Not So Mr. Dookeran....

In his Independence Day message as Congress of the People (COP) political leader, the Honorable Winston Dookeran Minister of Finance said, “It is accepted knowledge that TT and other parts of the world are currently experiencing economic challenges. This calls for new approaches if we are to successfully craft this new future.” 

Fair enough.

He then went on to say that as part of the ruling People’s Partnership coalition, the COP “through perseverance and partnering with like-minded citizens, has brought new people-centred and value driven politics to our nation". “Our country is now positioned for the best opportunity for that better future." 

How so exactly?

 I am sorry Mr. Dookeran, but as one of your most vocal supporters I have to put you on the spot here. 

 This sounds like more 'nothing talk' coming from the Government and most of the people are fed up of it and, to be quite honest, I am very surprised to hear it coming from you.

By all accounts the next General Election is five years away, and we implore you and all of the members of the Government to cease with the unnecessary campaign style speeches that fill the room with odor but lack any substance.

The people want to hear about referendum, and how exactly it will become law. The people want to hear about recall, and when will that legislation be laid in Parliament. Term limits and fixed election dates, those are easy promises to keep.

In other words Mr. Dookeran, not only is the People's Partnership running out of the people's good graces with all of this empty posturing and old talk, they are also running out of time. Many 'die hard' Congress of the People members have been trying to catch your eye or your ear to let you know that all is not well in the House we are/were building to seemingly no avail. The dissatisfaction with the UNC led People's Partnership has grown from a buzz to a roar, and one just has to read the Letters page in most newspapers and observe the names of the dissatisfied writers to see for oneself.

The people do not need to see Ministers cleaning drains and delivering bags of hops bread to poor people day in and day out, nor do we need grand charge and posturing ad nauseum with little or no results; While effective for electioneering, that behavior is being seen for what it is, campaign style gimmickry, and everyone has had enough.

The people want policies to be created, and leadership that quietly and effectively affects their lives and everyone else's positively in the soonest possible time.

Time for less talk and more action now. 

As Independent as You Want to Be...

On August 31st 1962, in a well rehearsed and well dressed ceremony we the people of Trinidad & Tobago in total agreement with each other, broke the chains of our bondage to Her Majesty the Queen of Britain and marched into Independence. From that day forth we have not been able to agree on much anything else and it may be fair to say that we have been circling the drain headed for 'Failed State' status ever since.

How funny our little experiment at independence must appear to our former masters, how comical we must look in British styled attire bowing at British symbols while consistently breaking all the rules? It is impossible to be truly independent until we find a way to rise above the racism that still haunts this nation, yet we labor on in ignorance of that truth furthering the divide and widening the crack with each passing holiday. Until we end its power to keep the mases in squabble and distracted from their own interests once and for all, how can we ever hope to have a common vision, especially when our brother is our enemy?

There are at least two organizations in this country whose philosophy and reason for existence is the domination and/or destruction of 'the other half' of the population, and who use the media to spew the drivel they espouse as if that is in any way good for the nation. In this game we say we agree that if you do the crime you must do the time, but that does not apply to Party financiers. We say corruption is a crime against the people and agree that no corrupt officials should hold Public Office, but that does not apply if they on 'we' side.

Regardless of the reason behind it, the absence of real leaders with anything close to a vision for ALL the people of this country exposes the pretense for what it is, and, regardless of the current flavor of the Ministers getting to play 'drunken, dress-up, high-society' at the State's expense, it is the same stupid 'Mas' all ah we playing, year in year out.

When corruption and bribery can provide us with our annual Independence Celebration firework display with the same individuals getting rich regardless of who is in power, what are we really celebrating?

As long as wealthy powerful Drug Barons who masquerade as successful businessmen are allowed to buy up all the property and manipulate the price outside of the average man's reach, who we really fooling with this independence talk? When it is all but impossible for a minimum wage earner to own a home except as a handout from the Government; how is that independence again?

We use our democratic power to change Governments, but we hold on to and defend systems deliberately designed to keep our people enslaved to the point where our complete and total distrust for each other has seen a slow reintroduction of a foreign ruling class in our highest Offices.

How is that independence?

Until there is Leadership willing and able to deal with corrupt Judges, Magistrates, Lawyers, Police, Ministers, Members of Parliament and Public Servants, that has the balls to investigate, prosecute and remove them from positions of authority over the citizenry, how can we ever be free? 

When Governments can no longer be hijacked and used by money launderers and illicit businesses for their own agendas;

When crime is 'controlled' through proper parenting and the instilling of a sense of personal responsibility and of pride into our children;

When the diverse races of the country no longer rely on racism to make a point;

When material wealth is no longer the yardstick for personal value;

When social status is granted only to those who deserve it in reward for achievement in endeavors that raise the collective;

And when we can live as one people in this country as brothers and sisters under common symbols regardless of origin, with one national identity regardless of heritage, can wen hope to understand why ethics & morals are so important, and what intangibles like tradition and convention mean to independence.

Until that day, regardless of our color, our class and our individual identity, we the people of Trinidad & Tobago remain bound together, properly colonized for all eternity chained to a vision of a tomorrow that can never come. 

Forty nine years ago we may have left our colonial 'Massa' behind but we kept the shackles of our minds firmly intact. Looked at honestly, we are no where near independent yet.

Culture in yuh Pweffim'...

I found myself listening to and sharing some back in times calypso yesterday and was marveling at the poetry, the writing, the gifts that these people had; their ability to weave exotic tapestries of images on just about anything and put it to catchy rhythms and original music was mesmerizing.

What talent, what blessing.

When you say Calypso, most people expect the conversation to revolve around Sparrow and Kitchener and instinctively reach for their more famous ditties with little mind share given to others who I think were more than capable of holding their own alongside these two giants. Please don't misunderstand me, I acknowledge the absolute greatness of these two pioneers in their own right, but I also know of many who were deserving of similar stature that, were it not for timing, economics and politics (sounds like a civics lesson eh?) would be soaring at those lofty heights as well.

Lord Nelson, Singing Francine, Explainer and Calypso Rose; talk about a concert worth promoting at Queen's Hall and NAPA. Shorty and Merchant were two artists who are desrving of much study, especially with regards to where they were going on that particular side road they were cutting off of calypso. As an aside, I am sure that what passes for the genre now called Soca was not what they had in mind back then.

Johnny King's 'Nature's Plan' was/is truly local music that speaks to the plight of a people in the style of the Jamaican's Bob Marley, and, together with the likes of  'Jhagi Bhai', 'Nah Leaving', David Rudder's 'The Hammer' and King Austin's 'Progress' should have been compiled (with other noteworthy, well written, thought provoking pieces of course) into poetry text books for our colleges and convents, to not only promote and enjoy what we have, but to preserve the artform by encouraging the youth to pick up the baton of their own culture; instead few people even know those songs, much less who sang it and what exactly they were trying to say, but could recite the nonsense of Rihanna and Brittany Spears by rote.  

Why aren't men like Chalkdust and Short pants, or even TUCO for that matter, not agitating for this?

Relator, Gypsy, and the Mighty Duke, men of satirical eloquence and debonair performance were men who specialized in stage craft.

'Tonight the Black Man Feeling to Party' had such a groovy feeling I used to wish I was black just to be able to sing that song and mean it, but 'The Caribbean Man' put Black Stalin alongside the greats for all eternity in my humble opinion.

David Rudder's 'Calypso Music' is an intimidating idea for any writer to follow, and the opening line of his 'Madness' is still regarded by this writer as one of the best openings I have ever heard in a song (ah jump de wall 'round twelve o'clock an ah gone inside - the absolute determination and malice in his right to party summed up succinctly the mood of the whole song).

'Ethel' and 'Rebecca' promised what 'Soca Baptist' delivered, and Blue Boy is another absolute giant worthy of much recognition and appreciation.

There are people that tell you that there is no international market for our traditional calypso on the world music scene, who either fail to see or conveniently overlook the blond haired blue eyed children of Europe and America shaking imaginary 'locks' to the plight of the Trenchtown ghetto experience.

What hypocrisy in the face of evidence to the contrary. Other forces had to be at work here, either diabolically conscious and dedicated to the destruction of 'our' art, or unconscious and based on our colonized minds, ashamed to claim what we birthed, and unfortunately netted the same results.

Calypso as a genre of music found such a rich vein of talent here on the backs of brave men and women who defied oppression to speak truth to power at great risk to themselves. (Apparently It's not just nowadays that politicians try to interfere with freedom of speech), and the artists had to take great pains to write in a way that empowered the listener while not exposing themselves to personal harm.

It was not until Chalkie 'kick down' the door and say 'who vex loss' was a way cut for the likes of Aloes, Watchman and Cro Cro to 'ramajay' over the 80' and 90', but, besides Singing Sandra (the official ambassador of Ghetto Life), who besides Kurt Allen (an unapologetic and brilliant writer and performer) is carrying on this tradition?

Where is the idea, the poetry, the effort to at least turn a phrase?

I could sing word for word almost every song King David Rudder put out from Calabash to 'Trini to de Bone',  (with 'The Engine Room' being in my top ten list of ALL music for all times, genres and styles) but could not tell you the lyrical content of one jump and wave song. 

The Blueboy that sang Ethel, Rebecca and Soca Baptist also sang so much drivel at the end of his drug soaked career he definitely needed two different sobriquets or we would have had to note it in a 'before and after' 'Get Something and Wave'.

It is noteworthy and a pity that the rest of the 'imitators' seized on the drivel he ground out season after season to support his habit and left the good music behind. His own daughter and heir to that throne is sadly included among that lot.

This goes beyond plain economics, and many of these 'performers' (note I didn't use the word artists) are going to arrive at the end of their days wondering what exactly did they give their lives to, their talents, their gift?

It should also be noted that the Soca spin off, 'Chutney' Music, is an insult to East Indians at most times who either don't seem to notice or care that they are being painted as rum soaked drunken sex fiends.

Not to say that the new genre does not have potential, as the same mind that gave us the silly 'Rum Till Ah Die' also gave us the landmark 'Rajin', but which one is being immortalized?

We are a foolish, foolish people, who have no idea of what our combined heritage is or what was born right here. Everytime someone says the steelpan was invented here, you could almost here the unsaid 'so where we money.' Nobody is going out of their way to claim Limbo because nobody has found a means to capitalize on it financially, so 'they' could have that.

We are fools, peasants and plebs.

Rubadiri Victor and others are fighting to at least document and record for posterity and for the benefit of future generations what we have and possess before it dies away completely, alongside people like Geoffrey MacClean and Citizens for Conservation, who are in a similar and desperate fight to save and record our architectural heritage from termites, rot, and uncaring governments. These people are demonstrating what cultural patriotism is all about, and they desperately need our support.

Like pearls before swine (you know I HAD to use the analogy) we have been blessed with so much abundance of culture and expression one wonders why in the world we would ever sit indoors. Our rich Caribbean diet is producing super sportsmen and sportswomen that are dominating the world of sport at the expense of the 'Amercanization' of food, through the use of a nutritionless base dipped in high fructose corn syrup and artificially flavored.

We are plebs, peons and lemmings. We feel like we are 'something' if we could eat in Ruby Tuesday and Burger King while, surrounded by the proverbial Horn of Plenty of abundance, choose fad over identity.

Our unwillingness to see each other as one family has allowed others to further divide us and colonize our minds. Culture by default has left us with nothing. Our musical presence in the world has been reduced to a stain of what once was, the end result of an all out assault on 'what was local' by 'what was foreign'. Calypso artists are treated as fringe acts, while 'wine down low and jam it so' has become our culture. We are making electoral choices based on American styled campaigns that do nothing to follow through after the hype.

This willingness to accept odor over suibstance has left as grasping at air instead of claiming what is truly ours and, to quote my friend Melissa:

"You want it?"

"Inhale, all is yours."

I'm sure I have something to say...

Ever the optimist, I will start in the middle and hope to end by returning to the beginning to make the thought whole, because I need to.

That said, how do I proceed with this, knowing that the reader is also by nature a fluid and diverse construct, made up of a myriad of variables and, entrenched with opinions and biases, reacts at the first sign of any disrespect of the only world order he allows himself to know.

At what point do we decide to deceive ourselves?

Is this behavior coded into our genes, or is this a learned skill vital for social survival?

The smile of acceptance, the pat on the head of agreement makes us one, but that coin has two faces and just as easily, prejudices could explode from neuron to neuron as if by reflex, escaping to seize space and declare how dare he?

With what right?

I suggest that it is the page itself that beckons both you and I, and  like you, I too am a witness.

Would that we could meet in some half world where all preconceived notions are for naught, then would I, and maybe you as well, agree to accept that all thought and knowledge exists in the ether and long before we approach, lays itself bare in the light; not judging the reader, but allowing itself to be judged, half understood in arrogant haste before the punctuation closes the sentence.

This almost instinctive distraction, this loop of information and opinion traps consciousness in a grip of 'what I know I defend, what I don’t know I leave behind'.

My ability to learn or reject is based, not on the words that construct the thoughts, but on who I am and where I am coming from at the time; my reflection itself seems caught up in the words, and what I hear may not be what you hear even though we are listening to the same thing.

How do I disrobe?

Can I change the mechanics of thought and live in acceptance constantly, even as ‘is’, ‘was’, and ‘will be’ orbit each other?

The well of my understanding is dwarfed by the magnificence of the ether that contains all this thought, this knowledge, vibrating with constancy, yet still in the brilliantly lit darkness.

Selfishly and childlike, I and you, in our capacity as 'we', grip tightly to our own understanding and reject the rest, like  fools trying to separate water from water and hoping to not get wet.

I would claim innocence (and you should as well), but if I were to speak the truth (and in shame no less), I would accept that it is fear that drives me, and 'I' as 'we' refuses to act but instead reacts to the ripples we all make in our common pool.

How sad the condition of 'I' as 'we' because 'I' as 'me' has no such issues without the presence of another, and looking around I realize that I am not immersed but submerged beneath the burdens of my own choosing, my own design.

Again I ask how do I disrobe, how do I change this mind and leave these unconscious patterns behind?

How do I separate the 'me' of thinking from the 'me' of being and free 'I' as 'we' to be, just to be... 

 

Tumbling into time I leave no mark other than my acceptance or my rejection of all these thoughts, and 'I' as 'we' holds me tenderly even as it inflicts the most unbearable pain that 'I' as 'me' never would. 

It is very clear that 'I' cannot disrobe if 'we' do not, because 'I' as 'we' make the thing solid and gives it form. The orbit of knowledge born in consciousness requires a witness to make the thought real. Or does it?

Is it that 'I' exist only if 'we' exist?

Can 'I' ever truly be singular if no one is around to count?

This one thing I know for sure; Light and sound is both the birthplace and destiny of us all, and into this chaos we must each one day return. 

Did You See This Coming?

In a land where every town now boasts a local 'psychic,' it would seem that some less than astute Trinidadians are preferring to be fooled for money rather than for free.

How else can one explain the proliferation of this sleight of hand tomfoolery, this assault on decency and logic, where every 'two by four' mechanic and hairdresser now moonlights as fortune tellers, and could read leaves, cards, chicken feet, entrails and other devices created to fool the already ignorant and take advantage of the weak for personal gain?

Is it that the people have so lost faith in their religious and civic leaders that they are turning to tricksters to allay their fears? I don't know, but this willingness to embrace witchcraft and other dark arts are a symptom of a greater malaise, and we the thinkers of society need to ask what is driving this desire to see around corners and into the future regardless of expense to self.

A famous local psychic that i believed in went home to find burglars in her house and I wondered how she didn't see it coming. Someone suggested: "Until you see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery' keep your money in your own pocket" and that sounded like good advice to me. Popular US trickster Miss Cleo was prosecuted for fraud and jailed, and one can only assume she was packed and ready when they came for her.

(WARNING: Big words ahead and some thinking required!) The concept of fortune telling was effectively debunked by the hypothesis put forward known as Schrödinger's cat. To illustrate the putative incompleteness of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger applied quantum mechanics to a living entity that may or may not be conscious. In Schrödinger’s original thought experiment, he describes how one could, in principle, transpose the superposition of an atom to large-scale systems of a live and dead cat by coupling cat and atom with the help of a "diabolical mechanism" (in this case a time released vial of poison). He proposed a scenario with a cat in a sealed box, wherein the cat's life or death was dependent on the state of a subatomic particle (or whether the poison was released or not). According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead (to the universe outside the box) until the box is opened. Extrapolated to the vagaries of life in complex society, options are limitless depending on other external forces and choices, and because of this impossible to predict.

If your life is out of control then you need to take steps to put it right, but that responsibility is yours and cannot be abdicated or transposed to anyone else. The most important thing we ever learn is that life is about choices at every step of the road, and our power lies in how we react to the things that happen outside of our control.

Loved ones die, accidents happen, businesses fail, relationships end; these are are all par for the course of a life and cannot be shielded, predicted, avoided or deterred. New relationships begin, opportunities are created out of loss, and children are born as the counterbalance, and the well adjusted know you take the good with the bad on this journey and strive to be happy along the way. 

Proper analysis and self honesty are required to identify where you are in relation to your goals, and there are ways and means well within your personal power to adjust and fine tune all aspects of your life through discipline and healthy choices to get you back on the right road in the direction of where you want to be. Life is a wonderful adventure taken one step at a time.

Rest assured, no amount of snake oil can change your destiny or alter the occurrence of future events, and anyone willing to predict your future or 'adjust it' for a fee is fooling you and only bent on making their own dreams come true. Like all schemes that exist to take advantage of people by inflicting fear and abusing trust, this charade is no different and should be considered an act of terrorism and a crime.

Where the future is concerned, all one can ever hope for really is a good guess, and you are well able do that for yourself for free.

On Teachers & Police...

In our society, teachers and policemen take up where parents leave off in the moulding and guiding of young minds, and in the demonstration and enforcement of the consequence of wrong doing and anti social behavior.

Teachers have a large responsibility in that they spend more time on a daily basis with our children than we do, yet we do not seem to have a problem paying them meager subsistence salaries and hope that their 'good hearts' will kick in and they will carry on sportingly regardless. While this may be the case for most, the harsh economic reality finds them seeking additional employment and moonlighting, reducing the quality of their own lives and affecting the effort available to help raise our kids.

Worse, this pittance pay is not attracting the quality of persons we want as guardians and instructors of our children in the first place, and we are ending up with the mediocrity we are content to pay for.

Shouldn't we see them for what they are, custodians of the nation's future, and reward them as such?

How can we continue on in good conscience knowing the circumstances under which they function?

Our schools need to be homes away from home, centers of learning and wisdom, and crucibles of higher ideals so as to foster a lifelong desire for personal growth and advancement in our children. As an example (and regardless of how you feel about my writing), a certain Mr. Forbes (my form one English Literature teacher at St. Mary's College) made me believe there was a writer in me by his praise and singling out of an essay I wrote when I was twelve years old. I have been trying to live up to that praise and the pride of person I felt at that moment ever since, and most of my written accomplishments to date are fruit of that one seed.

I have said time and again that the Ministry of Education's responsibility should stop at the classroom door and I repeat it.

The Ministry's function must be limited to administrative requirements (including human resources), with the operations of the school left up to the Management and the PTA.

Allow the Minister to spend his time maximizing 'bang for the expended buck,' and leave the teaching to those qualified to so do, while rewarding parents who serve on the PTA with the required respect and social status.

We seem to have lost our moorings a little bit here, with drug lords gangsters and money launderers occupying the social space that should be reserved for those who, by their contribution, lift the nation higher. This is not that hard to fix though, as the old people say, what we focus on, grows.

Our children need better role models than drug addled sportsmen and panty less movie stars. Look at our current generation for yourself and see what our society is producing; An entire generation bent on walking on a 'red' carpet, a disproportionate amount of failing children dressed up glamorously pretending to be what they see on TV.

On the issue of qualification, continuous education to level of Ph.D should be made available to members of the teaching service at no cost to them, with pay scale and salaries increasing commensurate with experience and qualifications. Like the medical service, teachers can be expected to work specific years in the system full time in exchange for this provision.

Now take a step back and picture a world where the Minister makes sure the roofs don't leak and the toilets and classrooms are clean, and our children are instructed by holders of Doctorates and Master's Degrees. Where the institution and the faculty once again becomes holy ground dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, where parents and teachers gather on evenings to discuss the performance of the children and what can be done to improve those falling behind.

This same model could be used for trade schools in all disciplines for which there is employable need in the country for those not academically inclined; construction, ship building and repair, marine services, food services, hospitality, agriculture etc.

Properly done, do you think we would still be producing future vagrants and criminals?

Moving on.

On the issue of the men and women of our police service, much work needs to be done here, and abdicating the responsibility only to high priced foreigners is failing at leadership in every sense of the word.

Our Police Service is in dire need of MANAGEMENT, and bringing the service back into the community is the only way for it to function effectively in the long term.

I would like to make the following suggestions:

We need local (in the jurisdiction concerned) Management teams similar to the PTA model, made up of residents of the community working together with the Police Station management. These 'community management' teams would function as the go between of the police service and the residents in identifying the community's issues that need addressing, as well as rating the performance of the police in the station, with the authority to recommend bonuses or disciplinary action. This group needs unfettered access to the disciplinary arm of the Police Service and the Human Resource arm of the Minister of National Security as the guardians of the guards. When officers are made to serve the community or lose their jobs, we would see an immediate turn around in how the people of the community are treated by those employed to serve & protect them.

We will also see a reduction in 'coke blocks' and gang warfare as the people themselves will be involved in the policing of their own communities.

This one initiative alone will see such a marked improvement in moral and national mood and crime statistics that the Commissioner will be free to focus on the more mundane tasks of his office, like allocation of stations and upkeep of the service.

Secondly, police salaries need to be increased to the level where it becomes attractive and rewarding as a career.

Like the Teaching Service, members of the Police Service must be afforded access to education to the Doctorate level, as well as right up to the Legal Bar. Salaries should be made comensurate with experience and qualifications, and education should all but guarantee advancement in the ranks.

Again, picture a situation where our Policing is done by the brightest among us educated to the highest level and serving the communities as enforcers and exemplars, together with the people of the communities they serve.

We cannot go wrong in this approach, and I suggest that the current Ministers convene a meeting at their earliest convenience with all those who are willing to help in this regard, and with all other stake holders and 'genuine' community leaders.

On a final note, and in an effort to make these professions attractive as life long careers, I suggest that teachers and policemen, having served the public with exemplary records and service for at least fifteen uninterrupted years, be afforded the same tax free status now enjoyed by MP's, Senators, Judges and the like.

We really can do no wrong here if our intention is to do right by these people, who have been dealing with difficult situations under deplorable conditions for pittance wages for far too long, and who have the greatest chance of making a positive impact on our society immediately.

It is time we lead by example, and encourage others to do the same. In taking care of the care takers and guarding the guards, not only would we successfully take responsibility for our communities, we would be raising children of excellence armed with knowledge and ready to contribute to a better world.

Something to think about...

Gun Talk...

No one buys a drill because one wants a drill, one buys a drill because one wants a hole.

Likewise eighteen high powered, automatic, sub machine guns; no one buys large quantities of guns just to have guns.

Officers claimed they stumbled upon guns and ammunition, marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and devices used to smoke marijuana when they went in search of documents and material relating to the investigations into the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) at the home of deceased contractor, Hafeez Karamath.

Besides proving that even incompetence benefits from luck, what the public needs to know is:

What was the intended purpose of these sophisticated weapons?

How did they come to be in Trinidad in the hands of private individuals?

Is this the complete set, or are they part of a 'larger' inventory?

As unbelievable as the discovery was, what was even more amazing to those watching was the decision by Senior Magistrate Joan Eversley-Gill to grant the accused bail with so many questions still unanswered.

“The prosecution’s objection to bail was on the basis that the court should take into consideration the seriousness of the offence. “I agree. This matter is a very serious matter which carries harsh penalties. We are living in very violent times and the scourge of crime in society was as a result of gun possession.” She said while the point made by the prosecution was a valid one, the court had to be guided by the Bail Act. She explained: “In recent times, the Bail Act has been amended because of the present crime situation but those amendments do not apply to this case." (Trinidad Guardian)

That may indeed be so, but isn't the greater good more important here?

Shouldn't the Government be front and center on this matter to make their anti crime point?

This wasn't the criminal element or known areas of interest, but the heart of high society in the quiet suburbs of our rich and famous. This wasn't one weapon secreted away for self defense, but a cache of weapons designed for waging war. It is precisely for these reasons that a strong example needs to be set in this matter. These people need to be interrogated as to the origin, means, and purpose of these weapons, and the State needs to take a strong stance on this matter if it wants to make any inroads into the current wave of violent crime plaguing this country. Make no mistake, they are now criminals in every material sense of the word and need to be treated as such. 

Our legal institutions must take great care to not frustrate the efforts of the Police Service by appearing 'soft hearted' to would be criminals, as nothing is more demotivating to our good men in uniform than having those who deem themselves untouchable proven right. All arms of Law & Order need to work together to break the backs of violent criminal enterprise equally and with full force across the board, so that the people can be given renewed confidence in our Police Service, our Magistracy and our Judiciary.

According to the Newsday article of Saturday August 21st - "It was purely by accident that the police stumbled upon a cache of arms, ammunition and drugs during a search carried out on Thursday at Karamath’s residence as part of the ongoing probe into alleged corrupt activities at the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott)".

In other words, no one in law enforcement knew of these weapons, and one is left to wonder just how many more private armies are there out there awaiting instruction to wage war.

And, more importantly, against who?