Can Barbados Avoid Escalating Crime & Violence In Neighbouring Trinidad & Guyana?

I‘m telling you this crime situation has turned into a comedy of errors. First (If we can call it first) 388 people were murdered last year. Next Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Jack Warner get together to hire a team of private security guards to protect the people of Macaulay village who have been plagued by criminals. Then the people who came out in such hoards to denounce the “vigilantism” has the rest of us asking, do these people have any idea what vigilantism actually is?

Speaking for myself, I see nothing wrong with the measures undertaken my Warner and Maharaj. If the people of Macaulay village are under siege then by all means they are to have security. I’m jealous of them as I assume all other non-gated communities around Trinbago are. Yet, we do understand that private security officers don’t have all the same powers a police officer has. They don’t have the power to kick a handcuffed suspect and they probably can’t laugh at an abused husband – I mean these guys could get fired for something like that. Other than that they are more or less just like our regular cops but with vehicles.

Full Article: The Manicou Report

You know that the crime situation is reaching ‘lows’ in Trinidad when Commissioner Trevor Paul is criticized by citizens because he attended an Old Year Night Fete with his wife. We agree with the argument on both sides: Commissioner Paul has a personal life and should be free to socialize in a personal capacity; the flip side is that his uniform and office should be seen as being on the job around the clock.

Trinidad is the one island in English Caribbean which is blessed with oil as a natural resource in abundance. If we assess the success of Trinidad using economics as a measure, no competition is forthcoming from its CARICOM neighbours, even though Barbados has pretensions of finding the black gold soon, but that is another story. If we agree that the ultimate objective of any government must be to maintain economic and social harmony in the society, than in the case of Trinidad it seems to be out of equilibrium for the moment. The spate of kidnappings in recent years, the bombings in public spaces, the longstanding tensions which flicker and flame between the religious factions in the society (Trinidad and Tobago epitomizes the classic multi-racial-ethnic-religious society) makes for troubling times. We definitely don’t envy Commissioner Paul whose task seems more difficult at the moment than that of Edmund Hillary who first climbed Mount Everest.

Why are we interested in the state of affairs in Trinidad and Tobago? you must be asking.

As member states in CARICOM become more comfortable with operationalizing the concept of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) – a key component of any common market is the freedom of movement of the people in that space. A perfectly good conclusion we can make, and we are sure the Economists can understand this language: we will probably import many of the social ills of T&T, Guyana and several of the other islands. Don’t we routinely accept the position that our open economies struggle economically because we import inflation?

The passive disposition of Barbadians has become legendary. The willingness of successive Barbados governments to be magnanimous to the idea of regional integration is laudable. However, it is in the implementation where many Barbadians seem to be out of touch with our government. There is no doubt that Barbadians remain quietly fearful of the impact of the open immigration policy which was practiced by the former BLP government. The reason for the fear has nothing to do with being xenophobic, because Barbadians have long accepted the idea of the many Caribbean people who have emigrated during the heights of a vibrant sugar cane industry. The fear comes from the alarming criminal behaviour which we are observing in our sister islands which are less than 1 hour away by air or sea.

Is it unreasonable for Barbadians to believe that if we are not vigilant and take the appropriate measures now, we can become overrun by the mal-behaviour we are witnessing just next door? Some of us are already observing the changing face of crime on our small island. Unlike Trinidad which does not rely on tourism, we do. An escalating crime situation would set us back decades. The time for firm leadership is now.

Prime Minister David Thompson please hear our call.

 

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