Dealing with the Issue of Race and its impact on Society....

Somewhere in our history someone decided that the ghettorification of a mass of people into Laventille, Sea Lots, Beetham and Morvant was a good idea, and despite almost fifty years of unbroken black rule, others decided that not only was it a good idea, it was worth keeping and continuing.

The type of racism required to do this to a people must require a kind of self loathing, and it is with some discomfort that I note the majority of people commenting on this matter  have chosen to rationalize the problem away and blame the victims for their own condition rather than make any attempt to address these very real problems that are affecting tens of thousands of our people if not more every single day.

Ignoring their own culpability in it (either directly through their own complicit involvement or passively by  turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of the suffering), black community leaders and activists are more than willing to heap scorn on anyone not 'black enough' to discuss these issue (despite the fact that these issues are the drivers of the violent crime wave that has been negatively affecting the entire country for at least the past ten years) and have refused to initiate anything like a national discussion on these matters themselves.

What absolute hypocrisy. 

Former Minister Dr. Amery Browne has had much to say on the race issue now that he is out of Office, yet when he was Social Development Minister did surprisingly  little or nothing to address the plight of the depressed and at risk black communities nor did he confront or attempt to deal with this long burning social issue of race.

I need to ask, does his activism stop at making sure PNM appointees get to keep their political appointments whether or not his Party is in power?

Because if so, the nation must breathe a collective sigh of relief that he no longer holds any substantial Office or authority over the weak in society and should make every effort to ensure that he never does again.

To the current Prime Minister I say that your government is failing the people in the exact manner as the last administration through similar incompetence on the issue, and the current Minister of whatever the Ministry is now called is under-qualified for his post and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Social Development  issues in a multi ethnic plural society are quite possibly the most important issues under any Ministry and ought to be manned by people skilled in this precise sort of thing.

Poverty issues, gender issues, race issues and the redressing of historical imbalances requires sensitivity and understanding of these issues at the core level and more, requires management with vision, people able to enunciate plans and policies that address individual and comprehensive disparities and inequities with ideas that can solve the problem on a national level. Rampant violent crime may be our most glaring symptom of the coming breakdown in social order but it is not the only one.

Continuously making the same mistake of trying to treat with crime without having these aforementioned social issues firmly understood and in hand is similar to treating your child's fever by burning bush in your neighbor's yard; it may make you feel like you're accomplishing something but in reality you're doing nothing of value at all.

Coming back to the point - unless and until we accept and admit that there has been racism practiced and institutionalized through our politics over the years, that the things that divide us have been amplified and exploited for as long as there has been a Trinidad & Tobago, that people have been wantonly discriminated against for economic and other advantage since our nation was born, we will fail again and again as yet another government abdicates its chief role and responsibility to the people, that of  leadership of all the people for all the people.

Nothing we do will ever touch more lives than treating with the social ills of society, and until we get a government capable of understanding that and acting upon it we will continue to find ourselves furiously racing up ladders firmly pressed against irrelevant walls.

We need to deal with the at risk communities of Morvant, Laventille, Beetam and Sea Lots once and for all.

The government needs to consult the public on these issues at a level that the people can understand; I strongly believe that this is a large part of the solution and that they may impress with their understanding of the problems and surprise with how simple some of the solutions are. 

With their 'buy in' from the ground level, success could be generated at the source of many of the problems and could be made self generating rather than remain paid off and hidden away for someone else to deal with in the future.

We need to work hard at bringing all of our people back fully into the national family if we ever hope to advance as a nation, and we need to make available to all the very hope and opportunities we want for ourselves and our loved ones. 

Something to think about...