YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

CONSIDER this.

Bloodthirsty juvenile gangsters, with state-of-the-art American-made firepower, besiege the nation, murdering with casual ease, invading homes at will, storming businesses, and ruling the road, Haiti-style.

The police service is unable to confront thugs on the streets or at their covert forested hideouts despite modern anti-crime resources, including intelligence, legislation, and the aid of United States agencies.

Enter a middle-aged Canadian who dubs himself a “travel vlogger” and specialises in graphic videos on violence and gang culture in Trinidad and Tobago, a storehouse of underworld crime.

He captures explicit pictures and relates staggering stories of brutal gangland activities and lifestyles.

His content is so intense and urgent that a jolted nation asks: You mean all of that is taking place in this small land?

How can a visitor meet gangsters on their turf and the well-equipped police cannot get a handle on rampant crime?

How could this intrepid media man gain the confidence of the criminals to the point where they tell their stories, while the protective service remains clueless?

How, amid such glaring ineptitude, could the boss of the police service be reappointed to office?

Then it got worse.

The police picked up the daredevil video storyteller.

No, they are not seeking intelligence details.

They dust off the Anti-Gang Act and, under an obscure section, accuse him of promoting gangsterism.

In the meantime, the vicious criminal war on society rages, politicians trade barbs and the Prime Minister is possibly packing his suitcases for another exotic vacation on the ruse of attracting trade and investments.

It is all so surreal.

But then this is Trinidad and Tobago, where the Government, which can’t account for $2.6 billion from last year’s accounts, is adding $2.3 billion to the current budget, to fix roads and provide short-term pre-election jobs.

The debt crisis is worsening, the wealth gap is expanding, and the overall quality of life is deteriorating.

But most of the nation remains absorbed in identity politics or in cruelly bashing their partisan colleagues, while media houses are a cocktail of indifference and incompetence.

You can’t make this stuff up!