THE EDITOR: A recently deceased Trini (#170 or so) found himself naturally in the huge nether world named hell and decided to check out the various areas. First, he went to German hell and asked what was the usual punishment. He was told, firstly:

a) you are strapped to an electric chair and 100,000 volts of electricity are sent through your body for one hour. b) next you are strapped down on a bed of razor sharped nails for two days; and c)  you are whipped by one of the devil’s assistants for one week with this awesome cat-o-nine tails. The Trini quickly left the scene and went on to: Russian hell — he was told the same thing; Next, he went to China hell — same thing; Indian hell — the same thing; Every hell had the same punishment. Finally, he comes across the sign “Trini hell” and there is a line at least a mile long and people patiently waiting. The Trini asks the man in front of him “de punishment different here?” The man says “no” but a) The electric chair have no electricity b) Dey tief all the nails from the bed of nails and best yet c) the man who go beat you up with the cat-o-nine tails used to work for the government. He come in to work last week, sign de attendance book, sign out three minutes later and since then he driving he maxi taxi all over town. So nuttin to worry about bro. Isn’t this typically Trini?

M HOTIN
St James

THE EDITOR: I think it is imperative for mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles to impress on the youth of today not to “big up” on designer clothes or brands of clothing, footwear, jewelry and all the rest, or to aim for fancy cars and houses via the proceeds gained by crime and drugs.

We need to instead instill in the youths, the value of honesty, integrity, self worth, esteem, upliftment and other positive directives so that they could go forward in their lives in a positive and productive way. I believe if you project good vibes it will come back to you, however if you indulge in uncivil, antisocial and negative vibes it will also come back to you.

B SANDY
Maraval

THE EDITOR: Thank you for giving me a little space in your newspaper. I would like to voice my concern about the registration fees at secondary schools. Why is it that the parents of children who have been allotted a place in a secondary school have to pay a registration fee? Is the Government getting a cut of these monies? If not why haven’t they done anything about it when the Government is placing the children in these schools? Many parents can hardly buy books to send the children to school, they have to buy uniforms and in most cases find monies for transportation and now this added fee to enter these Government schools/Government assisted schools.

What makes it worse is that a parent has to register a child at the school in which he/she has been placed in before he/she can request a transfer, and, on approval of this transfer, the registration fee is not refunded even though he/she will not be attending. What does free secondary education for all mean? I would like the Minister of Education to do something about this please.

EDNA COX
Belmont

THE EDITOR: This time last year, the conservative Catholic community was busily planning its large anti-choice march of July 21. No doubt they would regard that event as a huge success. In spite of the weather, hundreds of persons turned out and there were several rousing speeches, a lot of singing and swaying and clapping and all. Within two weeks we shared the tragedy of a teenager dying after an unsafe abortion. In the ten months since then, there has been absolutely no change in the number of abortions. Women who can afford private physicians continue to obtain safe abortions. Those who can’t, continue to risk their lives and health with unsafe procedures. And our hospitals continue to receive the same hundreds of women month after month.

The flow has continued unabated. Nothing has changed. So how successful was the march? It was successful in putting enough numbers on the streets to scare politicians into total silence. It was successful in polarising the issue so that many who sympathise with the need for reform have been intimidated into withdrawal. They whisper support privately but refuse to take any public position. They fear the ferocity of those who oppose choice. But the march failed where it mattered most. It failed to have any impact on saving the lives of “unborn children”. That is one of the goals we share. It failed to preserve the lives and health of women — and that is one of ASPIRE’s goals. It failed to increase the number of adoptions and foster care volunteers. And it failed to drive ASPIRE away. Still, we at ASPIRE hope they plan another march very soon. We benefit from the hype they create. They do a great job of winning media attention. This opens the window for some measure of public education and we capitalise on that. So we hope they organise another big, ‘successful’ event this month.

JENNIFER TAYLOR

THE EDITOR: Interesting reading on Colm Imbert’s statement on Chandu Lall’s getting his “degree” from the internet. I hope he is incorrect because if this be true then lawyers in Trinidad and Tobago would be in a position to appeal all of Chandu Lall cases. Also, it would be disheartening to think that people in Trinidad and Tobago would have been hanged based on Chandu Lall’s autopsy findings. In an about-face turn, I really hope he is correct because I would hate to think that an elected politician would be so irresponsible to even remotely suggest such a thing in order to score some cheap political points. I also hope that your newspaper has stated the facts correctly.  I am an apolitical person who strives for professional excellence.
I also despise what was done int he past to Dr Hugo des Vignes, and do hope that all these attacks of personal destruction stop.

DR ALLAN JEFFREY A HUNT
General and Forensic Pathologist
Toronto, Canada

THE EDITOR: Again the situation continues to develop where there is a major problem with crime and we continue to go about trying to solve it via all the wrong methods. It has now reached a point where the Government, and dare I say the Police, have run out of ideas, so now they turn to the business sector to give them “ideas.” The business sector at times are the hardest hit and valuable information is required from them to assist in diminishing crime. However, due to the capabilities and tactical planning by criminals, what is required to stop these felons in their tracks is not advice from victims, but acquiring expertise in the field of security and crime prevention to match and defeat these criminals. Such personnel can be acquired both at home, and if the matter is totally out of control, even abroad, as was done by the Mexican Government, when they suffered from almost identical problems that we are encountering now. Crime Prevention is now a science, and gone are the days when laymen just get these bright ideas in their heads and come up with the quick fix solution to prevent crime. That was what most politicians did, and their theories were and sometimes still are the same, as could be seen in some manifestos such as, “more police vehicles, more soldiers, more patrols, zero tolerance, etc.”

These are all just fancy techniques to give the public false hope and a few extra votes, but the end result is that, just like a business, you cannot just implement a policy unless you do a proper evaluation and research, and analyse the threat upon which you will then formulate the appropriate  plan of action. That is how crime prevention works. This is why the statements by the Crime Reduction and Prevention Committee and others that blame society are unfounded since they have done no research or gathered any data to make such   statements. Crime Prevention is based now on research methodology and empirical testing, upon which a community can formulate the ideal  prevention plan to stop crime. Criminological theory and research is described as a search for the general explanation of crime, and can only be done by this means, and by specialists in that field. There are three crime prevention concepts, which all attempt to disrupt the mechanism that cause crime. Primary Crime Prevention, which deals with protecting the target and making it less attractive for the criminal. The measures used are situational preventative measures, and this type of prevention concentrates on the criminal event rather than the motivated offender. This method was used quite effectively in New York, where crime decreased by over 50 percent, and is now regarded as one of the safest cities in the United States.

Secondary Crime Prevention involves seeking to eradicate the social conditions which are thought to foster crime. This type concentrates on the offender rather than the offence. This is known as social crime prevention, and deals with what the Crime Prevention Committee and others are harping on, that is stating that it is the morals of society and family values being lost, and the theory that there is no such thing as the “born criminal,” so if society has made them criminals, society should revert them. Acceptance of this theory can also be done based on data from the felons themselves. A recent survey to this effect was done in the United Kingdom, and 85 percent of felons said that they committed burglary and other related offences, primarily for money, but for varying reasons due to the lack of it such as unemployment, lack of values, entertainment or even drug related. Tertiary Prevention is mainly practised by the courts and the penal system, its aim being to ensure that, once caught, offenders lose the desire, the means or the ability to transgress again. For determinists, the criminal justice system can incarcerate incurable offenders for the protection of society, and act as a deterrent to others. Case point being that one of the lowest murder rates for the decade was the two months following the hangings of the Dole Chadee gang.

Due to restraints on funding and resources, a Government cannot place its emphasis on all three measures. They need to verify which is the critical element that they should focus on to reduce crime, and as stated, each country/ city/ community will need to focus on different crime prevention aspects to reduce them. This can only be done by research methodology and empirical tests both on the apprehended felons and even on the victims. When this data is tabulated, then and only then would one be able to know which crime prevention method will be ideal for their area. Otherwise it would just be concerned citizens just making recommendations based on personal perception. The British Crime Survey (BCS) obtains data from 40,000 criminals per annum, just to ensure that their crime prevention methods are accurate. These techniques require persons specialised in this field, since Crime Prevention is based on specialists having the knowledge, training and obvious technique to deal with such matters. The victims quite obviously are the most vociferous, but their knowledge  and action plans in diminishing crime will be limited. It’s a straight case of horses for courses. This is one instance that in the political scenario, the persons who sit on opposite ends in Parliament are not the enemy. All of them need to have one common goal, which is to reduce crime, and anybody who is not part of the solution, becomes part of the problem. In this scenario, the criminals and the criminals only, are the enemy, and all relevant bodies need to utilise all the resources that they can muster to eliminate this menace from our society.

CAPTAIN GARY GRIFFITH
Security Adviser
United National Congress

THE EDITOR: When a property owner has completed all of the required payments in a mortgage agreement, the lending bank issues a Deed of Release which is a registerable confirmation that all the borrower’s responsibilities have been met and that there are no more encumbrances on the property. Up until now, banks have charged the borrowers for the cost — attorney’s fee and stamp duty — of preparing the deeds of release.

I am challenging the right of the lending institutions to ask borrowers to take any part of the responsibility for providing confirmation of payment. In every other type of business transaction, it is the receiver of the funds who bears the responsibility for providing the receipt and the cost thereof (you will recall that, until recently, the receiver also stood the cost of the stamp duty on all receipts). It goes against all business principles (and possibly the law) that the person who pays must provide proof of his own payments. I have heard the argument that the cost of preparing the Deed of Mortgage is also passed on to the borrower. This is quite in order, since in that case, although legal fees and stamp duty are also involved, the cost is for the preparation of an agreement — not a receipt, as is the case with the Deed of Release. I have also heard the argument that banks have always charged the borrowers for the Release. This does not support a case for continuing a practice which is wrong, at least in principle. My suggestion is that all borrowers should refuse to pay any cost for preparing or providing Deeds of Release. Clearly, this is the responsibility of the lenders, and they must be made to meet this responsibility. It would also be interesting to hear other views on this issue, since I have not yet heard a single logical argument in defence of the banks’ action.

PETER POPPLEWELL
Diego Martin

THE EDITOR: Once again we must ask that you accommodate our reply to Ms Dopwell (Newsday July 23). We acknowledge that there is risk in any medical procedure, including abortion. We acknowledge that an abortion ends a potential human life. And we acknowledge that the death of the woman Ms Dopwell mentioned took place in a legally approved medical clinic.

I hope this helps Ms Dopwell to see that we are on the same page. There are safe and unsafe abortions. We call abortions unsafe when they result in complications for the woman. And we call them safe when they terminate a pregnancy without any complications. Ms Dopwell’s claim that quacks provide the same standard of medical care as trained medical doctors is an incredulous one. The facts in our country make that clear. The women entering our public hospitals with complications of abortion do not represent all social classes in our country. There are no rich women among them. Why? Because they obtain safe abortions from trained medical practitioners. The 4,000 women admitted to our public hospitals every year are all women who took risks outside of our medical services because there was no accessible alternative. They are the victims of unsafe abortions. The unborn child dies whether the abortion is safe or unsafe. I applaud Ms Dopwell’s value for the sanctity of life. And I am appalled by her disregard for facts and logic. Public policy needs to be informed by our best values and our regard for objective social reality. Our current criminal law of abortion is not reducing violence in the womb. It is extending that violence to women.

P A ARCHER
Maraval