It is time to cease all the pretense, all the promises of “new crime plans”, all the dreams of “zero tolerance”, and accept that our country is riddled with lawlessness from top to bottom.
And it is also time to accept that there is nothing we can do about this, and therefore nothing will be done. Certainly not in the short term.
And please note the use of my term here—“lawlessness” instead of “crime”.
And please note the use of my term here—“lawlessness” instead of “crime”.
We have grown accustomed, because of the abject fear which drives us, to gated communities, razor wire and personal bodyguards, to protect us from “crime”, which is considered to be murder, kidnapping, banditry and the like.
We do not consider dangerous driving, inconsiderate driving, land desecration--whether by bulldozers or simply nasty people who dump their filth in pristine rivers--, high level fraud (we all know that low-level fraud is a crime!), to be crimes, or criminal activity.
But for me, and in this column, all of those activities are criminal activities, and all criminal acts are acts of lawlessness. I simply seek to find some means to make most of us, especially those at the top of the pyramid, understand that crime stretches far beyond murder and banditry.
And why is lawlessness so rampant in our society? Because we all support it!
Because there are no consequences to pay for lawless behaviour. Because we can get away with it all, and even if, by slim chance we are caught, we will never be punished. So we become lawless, we raise our children to defy the law and all rules of a supposedly civilized society, and we do exactly what we want, and what we can. And, we can do nearly everything!
We can order a hit on a wife or a local government councilor and never pay anything more than the cost of the hit.
We can become involved in what appears to be straight corruption in procurement contracts, and although our colleagues overseas go to jail, we can live free and high in sweet T&T.
We can establish finance frauds, and lose millions of other peoples’ money, and live high and free in Miami and T&T.
We can invest millions of undeclared dollars in those same finance frauds, and the government will give us back all of our undeclared dollars, no questions asked.
We can, as elected parliamentarians, support a bloody coup attempt, and then get elected as prime ministers.
We are totally free to do what we want, to ignore every law, rule, regulation and even custom because it is now totally acceptable to be this way. But what we refuse to acknowledge, as we break the line, litter the country, make the noise, and “put me first” in everything, is that we are destroying ourselves, our country and our children’s legacy.
And of course we are all appalled at this situation, at what “has happened” to our country, and to the society we remember, where children could play outside, where you could leave your home unlocked, where people stood aside to let the elderly pass, and where something called “respect” was part of our learning process.
And why is lawlessness so rampant in our society? Because we all support it!
Because there are no consequences to pay for lawless behaviour. Because we can get away with it all, and even if, by slim chance we are caught, we will never be punished. So we become lawless, we raise our children to defy the law and all rules of a supposedly civilized society, and we do exactly what we want, and what we can. And, we can do nearly everything!
We can order a hit on a wife or a local government councilor and never pay anything more than the cost of the hit.
We can become involved in what appears to be straight corruption in procurement contracts, and although our colleagues overseas go to jail, we can live free and high in sweet T&T.
We can establish finance frauds, and lose millions of other peoples’ money, and live high and free in Miami and T&T.
We can invest millions of undeclared dollars in those same finance frauds, and the government will give us back all of our undeclared dollars, no questions asked.
We can, as elected parliamentarians, support a bloody coup attempt, and then get elected as prime ministers.
We are totally free to do what we want, to ignore every law, rule, regulation and even custom because it is now totally acceptable to be this way. But what we refuse to acknowledge, as we break the line, litter the country, make the noise, and “put me first” in everything, is that we are destroying ourselves, our country and our children’s legacy.
And of course we are all appalled at this situation, at what “has happened” to our country, and to the society we remember, where children could play outside, where you could leave your home unlocked, where people stood aside to let the elderly pass, and where something called “respect” was part of our learning process.
And of course “we” had nothing to do with “what happened”! We all know that none of this is my fault, right.
We are just as innocent—and irresponsible—as the driver of that car, about which we read every day, which just happens to go out of control, leap the highway median, and crash upside down on top of a car travelling in the opposite direction.
Well, understand this: We are all in that “flying car” right now, about to crash down, and we are wondering how this is happening to us.
And we are all refusing to acknowledge our individual and collective responsibility as we await the impact of this unfortunate and “not my fault” impact.
And we are all refusing to acknowledge our individual and collective responsibility as we await the impact of this unfortunate and “not my fault” impact.
Our delusions that “Gord is ah Trini” and the next fete will solve everything prevent us from even acknowledging our state, far less doing anything to get back on course.
The “next fete” is our fiftieth anniversary of Independence, which we will celebrate over the coming months. We will sing and dance and set off fireworks, and pour false praise upon ourselves. But we will not take stock and ask ourselves what will happen in the next five, and then fifty, years.
Indeed we cannot! For the future we will see, should we look ahead, will be too frightening to contemplate. So, forget that, nah! Doh study the future, Gord is ah Trini, so fire another scotch and wine back on me!
And if you continue to think that it is the government which will, or can fix all this, then you are seriously deluded indeed. Prepare for impact, folks.
Indeed we cannot! For the future we will see, should we look ahead, will be too frightening to contemplate. So, forget that, nah! Doh study the future, Gord is ah Trini, so fire another scotch and wine back on me!
And if you continue to think that it is the government which will, or can fix all this, then you are seriously deluded indeed. Prepare for impact, folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment