JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, February 24, 2025

Waiting for real change after CRC came into east PoS

by

Raphael John-Lall
1024 days ago
20220508
Jamaal Shabazz

Jamaal Shabazz

CA-imagese

The Com­mu­ni­ty Re­cov­ery Com­mit­tee (CRC) set up in 2020 to ex­am­ine the prob­lems in east Port-of-Spain has been dis­band­ed af­ter hand­ing in its re­port to the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice last year.

An­tho­ny Watkins, who chaired the CRC, told the Sun­day Guardian that the com­mit­tee sub­mit­ted its re­port in May 2021. The terms of the com­mit­tee were ex­tend­ed by Cab­i­net and came to an end in Jan­u­ary 2022.

The CRC was es­tab­lished in Ju­ly 2020 by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley fol­low­ing fiery protests in east Port-of-Spain, which re­newed de­bate about the area’s per­pet­u­al un­der­de­vel­op­ment. The com­mit­tee was tasked with de­vel­op­ing and im­ple­ment­ing "sus­tain­able work­ing so­lu­tions" that ad­dress is­sues af­fect­ing at-risk com­mu­ni­ties.

Watkins and the team fo­cused on com­mu­ni­ties that have been stereo­typed and mar­gin­alised, from Char­lotte Street in the west to com­mu­ni­ties north of the La­dy Young Road, Mor­vant, such as Nev­er Dirty and Mon Re­pos. It al­so dealt with com­mu­ni­ties east of the La­dy Young Road, such as Co­conut Dri­ve and Sec­ond Cale­do­nia, as well as Sea Lots, Beetham Es­tate and all of east Port-of- Spain.

In March 2021, Watkins told the Sun­day Guardian that some ini­tia­tives of the CRC in­clud­ed skills de­vel­op­ment, in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment, de­vel­op­ing hu­man re­sources of the com­mu­ni­ties there and fos­ter­ing self of pride.

Re­flect­ing on the CRC's work, some com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivists said that they re­ceived help in rais­ing funds, re­ceived com­put­er tablets and help with on­line cours­es, but not much else has been done to pro­vide jobs or in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment.

Foot­ball coach and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist Ja­maal Shabazz said that any or­ga­ni­za­tion set up to as­sist in east Port-of-Spain’s de­vel­op­ment can­not solve the area’s decades-old prob­lems overnight.

Shabazz was one of the orig­i­nal mem­bers of the CRC when it was set up in 2020.

"Can a mag­ic wand fix the prob­lems of poor par­ent­ing, fail­ure to think and make prop­er de­ci­sions?" he asked as he re­spond­ed to the Sun­day Guardian last week from Guyana.

Shabazz be­lieves that politi­cians can do more to help un­der­de­vel­oped com­mu­ni­ties, but at the same time, tak­ing per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is just as im­por­tant.

"It is one thing to blame politi­cians be­cause I think, yes, they can do more to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for eco­nom­ic and so­cial up­lift­ment. The State re­sources must fil­ter down to help Er­ic Williams' chil­dren to em­u­late Mr Sab­ga's chil­dren and Sat Ma­haraj in es­tab­lish­ing eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

"Er­ic Williams' chil­dren did not end up in this con­di­tion be­cause we dunce and lazy. So yes, the par­ty that we sup­port­ed all our lives must do some­thing to cre­ate an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to pull our­selves out of this wretched con­di­tion."

He al­so ques­tioned if par­ents and those with lead­er­ship re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in these com­mu­ni­ties are spend­ing their re­sources wise­ly.

"Should we buy the weave, the eye­lash­es, the mi­ni skirt and next week no mon­ey to send the chil­dren to school? Why do we have so many child fa­thers and child moth­ers in the hood and not hus­bands and wives? Why do these child fa­thers give hell to sup­port their chil­dren? Why are our kids be­com­ing gang­sters, and how much re­spon­si­bil­i­ty has these young men tak­en for their ac­tions?"

He al­so urged lead­ers and the com­mu­ni­ties to work to­geth­er to come up with so­lu­tions to the press­ing prob­lems that ex­ist.

"It is the col­lec­tive will and the spir­it in which we ap­proach the prob­lem that will help us bring about so­lu­tions and even­tu­al­ly, with the help of the Almighty God, change our con­di­tions."

Youth Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings.

Youth Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings.

ANISTO ALVES

'We don't know what came out of the work the com­mit­tee did'

Pres­i­dent of the Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil in Sea Lots Sher­ma Anne Le Blanc told the Sun­day Guardian that she has not seen any last­ing im­pact of the CRC’s work in the com­mu­ni­ty. In fact, she said she has not even seen the re­port that was sub­mit­ted to Cab­i­net.

"We have not even seen the doc­u­ments to know what came out of the work the com­mit­tee did. Even if they said they did this or that, noth­ing has re­al­ly been im­ple­ment­ed.

"Yes, there has been some form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and they asked us to voice our opin­ions, but apart from con­sul­ta­tion, there has been no sort of eco­nom­ic or so­cial change."

She said that the on­ly thing the CRC did was to fa­cil­i­tate a pre-school in Sea Lots get­ting over 20 com­put­er tablets in 2020.

"The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion was in­volved in an adopt-a-school pro­gramme, and they fa­cil­i­tat­ed chil­dren get­ting tablets. The CRC got some­one to adopt our school in Sea Lots to get the tablets. Apart from that, they spon­sored a fundrais­er. Noth­ing else re­al­ly.”

Le Blanc lament­ed that al­though they re­ceived a lit­tle help, it does noth­ing to trans­form the un­der­ly­ing caus­es of the area’s un­der­de­vel­op­ment.

"When the CRC came to us, we spoke about the ills in Sea Lots. We spoke about the dis­crim­i­na­tion we suf­fer. We don’t have the prop­er in­fra­struc­ture here. We have a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre here, but it is not out­fit­ted and so it dis­qual­i­fies us from cer­tain pro­grammes."

She added that the politi­cians do not com­mu­ni­cate nor do they con­sult with the peo­ple of the area.

"We have come out of the pan­dem­ic and no­body has come to us say­ing that this is what the com­mu­ni­ty should start based on rec­om­men­da­tions for the CRC. No­body has said any­thing. Noth­ing has been done."

An ac­tivist in the Bev­er­ly Hills area in Laven­tille Ju­dith Boyce said that not much has changed since the CRC was set up.

"I was part of the ‘We Say Yes’ pro­gramme, which was an ini­tia­tive of the CRC which helps young peo­ple do on­line ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes. That is a great pro­gramme for the chil­dren of Bev­er­ly Hills. I’ve seen a lot of suc­cess in the pro­gramme. Every Sat­ur­day af­ter­noon the kids go on­line and learn about gar­den­ing, culi­nary art and oth­er top­ics."

Boyce said that the com­mu­ni­ty has many needs, and more needs to be done.

"We need more pro­grammes, we need more jobs for the youths. There are many youths who are out there, and they are not do­ing any­thing. I would like to see more youths em­ployed. Over the last two years since the CRC was set up, the sit­u­a­tion re­al­ly did not get worse, but it did not get bet­ter ei­ther."

Sun­day Guardian called and What­Apped Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings sev­er­al times on the is­sue but he did not re­spond.

Laventille


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored