When a day marked without a murder becomes an anomaly, it should be clear to the citizenry that the approach to crime is not working.

No matter what party is in power, the strategies addressing crime have always been heavily rooted in the use of force. The idea that one can police a population into shape seems to be an easy solution, but why isn’t it working? Perhaps the best example of the State’s use of force is the 2011 state of emergency (SoE). Retrospectively, the SoE embodied many of the misinterpretations and failures seen to this day. That same year, Dr Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith produced a lecture focusing on crime and security within the Caribbean.

At the time, the impact of the SoE was shrouded in uncertainty.

However, particular scrutiny was placed on the “hotspot” phenomenon.

Unsurprisingly, these areas — considered to be rife with crime — coincided with many of the underdeveloped, urban communities that have suffered decades of neglect by the State.

Such a revelation would indicate that a fitting response to these communities should address these problems. However, the SoE was a vastly different approach.

As per tradition and our political culture, long-term measures were shirked for the need to gain political mileage. Thus, the answer to rising crime was State violence in its flashiest form.

The government of the day justified this use of force by asserting criminals were “at war with law-abiding” citizens. Therefore, these measures were appropriate and even laudable.

This approach continued to validate the feeling that these hotspot communities were completely constituted of criminals and undesirables — eroding empathy and encouraging fellow citizens to turn a blind eye as their peers were brutalised. By framing the SoE as “limited,” the “law-abiding” citizens in other communities could rest assured they would only be slightly inconvenienced.

The State fails the citizenry when systemic and structural causes of crime are continuously overlooked in favour of methods involving ideological and physical violence.

This alienates communities and does nothing to address underlying social inequalities that numerous scholars like Griffith have highlighted as factors contributing to crime.

Lip service may be paid to social programmes that can “help” underdeveloped communities, but many of these are short-lived and many are rife with corruption.

The Ministry of National Security still receives more funding than health, agriculture and housing — illustrating that priorities still lie with the use of force over addressing the ways in which inequality permeates these institutions and feeds into crime.

Almost six years have passed since the SoE. The approach to crime and governance has not changed, even if the government has. No substantial thought has been paid to the long-term improvement of communities that are rife with unemployment, poverty and violence. The token response to crime is simple, predictable and all-too-familiar — so too is the result.

To remedy this, the State must admit its role in propagating inequality and abandon the short-sighted use of brute force on those created by this climate.

Unless the State becomes willing to point the finger at itself for its neglect, the use of further violence via policing will continue to be an attractive “solution” to crime.

The roots of criminality run deep within our society. They cannot be destroyed without understanding where they came from. In doing so, we may finally accept that we cannot just police these problems away.

Tori Sinanan via email

What could have triggered this move? Why would Cemex suddenly be so keen to invest in more cement production capacity in this part of the world? The answer is slowly becoming obvious.

All indications now suggest that the demand for cement in the region is set to increase enormously in the near future, and Cemex will be ideally placed to satisfy that demand with product from all its facilities, including TT , Barbados and Jamaica.

And what will trigger this sudden huge demand for cement? Donald Trump’s massive border wall, of course.

Gary N Voss via email

In the first instance, the families were lawfully wrong to trespass and in the second instance, the HDC is morally wrong to evict them offering no alternative, especially since innocent children are involved.

Then there is the issue of when and why the buildings were condemned and why had the HDC not acted earlier to ensure the buildings remained unoccupied, instead of some 25 families later.

The HDC claims it visited the families yet one person who stated that he lived there for three years made no mention of this. The question then arises as to how many visits were made by the HDC and how many warning letters, if any, were issued.

Apparently, these people were not given the option to visit the HDC and pay the rental fee for fit, available apartments elsewhere, seeing that they had already fixed some of the issues with their own finances.

Where were the councillors for this area on both sides of the fence during this period of illegal occupancy? Were they not aware of this situation? One person stated that she went to a minister and had an application since 2007, another is a UWI student.

Obviously they are not deviants.

An HDC official stated that they could pay rent otherwise but obviously this person is not aware of the exorbitant money being called for by most greedy landlords who have not paid property taxes to the State since 2009, yet rent continues to escalate. In some cases the rents of $2,500 or $3,000 for one and two-bedroom apartments are the total, or maybe more, of some of these people’s salaries. With children to provide for and food to buy, this may be mathematically, practically, impossible.

It is no secret that the cost of living in this country is ridiculous and there are no systems in place to protect citizens and consumers from some of these eye-gougers posing as businessmen, who have made a career out of evading the system themselves.

Off course the families were wrong to occupy the buildings but moving in on them in a heavy-handed manner and putting things that people worked hard to obtain by the side of the government road does not appear to be a humane or proper solution to the problem, which is adequate and affordable housing for those in need.

Things are so bad for some of our citizens that they believe they have no alternative but to literally break and enter and abide. Were we then mistaken to believe that the HDC’s mandate was to provide housing? In some cases allegations have been made of land and business owners owning more than one HDC house or apartment when one of the mandates was supposed to be that once one has such interest they were not entitled to State housing.

Where then, does the error lie? If one does something wrong and then someone else commits another wrong to correct the first wrong, does that make it right? We must examine our conscience in making decisions involving people, especially young children.

However, daily, when we open the newspapers and see what is going on, we should not be surprised.

No one should have slept comfortably knowing that those children were under the elements.

The issue should not be the wrongs of those people but how do we move to rectify the problem in such a way as to preserve the State’s interest built with taxpayers’ money, while executing what should be one of the State’s main mandates, which is to provide resources for its citizens, especially children, the less fortunate and the elderly.

We complain about the savagery all around us in the streets but when we look at the inhumanity behind some decisions coming from the top, we should not be surprised.

Lorren Medford- Pryce via email

Gone are the days when people had time to spend in an airport waiting for BWIA and now Caribbean Airline Ltd. Give us a choice and also give the world a chance to discover TT .

Patricia Blades via email

The countries are Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Suriname.

In a statement to the media, Caribbean Airlines (CAL) said the Min istry of Health advised that the measure became effective from March 22.

CAL said stakeholders at the Piarco International Airport, including the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security, has been advised on the enforcement of this requirement.

Stakeholders at the Piarco International Airport, including the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security, have been advised on the enforcement of these requirements.

CAL said Immigration Officers have been trained in the use of a decision tool to guide the verification process of travellers entering this country from the specified countries and advised passengers to liaise with their travel agents or visit their website for a list of the yellow fever vaccination requirements of various countries, territories, and areas before their scheduled

The #KeepSafe campaign was launched last week by the Alliance for Justice and Diversity which includes the groups Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO), I Am One community-based organisation, Womantra, Friends for Life, The Silver Lining Foundation, and Women’s Caucus.

In a social media post it was stated that in response to “rumours swirling about other incidents of violence” the groups met and developed the campaign. It is funded by an award to CAISO: Sex & Gender Justice from the Canadian High Commission.

The campaign urges the LGBTQI community to “be aware”, “watch out for each other” and “help find solutions”.

The #KeepSafe campaign will also incorporate dating safety reminders, and a module specifically targeting women, trans people and gender-based violence.

A statement issued yesterday by the Planning Ministry said Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis signed on behalf of the Government at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB in Paraguay on Thursday.

The loan is geared to support the strengthening of this country’s public financial management system.

The objective of this five year programme, which will be executed by the Finance Ministry, is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in the allocation of public resources.

The project is consistent with the Government’s strategy towards restoring and maintaining economic stability and budgetary reform, including the TT Revenue Authority.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno signed on behalf of the bank.

The ministry said the objective of this signing is for TT and the IDB to affirm the high priority given to support the strengthening of the public financial management system by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of this country to allocate public resources.

The Project’s specific objectives are to improve: (a) strategic allocation of public resources; (b) the control and stewardship of public resources; and (c) information management for decision making.

Robinson-Regis and Moreno also discussed the 50 years of positive cooperation between the Government and the IDB. The minister especially thanked the IDB’s Country Office for assisting TT over the past year in streamlining the loan portfolio now valued at approximately US$524 million with an improved implementation rate of 35 percent.

Robinson-Regis said the portfolio is leaner, achievable and sets the basis for future engagement with the Bank.

The ministry indicated that the Country Strategy Programme 2016- 2020 was approved and this programme sets the framework for a strengthened programme for TT.

Robinson-Regis also thanked Moreno for the decision to establish the Hub of the Inter-American Investment Corporation – the IIC, in TT. The IIC will focus on this country’s private sector market which will result in greater positive partnership for development.

The bank identified new areas for private sector involvement including, technology, media and telecommunication, tourism and Tobago specific activities such as agriculture, and coast management.

The 20-year-old singer whose recent song, Gyal Who does Horn, from his Bad Thing series has brought him notoriety.

Until his recent success, Trinidad Ghost (Akel McLean) had not seen the inside of a studio. In fact, Gyal Who Does Horn was done using McLean’s desktop and promoted via YouTube.

“I started by just creating a YouTube account,” he told Newsday.

In fact, all of his songs released thus far were done using social media platform, YouTube. Mc- Lean said he played the piano from seven. This lead him to be able to read and write music.

As a pre-teen he began to write songs which he says numbers in the hundreds, since he writes daily.

After the song began gaining traction and shares via social media, the interviews and calls began to pour in.

For the St James resident this was not the life his father had initially envisioned for him. In fact, Joel’s McLean dream for his son would have been that he go on to university after completing sixth form at the Polytechnic Institute, St James, (before that he attended St James Secondary School) and follow in his career path of electrical engineering. But McLean’s love for music won and before he completed sixth form he left to pursue music.

His video has over 84,000 views on YouTube with 1,000 likes and 66 dislikes. But it has also drawn the attention of top music producers locally, regionally and internationally, he said.

The song has also landed him gigs at several spots including Soul Train J’Ouvert band launch in New York.

McLean defines his style of a mix of all Caribbean music but his style remains predominantly that of old-school dub (which evolved into today’s dancehall).

His journey to music fame and YouTube stardom was not always easy. “I had a lot of ups and downs,” he said. He recalled a popular radio DJ he sent his material to, did not respond until a year later, after Gyal Who Does Horn became a hit.

But what makes his story interesting and even speaks to the changing way in which music releases are done, is his releasing of his song via YouTube and then sharing it through his social media accounts (FaceBook, Instagram etc). “I never do songs and try to distribute it to the radio,” he said.

This, McLean said, opened the doors for other new artistes who were often ignored by more traditional forms of media.

The song has been a talking topic and has sparked “answer- back” by other artistes such female singer Danger, called Man Does Horn.

McLean will be seen at events in Guyana, Grenada, Baltimore and other regional and international Carnivals as his brand grows and develops and he intends to also spread the music of the country which bears his name. For 2018 Carnival, Trinidad Ghost intends to be one of the more popular names. While he is “willing to work with anyone” McLean admires and hopes to work with singers like this year’s reigning Soca Monarch, Voice.

McLean wanted the public to be aware of one important fact, he has no problems with women.

He instead fancies himself as a comedian and when he wrote Gyal Who Does Horn he wanted to find a humorous way to address a very serious topic. But he wanted to assure all of TT that he had no problem with women.

Founders of the society Jonathan Edwards and Srikanth Rao said the society is providing a platform for young artists not only for sale but to receive valuable feedback from other artists.

“It’s an important forum to promote local talent. What I’ve noticed is that many persons have the skill and the potential to become fantastic artists, but they unfortunately don’t know how to present their work and as a result of this, some lovely pieces are locked away in basements for years.” The pieces featured on March 18 took on a variety of media ranging from colourful, nostalgia-inducing paintings of life in rural Trinidad to black and white photographs depicting the stages of depression.

Returning artist and local favourite Nalini Singh displayed some of her popular local scenes and several hand-painted, seashells which caught the eyes of patrons. Singh said that she was pleased with the response to the event and said the turnout of young artists was an indication that art in Trinidad was alive and well.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’m happy to see the turnout of patrons to support local artists. Tonight’s success isn’t measured only in terms of sheer numbers but also the quality of work on display from artists with such limited experience is nothing short of impressive.” Other works took on a life of their own as artists coupled bright images and dark silhouettes to create their finished product.

Whatever their individual tastes, patrons were treated to a variety of styles and topics highlighting social themes such as homelessness and domestic violence or more contemporary, upbeat abstract works. Realist designer and engineering student Jonathan Mapp was among one of the first time exhibitors. Using charcoals, Mapp sketches detailed drawings of wildlife, merging strokes into an eye-catching art.

“This is really the first time I’m being featured here at a gala, it’s been a wonderful experience and I’m happy that there is a forum like this which gives young, up and coming artists an outlet for us to showcase our works.”

Francophonie is an international organisation representing countries and regions where French is the first or customary language, or where a significant proportion of the population are francophone (French speakers) or where there is a notable affiliation with French culture.

French Ambassador, H?di Picquart, told guests: “There are 275 million French speakers in the world, of which 212 million speak French daily. French is the fifth most spoken language in the world, the fourth most used on the Internet, third most used globally in business and the second working language of the UN.” He said the International Francophonie Organisation comprises 80 states and governments of which 54 are full members, 26 member states and four associate members.

Canadian High Commissioner, Carla Hogan Rufelds said Thursday’s commemoration helps us to remember the important role played by la francophonie in the promotion of peace, democracy, respect for human rights and sustainable development, and the central place it gives to women, youth and the vulnerable in its work.

Amer G Haidar, Lebanese Honorary Consul in TT then raised a toast to commemorate the occasion.