Bomb prankster pathetic

The bomb that exploded in Port-of-Spain last Monday was traumatic enough. But, to rub salt in the nation’s wounds, some fools then decided to make bomb threats in the following days of the week. It is an obvious fact that anyone who issues hollow bomb threats is an individual of immature and selfish mind, the kind of person who, lacking any real power in their personal lives, must resort to anonymous threats in order to feel that their presence in the world has some significance. This is the pathetic psychological profile of the prank caller, whatever his motive might be. In the past, such threats seem to have had the most superficial of reasons. Usually, it was just someone’s idea of a joke — someone, clearly, whose jokes nobody laughs at.

Sometimes, it would have been workers with a grouse against  their employers, wanting to disrupt the company — an act which, in the long run, only harms the workers themselves. In the latest round, party hacks have begun attributing the threats to political agents attempting to destabilise the Government. This seems unlikely but, if so, then those agents are clearly people without any political acumen at all. Not only is the anger of citizens going to be directed at the persons disrupting their daily lives rather than the Government but, if such callers are ever identified as party activists or members of any particular organisation — and how likely is it that such persons would keep their mouths shut? — then that group’s political stock would almost certainly plummet to zero. Trinbagonians may tolerate incompetence, corruption, bigotry, even idiocy — but sneaky cowardice is beyond the pale.

By the same token, citizens must avoid helping these prank callers by not adding to the disruption through rumours. Ours is a society that loves to talk with great certainty in the absence of knowledge. Before Monday’s bombing even reached the media airwaves, for example, people were stating with absolute authority that so—and—so number of people had been killed. During Friday’s bomb threat on the Brian Lara Promenade, word quickly spread — wrongly — that the police had found another explosive device. And, when TSTT shut down its GSM network that afternoon, rumours shot into the realms of movie fantasy, with speculation that “the bomb” was to be set off by a cellphone, hence the reason for the shutdown — as though the deficiencies of TSTT’s cellular network are not now legendary.

Previously, public and private organisations would ignore bomb threats — and, indeed, such threats became rare. But such a reaction was not possible after Monday’s incident — and, indeed may not ever be possible again. So the authorities must find some way to deal with bomb threats, since such disruptions cannot be allowed to continue. It may well be significant that, after a week of these threats, none was made to Parliament last Friday. Perhaps the pranksters assumed that Parliament would have the technology to trace such calls. If TSTT does not already have that technology, then they must get the relevant equipment in short order. Citizens may find this a possible intrusion into their privacy, but in these perilous times they will understand the need for such devices. Not only will the technology help in locating and arresting persons who make bomb threats, but no doubt it can also be used to stem kidnappings. We hope and expect that the authorities will move swiftly on this matter.