TT citizens plagued by fear

THE EDITOR: It is with a number of fears that I write this letter. The first fear is that if a major disaster strikes this country, there is nowhere to run and in effect we are sitting ducks. The second fear is that our homegrown terrorists are aware of this and are using every opportunity to give us a scare now and then. There are some people who enjoy scaring vulnerable people for the heck of it because they are cowardly themselves and do not want others to suspect it. The government had been boasting recently about how prepared they are for a terrorist attack, and having been put to the test, showed just how prepared they are. By now everyone knows that the great Police Commissioner flew to the scene of the bomb blast in his helicopter before evidence on the ground had been collected and caused a further scattering of whatever there was to collect.

Now a snail’s pace of striving to come to a conclusion is being laboriously undertaken by our “intelligents.” I feel scared about this given that the level of education one needs to become a policeman, is very low. In fact someone who has family in the “service” doesn’t even need an education. Imagine after a few days, a senior policeman scratching his head and saying something like “definitely maybe, someone or something caused this but we ent have no forensic experts to determine who or what, but we are using our intelligence in the matter. Let us proceed to the next nine-day wonder in TT which might come any minute now. We have to salvage some intelligence to spread around, you know.” I feel scared when I hear of people trying to rush out of Port-of-Spain in the wake of some threat.

Two major roads lead out of Port-of-Spain which is really like a corner spot with sea on three sides and no ferry to take up any slack. Diane Seukeran seems to have forgotten her promise to install a ferry service from San Fernando to Port-of-Spain. When she complains intermittently about not seeing service for money in the operation of her PNM government, I hope she includes herself and her broken promises. The two major roads are in such a position that seem to be guarded by the demons of Morvant and Laventille. Kudos to the former father of the nation, Dr Eric Williams who brought these people and let them loose to terrorise commuters to and from Port-of-Spain with the blessings of this government. And what of the inhabitants of the city and the employees who are the most vulnerable and do not have anywhere to go in the event of a disaster taking place?

If there is a safe area at all, it is a closely guarded secret, pretty much like all the police and government operations currently taking place. I fear that what happened on Monday June 11, will happen again with the same reaction by our “prepared” security forces, armed to the teeth to further scare the daylights of innocents who are to pass anywhere near. I fear that the criminals and terrorists have more than the police in terms of weaponry and when the top dogs run for cover, it is the innocents who will be collaterally damaged at the end of it all. As a citizen with nowhere to go and no one to look after my interests I fear living here at all.

I fear that the majority of citizens in other areas of Trinidad are nonplussed at what is happening and are still apt to ignore the words of our illustrious Minister of National Security to “look over our shoulder when we go about our business.” From that we are to gather that no one is having our backs now and that cute little police advertisement of not too long ago where someone sang “we are right behind you” in lullabying tones is, as it was then, a waste of taxpayers’ money again.

SUE SANKAR
Chaguanas