A BLOODY CHRISTMAS

and next year could take T&T closer to anarchy 

SOMEDAY at Christmas, Stevie Wonder sang, “men won’t be boys, playing with bombs like kids play with toys”. 

If we supplant “bomb” with “guns,” that could be Trinidad and Tobago’s fervent yuletide hope. 

But it won’t take place in 2022 – or anytime soon. 

Indeed, a local rap song by General Grant “Pure Hate But Acting Normal”, may be relevant at this Christmastime. 

In a land of continuously escalating violence, this is the bloodiest yuletide in history, illustrated by staggering statistics of homicides and every other imaginable gun crime. 

But you won’t sense that from the apathetic authorities and various national interest groups. 

The alarming inaction by the government is a disturbing indication that it has played its last card against a fast-evolving and intensifying crisis. 

The apathy by the society captures how numbed many have become to the scourge of our times or their gripping fear of offending the authorities. 

Equally troubling is potentially lies ahead. 

The evidence seems to suggest that the national security apparatus has given up on stemming the illicit gun and drug flow and the gangster culture it nourishes. 

The porous borders are also a free pass for Venezuelan mercenaries and convicts, who have now gotten a lay of the land. 

More and more districts are being crippled by marauding killers, and the blood-letting is turning even more heinous. 

A mutilated head on the highway stirs only brief anguish, as do savage murders of elders, delivery truck drivers, taxi men and anyone else in the path of gun-toting psychopaths. 

Community-spirited neighbourhoods like St. Helena are now dumping grounds for drug-inspired assassinations, while Tunapuna and other sub-urban districts are overrun by competing gangs. 

Days after tough-talking officers warned troublemakers to stay away from the capital city, unbothered thugs went on a routine wrecking spree, as if to remind the cops of who is in charge.  

The most astounding reality of our times is that the authorities clearly have no crime prevention plan.  

The government has stopped investing in new elements of intelligence-gathering or insightful and courageous police leaders, or various other initiatives implemented in crime-torn nations. 

Dammit, CCTV cameras are out of operation, and this has not stirred the administration into action or provoked national angst.  

The sobering scenario is exacerbated by a seeming absence of urgency, even disinterest, by the ruling administration even as the slaughter rages, 

Only the foolhardy would ignore the raw truth of where our killing fields are heading – virtual anarchy like in certain hemispheric nations. 

In other words, blatant lawlessness, with gun-brandishing rogues shooting without reserve, invading homes, chasing out businessmen, assaulting at will. 

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s harebrained plan to make crime a public health issue may have been his last weak-kneed salvo at a crisis that has only flourished under his watch.  

Rowley even had the temerity to sign a pact on the issue with his Jamaican counterpart Andrew Holness. 

In circumstances almost too bizarre to be real, Holness rushed back home to declare a State of Emergency in nine of 14 parishes as violence ravages his land. 

Jamaica’s rate of crime is barely less than T&T’s and Holness speaks candidly of the fear of the collapse of the State. 

For his part, Rowley remains indifferent, to the point of retaining gross non-achievers in sensitive positions and not communicating with the society on the emergency. 

Any other national leadership would have been anguished by the virtual travel blacklisting by the developed world, and the implications for the country’s image and its stuttering tourism sector. 

There is a silent exodus, especially by the tortured middle class, but not everyone could scamper from this besieged land. 

Haiti is a frightening current example of the impact of anarchy, with a crippled administration, a terrorised society, food insecurity, including malnutrition of children, cholera and other medical crises.   

Gangsters outnumber police officers, and some lawmen become criminals at night, turning against defenceless residents. 

Policemen must protect deliveries of food and other essentials to crime-beset areas, and many villains simply choose to rob the rich instead of putting in a day’s work. 

Thousands have fled violent-mired areas in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, and have instead chosen to live in slums with inhumane conditions in order to protect life and limb.  

The Caricom nation is becoming unliveable, according to United Nations and United States experts, who forecast a ruined State if chaos prevails. 

As in T&T, the authorities are hapless, overwhelmed by the emergency, lacking critical resources, fearful for their own security or seeking a better life for themselves. 

In that setting, who would have faith in our national security in the immediate future? 

A dreadful reality at this time of good cheer!