Sweet Trinidad no longer sweet!

Trinidad is, officially, no longer safe. The kidnappings made the wealthy people feel unsafe but this bombing sends a new message. Whether you are rich or poor who knows what is going to happen to you tomorrow or even a few minutes from now?

Did that poor woman who was just walking by consider the fact that she would have her leg blown off? Every morning mothers and guardians rise and send their relatives off to work or school.

The most important thing to wage earners is that they get to work and make a dollar when the day comes because they have a family to support.

Who knows what those people injured in Monday’s unfortunate event were going through? Who knows what they had to go home to? Only God knows what those people prayed for that morning before they left home and only He knows what their family members had requested in their prayers.

Every morning and night I would pray for my family and friends’ safety. I would pray for their safety and at the same time know deep down that nothing unfortunate is going to happen to anyone of them. This bombing, however, really threw me off and I began to question myself. What if someone I knew, someone I cared for and loved and someone I was depending on…the only person I live for had been at that spot at that time? It drained my energy. I sat in my living room and I just let my imagination run wild and I felt bitter, devastated and definitely unsafe. At that point I wanted that person who left that bomb there to suffer for the rest of his/her unfortunate life. I wanted his/her family and all who he/she cared for and everything that was important to him to be taken away. I know it is wrong to want someone to suffer, and even though I know this, I still want him/her to suffer till the end of his/her days.

How can one hurt innocent people? What if one of his/her family members was there? How can someone turn a peaceful day into a day full of disaster and havoc?

On Monday, believe it or not, the lives of many changed. So many people are now paranoid. So many will walk out their doors thinking "I wonder what’s going to happen to me today" or worse, "I wonder if anything is going to happen to my children or my husband today." So many people will now be living in greater fear and all because of some person’s decision to plant a bomb in our capital. Was this person hired? Well the latter, so many people already have their suspicions about that!

One friend who lives in St James called me and told me that the air was so tense and helicopters were hovering over her house. She said, "I feel as if I’m in Bosnia or something. I can’t believe this is happening here, in Trinidad."

Not many believed this happened here but anyone could have guessed it would eventually. We all follow the American way and we really have not found our own identity because, according to someone, we are "copycats." It’s just really sad though, that we only copy the wrong things.

However, it is time that we stand up to these "copycats" and let them know that there are those of us who are just fine living like true Trinis. It is time that we let them know we are just willing to develop the true identity of Trinidad and Tobago and we will not let them spoil the sweetness we have here.

Have faith Trinidad and Tobago, God is going to deal with that sick, sick person in the most appropriate way and we will someday stop being "copycats" and live like true Trinis.