“You can’t fix the prob­lems in the coun­try if you don’t face the re­al­i­ty and say, ‘This is bro­ken, that is dys­func­tion­al, and we need to make changes to im­prove’.”

— Prime Min­is­ter

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar

Have we re­al­ly be­come a “law­less dump”? That was the phrase Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar used, which has of­fend­ed many. She point­ed out that T&T has slipped in­to a state of dis­or­der and too many cit­i­zens have grown en­ti­tled and dis­re­gard the law. It is easy to be out­raged be­cause Trin­bag­o­ni­ans don’t like to hear any­one say any­thing bad about our coun­try and, well, we have a very su­per­fi­cial sense of pa­tri­o­tism and loy­al­ty.

De­scrib­ing T&T as a “law­less dump” seems harsh, and more so when it comes from the Prime Min­is­ter. How­ev­er, if we are hon­est, we will ad­mit that there may be some truth to it, as over the years, we have watched bad be­hav­iour be­come nor­mal and de­cent peo­ple pay the price for those who feel rules do not ap­ply to them. Many of us have been liv­ing in qui­et grief as we ob­served the steady de­cline. The sad thing is, it’s not on­ly the big crime. It is the every­day ‘I do­ing what I want’ be­hav­iour. It’s the neigh­bour blast­ing loud mu­sic at 2 am, so you can’t sleep. It’s the dri­vers over­tak­ing around cor­ners, forc­ing you to pull aside abrupt­ly. It’s the peo­ple dump­ing old fridges and stoves in emp­ty lots and rivers. This is now “nor­mal be­hav­iour and many cit­i­zens act like rules are op­tion­al.

The first step to re­cov­ery is ad­mit­ting there is a prob­lem. Point­ing out what is wrong with T&T is not be­ing un­pa­tri­ot­ic or dis­loy­al. I love my coun­try and I want it to be the par­adise it could be. Yes, we have beau­ti­ful beach­es, but how can you en­joy them when you are con­stant­ly watch­ing your sur­round­ings, wor­ry­ing about be­ing robbed, ex­treme­ly loud mu­sic blast­ing in your ears or you’re side-step­ping garbage.

Port-of-Spain has some of the most beau­ti­ful ar­chi­tec­ture but many of us just don’t go in­to “town” any­more be­cause of crime. Maybe in­stead of be­ing of­fend­ed with the PM’s state­ment, we should work to­geth­er to fix our coun­try. That said, here are my New Year’s res­o­lu­tions for T&T.

Res­o­lu­tion 1: Stop de­fend­ing dis­or­der as cul­ture

We break the laws and make oth­ers un­com­fort­able and we call it cul­ture. We need to stop ex­cus­ing self­ish­ness as cul­ture. Play­ing mu­sic so loud that your neigh­bour can­not sleep is not cul­ture, it is just dis­re­spect and dis­re­gard for oth­ers.

Cul­ture can be cel­e­brat­ed with or­gan­i­sa­tion, re­spect, and lim­its. We can lime and fete and still be con­sid­er­ate.

Res­o­lu­tion 2: Treat pub­lic space like it be­longs to us

The garbage on the beach­es, rivers and emp­ty lots didn’t mag­i­cal­ly ap­pear there. Cit­i­zens threw them there. They are a re­sult of bad be­hav­iour and the lack of com­mon de­cen­cy. Yes, the Gov­ern­ment needs to en­force fines for lit­ter­ing, clean up il­le­gal dumps and pro­vide reg­u­lar bulk garbage col­lec­tion, but cit­i­zens need to have more pride in their sur­round­ings.

In 2026, I hope that we will bring back some­thing we bare­ly hear any­more—“clean­li­ness is next to god­li­ness.”

Res­o­lu­tion 3: Make laws mean some­thing again

We have be­come a “law­less dump” not be­cause we lack laws, but be­cause laws are not im­ple­ment­ed. Too many peo­ple be­lieve they can get away with any­thing, es­pe­cial­ly once they have the right con­nec­tions. Law-abid­ing cit­i­zens are quick­ly be­com­ing a mi­nor­i­ty and are made to feel like they are do­ing the wrong thing, when in fact they are do­ing the right thing. But en­force­ment is on­ly one part. The big­ger goal is to raise cit­i­zens who do the right thing even when no­body is watch­ing.

Res­o­lu­tion 4: Stop the mad­ness on our roads

The bad dri­ving on the road, the over­tak­ing around cor­ners and the bla­tant reck­less­ness put law-abid­ing cit­i­zens at risk every sin­gle day. Cars do not crash in­to them­selves; bad dri­vers crash them. What makes it more in­sult­ing is that we know we can do bet­ter.

Fun­ny enough, when Trin­bag­o­ni­ans trav­el abroad we sud­den­ly un­der­stand speed lim­its, seat belts, traf­fic lights, and lanes. So why can’t we do it at home? Be­cause here, too many peo­ple get off too eas­i­ly.

Res­o­lu­tion 5: Start prac­tis­ing pa­tri­o­tism

There is al­ways a big up­roar when some­one says some­thing bad about our coun­try. I al­ways won­der about this—if we are so proud and we gen­uine­ly love T&T, then why can’t we fol­low the rules and laws?

A cit­i­zen should take pride in not mak­ing life hard­er for oth­er peo­ple, in leav­ing a place clean­er than you found it. If on­ly pride and pa­tri­o­tism ran so deep that we would do our part to en­sure that our coun­try im­proves.

For 2026, I hope that we will stop nor­mal­is­ing law­less­ness and stop ex­cus­ing dis­re­spect. T&T is worth fight­ing for and if we are brave enough to ad­mit what is bro­ken, we might fi­nal­ly be brave enough to re­build it. Hap­py New Year!