Today is Monday, 15th January, 2007. It is a public holiday. It’s the day that most states have set aside for the celebration of MARTIN LUTHER KING’S birthday; but it’s actually a day for celebrating the man’s life-accomplishments over his thirty-nine years on earth. MLK was born on January 15th, 1929, and by the time of his assassination on April 4th, 1968, he had -like many of the great humans who have walked among us- evolved into a person of civility, compassion, dedication, determination, decorum and humanity; amongst many of the qualities (or is it “virtues”) that single such people out.
MLK would always admit he was no perfect human being; that reality however gave him something to strive towards. He was idealistic but not hubristic. He was a proud man but he was not vain (devoid of substance or meaning). Like Mahatma Ghandi, he was a man of peace and respectful of all creeds, nationalities and races. He was a tolerant man, but there were things that he found intolerable. Racial discrimination was one of those intolerable things that he fought against; a fight which cost him his life.
So why do I choose to use this day for writing a column that I genuinely despise; because MLK once said that “injustice anywhere, is injustice everywhere”. I also write this because MLK was not afraid to shine the light on things that were vile and in need of exposure, and that’s one of the things I have been trying to do here on Room8 (www.r8ny.com) for the past year: expose to a wider audience the horror of the crime situation in Trinidad – the island of my birth (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago).
Those who have followed my column here know that I occasionally depart from mundane New York political happenings, and write about the crime situation not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but also in the surrounding Caribbean region. You also must know that I blame (in part) former US president Bill Clinton, for the escalation of crime in the region over the past eleven years. You see, Clinton signed into law (1996), a supposed anti-terrorism bill that has had catastrophic ramifications for the entire region. But then, that’s another column, so I won’t digress.
Today, I want to bring attention to a column that appeared yesterday (1-14-07) in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper (www.guardian.co.tt). If you are reading this from your computer, then click here for said article. It was written by a prominent attorney and political activist on the island named Anand Ramlogan. The article is entitled “Kidnapped for Life”. You can find it under the “Commentary” section of this online service (internet). It is a “must-read”. Let me caution you that it is not only poignant and powerful, but it is also very chilling and painful. Still, I recommend it to anyone interested in the happenings of the TNT.
In this article, the horror of Trinidad’s crime situation is exposed in a second-hand account of a life-shattering series of events; my heart and prayers go out to the female victim (and to all those further victimized in ancillary ways). In purely human terms, it is rather unfortunate (in fact, tragic) when someone’s misery has to be put on display, in the hope that something- or anything significant- can be done to alleviate this type of suffering, pain and misery.
As I write this column, the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago has been experiencing –since before the new century- a murder rate of around one murder per day, in a population that’s just under one and a half million people. And in this affluent oil-rich country of about three quarter million motor vehicles (where time-consuming traffic jams are now commonplace), many citizens are still in denial of the murders, kidnappings, robberies, rape and mayhem. Per capita, the murder rate there is almost five times higher than that of New York, almost fifteen times higher than the rate in Canada, and almost twenty times higher than that of England. Relative to kidnappings, TNT’s rate places it in the top four in the western hemisphere (Columbia, Mexico, and Haiti).
So why is there this semi-denial (or quasi-denial) coming from certain quarters and certain segments of the population- where some folk walk, act and talk as though they are oblivious to all that’s taking place around them? The answer lies in one word: hubris. There is an arrogance to TNT people that needs introspection. This arrogance also manifests itself in the attitude(s) and behavior(s) of males on the twin islands. You see, TNT is also a place where too many women are killed because of “male-machissimo”; in incidents that are often referred to as crimes of passion; incidents that are in actuality crimes of “ego”. In TNT, women aren’t respected nearly as much as they should be; and in many instances too, women don’t respect themselves as they should, possessing no sense of value or worth beyond sexual objectification; this in turn enables and facilitates the horrible choices that many women make there. Some of these choices have deadly consequences; and I am not only talking about the HIV virus.
When you come to the realization that success in life is generally dependent on the choices that you make in life, then a rational you would prepare yourself to make better choices. You would do constructive things, like getting a sound education, or developing the kinds of skills and tools that successful people before you equipped themselves with. You study the world; and societies in the world. You study life; you try to learn from not only your mistakes but also from the mistakes of other too. Charlie Brown- the famous cartoon philosopher- once said that, “success in life comes from having at least three things to look forward too, while having nothing to dread”; forty-five years after the ceremonial and symbolic independence rituals released the twin-islands from their British colonial masters, the republic of Trinidad and Tobago cannot be deemed a success story; there are too many things to dread. There are too many things to fear, and too many things to be ashamed of. Too many horror stories like the one described in Anand Ramlogan’s piece. There is too much angst, too much pain.
To those TNT people who would fume at my article here, I could only say one thing: burying your head in the sand, or sticking your nose in the air, is not going to heal your metastasizing society. That only makes things worse. The best way for a junkie to get clean is to first admit that he/she has a habit. The best way for an alcoholic to become a teetotaler is to first admit that he/she has a drinking problem. It is time for TNT people to make some hard admissions, and at the same time, some hard choices.
The types of crimes prevalent in TNT today, demonstrate a level of sociopathic behavior worthy of deep study. Sociologists and psychologists who do research in this area, have delved deeply into the childhoods of those who consistently demonstrate socially deviant (unacceptable) behavioral patterns, in order to better understand why some perpetuate the anti-social things they do. There are some consistent findings. Many deviants (of course, not all) later turn out to be psychopaths / sociopaths without remorse; people who often demonstrate a lack of compassion and/or a lack of any solid-gold feelings for fellow humans. They show very little or no goodwill towards their fellow human beings; to many, this brings them joy. Near all of them seem to have troubled childhoods. Near all seem to despise social-mores, social-institutions and socio/civic norms. They are spiteful, hateful, bitter, mean and angry (to name a few of their maladies). They weren’t born like this. It all happened on the way to adulthood. Thus when gross criminal acts occur, most rational and sane people shake their heads in disbelief; it’s really hard to comprehend that there are monsters in human form walking around in between us (and what I mean here is that most people in society are really decent at the core).
Take serial-killers for example; studies are showing that somewhere around 98% of them all have one thing in common: they were given up for adoption at some stage in their childhood. This by itself (and there are so many inferences to draw) tells you that they weren’t nurtured well. Children need many things: love, nurturing, attention, discipline, guidance, training, encouragement, support, security, etcetera, and etcetera. You don’t have to be a rocket-scientist to know what I am talking about.
Martin Luther King was a man of love, he always stressed that we “should return hate with love”. He further added that kindness is a virtue. Like the great ones before and after him, he adhered to the old adage, that you “do unto others”; and as a Christian he strived to love his neighbors as himself. We need more people in TNT to strive to be like MLK. Ostensibly, we are breeding and developing deviants and sociopaths in TNT.
Today, in TNT, too many kids have been abandoned from birth. And I am not talking purely about physical abandonment; I am more talking about the abandonment that comes when parents or care-givers fail to do the right thing. Too many kids are growing up without fathers (and in some instances, without mothers too). Too many kids are growing up without love. Too many are growing up in shame and in pain.
Gone are the days when the extended family members stepped in to fulfill the role of the absent parent. Gone are the days of “it takes a village”. Kids are growing up with little or no respect for their elders, so what do you expect when they reach adulthood; that they respect society’s laws? Gone are the days when people had respect for religion (given the numerous denominational failings all over the world); gone are the “good old days” that many of us still cherish. Gone are the days when people mostly had sex because of love, appreciation and/or companshionship; say hello to the days where people fuck with gay abandon- oblivious to the hidden costs later; fucking just to be fucking, or just to say that they are. Playing Russian-roulette with too many lives; some separated a few mere degrees. Placing greater burdens on society and government to yet again step in and do the right thing. But in life there are limits. And yet, societies always seem to find a way to survive and fight back. In TNT society, that fight-back must start now.
Look, before I go further with this, let me make some disclaimers; in no way am I suggesting that I know all the reasons for TNT’s crime explosion. Fact is that there are many complexities to any analysis of this situation; it’s not simple. I just want to broach one angle that I have been placing more emphasis on lately, whilst I have pondered the overall situation.
I have maintained many times in my writings here, that even the most successful societies are held together by some very slender threads of civility, morality and decency. And further, that as long as the vast majority of citizens feel relatively secure in their environs- with certain legal protections and rights guaranteed by the implied powers of the state- then an acceptable and desirable level of social equilibrium can be attained.
Behind all this however are the rapid advancements in technology which continually transform societies at a steady clip, and perpetually moves an economic system (capitalism) into uncharted waters and territories, leaving casualties that are generally invisible. The more we develop and grow, the more we consume. The more we consume, the more competitive things get. The more we compete the more we crave. The more we crave, the more we get greedy and envious. I am generalizing folks, so don’t take this all in on some personal level.
Marshal McLuhan once said that the world is becoming “one vast global village”. He blamed it on the advent of the communications age. With the explosion in communications technology, people are not as isolated as before. The resultant capture of insularity has led to more easy comparisons in relative living standards, nation to nation. Since cable systems are almost universal now, one only has to turn on a television set to see how the other folks live. And just as poor countries resent rich ones because of their wealth, stability, and attendant power, so too do poor people relative to the widening gap between rich and poor: they feel isolated, alienated, powerless, indignant, left out and undignified (and these are just some of the feelings). Sometimes they are just plain hungry. It all leads to anomie folks. It can further lead to anarchy.
Thus when kids are born today, and are brought into situations that are impoverished (materially and spiritually) and insecure (physically, emotionally/mentally); and are growing up without one or both of their natural parents (especially observed in the “‘missing father syndrome”); and social-values aren’t being taught but are barely being caught (on media, motivated by profits and greed); and educational systems fail to develop citizens who think critically, and also fail to prepare them for psychologically satisfying roles as responsible citizens; and anachronistic institutions fail to lead citizens down pathways of philosophy and religion (and by this I mean, a sense or awareness of forces that are greater and more powerful than the individual); when all this (or some of) come together, what do you expect the crime situation to be like. Look folks, TNT’s crime situation is probably going to get worse before it gets better; and it will only get better if we all put our collective energies and imaginations into making it better. This means that everyone has to claim a piece of the problem, and likewise the responsibility for a solution.
In TNT the average successful calypsonian has about twenty (a real score) kids with about a dozen different women. Significant numbers of men try to emulate these calypsonians. It is no big thing to find cabinet ministers flagrantly flaunting their out-of-wedlock children, in a land where machissimo dictates that a deputy (to your wife) is essential. In a land where some men adopt new religions in order to legitimize their carnal desires and flaws. But fathering a child and being a good parent are indeed different functions. Each is as important as the other.
Showing up at Christmas time, or at a birthday marker is truly parental-cop out. In TNT too many people cop out from their parental duties. Thousands of kids are growing up in pain; and I don’t mean only the pain of poverty. To these at risk youth, temptations of the streets are seductive. Too many are caught in the lure. Why do you think the prisons are now over standard capacity? Even those who are quite developed intellectually sometimes fall prey to these lures; so what do you expect from kids who hardly ever read books anymore? Kids who seem to think that education is no shortcut to wealth and stability; kids who seem to think that a gun in their hands give them a sense of power, pleasure and hope. They want it all, and they want it now, without paying dues, without appreciating the virtue in struggle. They want all the crass materialism and attendant comforts without paying dues with blood, sweat, sacrifice and/or tears. Why? Because their characters haven’t been built, that’s why.
In the USA, over 66% of all black kids are born out-of-wedlock. Many of them never ever meet their biological fathers. Again, before I go forward, let me do another disclaimer. I do respect the fact that many single women have chosen in their later life to make kids without the trappings of marriage, and that they have also been pretty successful at rearing and developing these kids. I am also aware that many couples (including gay ones) choose to have kids outside the traditional marriage construct, and that they maintain relationships and/ or contacts in order to equally share the responsibilities of parenting. I am not referring to these types and/ or other constructive types of parental arrangements that abound today with relative successes in many cultures, societies and nations. I am sure that you readers will know exactly of whom I write. So let me continue with some more figures.
In the USA over 5% of all black males are in prison. Nowhere in the industrialized world is this higher. In New York City, 25% of all black males between the ages of thirteen and thirty have been convicted of at least one felony. In NYC, more than half of all black male high school students fail to graduate. In New York City, 48% of all black males are unemployed. Does anyone really want to tell me that there is no co-relation amongst these numbers?
In TNT, while the single-parent rate is not as high as in the USA (but it is still too high nonetheless), black kids are being born into similar situations. The fact that women (the naturally superior care-givers for children) are placing their offspring at risk like this is befuddling. Reasons for this abound; usually returning to issues of self-esteem. I can’t go into that here.
But back to the crime situation/explanation: psychologists are discovering that events of one’s first decade on earth profoundly impact one’s adult life. This is when the socio or psychopath begins to form. Many who have painful childhoods try to inflict pain on others during their adult life. It’s all an attempt to extract vengeance. Pedophiles are said to demonstrate this to a tee; about forty-nine of out of every fifty pedophiles (same as serial-killers) were abused or molested as kids. Pedophilia has a 98% non-cure rate; the damage is permanent.
The levels of depravity seen and the indifference to human life now being displayed in TNT- and reflected daily by the crime situation- leaves one to conclude that there are many socio and/or psychopaths walking around amongst us down there.
It is probably safe to say that over the last quarter century, Trinidad and Tobago has seen about four thousand murders. If the rate of apprehension and conviction of these murderers was around 50% (and I am told it is less, much less/ especially nowadays), it means that there are over two thousand murderers walking freely around both islands.
This is shocking, to say the least. On a day like today, all this makes you cry inside.
Until this crime-wave is check-mated, I will continue to keep you folks up to date. Meanwhile, stay tuned-in folks.