught” declaration doesn’t cover murders, it seems he may be off the hook.
But it has been a bloody two weeks for crimes of passion. Trinidad has seen at least 7 deaths resulting from murder-suicides from the past two weeks alone, which have helped to push our murder rate beyond 300.
I guess it’s just another great day in Trinidad.
- *I almost forgot I wanted to post my Sampson stats for all to see. I think I alluded more than once that posting the story on Sampson Nanton returned the best stats I’ve had in this blogs short life. And I know many of you reading right now have found my blog because you typed “Sampson Nanton sex pictures” into Google. Don’t even pretend that you didn’t. I know because I see the stats all the time. And up till today I still get about 100 hits per day just from people looking for lurid cell phone pics. (Sorry people, no pics here either).
But anyway just posting the story got me thousands of page loads and a whole new set of readers, for which I am eternally grateful to Sampson. So just for amusement, here’s a snapshot of what Sampson hysteria looks like if it were represented by a bar graph (with the actual figures removed though).
I posted the story on Thursday September 21st and maybe on the following Saturday I got some hits, but I can’t be sure. The real hits began coming in on that Sunday and took off. Of course when most people realized there were no pics on the site they just didn’t come back, which you can see from the difference between the stats for the page loads and those for the returning visits. But thanks to those of you who did.
Posted in Cricket, Football, Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »
Monday, October 16th, 2006
- Sometimes I have to question Basdeo Panday’s sanity. Speaking at the Felicity Community Centre, Mr. Panday said, “days of the bounty hunter are at hand”. Mr. Panday didn’t mean new legislation mind you, he meant illegal bounty hunting. Saying that it was time for businessmen to protect themselves, they should get together and set up a fund of $20 million called the fund the ‘Fund for Self-Protection’. The fund should be used to “let the kidnappers know that if they kidnap or kill one of our families, the fund will be used to hunt them down until they are caught, no matter how long it will take”.
He added:
“The time has come when we must seek our own protection, we must begin the process of protecting ourselves and since we cannot do it ourselves we must pay for that protection. These killers are doing what they do because they believe they can do it with impunity and get away with it.
“We must let them know that they cannot kidnap or murder our family and get away with it. They must be made to understand that if they interfere with your family they will pay one way or another.”
Is this not a crime? Like this man forget he out on bail or what?
And then he has the audacity to call Winston Dookeran “Duck and Run”. Speaking on a UNC platform he said, “he (Mr. Dookeran) is a harmless, useless duck. You ever see a duck fight? Chicken does fight. Duck doh fight.” Well le me say this: I will eat duck over jailbird any day of the week.
- And creating an even bigger circus of stupidity, here comes attorney-at-law Surendranath Capildeo to say that the prosecution of Panday was a continuation of the victimisation of the local East Indian people. The statement is stupid enough on it’s own, but when you take into account that it was made on the opening night of Divali Nagar - a religious festival - you have to understand why I am a little more than ticked off. How dat reach there? I don’t understand. Talk bout Divali nah, even say you wished the Government poured more money into it. But how he reach there?
In addition to this, Mr. Capildeo told the audience he had pledged a sum of $25,000 to a treasure chest set up to provide funds for the defence lawyers “so that (Basdeo) Panday will not go back to jail”.
First of all Basdeo Panday committed a crime. He had over $10m in a foreign bank account that he did not declare to the integrity committee. Some public officials have yet to declare their assets which is just as criminal, however Mr. Panday isn’t absolved through the actions of others. In the eyes of the Law, he tief. The funds in the account will be seized as they are assumed to be obtained through illegal means. By no means is Basdeo Panday an innocent man, despite all those who would like to paint him to be the next Gandhi.
Secondly, why would Surendranath Capildeo assume that all Hindus and for that matter all Indians are supporters of Basdeo Panday or even think of him as innocent? There are Indians and Hindus who believe just as whole-heartedly that Basdeo Panday should be jailed. This is part of what’s wrong with Trinidad - the assumption that all must believe as you believe just because you share the same physical attributes. To stand there on the opening night of Divali Nagar, an occasion that has no political ties whatsoever and espouse a belief that you assume your listeners share is a huge disservice to people and their intellects. And as easy as this “leaders” in society clamp down on independent thought and enforce the tribal vote.
- On the other hand I fully blame Mr. Dookeran for the Budget Debate debacle. Mr. Dookeran is not a rookie by no stretch of the imagination. He should know better than that and he should have been prepared. Mr. Manning is not going to grant any favours to anyone and Dooks should not expect him to. The country lost because the Congress of the People couldn’t get their act together in Parliament and in so doing made the PNM look much better than we all know they are.
I’m glad though that Dooks has accepted responsibility for the debacle. At least he’s a man about it.
- But what trouble is this? Mr. Patrick Manning warning Dooks about corrupt members in his Party? This is the same man who had Eric Williams and Franklin Khan as Ministers in his Cabinet. The same Williams and Khan who now facing the court on bribery charges? You would think that the Government cabinet white as snow. But where these people does come out from boy? Manning alleging corruption. Well yes, I’ve seen it all. And why he so concerned about Dooks? All of a sudden Manning talking about Dooks in his budget wrap up, he talking about Dooks in the PNM 50th anniversary convention. Like Dooks keeping him up at night? If I were Winston Dookeran, I’d feel very special.
Posted in COP, Crime, Politics, Race, UNC | 38 Comments »
Friday, October 13th, 2006
*First of all I apologise for not doing very well this week when it came to posting to my blog. I had a very busy week. Thanks to all who sent concerns and then threats (Hottie).
On Sunday night I went to the very last night of Ramleela which is always the best because that’s when they burn the effigy of Rawan and I always appreciate a good blaze. Of course like every other final Ramleela night I have ever been to, it rained like first time. When I say rain, I mean hard rain. So people had to seek out shelter wherever they could. All this time Rawan with his twisty moustache, red shirt, blue pants and evil grin was standing in the middle of the field getting soaked no tail.
Everyone who had something to sell was out there including the doubles man, the saheena/pholourie woman, the sno cone man, and the cotton candy man. There was even a guy out there selling light-up toys that were popular with the children since it was dark.
An old man standing next to me looked at me and said, “Rain, boy, rain!”
“This thing go really burn with all that rain it collect today?” I asked him.
“Yeah man,” he said,”the amount ah thing they does put in that, it ha to bun.”
After the reenacments from the Ramayana were over, and all the kick and cuff from the mock battles were though, it was time for Rawan to meet his doom. Now last year I think we had an equal amount of rain and Rawan still went up in flames quite easily. But this year Rawan wasn’t going down without a fight.
When it was time to light him afire, a group of youths came up and lit a tiny fire on the ground before Rawan. Next a chicken-chest youth of about 18 came up and dipped his arrow (I assumed was soaked in pitch oil) into the fire and got it alight. He stepped back, drew back the arrow, fired, and missed. The next arrow hit Rawan in the arm, but it didn’t stick and it fell off. The third arrow hit Rawan dead in the crotch. His crotch burned for about 15 seconds then extinguished eliciting giggles from the crowd. A barrage of arrows came next. The ones that stuck did absolutely nothing. Rawan was just too drenched this time. Eventually chicken-chest boy got an arrow to lodge in Rawan’s stomach and it got a tiny flame going, but it was obvious it wasn’t going to last.
Someone got the bright idea to bring out a 10-gallon container of liquid onto the scene, the fumes from which confirmed it wasn’t pitch oil but gasoline. Any receptacle they could find they filled with gasoline; be it sweet drink bottle or paint can. Luckily the crowd was about 40-50 feet back from the madness because then they started hurling the open containers at the 60 foot effigy. So bottle flinging, bucket pelting, and people stepping further back. The gas would start escaping from the receptacle as soon as it left the pelters’ hands, hit Rawan’s tiny stomach fire and would create a trail of fire leading back to the pelters’ feet. If you think this sounds like madness, then you would agree with the man who was standing beside me:
“But what trouble? Deez chirren mad? Dat is madness!”
I had to agree with him especially as gasoline appeared to be falling all over the pelters themselves, which couldn’t be good. With every arrow that stuck, the tassa started up a strong celebratory rhythm, but died down each time with the flame.
So 25 minutes after the gas-pelting began, Rawan refused to die gracefully. Part of his arm was gone and, his stomach and crotch were both heavily scared, but he stood strong. And the situation was growing increasingly worse as a large maze of fire streaks had developed at the feet of the pelters.
The boys then decided to slit open Rawan’s legs and place Coke bottles filled with gasoline into the bottom of the effigy. And why not? It wouldn’t have been the craziest thing they did that day. Someone then fetched a ladder and placed it up against Rawan’s stomach while another person scaled up it holding the now half-empty 10 gallon container. Now Mr. Man opened up a hole in the stomach and start to pour gas into the stomach shaking the container so that the gas sprinkled. Mind you, the effigy is still smouldering, eh. All this time the fire services park outside of the compound and them fellas stretching-out atop the appliance, seemingly not too concerned that gasoline was being hurled around like insults on a UNC platform.
So gas pouring and Rawan smouldering. All of a sudden, thing blaze up. Effigy start to bun like somebody press fast forward. And this youth man still high up on the ladder with the gasoline container. Well he drop that in a one and boy, I never see a man descend so fast. Talk ’bout twinkle toes? So he scramble down and somehow managed not to get incinerated, and four or five of them yank away the ladder from the effigy in so doing, the ladder nearly fell on some of the pelters who were smart enough to hang back, but not smart enough to hang way the hell back. And with about 35 minutes elapsing since the first arrow from the chicken-chest youth, Rawan’s upper body was ablaze and the tassa rolled victoriously without ceasing. It did start to die a little though, but just at the right time all the gas poured into the effigy ignited the coke bottles at the bottom and it blazed up again. By this time the crowd collectively stepped back about 5 feet because the heat emanating from the blaze became unbearable.
And with that Rawan crumpled to the ground. Some of the boys decided they wanted to salvage the ropes that kept him erect so four of them tried tugging one of them but Rawan was keeping those and they gave up.
I didn’t wait to see Rawan burn out completely, because we (my friend and I) had to beat the traffic coming out of the site. So we left the scene, I with my inferno lust satisfied for yet another year.
Discussion Questions
Fire Saftey and You: What is your favourite accelerant?
Why would an intelligent human being throw gasoline at an open flame 60 feet above him?
What other mental health issues does your community face?
Posted in Culture, Humour, Personal Story | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
“We are responding aggressively to the rise in criminal activity. Kidnappings for ransom have declined significantly from a high of 58 in 2005 to 8 cases at the end of August this year. May I take this opportunity to congratulate our security forces for their efforts in this regard and we make bold to say that anyone who kidnaps someone for ransom will be caught.”
Budget Speech, page 7, paragraph 3.
On Monday before the budget speech, Riaz Khan was kidnapped while standing outside his father’s business place at Jerry Junction, Carapichima and before the budget debate had even begun, Riaz Khan had been shot dead and his body dropped off at the Caroni Cremation site.
On Budget Day itself Rehanna Ramlochan left home to go purchase medication at a nearby pharmacy but wasn’t seen after she purchased the items in the pharmacy. A $1m ransom was demanded for her safe return.
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| Prime Minister Patrick Manning |
Now I agree that there were far fewer kidnappings this year than last year so far, but exactly what are the stats on arrests in kidnapping cases is what I would like to know. The Prime Minister has stated that if you kidnap you “will be caught”. Where has this 100% arrest rate been shown in the last 2 years? Where is the evidence? Saying it under Parliamentary privilege doesn’t make it true.
I don’t know the facts myself on the arrest rate for kidnappings with ransom, but if I had to bet guess all I have on this, I’d bet guess that this arrest rate is nowhere near 100%. So the question that follows is, what measures did the government put in place that has so emboldened Mr. Manning to say something like anyone “who kidnaps someone for ransom will be caught”? What did they do in the last budget to ensure that crime has less and less of a grip on society? What could make a Prime Minister herald by a policy of “not very much”, and a history of “glaringly insufficient” as the definitive reply to the kidnapping scourge?
Let’s imagine (God forbid) that I were the Prime Minister wanting to boast about my 100% arrest rate for kidnappings. I would say,
“Well Mr. (or Madam) Speaker, last year we had 58 kidnappings and 58 arrests, this year to date we had eight ten kidnappings and ten arrests. May I take this opportunity to congratulate our security forces for their efforts in this regard and we make bold to say that anyone who kidnaps someone for ransom will be caught.”
But that’s just me.
So what’s the plan in next year’s budget for crime? Believe or not, there’s just one new measure taken in this year’s budget to deal with the growing crime problem. But don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourselves. In fact the section on crime in the Budget speech is about 3 1/4 pages long of which one page deals with promises for next year. The other 2 1/4 pages is a rehashing of all the “great” things they did in previous years.
So the only new measure introduced to combat the crime scourge is the purchase of a sophisticated radar system and the purchase of three offshore patrol vessels. However neither of these will materialize till 22 months after an agreement is reached with the bidder. The date for the proposed meeting with said bidder? December. So by my calculations, we won’t see anything of these vessels till November 2008 for the earliest. That is two years away people! (By the time December 2008 rolls around, the Summer Olympics in Beijing would have been long completed and the United States would have already chosen its next president. My point is don’t hold your breath).
In addition to the purchase of the offshore patrol boats, they will acquire six fast patrol boats, and 4 interceptors for both inshore and offshore operations as well as by 26 four armed helicopters. Mr. Manning didn’t say whether or not this would also take 2 years so I assume we’re supposed to guess.
If this is as good in real life as it sounds on paper, it will be excellent. Our southern coast is just a giant welcome mat for guns and drugs. The combination of the radar system and patrol boats should make a dent in either of these items landing on our shores. But what about the guns that are already here, I wonder?
The past implementations highlighted in the budget were:
- A community programme in Gonzales called the Pride in Gonzales Project which is taking a community oriented approach in order to improve the social and physical conditions of the community of Gonzalez.
- The Dial 555 initiative whose function I cannot tell apart from that of Crimestoppers’.
- Various pieces of legislation including the passage of the No-bail for Kidnapping Act.
*Quite curiously, the blimps weren’t even mentioned for the duration of the speech.
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| The Urkel Years |
Now, there is nothing wrong with either of these initiatives. They are all good measures and I’m sure will accomplish something. But, if this is what passes for aggressive in this country, we’re in deep trouble. Apart from the proposed offshore patrol, I think our Government has created the most passive crime plan known to man. How could an “aggressive” crime plan which consists of waiting for citizens to call you with tips, “lending support” to various community programmes, and passing legislation in the Red House, really be called aggressive? Well Mr. Prime Minister, I really beg to differ.
Are there criminals in the country right now quaking in their boots because of the blimp or legislation? As a matter of fact are they any more afraid of being caught this year than they were last? Probably not. So when the Prime Minister talks about the aggressive response to crime and that anyone who kidnaps for ransom will be caught, I have to wonder how many other Government ministers are smoking the same wacky tabbacky.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish that the parents of Riaz Khan be not dismayed by the seemingly passive response to crime and instead take Mr. Manning’s words as a personal pledge that that their child’s abductors will be caught. The fact that it’s an empty promise should be of no consequence to them. The fact that they have no redress if their abductors aren’t caught should mean nothing. They should avoid comparisons to George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” sign displayed on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Just because the person who spoke these words is oblivious to their human implication, shouldn’t suggest that he is a political robot. They should take comfort in the fact that the Government tried their best.
And to the rest of us: keep watching your backs. The drug scourge might take a dip in late 2008, but the senseless gang violence may or may not dip with it. In any case there are enough guns on the streets to keep us busy for years to come. And if this is aggressive, then we don’t have much to hope for.
Posted in Crime, Development, Infrastructure, PNM, Politics, Social Issues | 16 Comments »
