THE EDITOR: Thank you for space to convey my strong objections to Independent Senator Dana Seetahal’s unconvincing attempt to use dehydrated statistics, in isolation, to stigmatise and stereotype Indian womanhood at the recent UWI Seminar held on the theme of Indentureship to Entrepreneurship.

Her presentation entitled “Indian Women and Criminality” bore not even an iota of relevance to the theme of Indian entrepreneurship. I wondered how a reputable attorney, court prosecutor, law lecturer and Independent Senator could have seen it fit to inflict on us misleading generalisations on the character of Indian womanhood. Is the Senator telegraphing that the criminality she mistakenly and suddenly discovered in Indian womanhood is a manifestation of the enterprises risk-taking spirit endemic among Indian women? Independent Senator Seetahal is clearly unschooled in the subject of the frustration-intra-specific aggression of the Indo-TT personality. Out of respect for us, her predominantly captive Indo-audience, she ought to have subjected her thesis of the alleged criminality of Indian women against the concept of intra-specific aggression of which the high suicide (self-aggression) among Indians rate is a clear manifestation. This would have pre-empted her from over-indulging in imputing and deriving negative behavioural patterns and ethnic stereotyping about Indian women from limited, dry, unrepresentative crime and court statistics.

Contemporary Indian womanhood has somewhat increasingly renounced the suicide option (self-aggression) as the natural flight response to the stressors of rampant male alcoholism, domestic violence and marital infidelity and may have now chosen the fight response (crimes of passion). Senator Seetahal may not understand the concept of marriage persistence (commitment) practised by Indian women, their dependency (unemployability), the extended family culture all of which are certain to intensify the level of violence and frustration and which, from an ethnic criminality or behavioural perspective, cannot and should not be flippantly compared with other ethnic groupings in the society because the findings will lack credibility.The learned attorney should have also presented us with a sociological component in her paper using statistics relating to suicides, divorce rate and the prevalence or non-prevalence of single parent (mother) families within the Indian community to better appreciate the Indian mother’s predicament. Before making misleading conclusions on the predilection of Indian women to criminality, based on inadequate data, Independent Senator Seetahal should have researched the inhumane, uncaring lack of social services/counselling almost existent in rural communities as well as little or no access to employment in CEPEP/URP or cheap NHA Housing. The consequence is that many Indian mothers are embedded in violence or frustration — prone to alternative marriages and left to fend for themselves in a sea of neglect and indifference.

I tried in vain to convey in person some of the above to Senator Seetahal in the post-session break but she seemed to harbour an uncontrollable aversion to treating with a Dhal belly Indian. Would learned Senator Seetahal now make similar racial/ethnic stereotyping on the kidnapping menace?

STEPHEN KANGAL
Caroni

THE EDITOR: I am responding to an article written in the TT Mirror a few issues ago about the TTSPCA. Because the subject is important, I’m also addressing the daily papers. The article in question contained little but propaganda, as anyone who has been near this institution in the past ten years will know. To be fair to the reporter who wrote the article, one wonders if the content would be so flattering if he/she made an unplanned visit to the institution like normal members of the public whom the TTSPCA does not need to impress.

Over the past many years when I have visited the TTSPCA, I found the animals being housed in deplorable conditions. Last time I visited, there were more than four dogs to a kennel. The kennels were dirty, the animals were unwashed, undernourished and clearly depressed, and as for exercise —  I don’t think that any of those animals had been out of their cages since their incarceration. I discovered that there is no vet appointed to the TTSPCA and one wonders, at what point in a dog’s illness, is veterinary help actually sought. Ticks and fleas were in abundance on the animals and many had obvious eye infections. As for the cats…they did not appear to fare much better; some were suffering from coccidiosis and also had ear mites and fleas. They, too, were being maintained in overcrowded conditions; some would hardly see daylight. It is not surprising that the adult cats looked desperate to escape their permanent confinement. The kittens were grouped together in one large box type cage and many of them would probably never live to become adult cats — perhaps they are the lucky ones!

From personal experience in adopting a dog — first of all, you go to TTSPCA to adopt but before you can even view the animals you need to get a personal visit to check your house. I totally agree with the policy of checking the homes, but you can wait for months on end before they come! One would think that they would be anxious to find these animals a place of their own. But no! You have to pester them and when they finally do visit — a police search could not be more thorough — one wonders if the intent is to “maco” your house rather than check its suitability to house an animal. When you are lucky and have passed the prosperity test you can then visit TTSPCA again and select a dog — if you have enough money to pay. First of all, you have to pay for the spaying/neutering of the animal. Now while I am absolutely for the spaying/neutering of strays in order to cut down on the number of these forlorn animals, I think that the TTSPCA should try to foot some of the bills in the case of future adopters who do not have the necessary cash. Many people who would provide excellent homes to these animals just do not have the money to pay for a spay/neuter. But it does not end there as you are then informed that you must pay for a vaccination plus a TTSPCA collar and finally you must also make a donation.

If the lady who runs the TTSPCA really cared about these animals, surely they would take a more pro-active stand. They would also try to ensure that the animals are maintained in good health, exercised and groomed regularly and provided with some level of exercise and stimulation to allow them to lead a happier life. Why, then, do these conditions exist? It seems to be a combination of things. 1) The management of the TTSPCA is far too old to handle something so complicated. (To give you an idea, about 65 dogs and 60 to 70 cast are in the “care” of a couple in their 80s/late 70s.) Even if they were actually dedicated to the animals, the task would be too much for them. 2) However, since they seem to care more about making a living, the situation is even worse. The TTSPCA proudly proclaims its association with the RSPCA in England from whom it probably gets financial assistance, in addition to legacies from misguided people who think the TTSPCA actually helps animals. That funding is intended to help relieve suffering, not line the pockets of the organisers. 3) No one has seriously questioned these practices in years. Trinidad may not actually lay claim to being an animal loving country, but even the hardest of hearts could not help but be moved by the plight of these animals. The time has come, for the sake of the poor animals trapped inside, for a full and public examination and government intervention if all else fails.

SUMINTRA DEONARINE
Macbean

THE EDITOR: Sex? Few things are so simple, essential and pleasurable as eating. But the Romans in their Age of Decadence, multiplied its pleasures uniquely. At dinners, they ate ‘belly-full,’ repaired to an adjacent room and, tickling their throats, vomited all up — then returned to the eating room for more. The ‘simple’ and ‘essential’ were taken out of eating and the ‘pleasurable’ became the ‘ultimate living.’

Ditto for sex today, for so many people. Cinema, TV, life styles, books, magazines urge this on. But we don’t seem to see the consequences. We continue to shove it in the faces of young and old, parents and children. We are even foisting on our country that USA product called `Spring Break,’ a youth carnival of sex, alcohol and mindlessness far beyond our Carnival of mas.’

Sex is essential; without it mankind would cease to exist. But it’s not simple; it is very complicated because people are complicated psychologically. Ask the ‘big men’ and women who are destroyed by ‘tabanca’ and other sex-related problems — or view the stupidities on programmes like Jenny Jones, Maury and Jerry Springer. ‘Sex education’ must include relationships, role and responsibility of men and women, mutual respect, problem solving, marriage, parenting, sex-related diseases, love, etc. The young must learn about it as they learn about fire, without putting their hands in it. As they see fire destroy, they can see its uses; they can demonstrate the good and ill of sex. Can all parents teach this? All schools? But they must! Will parents be given the opportunity to learn how? Will the entertainment moguls help to create a less unhelpful social environment? And avalanche of AIDS is ready to smother us!

VAN STEWART
Diego Martin

The Editor: I want to express my utter disgust about the unfortunate incident, that happened at the Newtown Boys’ RC School Sports on Wednesday 28th May, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. I hope that Ms Mylan would take legal action to the limit against this parent. I also hope that the staff of the school would come together and put an immediate stop to all such future incidents, whether they occur in or outside the school compound, even if it means stopping classes until measures are put in place to achieve this.

In my opinion two measures they can introduce with immediate effect are (1) to use one entrance to the school, this being one of the gates on the church side, the other two are to be kept padlocked at all times; (2) no parent/visitor be allowed to go to a class or the office, unless escorted by a guard or a teacher.

Denise Nicholls
A concerned parent and fellow teacher, 
Woodbrook

THE EDITOR: Kindly permit me space in your column to highlight the terrible condition of the road (the main road to be precise) on which motorists and residents have to travel each and every day.

We have had to put up with this for too long and the people from Chatham pay road tax too. It’s a shame to drive through the road that leads from Cap-de-Ville junction to Bowan Trace and I am calling on the Minister of Works and Transport to take a drive down to our area not a helicopter drive. I hope that someone will do something about this problem because if today you fix your car, tomorrow it is the same problem again. It’s unbearable. To make matters worse, it’s a disgrace to see workers of the Ministry of Works fixing potholes with oilsand. We are not dogs, we have new cars down here too.

ASHRAF MOHAMMED
Chatham

THE EDITOR: Once more the printing and publishing industry of TT is treated as the orphan child by the bureaucracy of our country.

The printing industry is the equal of any international printer of similar status. The investment by TT printers in equipment, infrastructure, training of man/woman power has been considerable. Yet its abilities and energies are consistently ignored by those who should be dedicated to the encouragement of local enterprise. It has taken foreign users of print to recognise the high standards of workmanship and related matters that has enabled many TT printers to survive in this most competitive of industries. Yet this significant contribution to the economy and to the upgrading of talents in the field of graphic art is barely recognised by those whose duty is to understand and encourage such important local efforts. The textbook back-to-school decision which favours mainly UK publishers and printers, is once more a slap in the face to all the energy, investment etc that our industry has so willingly made.

It is ironic that the chosen books, whilst emanating from UK publishing houses, are rarely printed in the UK, but are printed in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and similar countries. Few of these locations produce paper and all use machinery similar to that with which our major TT printers are equipped. Some of these publishers make nominal acknowledgment to “contribution” from Caribbean persons in order to give a “Caribbean” flavour to their editions, such “contribution” being paid in sterling. Ken Gordon and myself fought long and hard to change the practice of selecting UK publishers at the expense of local publishing and printing facilities. We both met with incredible obstacles from these same UK publishers. We have the talent and the facilities here in TT, but without the will in the quarters that matter to give those a fighting chance we will once more loose out to closed minds.

LEONARD MAYNARD
Glencoe

THE EDITOR: The noise pollution problem is increasing daily in this country. Recently Mrs Rhona Ince highlighted the issue of unauthorised fireworks displays. I would like to add my voice to hers in raising concerns about fireworks and other sources of noise in our environment.

I work near a government school, and I am appalled on a daily basis by the loudness of the music that is played by motorists who frequent the area. I am sometimes left to wonder whether these drivers are never heard by police officers, and whether the police have no authority to stop them from disturbing the peace. These drivers pass near the school during school hours and it seems they turn their music up to the fullest during these times. Surely a school zone should be respected more than that; how are children to learn if they are constantly being distracted by noises just outside their classroom? But it has become the norm now for drivers to play music at ridiculously loud levels. Surely this poses a danger on our roads as the noise can be startling and distracting, even to other drivers. Certainly the drivers who play such music cannot be operating at their fullest capacity while they drive, since their sense of hearing would be impaired.

I seem to remember a time when maxi-taxi drivers were stopped from playing loud music in their vehicles. Why can’t we do the same with all motorists? It seems to me that officers should be given the authority not only to warn noise-makers to turn down the volume, but to confiscate property and make arrests where the noise laws are repeatedly infringed. Where is the EMA and what are their policies to address noise pollution in TT? What actions are they taking on a large scale basis to curb the problem? TT, what are we standing by and allowing in our country today?

JANET DOYLE
San Fernando

The Editor: I was most disturbed to see a full page advertisement in an edition of your newspaper advocating sexual and reproductive health rights for children and adolescents. 

Some facts are presented that are angled to make us believe that more than two thirds of children are sexually active before the age of 13 years, and many other facts designed to panic the public into calling for the FPA to provide contraceptives and reproductive health (politic speak for abortion) services to our children. Any young person under the age of 18 is a legal minor and must be guided by parents or guardians.  What our adolescents need is not sex education, which, of and by itself is sex instruction, and only encourages them to experiment, but chastity education. The only education programmes that should be supported and encouraged are those built on absolute truth. There are absolute standards of right and wrong, and no one has the right to choose immorality. 

The only educational programmes that should be introduced into our schools are those that teach sexual morality, in the context of leading children toward the practice of virtue and avoid examining the subject of sex in any concrete, detailed or descriptive way in the classroom or other public setting.  Any such programme introduced into our schools must recognise, respect and support the primary role of parents in the moral formation of their children and their prerogative to impart any information beyond the abstract on the subject of sex privately, delicately and at the appropriate stage of development for the individual child. The FPA state that they need to provide sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents that recognise their rights to information, education and services, privacy, confidentiality, respect but informed consent adolescents are not autonomous moral decision makers. Children cannot make their own decisions about morality after discussion of what are claimed to be relevant considerations, even if both positive and negative consequences of the various alternatives are presented. 

The typical child, including the adolescent, does not have a mature, adult intelligence and is not capable of independently making proper decisions with respect to serious moral matters.  Among other things, in the mind of a young person, bad consequences happen only to other people. Much more important, morality cannot be decided by discussion or personal choice, regardless of how the discussion is conducted or the choice directed. Doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong are not mere positive choices or better decisions, but absolute moral obligations. Furthermore the FPA desires to provide these services in conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  This is a United Nations Convention that should be trashed immediately.  Everywhere CEDAW representatives have gone they have pressured governments to legalise abortion, to legalise prostitution, and have cast aspersions on women who chose to stay home to look after their children. Under no circumstances should any government align themselves or cooperate with such a disastrous convention.

Joan Moore
Carenage