We finally done it! 500 murders in T&T!!

[TriniXaeno]

Sync bringing some serious scholastic aptitude to this discussion yes.

Well let's not get at each others throats. The issues are real and no doubt escaping to a more stable country is one option. Granted it's not the patriotic recourse but then again, not everyone is a patriot.

Some may see the Planet as their playground and not limit themselves to the island of Trinidad simply because of it being their birthplace.

On the other hand, trini zealots may face down the crime situation and try to enact change. My bro is one such person. Always talking about revolution.

A great point was made about not allowing one to be Prime Minister for more than two terms. That's definitely going to shake things up a bit at the top.

More on the ground level though, what can we do to abate the crime on this island?

If say, one were to subscribe to your position crixx? What is step #1?

I love my country but I must admit, Canada (in particular British Colombia) starting to look better and better.

[Crixx_Creww]

Trinidadians tend to accept injustice and inequality on a daily basis.
People dont know their rights, the ones that do dont fight for them and people see the law being fractured all around them and wont do the simplest things.

My car was broken into for the second time in a month, i called 999, they told me to go to carenage branch.
I didnt like this, but i went to the branch, i felt that a car should have come, inspected the scene, made some rounds and taken my report.

I went to the carenage branch, was barked at to go to the four roads branch.

at this point the other occupants of my car were in no mood for more crap but i soldiered on.

Went to four roads, was greeted by a sympathetic and very very helpfull officer.

He gave me advice on changing my car locks to a more resistant type, something i didnt know previously existed.
and told me that i could go to st james branch to get the car dusted.

Went to St James Branch, didnt know where to park so i sent my friend inside to ask where to park, while iam waiting on her, a sergeant approaches me with a mean looking smg. I saw him coming so wind down my window , wow, he then points the smg into the car and ask me what the hell iam doing here...

I say well i sent my friend inside to ask where we should park, he steups and says, yuh cyah park here!
I said alright but where should i park sir,
He responds, what the hell yuh come in here for yuh cyah park here...
I once again say ok no problem i didnt know, there was no signage stating no entrance so i stopped to find out ...
Yu eh hear meh??? yuh cyah park in here.

Another officer walks over and asks me what iam doing here, i said i came to file a report.

He says ok sir, please park opposite the station, i say thankyou.

We file the report, car is dusted, the dustition (meemself know wah yuh does call dem) was very nice and very helpfull.
I relay the adventure of the previous officer and he shakes his head and says, that is unacceptable.

I went into the station and asked for someone in charge and told him what happened.
He summoned the officer and took him aside and spoke to him.
The officer walks off most angry looking but says nothing.

The guy dude in charge then apologizes for him and says have a safe day please.


Most people wouldnt have had the guts to stand up for themselves.
Especially in that station, where previously, an elderly man of 68+ years came in to the station to make a report and was allegedly beat badly by an officer for being rude....

But anyways.
Demand better service
Demand your rights.
Make noise through proper channels and follow up, loud dem up in de papers and through all possible means.

Not a racist thing or anything but i have noticed that the local whites tend to get better service and seeming respect from people in service positions. In part because they demand their respect and rights and also in part because of the lingering master slave mentality.

[Redlum08]

That's a nice way to deal with things on an individual basis Crixx, I applaud your determination there, but again, how is that helping the country as a whole? You can't force everyone to do what you did. You think anybody in Trinidad know what happened to you except for you, your friends and your family..The average person in Trinidad is not going to do what you did, they would rather steups and move on with their business, because they fear that reporting the crime will result in nothing being done anyway.

Have you heard back from the police since they dusted your car for prints? Any leads in your case? If so then GREAT! Otherwise, you are in a long line of reports filed with police stations all over Trinidad about crimes like that. Do you have statistics of the success rates of catching the criminals that break into cars?

My point here is that it takes more than individual changes in behaviour and attitude. If a group is formed perhaps, to protest the lack of Police activity, and have public protests, then fine, if there is information being distributed amongst the country about the basic rights of Trinidadians as citizens to educate them or remind them if they have forgotten what rights they do have with regard to the laws and what is within the law for peaceful protests. Then all well and good. I believe that there is strength in numbers, and protesting in a peaceful manner to show your opposition to the way the country is being run within the limits of the law is every person's right to do so. The people are the ones electing the Gov't and it's the people who decide when they are unhappy and need change.

If you want to make a difference, start a group, to protest in a peaceful manner, which gains media attention and hopefully reaches an international level, where people in Trinidad can wake up, since they seem to be sleeping to the fact that Trinidad is in danger...cause it seems like they tend to pay more attention to International news than problems right at home...that's just my two cents...

[Crixx_Creww]

dont individuals make up groups??

It all starts with individual effort, with one person show that yes it can be done.
your right, a grain of sand alone is nothing, but then again, all it takes to start that land slide is one grain sliding along into another and another.

As for MAKING people do something, no, unfortunately iam not Darth Vader i cant do it all alone.

But i refuse to believe that my individual effort is in any way a bad thing and not a step in the right direction.

Maybe ill take that individual action further sooner rather than later and form some groups dedicated to certain actions and try our very best to get some snowballing done.

[W1nTry]

It's pretty simple to solve crime, just make me the absolute ruler of the nation for 2 years. It'll be a totalitarian, despotic communist nation, but I guarantee i'll clean it up... so what if 60% of the population would go 'missing'? wouldn't you rather live in a less populated island anyway XD

[Redlum08]

It's pretty simple to solve crime, just make me the absolute ruler of the nation for 2 years. It'll be a totalitarian, despotic communist nation, but I guarantee i'll clean it up... so what if 60% of the population would go 'missing'? wouldn't you rather live in a less populated island anyway XD

Oh there you go...although I think the UN would not look upon that as being Humanitarian...There will be heavy sanctions placed on your Totalitarian Gov't, you will be opposed by V's and their Vendetta will be merciless...ROFL!

[W1nTry]

*In his best Joker imitation* "It's all part of the plan...." How else do you expect 60% of the population to go 'missing' You think i'd waste money to make them vanish? HA! when famine will do that for me?

[TriniXaeno]

lol @ dustitian and w1ntry's plan.

Nationwide Neighbourhood watch yes

[SPK]

It's pretty simple to solve crime, just make me the absolute ruler of the nation for 2 years. It'll be a totalitarian, despotic communist nation, but I guarantee i'll clean it up... so what if 60% of the population would go 'missing'? wouldn't you rather live in a less populated island anyway XD

I dunno why...I just see Death Note for no apparent reason...

[Arcmanov]

More lolz @ 'dustition'. 

This is Crixx's best english to date.  I'm impressed.

On a serious note...our biggest problem here in sweet TnT is accountability.
No one, from the PM on down to the security minister and further can and are held accountable
when things go awry.  They continue to plan, plan continue to fail, and we all go our merry way
until elections, and conveniently forget the indifference, and incompetence of the previous five years.

All the money spent on national security over the last 7 yrs by this administration (something like $15 billion)
and what has it gotten us?  Can we actually point out improvements in anything.  Are we any safer?
I went through the car burglary thing, so I can understand Crixx's frustration.  Going through that and then
hearing from a policeman in San Juan that 'borse, well yuh ent gettin dat back yuh know', is truly infuriating.
Again, just a basic lack of accountability and devotion to duty.

As older folks often say: 'when fish rottening, it does start from the head'...

'...but de driver drivin good' (c) Luta

I don't agree with leaving either, but I could never be against someone for doing so.

[Eroo]

It's pretty simple to solve crime, just make me the absolute ruler of the nation for 2 years. It'll be a totalitarian, despotic communist nation, but I guarantee i'll clean it up... so what if 60% of the population would go 'missing'? wouldn't you rather live in a less populated island anyway XD

Hey I'd vote for you.

[New Era Outlaw]

Personally, I wouldn't knack anybody for leaving this country to 'go on to greener pastures', so to speak. A while ago, I would have, because I shared the point of view that if you leave, 'the terrorists have already won'. To an extent, that might still hold because if you run away from your problems instead of fighting them down, things simply won't get done.

But, on the flipside, people do have a right to a better quality of life, and if they see it happening somewhere else, then, you know. More power to them. I'm not going to go aggro on them and accuse them of being traitors to their country.

Let's face it. According to Crixx's stats, we're worse off than New York in terms of the murder rate, and that's one hell of a thing to accomplish in a single year. Food prices have been skyrocketing and the government has been callously throwing away money into useless projects that could have been forgone, and it's only recently they've begun to realise how utterly stupid they've been.

Is there really an incentive to stay here anymore?

Mind you, I'm not asking that as a rhetorical question, so don't automatically take my personal answer as an outright "No!". I'm posing that as a legitimate question to everybody out there.

Mind you, despite how bad things have been getting, Trinidad does have its merits.
As such, we should be able to fight for them as much as we can. But, for those of us with loved ones that might feel the bitter sting of criminals getting their revenge, I wouldn't blame you at all if you'd want to get them out of here and in a place where they're a lot better off.

So, it's a two sided coin, really, depending on your situation and point of view.

Fight or fly, it's your choice.

[W1nTry]

The thing is that the 'common man' is so damn stupid that they willingly take the 'something for nothing' hand me outs that the government throws (their form of winning votes) and they don't realise that all the wild grass cutting expenditure will bite us further down the line when there isn't a steady flow of oil and gas and when they'll really need it. Trinidadians have a disgusting mentality of instant gratification. Most of the country i'd venture to say are 'common' cause only a MAJORITY can put a government in power and guess which bunch of retards they put back into power? the SAME MORONS that during the last oil boom spent our money recklessly and left the country in a difficult financial situation. Guess what history is destined to repeat itself and the ONLY good thing is the slow down has come whilst the IDIOTS are still in power, so just as the US was FINALLY able to see the current administration for the failures that they are, we can only hope that one good point to come out of this depression is that the 'common man' will finally be able to see with his own eyes that the current regeem is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, same old $hit different coating of paint. For the other 25% that didn't vote for EITHER OF THE FLAILING, STAGNANT, HYPOCRITICAL prominent parties and wanted change, well Fight or Flight indeed...

[New Era Outlaw]

You know, someone once suggested to me that Trinidad should adopt the American way of doing politics and just oust the person behind the mantle of power after they've served X number of years. Ideally, it's a good thought, but we simply don't have the people (as well as the open-mindedness to accept change) to even get cracking on that.

Still, the thought of ousting Patty from office is a rather good one. Especially if said ousting was done with a catapult.

[TriniXaeno]

Looks like it will make for an interesting poll. Fight or Flight. Should we pour our efforts into leaving this country for a better  and safer life elsewhere or stay and try saving it from murderers and corruption?

[Saxito Pau]

Let's face it. According to Crixx's stats, we're worse off than New York in terms of the murder rate, and that's one hell of a thing to accomplish in a single year. Food prices have been skyrocketing and the government has been callously throwing away money into useless projects that could have been forgone, and it's only recently they've begun to realise how utterly stupid they've been.

You're kidding me, right? They've actually realised something?

[Crixx_Creww]

No country has become great by bemoaning their ill fortune, throwing their hands in the air and looking for an escape route. Brain drain is a serious problem and NEO if you dont consider those people unpatriotic, then what pray tell is the criteria for being unpatriotic?? The two major world powers right now, the established "democratic" federation of states aka USA and the up and coming Red state of China. What are there two foremost precepts? Patriotism and nationalism.

They both fought tooth and nail for their country and continue to do so.
We like to emulate america and everyone else for that matter so much but seldom choose to emulate the things that make them great.

And btw Arc, as for my diction here, isnt it obvious that my "bad english" is a choice on my part? I enjoy talking like a lol cat or 1337 speak on teh innernets, its great, because i dont speak like that at all in person so meh why not on tehz innerwebs?

[Synchronomyst]

Actually, it's imperialism that's the foremost precept. Call me cynical, but more of than not patriotism and especially nationalism are forms of coercion used by those in power to establish as much single-mindedness within the population as possible. This can be good, yes... but it can (and often is) naturally bad because there are no benevolent administrators (i.e. why communism, while good on paper, mainly does not work). That's why, for all it's Patriotism and Nationalism, North Korea does not experience the same sort of glory these two countries do, now does it? I would say, in the case of the United States, that it's imperialism, coloured by that ostensibly American brand arrogance and ambition that has established them as a superpower. You know, the same brand of arrogance and ambition that caused them to annex Mexico in the very earlies of their existence right through Dollar Diplomacy and their current (and much maligned) foreign policy now that inspired their ascension into power and would -not- have occurred otherwise. Patriotism and Nationalism were just a tool in the hand of very adept political engineers.

In China's case, there's already a lot more of the same added to an already very homogeneous and culturally collectivist society, where patriotism and nationalism are maintained through censorship, fear and totalitarianism. These sort of dictatorial interface with the population going to facilitate that sort of growth. It's essentially a continuation of the Dynastic rule that China was accustomed to for centuries.

You know what's really something, though? Neither country was comparatively as power as they are now in modern times...because they're economically interdependent on each other.

I genuinely think you've narrowed your scope too far down, dude.

[Kraeoss]

Let's face it. According to Crixx's stats, we're worse off than New York in terms of the murder rate, and that's one hell of a thing to accomplish in a single year. Food prices have been skyrocketing and the government has been callously throwing away money into useless projects that could have been forgone, and it's only recently they've begun to realise how utterly stupid they've been.

You're kidding me, right? They've actually realised something?

lol... indeed this ship has no captain, no crew, and no rudder.... just a bunch of headless chickens running amok

[Exar_Kun]

You know, someone once suggested to me that Trinidad should adopt the American way of doing politics and just oust the person behind the mantle of power after they've served X number of years. Ideally, it's a good thought, but we simply don't have the people (as well as the open-mindedness to accept change) to even get cracking on that.

Still, the thought of ousting Patty from office is a rather good one. Especially if said ousting was done with a catapult.

Term limits are imo undemocratic but definitely the way to go. For everybody. As in, your job for the next 30 years cannot be "Member of Parliament"; this career politician thing hadda go. However the same people who would have to vote in these term limit changes are the same ones that will be limiting themselves. So ya, not happenin.