​Four million people have fled Venezuela, as the country continues to face economic and political crisis.
40,000 have gone to the small Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, just seven miles off the coast.
But life isn’t easy for those who arrive, and some locals have made it clear they’re not welcome. The BBC’s Ashley John-Baptiste went to find out more.
In 2018 - more than 35,000 people were forced to flee their homes every day - that's one every two seconds.
This story is part of a BBC News series, called "The Displaced" - a selection of stories exploring the human impact of this movement, and how it is changing our world.
Check back next week, Monday 23rd September, for our next episode in Uganda #TheDisplaced
If you have been affected by these issues in Trinidad or anywhere else in the world and would like to speak to the BBC, email [email protected]

​AS TOLD TO BC PIRES
My name is Gary Griffith and I am a St Mary’s/Sandhurst old boy and I’m using all the traits I acquired at those two institutions to try to make TT a better country.
I spent most of my life as an only child in the very boring Valsayn Park, but I (often) ran away to my grandmother’s massive family in Diego Martin to enjoy things that, unfortunately, many people don’t experience in Trinidad now.
Doors were left open and children could walk free.You could go up the hill, pick mangoes, climb over the mountain, come back in the afternoon. Boat-racing in the canal.
Now, young persons, inclusive of my son, have to spend their time behind locked doors and in front of some screen.
I really didn’t need to become commissioner of police. Both my parents died back-to-back about three months before I became (the United National Congress) national security minister.
And they both did pretty well, so I inherited quite a bit.
They were divorced for 25-odd years so it looks like they couldn’t live with each other but, apparently, couldn’t live without each other either.
My father was an old QRC boy and a true Trini. He loved everyone and everybody loved him.
My mother was rigid, meticulous, stringent.I take character traits from both. One day, round the Savannah – I was about 14 – I asked a sno-cone man if he had a valid food badge.
I never get cussed so in my life!
I realised that day I mustn’t use all the traits of my parents!
This country is full of negativity.
In England, if Newcastle is being demoted from the Premiership, there will be 80,000 people in the stands for their last game.
In TT, as soon as we feel we may not qualify, nobody turns up. That is how we are.
Everyone who’s tried to do something for this country – the Brian Laras, the Stern Johns, the Russel Latapys, the Dwight Yorkes, Minshall, Rudder – they’re recognised as role models internationally – but they’re ridiculed at home. The national U-15 football team – little boys just trying to play football – and the country tried to destroy and undermine them.
You can criticise it but you must stand firm with your country.
Who has more problems now than the United States or the United Kingdom? But how many of them attack their own country? In Africa, all over the world – but, in this country, we attack our own.
You may not have voted for a prime minister but he or she still represents YOU! The more you ridicule the prime minister, the more you undermine your own country!
I’ve noticed that the people who know very little about any topic are the ones who speak the most.
I want to tell people: have faith! Believe! Trust!
When it comes to the main problem, crime, people feel the easiest thing to do is to blame the politicians, blame the police.
But when you do that, you’re attacking your own.
We are not the enemy. Trying to demonise us is not helping.
Maybe it’s my military training but I work towards a chain of command of my God, my country and the citizens.
If BC Pires tells me that people say I like to pose with guns for pictures, I ask, “Who wants death threats?”
I don’t need to advertise. If people say, “Gary Griffith loves the camera,” it shows (their own) ignorance. I am just doing what is required.
I see individuals who do that as hypocritical. I don’t go to the media, the media comes to me. So, because of me being accessible, you try to condemn me for it?
I have stepped on many toes. There have been 27 death threats on me and my family from criminal elements in my first year as police commissioner.
Before me, there wasn’t any death threat on any commissioner probably for years. So it means I’m doing something right.
I’ll be turning the screws even harder. So I expect twice as many next year.
In total contrast to what people may think, I have the world of respect for (businessman and social activist)] Kirk Waithe, who has attacked me for (what he apparently worries might be the militarisation of the police force).
I think he has the interests of the country at heart and is just trying to make sure that checks and balances are in place. Kirk Waithe could be an asset towards my intention to clean up this country.
My Sandhurst comrade Raffique Shah has attacked me.
But at least I’m using my military training to try to help the country, not to overthrow it.
The camouflage matter was blown totally out of proportion.
Another unit used camouflage for 22 years. I’m not saying that makes it right, but there was a precedent. One point three million people did not see it as an issue.
The five persons who did had access to the media and continued to pump it. In hindsight, if it hurt those five people so much – and one of those people is BC Pires – I could have held it back for a month.
I have no problem with people who criticise me in a classy manner.
But social media has provided (People’s National Movement) red and (UNC) yellow sycophants with an avenue.
People try to call me a puppet – but this puppet stood firm against (the) government (in which he was a Cabinet minister) against (the programme associated with alleged corruption) Life Sport.
That probably caused him to get fired.
This puppet said state contracts shouldn’t be given to gangs. This puppet was bold enough to clear (controversial parliamentary revelations by now Prime Minister Keith Rowley) E-mailgate and (controversial accusations against then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar) Plant-like-substance-gate.
So who am I a puppet to?
Well, I am a puppet – but to my God.
People want change, they want the country to become better – but it mustn’t affect them personally.
Don’t come and tell me I can’t drive intoxicated. Why you picking on us? Is because we are the One Per Cent! Why you only arresting us? Is because we are the little black boys!
Go after everybody else but don’t harass me, my people, my race, my community.
Gangs aren’t even involved in robberies much any more, because they’re getting easy money from the State. If you have two pothounds – and I refer to gang members as pothounds – in fact, I take that back: pothounds are very nice animals – if you give two pothounds two plates of food, they’re good.
But if you take away one plate of food, they start attacking one another in the cage!
So be it! The majority – almost 90 per cent – of our homicides involve people engaged in questionable activity.
As much as the lady in the towel cries, “He was a good boy, police too wicked!”
I called gang leaders, “cockroaches” and people were upset, so I wish to apologise: gang leaders are not cockroaches.
Because cockroaches will get into your food, but they do not deliberately try to harm you.
A gang leader is worse than a cockroach.
So I wish to apologise…to the cockroaches!
I might lose some fans with this statement, but I have NEVER eaten doubles in my life.
One day I’ll try to understand why 20 people would stand up in front a wooden box on Sunday morning with curried channa running down their mouth because they just have to eat two more. I just don’t get it.
A Trini is a citizen of the greatest country in the world. Simple as that.
What TT means to me is this: I plan to live for my country.
But I am prepared to die for it.[PHOTOs BY MARK LYNDERSAY]
Source: Newsday TT, August 26, 2019

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has an­nounced that Trinidad and To­ba­go will as­sist the Ba­hamas with sol­diers, elec­tric­i­ty work­ers and US$500,000.
The prime min­is­ter made the an­nounce­ment at Thurs­day's post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence.
Parts of the Ba­hamas have been dec­i­mat­ed by Hur­ri­cane Do­ri­an which hit the is­lands as a pow­er­ful Cat­e­go­ry 5 hur­ri­cane, re­sult­ing in at least 20 deaths.
Dr Row­ley told the me­dia that he has been in touch with the prime min­is­ter of the Ba­hamas, Dr Hurbert Min­nis and that they have dis­cussed what Trinidad and To­ba­go could do for the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) coun­try.
He said 100 mem­bers of the De­fence Force are now prepar­ing to go to the Ba­hamas to as­sist in law and or­der.
With large swaths of the coun­try with­out elec­tric­i­ty, sev­en tech­ni­cal per­son­nel of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) are al­so be­ing sent to the Ba­hamas.
The prime min­is­ter said that the num­ber will be in­creased once need­ed.
While not­ing that the Ba­hamas is re­ceiv­ing "con­sid­er­able as­sis­tance from US and Cana­da", he said Trinidad and To­ba­go will al­so pro­vide mon­e­tary as­sis­tance to the tune of US$500,000 to as­sist in pay­ing for some ex­pens­es, in­clud­ing med­ical sup­plies.
Two CARI­COM lead­ers touched down in the Ba­hamas Thurs­day morn­ing to hold talks about re­lief ef­forts.
Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley and St Lu­cian Prime Min­is­ter Allen Chas­tanet ar­rived at the Lyn­den Pin­dling In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port in Nas­sau short­ly be­fore 9 am.
Ac­cord­ing to Mot­t­ley's Face­book page, they were greet­ed by sev­er­al Ba­ha­mi­an gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, in­clud­ing Min­is­ter of Tourism Dion­sio D'Ag­u­liar, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Jef­fery Lloyd and Min­is­ter of Trans­port Ren­wood Wills among oth­er dig­ni­taries.
Both prime min­is­ters were ac­com­pa­nied by CARI­COM Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Ir­win La Roque and were lat­er whisked away for a closed-door meet­ing with Min­nis at the Na­tion­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion (NE­MA) of­fice.
The first large re­lief ship ar­rived in the north­west Ba­hamas on Thurs­day morn­ing, with tug­boats fer­ry­ing pal­lets of wa­ter bot­tles, box­es of ce­re­al and 10,000 hot and cold meals from a Roy­al Caribbean cruise ship to bat­tered Freeport.
But with the grim toll still mount­ing, it was clear a lot more help will be need­ed for the once lush Grand Ba­hama and the neigh­bour­ing Aba­co Is­lands.
Source: Guardian, September 10, 2019

A production team from National Geographic Travellers was left stunned by the wide diversity of the ecosystems in Tobago. During their final day of filming, last Friday, in phase two of a marketing initiative by the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL), the production team expressed amazement that a small island like Tobago housed up to 240 species of birds, 640 species of plants and 160 tree species. They also appreciated how easily accessible the island's ecosystems, popular attractions and historical sites are for locals and visitors.
Newsday was told the team, which left on Friday, visited the Argyle, Parlatuvier, and Castara waterfalls.
This was the National Geographic's second visit to Tobago. In May, the team began filming a number of popular historical sites along the eastern end of Tobago.
The team along with TTAL CEO Louis Lewis, on Thursday, also visited the oldest protected forest reserve in the Western Hemisphere, Tobago's Main Ridge Forest Reserve.
Local tour guide William Trim, who assisted the production team, told Newsday, "When we went to the rainforest, we were able to get some lovely birds, both at the rainforest and at the waterfall, and seven to nine other species."
Trim said this is not the first time Tobago's ecosystem has been featured globally and he believes this additional exposure will help sell the the island to nature lovers.
"It was quite a privilege to be a part of marketing the product. Seems to me National Geographic will be able to push Tobago's beautiful scenery. I am happy TTAL has teamed up with them."
National Geographic Travellers was invited by the TTAL as a marketing initiative to highlight Tobago's culture, people, sites, food and popular attractions. During the first phase of the production, several locals were interviewed. The team also captured aerial and underwater footage of some historical and pristine sites.
This final content will be featured on National Geographic Traveller's website, their print and digital platforms.
TTAL CEO Louis Lewis said this move is strategic in the rebranding of "Destination Tobago."
He added, "Tobago, it is integral to create content aligned with our core pillars that illustrate Tobago as the unspoilt, untouched and undiscovered Caribbean island, where one can explore the extraordinary.
"We are excited to partner with such an iconic publication with a stellar reputation in travel and tourism, and we look forward to the resulting content that we can share with the rest of the world.
Source: Newsday, July 30, 2019

Dr. Alexandra Amon - THE MICHAEL PENSTON THESIS PRIZE 2018

The Michael Penston Thesis Prize 2018 has been awarded to Dr. Alexandra Amon for the thesis entitled ‘‘Cosmology with the Kilo-Degree Lensing Survey.’
Alexandra Amon completed her undergraduate and Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh with Prof. Catherine Heymans and Prof. Chris Blake, after growing up on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Since then, she is a Kavli Fellow at Stanford University/SLAC, USA, as part of Prof. Risa Wechsler’s group. There she spends her time working as part of the Dark Energy Survey’s weak lensing team.
WOW!!!

The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited’s destination marketing campaign, “Tobago Beyond”, has been shortlisted in the International Travel & Tourism Awards 2019 in the “Best National Tourism Board Campaign” and “Best Destination Campaign” categories.
A release from TTAL said the International Travel and Tourism Awards is presented by the World Travel Market and supported by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. The awards are a global platform that recognises and promotes excellence within the travel and tourism industry.
The 2019 Awards Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 5 in London, England.
According to the release, the “Best National Tourism Board Campaign” award recognises which destination showcased its vibrancy, culture, and individuality through a consumer or trade campaign that leaves the viewer pushing the destination to the top of their bucket list, or wanting to return.
The award for “Best Destination Campaign” looks at which destination’s campaign achieved volume and value growth in addition to encouraging visitation.
TTAL said the submitted campaigns were assessed using tangible metrics, including proof of audience engagement, budget, and obstacles and how they were resolved.
According to Nicole Smart, International Travel and Tourism Awards Organiser: “Our judges have been greatly impressed by the exceptional quality of entries, and those who are on the shortlist know they have reached a very high standard – they will be among the best in the world.”
Tobago’s submission, “Revitalising Tobago Tourism”, outlined the aim of the “Tobago Beyond” campaign, which is to revitalise the international appeal of Tobago as a real challenger holiday destination for those seeking a Caribbean holiday. With limited resources in comparison to other Caribbean destinations, focusing on specific markets and traveler segments was a key part of the strategy.
TTAL said the submission also indicated that all of the campaign’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) have outperformed, and resulted in double-digit growth of arrivals in 8 months, with the last three months showing 22 percent, 29 percent and 40 percent growth respectively.
Commenting on the announcement of Tobago being shortlisted in the awards, Secretary for Tourism, Culture and Transportation, Councillor Nadine Stewart-Phillips said: “This accomplishment is another reflection of our continued commitment to advance the island's tourism sector. This is certainly a testament to the fact that we are going in the right direction with respect to greater visibility for destination Tobago.
"Since the launch, the ‘Tobago Beyond’ campaign has attracted tremendous local and international interest and has yielded substantial results. I am heartened that our efforts are being recognised globally and look forward to the continued positive returns this recognition will bring.”
Louis Lewis, CEO of the Tobago Tourism Agency Limited, also expressed his satisfaction with the news, stating: “We are honoured to be shortlisted for not just one, but two categories in these prestigious awards, due to the beyond ordinary marketing efforts of the Tobago Tourism Agency. Our intention has always been to enable Tobago to be a stand out destination in its own right using the island’s unique character and features to guide our creative and messaging exploration, and our recognition in these awards signify that our brand message is being received loud and clear.”
Source: Newsday, August 2019

Extra Innings, a period drama produced by Trinidadian born filmmaker Jolene Mendes, won the top award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Manhattan Film Festival held in Cinema Village, New York in May.
The film, set in 1960's Brooklyn, tells the story of an aspiring baseball player who is torn between pursuing his professional dreams and remaining devoted to his religious family who are affected by mental illness.
Extra Innings features actors Alex Walton, Aidan P. Brennan, Mara Kassin and Geraldine Singer. It was directed by Albert Dabah and Brian Dillinger from an original script written by Dabah, and is based on his own life story. Mendes produced the film with Rabia Sultana.
The award represents the highest accolade to date won by Mendes, a graduate of the film production conservatory programme at the New York Film Academy, who marks her feature film producing debut with the film.
Several of her previously produced short films have screened at festivals around the world, winning awards at the Soho Film Festival, the New York City International Film Festival, the Coney Island Film Festival and the Orlando Film Festival.
According to Mendes "This award has special meaning for us all, as the project was a labor of love in every way. We didn't have a big budget, but we had a story with a big heart, so generously shared with us by Albert. In a festival that screens nearly 200 films annually, for our film to win the most prestigious award meant everything."
Mendes has had a passion for and curiosity about film and television production since her childhood in her native country Trinidad. But since the island did not have a thriving film industry at the time, she never thought a career in film was possible.
Following her graduation from high school, she studied briefly in Canada before switching career paths, relocating to New York and enrolling at NYFA to pursue her dream of film production.
Since graduating from the conservatory programme in 2015, she has been working steadily as a film producer, making it her mission to make films that have the potential to "inspire and make a difference in the world."
"I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to make my passion into my career. What I love most about film is the ability it has to have such a huge impact throughout the world. The fact that you can sit down for a couple hours and laugh, cry, be motivated or feel inspired is so special to me. For all these reasons, the journey we have taken with Extra Innings has been truly unforgettable. It has some wonderful things to say about ambition, family and making hard choices. It also tackles the sensitive issue of mental illness in a very real and relatable way. Everyone who sees it can learn something from this film."
Source: BroadwayWorld.com

​The Washington-based Institute for Caribbean Studies (ICS) has inducted four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon into its Wall of Fame.
The honour was given as part of the Institute's efforts to pay tribute to notable Caribbean nationals during Caribbean American Heritage Month, held annually in June.
Boldon holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200-metre events, with times of 5.64, 6.49 and 19.77 seconds respectively, and also the Commonwealth Games record in the 100m.
The ICS said, “Boldon is widely viewed as one of the all-time leading sportsmen in the history of the Caribbean, as well as one of its most internationally-recognisable spokesman.” 
After he retired from the track, he made his NBC Sports Group debut in 2007 during NBC’s presentation of the US National Championships. That same year, Boldon also served as an analyst for NBC’s coverage of the Track and Field World Championships.
NBC said Boldon joined its Olympics broadcasting team in 2008 where he served as a track and field analyst for NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. He continued in that role during the 2012 London Olympic Games and most recently, he served as an Olympic correspondent at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
Prior to joining NBC Sports Group, Boldon served as an analyst for BBC’s coverage of the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain. Source: The Loop, June 2019

A STREET in San Fernando has been named after a former slave Mary Belgrove, who first established a funeral parlour in the city in 1888.
The former Henry Street, which stands on the side of Belgrove’s Funeral Home and Crematorium on Coffee Street, was renamed Belgrove Lane recently in honour of the family’s long contribution to the commerce of the city
This is the sixth street named after individuals who have contributed to the development of San Fernando in the past year, through the initiative of San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello.
At the street naming ceremony Regrello noted that many of the streets in the city were named after past governors, mayors and politicians.
He said there were other individual worthy of such a gesture and established a committee to research and make recommendations.
CEO of the Belgroves Group of Companies Keith Belgrove welcomed the renaming of the street to honour his family’s legacy,
As the ceremony, Belgrove proposed that the University of the West Indies, (UWI) St Augustine campus take the first step in starting an associate degree programme in funeral services in an attempt to raise the bar.
“We cannot truly become a professional service unless we raise the education bar. I am going to talk to the UWI to put an associate degree together to raise the bar in funeral service.
“It is already in Jamaica,” Belgrove said at a street naming ceremony in San Fernando yesterday.
Belgrove also used the opportunity to call on Attorney General Faris Al Rawi and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein to fulfil his dream and regulate the funeral industry. “I dream of the day in my lifetime when funeral directors can grow from being an industry to truly being a profession.
“We will not get there unless regulations for the funeral industry is enacted.”
Before an audience which included Regrello and deputy mayor Vidya Mungal- Bissessar, Belgrove said he has been clamouring for regulations since the 1990’s.
He said Patrick Manning first took the proposal to Cabinet when he was alive and was prime minister but since then he has had promises from successive governments but no results.
“The AG gave me promises. The Minister of Local Government gave me promises. I know you have a lot on your plate as you point out constantly but push it. This is a good time to make it happen.”
Belgrove also issued a call for the reduction in the “punitive” tariff rates funeral homes are subjected to in the importation of hearses which he said has led to a high cost to the consumer.
He said three months ago he wrote to the Comptroller of Customs and Excise to consider its application for the correction for the rate of import duty on funeral hearses.
“It is now three months and we have not had any productive response. How can we grow our business under such punitive import duty rates of 65.5 per cent?” he asked.
Belgrove said his company has professionally pointed out that funeral hearses are considered special purpose goods vehicle.
“To the motor vehicle taxes, it is so considered, but for duty it is considered a luxury vehicle.
“There are so many funeral homes who cannot afford to bring professional vehicles in this country.
“How then can we stand up as truly world class?” Source:  Newsday, June 27, 2019

From the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, July 24, 2019
We've known for some time now that Trinidad and To­ba­go was a coun­try spi­ralling out of con­trol. Peo­ple were be­ing killed and robbed at record rates, weapons made for war flood­ed our streets and every­one seemed to be liv­ing in fear of los­ing their life.
If you think our na­tion­al night­mare couldn't get worse, just re­flect on the events of the last few weeks. In broad day­light, there were dead­ly gun bat­tles in the streets of Port-of-Spain at least 24 peo­ple in dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try were killed last week alone. No place seemed safe from the scourge of vi­o­lent crime—from an evening jaunt for fried chick­en in West­moor­ings to a chil­dren's birth­day par­ty in cen­tral Trinidad.
From the time you step out of your door, you're tak­ing your life in your own hands. On­ly two days ago, a busi­ness­man get­ting ready to drop his wife off to work was shot dead in a dri­ve-by shoot­ing.
Crim­i­nal gangs have got­ten more brazen. They re­spect no one. Moth­ers and chil­dren are of­ten col­lat­er­al dam­age, caught in the cross­fire of bloody gang wars. Se­nior cit­i­zens are be­ing tar­get­ed and killed by armed home in­vaders. The spike in rapes of women is now at­trib­uted to roam­ing bands of se­r­i­al rapists.
Some crime scenes in our coun­try re­sem­ble the world's dead­liest war zones. We are well past the point of pa­tience and tol­er­ance. We do not have the lux­u­ry of time. We de­mand ur­gent and im­me­di­ate ac­tion. The lead­ers of our gov­ern­ment and op­po­si­tion par­ties have failed to de­liv­er. They need to set aside their dif­fer­ences and con­front our na­tion­al cri­sis head-on.
1. It starts at the top. That means you, Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley. When you cam­paigned for of­fice five years ago, you pre­dict­ed that out-of-con­trol crime would top­ple the UNC-led gov­ern­ment. Ap­peal­ing for sup­port at the polls, you told us that we were "vir­tu­al­ly vot­ing to save (our) life." Vot­ers put their trust in you.
Our lives have nev­er been in greater dan­ger.
The first and ut­most re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of any gov­ern­ment is to pro­tect its cit­i­zens and pro­vide safe­ty of law and or­der. On that score, your gov­ern­ment gets an F.
Crime has soared since you took of­fice, sur­pass­ing by far the du­bi­ous records of your po­lit­i­cal ri­vals, whom you ap­pro­pri­ate­ly lam­bast­ed for their own fail­ings in fight­ing crime.
When Barack Oba­ma be­came pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States in 2008, he quick­ly ac­cept­ed the role of con­sol­er-in-chief to com­fort his na­tion af­ter mass shoot­ings and oth­er pe­ri­ods of na­tion­al grief. In our na­tion, there is a deaf­en­ing si­lence from the top when moth­ers wail af­ter the blood of their chil­dren flows in the street. We can do bet­ter.
Ask ran­dom peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go to list close fam­i­ly mem­bers and loved ones who have been mur­dered in the last decade and it is not un­usu­al for the num­ber to ex­ceed 20.
You, Dr Row­ley, have felt your own vis­cer­al agony of los­ing loved ones to crime. In ear­ly May, your for­mer high school class­mate John "Jok­er" Mills and his com­mon-law wife, Eu­lyn John, were bru­tal­ly killed by an in­trud­er in the bed­room of their To­ba­go home. Their hands and feet were bound, their mouths gagged and mul­ti­ple stab wounds cov­ered their bod­ies. In your Face­book post, you asked: "What have we be­come? What are we pro­duc­ing as the next gen­er­a­tion?"
As head of gov­ern­ment, you can help save our next gen­er­a­tion, Dr Row­ley. Even though it took three years for you to in­stall per­ma­nent lead­er­ship in the po­lice ser­vice, it was on­ly a start. The li­on's share of the work is yet to be done.
One of the first tasks should be en­sur­ing that po­lice have all the tools to do their job. It didn't help that Guardian Me­dia re­ports re­cent­ly dis­closed that our gov­ern­ment used mil­lions of dol­lars in tax­pay­ers' mon­ey to sup­port gang boss­es and crim­i­nal net­works fu­elling crime. It is in­dis­putable that these crim­i­nals take our mon­ey, buy big­ger and more men­ac­ing guns, fund their il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties, then fight each oth­er for the gov­ern­ment largesse. Many civil­ians be­come their in­no­cent rob­bery and mur­der vic­tims.
(The UNC-led gov­ern­ment does not have clean hands in this mat­ter, as it has al­so fund­ed "com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers", al­so known as gang boss­es).
But now, Dr Row­ley, your wear the jack­et. How can the com­mis­sion­er and his rank-and-file do their jobs when your gov­ern­ment is fund­ing the gangs? Don't take our word for it. Lis­ten to what Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith said last week: "It is ab­solute mad­ness that any­body that holds a po­si­tion of au­thor­i­ty could feel that by giv­ing crim­i­nal el­e­ments funds and mon­ey…. [then] throw blame on the po­lice ser­vice. I will not have any­one throw blame…when they are not do­ing their job."
This is the time, Dr Row­ley, for you to stand up and make bold de­ci­sions for all the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. One should not pon­der if starv­ing the crim­i­nal net­works of tax­pay­ers' mon­ey will re­sult in elec­toral con­se­quences.
Here's an­oth­er way you can make a dif­fer­ence, Dr Row­ley. Un­der­take a mas­sive re­struc­tur­ing of the na­tion's le­gal sys­tem.
In the PNM's 2015 man­i­festo, you promised: "The PNM will en­gage the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem stake­hold­ers to re-en­gi­neer the struc­ture to pro­vide an ef­fi­cient and le­git­i­mate crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem as the foun­da­tion for crime pre­ven­tion, law en­force­ment and the pro­tec­tion of hu­man rights."
Every­one agrees that our jus­tice sys­tem needs a mas­sive over­haul. Crim­i­nal cas­es still take up to 15 years to come to tri­al—with no guar­an­tee of res­o­lu­tion. (One fraud case in­volv­ing a lawyer who tam­pered with wit­ness­es end­ed last week af­ter 24 years.) Many cas­es lan­guish be­fore mag­is­trates and judges, some of whom, for var­i­ous rea­sons, lack any ur­gency to clear their dock­ets.
The ju­di­cia­ry owns part of the crime prob­lem. If you can­not have a fair jus­tice sys­tem, you can­not fair­ly pros­e­cute crim­i­nals re­spon­si­ble for the crime spree.
Dr Row­ley, the ques­tion is: do you have the will to ful­fil your promise?
Many peo­ple—em­i­nent le­gal schol­ars and cit­i­zens alike—were dis­mayed last week when you de­cid­ed to leave Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie in his job. He faced mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions in­volv­ing his as­so­ci­a­tion with two con­vict­ed fraud­sters. Over the last few years, his col­leagues on the bench, the le­gal com­mu­ni­ty and the pub­lic have lost con­fi­dence in Archie and, by ex­ten­sion, the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice.
If Archie ap­pears to be com­pro­mised, how could he be ex­pect­ed to help you trans­form the jus­tice sys­tem?
Fight­ing crime should be the Gov­ern­ment's top pri­or­i­ty. That is why we can­not un­der­stand how Stu­art Young, your hard­est work­ing min­is­ter in gov­ern­ment busi­ness, can be min­is­ter of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, min­is­ter of le­gal af­fairs, min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and min­is­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.
No won­der, the over­bur­dened Mr Young some­times takes a hands-off ap­proach when pressed on crime. "At the end of the day the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the men and women of the Po­lice Ser­vice are the ones con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly who have the pow­ers of ar­rest. I can't go and ar­rest any­one," he said in a re­cent re­but­tal.
At­tack­ing our na­tion­al cri­sis is a full-time job. Here's a rad­i­cal pro­pos­al: re­duce Mr Young's port­fo­lio to on­ly min­is­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty or ap­point some­one who can fo­cus every minute of the day on our na­tion­al cri­sis.
2. Fel­low cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the heinous na­ture and fre­quen­cy of the crime you see every­day is not nor­mal. We are los­ing a gen­er­a­tion of young men—and young women.
If you fol­low so­cial me­dia sites cov­er­ing our car­nage, you'll re­ceive a dai­ly blast of dri­ve-by killings, rob­beries and vi­cious fights—of­ten with guns, cut­lass­es and any­thing peo­ple can get their hands on. In oth­er videos, women and chil­dren con­front and even re­pel po­lice who en­ter neigh­bour­hoods to ar­rest sus­pect­ed gang­sters. This is not nor­mal.
The crim­i­nals keep get­ting younger and younger. With the glee of chil­dren play­ing video games, a group of boys who seemed no old­er than ten-years-old bran­dished guns and bragged in a re­cent video about their crim­i­nal and sex­u­al ex­ploits. No won­der that many peo­ple, af­ter see­ing or hear­ing about grotesque crime, say in ex­as­per­a­tion: "Trinidad is not a re­al place."
Last week came an­oth­er shock­er: young women flash­ing big grins and what ap­peared to be se­mi-au­to­mat­ic weapons.
Many of our young peo­ple have lost their in­no­cence. It is no sur­prise that in many schools, teach­ers are no longer in charge and dis­ci­pline holds no sway. Some young­sters have lit­tle or no re­gard for au­thor­i­ty be­cause they feel that kind of be­hav­iour is em­pow­er­ing and has cur­ren­cy.
It seems like every day the lives of our na­tion's youths are be­ing snuffed out as killers show no mer­cy. We all re­mem­ber how 13-year-old Videsh Sub­ar, while await­ing his SEA re­sult, was bru­tal­ly mur­dered. The school­boy and his neigh­bour, in whose care he was left, were found in her Mal­abar home tied up and their throats slashed.
In Laven­tille, where vi­o­lent gang wars re­flect the hor­rors of ur­ban war­fare, chil­dren are of­ten in­no­cent vic­tims.
About two weeks ago, Fitzger­ald Hinds, min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, dis­closed that in the last decade, more than 1,300 peo­ple in Laven­tille alone had been mur­dered, some 93 per cent by gun­fire.
Hear Mr Hinds: "We have a cri­sis in Laven­tille. Be­cause you know bet­ter than me that to­mor­row, this evening, your chil­dren are at risk. They could be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you know you too are at risk. Be­cause if you on­ly pro­voke some­body now, tell them some­thing, watch them too hard, bounce them as you pass­ing by the shop, they want to go for their 'lass, they want to go for their gun. That is the lev­el of ig­no­rance."
Hinds seemed baf­fled that chil­dren in Laven­tille would suf­fer the same dire plight of chil­dren in Mid­dle East­ern con­flicts. "This is no war zone," he said of Laven­tille.
When you hear de­spair in a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter's voice, you know we're in trou­ble.
3. This is a call to all de­cent peo­ple. All the good cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go who val­ue law and or­der over law­less­ness must come for­ward in num­bers greater than the crim­i­nals to re­claim our coun­try, to help make our neigh­bour­hoods safe again and work with what should be a re­vamped and pro­fes­sion­al po­lice ser­vice.
Let us chan­nel our col­lec­tive out­rage over two decades of record-set­ting blood­let­ting to let our lead­ers know that we don't like it so. De­mand that they work to­geth­er to solve the cri­sis.
We need to de­vel­op and ral­ly around a well-ar­tic­u­lat­ed na­tion­al crime pre­ven­tion strat­e­gy. The Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion should em­brace civ­il so­ci­ety groups and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to de­vel­op this plan, with ap­pro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tions from peo­ple across the na­tion.
Be­fore that hap­pens, the Gov­ern­ment should be hon­est and trans­par­ent about the scope of the prob­lem.
But first, the Gov­ern­ment and the po­lice should con­sid­er tak­ing in­ter­im steps to re­store pub­lic trust in the po­lice and ju­di­cia­ry.
We must ac­knowl­edge that re­cent ex­am­ples of peo­ple who have stood stood up against crim­i­nals haven't gone so well. Just pon­der how many state wit­ness­es have been killed while they were in pro­tec­tive cus­tody.
Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith would ac­knowl­edge that many cor­rupt cops would dis­close the names of in­for­mants to crim­i­nals. Grif­fith needs to be giv­en the tools to clean up rogue el­e­ments to build con­fi­dence in po­lice ser­vice.
Any ef­fort to ad­dress crime must con­front the tough­est ques­tions. For in­stance, if the mur­der toll in Trinidad and To­ba­go is large­ly fu­elled by turf bat­tles over drugs, is it time for a whole­sale re­view of our ex­ist­ing drug laws? How do we pre­vent weapons of war from en­ter­ing the coun­try through our ports? How do we pro­vide jobs—in the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors—and hope to im­pov­er­ished com­mu­ni­ties? And how do we ral­ly the na­tion to be­come part of the so­lu­tion?
Guardian Me­dia re­mains com­mit­ted to ad­dress­ing these press­ing is­sues. In the next few weeks, we will show how our dire crime sit­u­a­tion is rip­ping apart the fab­ric of our na­tion—and what we all need to do to be safer in our homes, our neigh­bour­hoods and our coun­try.
To chan­nel Stal­in, the bard from Mara­bel­la: Our coun­try faces its dark­est hour. This is a time to de­mand that our lead­ers put coun­try be­fore par­ty.
Find­ing so­lu­tions will not be easy. They will re­quire our best minds, sac­ri­fice and col­lab­o­ra­tion to en­sure that Trinidad and To­ba­go does not be­come a failed state.
Stay­ing the course or do­ing noth­ing is not an op­tion. Our beloved na­tion's very sur­vival is at stake.