Had a very busy weekend. Attended 2 functions on Sunday, imagine! This is unheard of and worse than that had to refuse an invitation for last Friday evening because of some serious grand parenting. We attended the 'Carnival - sound of a people 2.0' put on by the jazz master Etienne Charles. A wonderful evening. Looking forward to his on the road Carnival band on Carnival Monday, thank you for live music.
Today was the start of the official program to celebrate the life of our recently departed former President, Max Richards. And so it should be. He served a two year term and was able to escape the cheap politicking which is commonplace on the Rock.
The celebration however came at a heavy price. Through no fault of His Excellency nor I am sure his family. Who ever planned the route of the procession from NAPA to the Parliament somehow did not realise that Wrightson Rd is the only artery in the city that can move tens of thousands of vehicles across the city. There is no other road system that can handle that level of traffic. To block off Wrightson Rd for a period of hours, Monday morning rush hour, can only do one thing, create gridlock from Chaguanas to Port of Spain and from Trincity to Port of Spain. Max would have frowned on this decision, he, a man of the people. The utter confusion created by this foolish decision, the thousands of lost man-hours in productivity, totally uncalled for. When will the authorities start to think of the productivity lost? The celebration of his life continues tomorrow travelling east to the UWI and then back into the city throwing the travelling public into further chaos.
As usual there is always a better way, it is not necessary to inconvenience half of the country for hours for a five minute walk.
The crime being unleashed on the law abiding citizens of the Rock is now unprecedented. In 15 days we have had 30 murders, countless home invasions, sexual assault, robberies with violence. The citizens are at war with the criminals with one exception, the citizens are unarmed. The TTPS, forget what the Minister of National Security is saying, is totally out of its depth in dealing with the situation and the motto of 'to protect and serve' is nothing but words. The fact that the citizens do not hold the police in any regard is not good and the TTPS have only themselves to blame. So we have a police force that few trust, an unarmed civilian population and a heavily armed criminal gang sector. And what then is the answer, how do we the plebs protect ourselves? Do we take the law into our own hands, form vigilante groups, do likewise and purchase illegal weapons, higher thugs? We need to do something, to just sit and wait for it to happen cannot be the answer. The PMOTT must come out and say something about how the civilian population protects themselves. We are not even allowed to own or carry passive protection in the form of sprays or other means of protection. The best we can do right now is to walk with a sling shot or a bootoo. With criminals walking around with firearms ready to kill, these primitive means of personal protection is a joke. The CoP might have his reasoning for not issuing firearm licences, as more guns may find their way into the criminal gangs. This is a stupid argument as the criminal gangs can obtain as many firearms as they want right now, though illegally.
A properly trained civilian force having access to firearms will no doubt put the criminals on notice that if you enter private premises you will end up dead. I am a pacifist, I don't support capital punishment, don't support military but I sure as hell support the right to security of the person and property. If the Government cannot provide me with that basic right then I need the means to protect myself. A sling shot will not cut it!
The Rock has so much going for it. I listen to the music for Carnival '18 and marvel at the creativity of our people. Every year bringing out excellent music. The crime, the economy, Governance we have to work out. There is always a better way to do things and surely we will find the way.
Good night people of this great piece of Rock and good luck!
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