President of one of T&T's leading NGOs Simone de la Bastide has said that the country is now in a crime pandemic.
De la Bastide, the wife of former chief justice Michael de la Bastide said the “public is crying out daily, pleading for basic protection from the relevant authorities, for their families, their children, their properties, etc and yet little is done that makes a difference to quell the fear and the crime. We are in a crime pandemic and have been for many years.
She added: “Always looking over our shoulders wherever we go. Putting the plaster on the wound is not the answer but preventing the wound will be more productive in my view. Uplifting the downtrodden, their communities, education etc etc…..Priorities are all wrong in my view. It should always be people and country first before party and self.
She made the comment in a letter penned to Guardian Media on Sunday in which she recalled the horror she experienced when bandits stormed an apartment. She said she stared death.
“There is no fear of the law, we need people in leadership positions who truly care,” she said.
Her traumatic experience, which she revealed yesterday, came as other victims of crime recalled how they too were viciously attacked and robbed at their homes.
Following is he statement.
A crime pandemic
If ever there truly was a pandemic in Trinidad & Tobago it is now.. A Crime Pandemic of magnitude proportion. I have penned this letter many times in my mind but am now propelled and inspired to write it.
Several times a week, from different communities around the country, on social media and the daily electronic and print media, the public is told of terrifying horror stories and acts of violent crime that they, a family member, friend, neighbour or stranger has just experienced re: a robbery, rape, beating or murder. It is so surreal, the fear that we the public live with and feel each and every day. Most right thinking people do care about the senseless and horrific murders and the level of crime in our country. There is simply no fear of the law in our sweet and sour T&T. This is part of the problem. Any and everyone is now a target, poor, rich, in between, old, young, the vulnerable; Everyone! The dreaded question is….. WHO IS NEXT!!
I have personally experienced this nerve shattering, adrenalin fuelled fear that I was about to die. Some years ago, when a friend and I were talking on the third level of an apartment building. It was nagging me for quite some time to get up and close the back door, which regretfully, I never did.
We had just got up to prepare dinner and in no time, two masked men entered through the back door with raised machetes, (cutlasses) gunning for us. My screams were forceful and silent and while my friend who was in front of me kept dodging the cutlass attacks, mechanically, I swiftly turned and went back to the porch, buying a few seconds by slamming the glass door behind me; which the satanic creature chasing me slammed into, breaking the glass.
The adrenalin was high and I realised that my only escape was to jump over the balcony, two storeys down. I landed badly on my heels/ankles which were both broken and having rolled down to the lower level thereafter, I got up and ran on those broken feet onto the roadway, where I soon collapsed, thinking I was safe.
The gruesome memory floods back as if it were yesterday. Having gotten up to run on those broken feet to try to escape, the evil creature with bulging eyes through his green mask left the third floor apartment through the same back door that I should have closed, only to confront me again with a raised machete, about to strike me, in the driveway…. WHY ???
With my arms raised above my head to protect myself from the expected blows. I was begging for my life, repeatedly calling out God’s name to help me. It felt like such a long time.
God answered my desperate plea as another friend who we were expecting, drove up with bright lights on and sped quickly in my direction. Suddenly, the evil creature with bulging eyes scampered off. I was saved. My mind went blank thereafter, as I must have passed out, waking up in the hospital where I lay on a stretcher for many hours before being seen by a doctor. (Another story for another day.)
My reason for being explicit in the details of my horrendous and unforgettable experience is simply to say that once you have been through an ordeal such as this, or worse, only then would you fully comprehend the gravity of what others have gone through with a similar vile attack against them. It never leaves you.
Yet the carnage continues, driven by the enhancement of drugs where their courage and will to commit horrendous and evil acts are perpetrated on innocent victims.
I remember years ago when we lived in Vistabella (San Fernando); the trains used to pass outside of Vistabella and on hearing the approaching loud horn from the train, friends called one another to alert them of the incoming train where a dozen or so of us used to run towards the train line to pull sugar cane from the moving train.
Our parents never knew. Madness as I think of it now.
But at the end of our street were the remnants of a train line which was overgrown with bush and with walls on either side, housing neighbourhoods.
I was about 12 years old when I used to walk on the train line tracks, taking a short cut to get to the main road, to the parlour, where I would use my pocket money to buy ‘kaiser balls.’ It took about 15 minutes on the tracks and I always felt safe, no one ever troubled me.
I shudder now at the thought of doing that today. Would I reach the parlour or get raped/murdered. What has happened over the years to where we are today ? Our beautiful Trinidad & Tobago that once was. Is it progress? Is it mismanagement of the country over the years, or both?
The public is crying out daily, pleading for basic protection from the relevant authorities, for their families, their children, their properties etc and yet little is done that makes a difference to quell the fear and the crime.
We are in a crime pandemic and have been for many years. Always looking over our shoulders wherever we go. Putting the plaster on the wound is not the answer but preventing the wound will be more productive in my view. Uplifting the downtrodden, their communities, education etc etc…..Priorities are all wrong in my view. It should always be people and country first before party and self.
Was it Kofi Anan that once said: “Poor people should be part of the solution to development, not part of the problem”. How correct. The NGO’s, CBO’s and FBO’s play a significant part towards this goal. If only the authorities would recognize that and work alongside these organisations, life would indeed be somewhat better for everyone.
This is how Singapore became a first world nation, out of the bowels of poverty. Ironically “a place” T&T has never been in. What is reported on/in the news is a small fraction of the true amount of crime perpetrated on our people. The numerous reports of criminal, violent acts perpetrated on our citizens, the vulnerable, on social media, is indicative of the high level of crime in our country that is totally out of control.
There are two areas here that must be addressed. The evil creatures out there that perpetrate these acts, do so under an enhancement. They feel the power moreso with guns/weapons. They are so drugged up in order to do their crimes, seeking the courage to carry out the violent crime.
What I saw in those evil eyes were not normal, not human. They were pumped up with drugs. I personally know three people who were murdered and countless others who were victims of a crime here in our country. In a small country like ours this is overwhelming.
Simply put, a serious attempt must be made to eradicate the drug/gun trade in our country and the best people must be put in control in order to make a significant difference in stamping out the criminal element, whatever the collar.
There is no fear of the law, we need people in leadership positions who truly care, who will put country first and who will bring our society back to some semblance of what it used to be. I often reminisce on the olé time days, how it used to be. Now I fear for my children/our children and grandchildren.
Just my view...
↔—Simone de la Bastide