Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police Michael Pierre was a traffic officer with a little more than two years experience as a constable.

Pierre, now the Police Service’s public information officer, related to Sunday Newsday the role he had to play in the events of 1990.

“I was assigned to the San Fernando Police Station,” Pierre said. “When the take over of TTT (Trinidad and Tobago Television) was happening, I was getting ready to report to duty, so I was getting ready to leave my home in Princes Town.” Little did Pierre know he would be instructed to carry out one of the most dangerous missions of his law enforcement career – escorting Anglican canon Reverend Knolly Clarke to the Red House where he would act as a negotiator for the release of hostages.

“When I saw it (on television) I was alarmed because I realised this was a serious thing and I rushed to work. While I was there, the Assistant Commissioner of Police was Norton Regis.

He came to the traffic section where I and Constable Patrick were and asked us if we were armed and who was the driver.

“He said we would have to escort Mr Knolly Clarke to the Red House. So, based on the little information that I heard through the grape vine, I felt a chill.

“I was thinking that I had no kind of warfare training and here it is I’m going to escort Mr Clarke to the Red House.” Pierre said while he was fearful, his sense of service as an officer of the law prevailed.

“In my heart that’s my duty and I took an oath to serve TT as a police officer and if that was a part of it, well then I intended to do my duty.” He said while he was aware of the gravity of the situation, the sight of looters along the highway put the situation into context for him.

“I can recall when we reached the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in the vicinity of Sea Lots I saw this guy with a fridge on his back running across the road.

I saw a hub of activity in that area, people running with microwaves, but the size of the fridge was almost the size of the man and here he is running with it.

“The chill I felt never left because I didn’t know if I’m driving into my death, but I was very aware of the seriousness of the situation because the looting meant things went topsy turvy.” He said he, his colleagues and Clarke arrived at the army base in Chaguaramas from where Clarke would be taken to the Red House. However, this was not the end of his experience as the base fell under siege from insurgents later that evening.

“I can recall whilst being in the barracks it was like actually being in a war movie. We were hearing gunshots and explosions. I remember at the time I was wearing a standard police-issued tunic and it had these silver buttons coming across like a cross. A soldier came up to me and he said, ‘You crazy! You setting yourself up as a target with a big cross on your chest! Boy take off them buttons or open up the tunic.’” Pierre explained due to the strict regulations at the barracks in the wake of the siege, he did not hear from his family or colleagues.

“I was at the army base from the Friday till Sunday evening.

I wasn’t able to communicate with my family until Sunday when I got a call from a resident over at Flagstaff, so I didn’t know what was the state of my family, they didn’t know what my state was, whether I’m alive or dead. Later on I found out that the people on work were praying for us because they thought since they had no communication with us that something went wrong and we were dead or something.” Pierre said while he has gone on to lead a long and eventful career, his involvement in the coup has stood out to him as the most terrifying.

Sunday Newsday also spoke with Fuad Abu Bakr, son of the leader of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr.

Bakr said while he was only a child at the time, he remembered seeing his father on television announcing the overthrow of the government.

“I was five-yearsold.

All I remembered was seeing my father that evening but then I didn’t see him again until he was on television.

I was at my maternal grandparents’ house. At the time, I didn’t grasp the seriousness of what was going on. It was only later on after the coup played out I realised how serious this was.”

But it is reasonable to assume that making informed choices often springs from a personal culture of being naturally inclined to weigh or balance the nuances of an issue, and this “skill” or tendency is often sown and cultivated by a mode of teaching which encourages students to ask questions about, and to respond to, the world in which they live.

So that if classroom culture in this country encourages critical thinking on a wide scale as a way of making good choices, does it not stand to reason that many of the poor choices related to criminal behaviour which seem to defy all logic, good sense and civilized behaviour will be significantly mitigated? But this call for a critical approach in the classroom is jumping the gun somewhat because “classroom performance” is often not a “priority” for many in this country as it is expected to be in modern, progressive societies.

For example, it is not uncommon that in some instances, especially in depressed situations, the traditional report card loses significance once “take” from the “drop” is coming in on a continuing basis, and in the wider society, education as means to personal advancement often gives way to the benefits of the “who you know” syndrome often associated with the benefits from party loyalty in the politics.

So who really cares about earning a recognised degree when your cup runneth over without it? It’s a feature of this society that in many instances people can showcase wealth or boast of plum positions in the workplace without possessing the commensurate education and training that should accompany same.

What I am trying to advance as an argument is that even as we search desperately for long-term solutions to crime and that education through critical thinking can be key in this, there is so much to distract from using this mechanism because of the way it is subordinated to other means, questionable as they may be on moral, ethical and even legal grounds, to personal advancement.

It seems as if for many education does not “pay,” and crime, to include corrupt and unethical practice, does. But crime, when all is said and done, is a matter of personal choice, and even as other conventional strategies will help, a way has to be found to create a society in which would-be criminals would ask questions about the choices they make.

And with the moral and ethical questions which such questioning naturally generates, can we not hope for more informed choices from those not so inclined and that in the future we will see some relief from this crime situation which now engulfs us? Critical thinking in the classroom is a must for the future.

DR ERROL BENJAMIN docbenj742@outlook .com

Dillon said while violent extremism is not a local issue, TT is treating with the concern of some citizens travelling to areas of conflict and eventually returning home. The minister said Government is addressing this matter through a combination of legislative framework and operations. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, who was present at the meeting, said TT continues to address border management and maritime security in the context of its geography.

Thomas III recognised the need for TT and the US to synchronise their efforts, especially to deal with the threat posed by the Islamic State terrorist group.

Short and sweet, like the run of the festival itself, was the Picoplat Young Artist Collective’s abridged production of Mozart’s timeless opera, The Magic Flute, which made a four-show run during the group’s occupancy at the newly-opened Government Campus Plaza in Port of Spain.

Last year’s Tales of Hoffmann was a hit with its large cast, layered storyline and a plot than ran for close to three hours.

With The Magic Flute, however, quite a number of liberties were taken with the music and the spoken dialogue, not for the sake of being picky but for simplification and brevity. In its unaltered state, the opera runs for a total of three hours with bits that could be considered just a tad heavy according to Picoplat artistic director and Queen of the Night, soprano Natalia Dopwell.

Mozart, a fervent member of the Freemasonic Lodge, wove concepts related to the group’s principles into the plot and these are championed by the story’s heroes. In this version, merely a skeleton of these elements as blatant references to the Masons still remains, perhaps only detectable by those who are familiar with the original work.

This year’s version – a revival of the, also abridged, staging of the opera in 2013 – restored some of the original material and a couple of the missing characters.

Although there were some bits that still didn’t make it off the cutting room floor, we were left with a neatly- tailored rendering of Mozart’s–and perhaps the world’s–favourite opera in a production whose magic was not snuffed out by its brevity.

Minimal staging was complemented by a series of paintings interspersed with looped animated sequences as backdrops. Margaret Sheppard’s costumes provided an eclectic canvas of cultures from character to character, with Pamina channelling a young Cleopatra to Papageno’s costume evoking the period during which the opera was written.

Eschewing the overture, musical director June Nathaniel took us right into the action, which begins as Tamino, the prince, is being chased through the forest by a fierce dragon.

Rory Wallace’s solid tenor rang through the auditorium as he manoeuvred away from the creature, played by choreographer Triston Wallace in a costume that evoked the dragon- like characters seen on J’Ouvert morning.

Rory Wallace, a Ball State University doctoral candidate in music, portrayed the prince as a gallant and youthful monarch as he trumpeted much of his lines with the gusto of a classic TV hero.

UTT Academy of the Performing Arts student Jason Lawrence was Papageno, the Queen’s love-starved birdcatcher and much of the opera’s comic relief. With some tentative movements on stage, Lawrence’s approach to the character was not the conventional class-clown rendering seen by others who’ve played the role. Rather, he shone in moments of comic timing. Some of them, created by the updating of the script.

Lawrence delivered a crisp baritone that never faltered and did a good job of holding its own in the ensemble pieces.

Spoiler alert: Papageno does find his mate as he is joined by soprano Annelise Kelly as Papagena–go figure–in a sweet and spirited performance of the popular duet toward the end of the opera.

The Three Ladies, emissaries to the Queen, were flawlessly played by sopranos Shannon Navarro and Sabrina Marks and mezzo-soprano Maegan Pollonais. Cunning yet charming, the trio–who often moved as one devious unit– maintained a seamless dialogue as they slunk across the stage in villainous glee. Navarro, a graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama in Musical Theatre; Marks, a longtime student of June Nathaniel’s Key Academy of Music who has starred in a number of Picoplat productions and Pollonais, a doctoral candidate in music at Ball State University, each moved with a devilish enjoyment of their own.

Pamina, the imprisoned princess fated to fall for Tamino was played by recent UTT Artist Diploma graduate, soprano Tamika- Diandra Lewis, who brought both a tenderness and a tenacity to the character. Lewis’ measured choices reflected a contemplative process as she channelled palpable sadness during her aria in the second half.

Tenor Richard Taylor as the vile Monostatos, who held Pamina captive and lusted after the young princess did a good job as the calculating and mischievous character.

The youth were well represented in Denique Robertson, Clarice Beeput and Misty-Ann Knights who played the trio of spirit guides who led some of the wandering characters on the right path at various points in the plot. Their angelic voices blended in harmony as they seemed to always appear at just the right time in contrast to the Three Ladies who, more often than not, were up to no good.

The music of The Magic Flute is known for including some of the highest and lowest notes in the soprano and bass repertoire, respectively. The role of the wicked Queen of the Night soars up into the stratosphere and calls for an arrow-like precision while the role of good and wise Sarastro demands that the singer delves into the gravelly depths of his instrument. This could make casting a challenge but, with our proud pool of local operatic talent, Picoplat made it happen.

Natalia Dopwell, as the Queen, appeared on stage as a force of energy, rendering the role with all the requisite rage of a villain and the grace of a monarch to temper it. Shellon Antoine as Sarastro, antithesis to the Queen, was a serene presence whose arias– unlike the fast-paced, agitated rhythms of the Queen’s pieces–offer a reverent, hymn-like calm. Antoine’s rumbling bass caressed the lowest notes of his pieces with graceful ease and clarity.

Director Dr Helmer Hilwig instructed the cast in this interpretation of the classic work. June Nathaniel led a guest team of top-tier accompanists– pianist, Byron Burford-Phearse; flautist, Martina Chow and Demika Lawrence on the timpani and glockenspiel.

The choral pieces were performed by the singers of the Young Artist Collective, many of whom were soloists in dual roles as choristers.

The victim of Bamboo Settlement told police at about 11.30 pm she was standing near a car park when she was approached by two men who were masked and armed with guns. The men ordered her to the nearby carpark where they took turns sexually assaulting her. The suspects then ran away and the victim went to the Arima Police Station where she reported the incident.

She was taken to a doctor who examined her. Investigations are continuing.

I had my used phone posted to me which I had forgotten in London. It was sent on June 10 and arrived on June 16. However, I got the slip for collection on July 17, a whole month later.

I had to hire a taxi to take me to New Grant to collect the phone, even though I am staying in Princes Town.

When I got there on July 20 I was told I was lucky I came that day as it was the last day for collection. On top of that I was charged $140 to get the phone.

What is my country coming to? Too backward! Not impressed at all.

STEPHANIE MASON via email

Thomas, 34, of Lackpat Road, El Dorado, was walking along Pentecostal Road at about 9.15 pm on Thursday when he was approached by two men, one of whom shot at him.

Police said Thomas tried to escape his assailants but fell in a drain at the side of the road.

One of the men jumped onto his head and chest, trampling on him repeatedly. Both men ran off after leaving Thomas motionless in the drain.

The incident was captured on CCTV cameras and the footage was viewed by members of the Tunapuna Police Station.

Thomas was hospitalised in critical condition after the attack.

A suspect was held yesterday at a house in Sea Lots.

Meanwhile, police are investigating the shooting death of a 30-year-old man in Petit Bourg early yesterday morning.

Police said Kerlon Dorset, 30, of Francis Avenue was liming with friends at Upper Irving Road Extension when, at about 2 am, he and three others decided to go home as it was raining.

Reports are that Dorset got into the back seat of car and it pulled off. However, a short while later, a gunman shot at the vehicle.

Dorset told his friends he had been shot and they took him to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where he died.

Harvey, 68, was officially installed as Bishop in an ordination ceremony, yesterday, at the Spice Basket Auditorium, Beaulieu, St Georges.

The ceremony was witnessed by a large contingent of local priests and parishioners from the various communities in which Harvey ministered in Trinidad and Tobago.

In an interview at Archbishop’s House, Port-of-Spain, on Monday, hours before his departure, Harvey said it was in Grenada, more than four decades ago, that he took the decision to enter the priesthood.

He recalled while teaching at the Seminary, late Archbishop Anthony Pantin had urged him to think clearly about the move.

As fate would have it, Harvey had also been invited to Grenada to lead priests and parishioners in a weekend of introspection to determine the way forward for the church on the island.

“It was a great weekend,” he said of the visit in the 1970s.

“It was so affirming of all that I had spent three years studying in some depth and I came back home and I said to myself, I think I will go forward to the priesthood.

“I knew I would go forward but I always knew it would not be easy. But I met some wonderful Grenadians and I hope to meet them again.” Fast forward to 2017.

Harvey was chosen by the Vatican to lead the church’s flock in Grenada, an appointment he welcomes.

“God has been so good to me over the past six months and there have been so many surprises that have both challenged and strengthened me that I can’t help but think that it is with trust in God I am going to Grenada,” he said. But there is another reason why this towering man of the cloth loves Grenada.

“It is one of those countries in the Caribbean where we see the resilience of Caribbean people.” Recalling the hurricanes that have ravaged the island and the socio-political turmoil to which Grenadian have long been subjected, Harvey said: “They have come through and everybody will tell you it’s a wonderful island.” Harvey said he also has paid attention to what many people might consider mundane occurrences.

“There is a healthy respect for people in Grenada. The people at Customs and Immigration, they show you a basic respect, and from that comes other things. You walk the streets of St Georges and there is that fundamental respect.” However, Harvey said he was aware of the challenges at the level of the Catholic church.

“The fact that you are given charge of a diocese, the Catholic church believes that as a Bishop, you are Chief Shepherd in the diocese.

You are Christ in the diocese and it places a tremendous responsibility on you to know the sheep, the people entrusted to your care, and to seek to do always what is in their best interest according to the mind of Christ, and that is not easy.” In fact, Harvey sees his role as extremely critical given the dwindling Catholic congregations on the island.

“I have already said that I need at least five years to make some difference on the island.” He said in some instances, the situation reflected the state of Catholicism in other islands in the Caribbean.

“But Grenada is the worst as far as I know.” Harvey took the oath of allegiance on Thursday, ahead of yesterday’s ordination.

At Archbishop’s House, he told Sunday Newsday: “Every Bishop is required to make the profession of faith where basically you stand alone and say what the church has believed for centuries.

The interpretation of what that means has developed over the centuries. So, I hope I am in the mainstream of that development now.”

I’m no psychologist, but it seems like many black people continue to suffer from some sort of intergenerational mental trauma from slavery – a Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, if you will. It is a fact that if African slavery was only physical, African people everywhere would have been able to overcome the socio-economic disparity as soon as the chains came off, but that evidently was not the outcome. The systemic dehumanisation of African slaves caused the initial trauma, and the descendants are bearing the mental scars and struggling to cope with the systematic dismantling of our psyche.

Mental slavery is far more sinister than physical slavery because the chains are invisible with mental slavery, so many people are unable to recognise and accept that it exists.

There are some black folks with Stockholm Syndrome who like to blame their own people for being, as they call it, “lazy” and “good-fornothing,” but I see things differently, and that does not mean that I’m making excuses. The legacy of slavery has promoted and fostered the direct association between being of African heritage and being inferior to others; being of African heritage and being unequal, incapable and less worthy. Most importantly, it promotes a mentality that continues to impede our growth and development.

Mental slavery has caused many of us to remain contained, and ignorance, greed and selfishness are the key elements of this sad state of affairs. Undeniably, ignorance is the primary weapon of our containment.

Someone once said that “the best way to hide something from black people is to put it in a book” and no statement could be more accurate. During the days of slavery, slave literacy was largely discouraged, and in some cases illegal, and the effects of that are still being felt as illiteracy amongst black people are higher than any other race everywhere in the world. We have gained the right to be educated like everyone else, yet despite living in the Information Age, few of us read consistently, and many not at all.

Mental slavery also makes us vain, greedy and selfish. We collectively earn the lowest mean income, yet we are amongst the biggest spenders. Many people seem to forget that unlike indentured labourers, the freedom of slaves came with only the clothes on their backs; slaves had to start from nothing and in many parts of the world, descendants of slaves still have nothing. It really is not because we cannot have more than nothing, but it is because those who are enslaved believe that a life of nothing is their destiny. Despite this, vanity combined with greed sees us spend without thought; Michael Jordan sneakers for children and expensive jewellery and designer clothing for ourselves, whilst bills remain secondary expenses.

The experience of being black and poor in a materialistic society is a difficult one because we are forever bombarded with rhetoric that says if you have nothing, you are nothing. As I mentioned in a recent article, we tend to spend our money on gold to drape around our necks like shackles, whilst everyone else invests in property, businesses and education. Our enslaved mentality is to show-off to each other whilst others build solid communities with the profits from their many businesses marketed to us.

Many black people have internalised a sense of shame about just not being “good enough.” When a person walks around with that sense of shame and self-hatred, they are likely to function poorly in society, no matter who they are (there are always exceptions). Add the extra layer of racist socialisation, of being devalued, or being socially segregated and we groom generations of the same mentally trapped slaves.

Black mental slavery has to be defeated, but I know that it will be several more generations before that happens, if at all. I look at my brothers on the block and I feel sorry for them because I know that they are mentally enslaved and there is very little that can be done to reverse or change that. Marcus Garvey said it and Bob Marley put it into song: “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.” Frankly, until we achieve a state of mental emanci – pation of our people, there really is n o t h i n g to celebrate.

J a – mille85@ msn.com

Akeem Garcia, an Arima resident and former Trinidad and Tobago youth winger, ended with an assist and his first goal for his new club after Police — a side desperately trying to steady a rollercoaster ride this season — had twice equalised in the first half through Elijah Belgrave and Jameel Perry following the hosts’ opening item from Rundell Winchester then an Elton John converted penalty.

The win saw Derek King’s side on 16 points, and with a game in hand against three-time defending champions Central FC, hurdle previous leaders W Connection (13 points) at the summit after stretching their unbeaten record this term to six in as many matches, five of them ending in wins.

Connection, though, were looking to restore the lead yesterday with a meeting against Defence Force at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.

North East Stars were brilliant, and after just nine minutes, took the lead through the lightening- paced Tobago-born winger Winchester, who fired past a hapless Police custodian Adrian Foncette from the right for his third goal this season after neat pass from Garcia on a counterattack had left the Lawmen backline beaten.

Utility player Belgrave levelled the scores when he beat goalkeeper Akel Clarke off a Kadeem Boyce corner from the right 10 minutes later. That see-saw effect would continue till the break.

Elton John, wearing the North East Stars armband, wrong-sided Foncette on 38 minutes from the penalty spot to restore his side’s advantage after Police defender Jibri Mc David was adjudged to have brought down winger Kishun Seecharan in the box.

Then Police, who earlier had a goal ruled out for an infringement, levelled again, putting the score at 2-2 on the stroke of halftime when Jameel Perry pounced on a rebound to fire into an open net after Clarke had initially gotten glove to chipped attempt from Kareem Freitas.

But North East Stars were in front after taking the lead a third time three minutes into the second half.

Garcia, a former San Juan Jabloteh and W Connection attacker who was side-lined through injury for the past two years, completed another counterattack by the Stars with a cool finish beyond Foncette, who was hung out to dry again. Winchester had led the attack before finding Kyle Bartholomew on the left, and the former Morvant Caledonia and Rangers winger whipped in a low cross towards Garcia, who capitalised.

Foncette denied Garcia twice late while substitute Adrian Noel wasted overbar after replacing midfielder Duane Muckette, who returned for the first time this season and in time as a replacement for Trinidad and Tobago international Leston Paul, who is expected to move to El Salvador.

ttproleague.com