It is very difficult to sit and watch without reacting when someone tries to take your personal effects that you work hard for, so I understand why those boys fought back. Fellas you need to understand that in the heat of the moment it is easy to make a bad decision and it is even easier to criticize the actions after. Most of us are grown men and we would most likely think about our families before we do something so rash however in the younger years I'm sure it would have been an all out battle.
Anyhow Dr. Balgobin wrote a good article "The Gathering Storm", take a read. Most of the points are strong with the exception of a few......
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commenta ... 72431.htmlTrinidad and Tobago appears to be evolving along multiple tracks, class distinctions more evident than ever. Some of us live a Miami life. Others aspire to. And a large group isn’t bothering with the ladder at all.
For a small island, we have a lot of big egos—how we manage to fit them all is somewhat surprising. Drunk with new money and false success supported by tax evasion and tenderpreneurship, many of our nouveau riche shamelessly parade their wealth.
The poor, for their part, have struck back. There are demands for more social welfare, and local government is routinely ignored, replaced by tyre-burning and other forms of community activism. It is not unusual for people who want a pothole fixed, a school repaired, or a HDC house to block roads, march, burn things and otherwise disrupt the lives of others in order to draw attention to their plight, oblivious to the irony that uncivilised behaviour in search of the benefits of civilised society represents.
A darker and more invidious force is also developing in our society bizarrely masked by these surface ripples of discontent. It is a counterculture, which has a vastly different value system to the mainstream. This phenomenon has been treated as a social issue—in fact it is rapidly morphing into a challenge for the economic, political and security systems in our society as well.
There are large and growing parts of this country where the law does not rule. Where the police cannot go, except in force. Being there is like being in another dimension. Time slows, and values are extremely different to the rest of the society. We work for what we have, they take what they want. We take the long view, they think short term. We hope to die old, they are prepared to die young. We value dedication, they value least effort. We contemplate, they proliferate—more young men to kill tomorrow.
This has gone from a criminal fringe to a full culture, which is rising up and challenging the law-abiding society. This is a monster, and it intends to destroy our democracy. The media only reports the murders—it misses the causes.
Our sociologists have only imperfectly described, far less explained, the very serious nature of what is before us. And so the challenge continues to grow while we use race and ethnicity to explain little black boys killing each other. This is a misdiagnosis.
Unfortunately, we have helped the descent in several ways.
First, there is a breakdown in general discipline. Our status as a law-abiding society is increasingly in question, and there is little consequence for crime, especially big crimes. In any other country, the leadership of CLICO, the HCU, Chanka Seeteram and Co, Kenny Rampersad and Co, UDeCOTT, CEPEP, Concacaf and so many others would be facing some tough questions in a court. Not here. Even murderers are walking tall. Nobody is jailed for anything unless they are poor.
Schools, paradoxically the bastion of civilisation, have become undisciplined, violent places. Children are killing children and the failure rates in some schools defy belief. More fail than pass. On the roads, speed limits are routinely broken; cellphone use abounds, as does intolerance and rage. The pilot camera project in Port of Spain proved that drivers routinely break the law.
Second, the criminal element in this society is now well armed. Cpl Clapham was killed metres away from the Woodbrook Police Station, his killer having the nerve to pick up Clapham’s gun before making his escape.
In a gun battle with a security company recently, bandits waited until the guards were dry of ammunition and then advanced to overrun the guards’ defensive position. In the Beetham, and in Laventille, bandits are routinely shooting at the police, and sometimes hitting them.
In San Fernando and Arima, decapitations occur more frequently than reported. Off-duty soldiers have been shot dead. All this is happening right now. The idea that criminals respect police and soldiers is very much oversold. It is only a matter of time before a formal challenge occurs.
Third, our institutions are extremely weak and getting weaker. They are critical to the workings of a proper democracy and are starved of resources and talent. Very little works. Citizens cannot get fair treatment, and they sometimes turn to dangerous people to help them to achieve some measure of justice. The failure of our institutions, in particular the Police Service, will cause our democracy to buckle.
Fourth, our military and paramilitary establishment is now outnumbered by the criminal element in the society. Add Police, Defence Force (Army, Coast Guard, Air Guard) and other establishments like Fire Services and still you don’t have the men to outnumber what will rise up if there is trouble. These people may be looters, but this time they have guns, and they know how to use them.
Fifth, our political and business class do not understand, or understand only imperfectly, how much poor leadership contributes to this explosive cocktail. Instead of keeping things cool, politicians heat things up. The antagonism we demonstrate is multiplying itself in the society and building rage.
Could the unthinkable happen? There is enough literature to support the view that we meet the conditions. However, one of two other things must yet occur.
First, the money has to run out. Right now we are paying for social peace. At our current rate of borrowing and deficit, soon we will not be able to support these contracts or the other social programmes to which many are addicted. This will happen by 2017, at which point, we will have a serious problem.
Second, a demagogue has to rise. We do not yet have another Abu Bakr, though there are several of his splinters vying for the title.
If one does step forward, unlike 1990, he will speak with the force of an entire alternate society which, when we behold it, will frighten us to our foundations.
Neither of these conditions is hard to meet, meaning the stability of our society is more fragile than it appears. We have to stop the antagonistic stupidity that has ensnared us, stop the anger in our thoughts and words and deeds, stop the messages of sex and violence and focus on positive engagement and progress.
There is something dangerous rising in our midst that demands our attention. If we do not act now to address the threat, it will soon confront us.
