It’s no secret Laventille, though rich in history and proud incubator of some of the country’s greatest talents has remained one of the most depressed areas in the country.
Neighbourhoods there are underdeveloped, have high unemployment and experience the highest levels of murder in the country.
Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds does not agree that his constituency has been “left behind” and is lacking, and any ‘fixing or real development’ at all had to do with the mind and spirit of its people.
In a recent meeting at St Barbs basketball court, Hinds revealed in just over a decade, Laventille, the place of his birth, recorded 1318 murders, of which 1232 were gun-related.
Why is this happening and who is responsible? The Sunday Guardian had talked with Hinds, who is also a minister in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, about the problems in Laventille and how the government planned to resolve them.
DIXON: With 1318 people being killed in Laventille in the last decade, what do you think it would take to bring order to Laventille?
HINDS: The first thing that is required is the order of the human spirit and the human mind. Look at Nelson Mandela, look at where he came from, in the rough of apartheid. He went to jail and struggled against that injustice and emerged as an outstanding human being of his country. Look at Jesus Christ, born in a little manger out of nothingness and out of that muddy pond, one million flowers bloomed. The name Jesus may never be forgotten in human history. So I am making the point, it requires a change in the human mind and spirit. And physiological environmental and economic changes, as necessary and useful as they are, is no substitute for a change in mind or a change in spirit.
DIXON: What is your immediate and long term plans to help resolve this situation?
HINDS: Physiological environmental and economic changes, as necessary and useful as they are, are no substitute for a change in mind or a change in spirit. I have information that one individual might have been responsible for the killings of 47 people. There is a certain work to be done that in my view, the work is not being done. Because if a fella could kill 47 people, then the police need to open a lot of time and resources on him to ensure he doesn’t shoot anybody else. In my view, there is no shortage of law or manpower. Some work needs to be done and it needs to be done by all of us. And before the police reach, there is a thing called parents.
DIXON: What impact do you think this has on the children of Laventille?
You have a handful of relatively small (number of) people, who like everywhere else, are bent on crime and criminality and have been maintaining a stain on the population of Laventille for far too long. But the majority of children from Laventille are doing as well as any and better than many. So some have chosen crime and criminality and they are the ones creating this mayhem.
DIXON: As an MP who visits the area, what do you see happening with the children in the area that cause you alarm?
HINDS: Same and persistent underperformance in our schools, primary and secondary schools, as a result, and a response to that, the Prime Minister, mandated a special education project for the 21 primary and four secondary schools in Laventille comprising four components—discipline and violence and literacy and numeracy. This programme has been ongoing for two years.
DIXON: Can you explain this concept of borderlines in the Laventille area and when did this all get started and how can it be erased?
HINDS: All where I grew up in Gonzales, we never had this, we roamed all over, looking for fruits and sports and pretty girls. The only thing you had to worry about was pot hound dogs along the way. This is a relatively new phenomenon and it is so dark and empty and so stupid.
In one case, this started over 25 years ago. It had to do with somebody snatching somebody’s chain down on Independence Square by the Cathedral and that began a chain of events and today you have young men taking up guns and getting involved in borderline stuff. I told you before, it can only stop with the reform of the mind and spirit. I’m reminded of the words of Malcolm X, “Being a slave and ignorant may not have been your fault. But remaining a slave and ignorant certainly is.”
DIXON: Laventille East and West have been the most loyal constituencies for the PNM, what has accounted for the fact that it is still; the most troubled area in the entire country?
HINDS: In my community, there is no village, there is no social order. It’s now not so much about community, but it’s about individuals, and everybody doing their own thing. Dressing how they want, walking how they want, cussing how they want, behaving how they want and more and more people are becoming afraid to exert social pressure to correct those behaviours, because they have a lot of guns around and people are afraid to speak to the smallest child, because their parents might show up with anger and violence or because the child itself can react with anger and violence.
A 13-year-old could easily have a gun, so people are pulling back and the social order is degrading by the hour, I can see it. There is no sense of “we don’t stand for this” in the community, that was a long-time thing, now everybody is doing what they want, so those who are inspired by
the movies and all the filth that they see on social media and in videos and games, they are coming and displaying it on the streets and the right-thinking people are pulling back and further pulling back.
DIXON: What has accounted for the neglect of this area considering that their economic condition remains unacceptable-high levels of joblessness, high levels of crime and violence?
HINDS: Laventille today from a physiological standpoint is a far cry from what it was 50 years ago. When 50 years ago, we had tracks, gullies and ravines and ditches, today we have top lanes and roads, not to perfection, but certainly a lot better than it was then. Fifty years ago, there were dark spots in Laventille, Laventille today is well lit, there is electricity all around, there is water all around, internet connections, four secondary schools and access to schools such as South-East Secondary School, St Francois Girls, Malick Secondary School and many others. And children have access to every school in the city.
There are health centres, access along the Priority Bus Route, a technology centre, sports facilities including access to the Queen’s Park Savannah and the Jean Pierre Complex. In other words, as far as the country’s resources are available to citizens, I don’t think Laventille lacks anything. Fifty years later, Laventille does not suffer from a lack of access or resources nor is it neglected.
All of that is an excuse. This is T&T where they have access to primary school, secondary school, universities and trade schools. It is an excuse that some of the people in Laventille buy into to cover their own unwillingness to exert effort and to change their own lives for the better. Keshorn Walcott did not have a field to throw the javelin in. He did not even have a javelin, it’s bamboo he used. Viv Richards (Antiguan cricketer, Isaac Vivian Richards) used coconut branch and almonds on the beach and became Sir Viv Richards. All of it is excuses. And it’s the same excuses our political opponents use to try to attack the PNM.
DIXON: What is your turnaround plan?
HINDS: I see the strength and the beauty and the potential of those people in Laventille and my job as MP for the people is to ensure that all the resources that are available through the Government of the
Republic of T&T are made available to the people of Laventille at a personal level. I try to be a good example and an encouragement to them to grow and to prosper and to do what is right. And I try to foster peace and good living among the people through social and cultural activities on a regular and sustained basis.