The Tipping Point...

A friend of mine went to HiLo St. Ann's today for ten minutes around lunch time to buy a tin of peas, which was enough time and opportunity for the back window of his new Navara to be smashed in, and for the thieves to make off with a bag of beach mats.

Visiting him tonight, seeing his relatively new vehicle with a blue plastic garbage bag taped over the space where the window used to be, we got to talking about other car break ins we hear about; the Malls, Movie Towne, the bottom of Chancellor Hill; to name a few of the recent 'hot' spots for this activity, and it got us talking about all the crime and mayhem in the country, and it got me thinking: why do decent people even bother to stay in this shit hole anymore.

I mean, we learn to live with so much crap that just keeps getting worse and worse daily; from fifty dollar murders, to carjacking, home invasions, kidnapping, rape and just random acts of senseless violence. White collar crime, blue collar crime, money laundering, drug pushing, human trafficking.
Ghetto youth driving private taxis running people off the road; Armed robbery in broad daylight; gangs and school violence; people just taking any advantage they could get.

So many of my friends who have moved away to Houston, Miami, Canada etc., all rave about the quality of life in their 'new' home; safety, decency, using words like standard of living and cost of living while what obtains here is so bad it's disgusting.

The quality of life here, for sober, decent, middle class people at least, is not worth it. The social fabric is collapsing and it's going to take the spilling of much blood to pull it back.

When I look at the politicians, the ones that are there now pre-crime, the ones who just left pending investigation and prosecution, the ones from before them either in jail or court pending sentencing, I think for all the crap we talk about how blessed this place is we don't realize how cursed it truly is.
Every couple of years we have political exchange; the cast of characters change, but the same old tired show goes on.

We literally just voted a couple of suspected crooks into Office because we had to remove some well established crooks from Office and we had no other choice. What a cruel joke.

Our police force is a tragedy, with state supported criminals committing brutal crimes with National Security issued firearms. The good and decent members of the service have no motivation to go beyond the call of duty, so only the stupid criminals get caught.
Our Justice System is systemic yes, but Just, no, and set up in such a way that it doesn't make sense even talking about it much less trying to fix it. It's just another way for people with a little power to advantage those who don't have.
Our media is a groveling waste of drivel at the best of times, with nobody willing to step on anybody's toes that might cost them advertising dollars.

People could get vex with me for speaking the truth here and I couldn't care less. The text book definition of insanity is making the same mistake and expecting different results.

I'm fed up. The Trinidad that I love, that I boast about exists only in my memory. This place is a war zone.