THE HEIGHT OF STUPIDITY

 On Friday 25th February five men dived down under water to do some work for Paria Trading Company Limited's underwater facility at Berth 6 to complete a repair job on a flange of a pipeline. Something went wrong. What exactly did go wrong has not been reported except that it seems that the five men were sucked into a three foot pipe under water where they got jammed. The only one who managed to escape was the last to be sucked in. According to the newspapers (and ALL of my information here is from the newspapers and the television reporting) it seems that they lost their air tanks but somehow managed to find a pocket of air which sustained them for a while. And here is where the story goes "south" and stupidity comes in.

It seems that when family members of the trapped five men heard about the accident they converged at the site at Pointe-a-Pierre.  Some of those family members were expert divers. They were about to go into the water to look for and rescue the stricken men when they were reportedly told by officials of Paria that they could not do that because it was against the Company's protocols and they had to wait for permission. Two of the relatives disregarded the order and went into the water and managed to rescue one man. They were about to re-enter the water (remember that the men had been in the water since about 2:30pm and the first  - and only- rescue - took place at about 5:30pm and the men were calling for help from the air pocket) when the Paria officials came again and ordered them to stop. This time they instructed the Coast Guard - who had guns - to prevent them from going back to rescue  the stricken men. 

In the result nobody else was rescued. 

So now the questions are:

1) Who were the idiots who told the would-be rescuers that they were breaching the Company's "protocols"? What were their names?

2) Who had to give permission for the would be rescuers to breach the Company's "protocols" to have a rescue made? What were their names?  What is his name and when he couldn't be found who was his boss who could override these "protocols"? What is his name? And where were these officials who could override the "protocols"? After all, the mishap took place during normal working hours and surely it is proper company practice for a manager to be able to be found during working hours?

3) We are talking about life and death here. Why was there enough time for the Coast Guard to arrive, but the person or persons who could give the permission to start a rescue could not be found?

4) Who was the relevant officer in charge of the Coast Guard who ordered his men to point their guns at the rescuers? What Is his name? What are the names of the members of the Coast Guard who pointed their guns at the rescuers?

5) What exactly are these "protocols" and who (names please)  wrote them? Where can these "protocols" be found? Who approved them and when were they approved.

6) And last (but certainly not least) who turned on (or failed to turn off) the pipe that sucked the men to their deaths? Whose responsibility was it? What is his name?

Certainly, from the newspaper reports it appears that there are several persons (who can only be described  at the very least as complete idiots) that there is a serious case to answer with criminal charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence arising. It should not take longer than a week for these (and other) questions to be answered. And it should not take longer than a week for those responsible to face the Court. 

But, hey! This is Trinidad and the obvious expectation in the population at large (including the donkeys who allowed this tragedy to happen) is that there will be no prompt enquiry, no charges and no arrests. In other words, it will be business as usual and the fact that four men are now dead when they shoul;d be alive is totally irrelevant. After all, the dead men were nobodies and nothings - unimportant.  But they were human beings and deserve our collective horror and dismay over their untimely deaths. And they had people who loved them.  And if money eventually has to be paid, then it will be paid by a State company and not by the guilty persons whose fault it was that these men are dead. In other words, there will be no punishment! Sometimes I wonder whether or not we will ever become a serious society which holds persons to account. And just when I think that we have reached the height of stupidity something like this happens!

MURDER

 With the murder rate climbing to almost two a day most people simply shake their heads in disgust and get on with their lives. But the bare statistic of two murders a day in a country of about 1.5 million people  doesn't portray the true horror and heartbreak  of the families and loved ones of the victims. The statistic doesn't show the gruesome details - the bloody clothes, the shattered brain half out of the head, the battered body, the broken limbs, the lifeless eyes oozing blood, the ripped and bloodied clothing, the sheer panic of the victim moments before she\he was killed knowing that she\he was about to die. It doesn't tell the story except in cold, clinical terms: 'A man/woman was killed today by a gunshot wound to the head ...'. We shrug our shoulders and move on to other stories.

In the meantime are we supposed to take comfort from the erstwhile Minister of National Security who says that the safety and security of the citizenry is not his responsibility? So whose responsibility is it? Where does the buck stop? According to him his responsibility is merely to ensure that the necessary systems are in place. So? Are the necessary systems in place? If they are, why is the murder rate rising seemingly out of control? Who do we, the citizenry, have to turn to? Whose ultimate responsibility is it?

Thinking about this, I wondered whether perhaps more pictures and more detailed stories in the press are necessary to bring home to the society as a whole how simply awful murder is.

I speak from personal experience. On Monday 17th February, 1997 (25 years ago tomorrow) my first cousin was kidnapped and murdered by a police sergeant paid to kill him by a man that my cousin thought was his friend. The murder is still "unsolved" and the police have shown absolutely no interest in investigating it. But that's another story. What I'm on about is the absolute despair, worry and heartbreak that the family went through. I still think of how my cousin must have felt when the gunman put the gun to his left temple and pulled the trigger. He would have known that he was about to be killed in a most gruesome manner. He must have been absolutely terrified. But nobody cares. Can you imagine the absolute horror of having someone put a gun to your head and knowing that he will pull the trigger?

Are there more gruesome murders? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Is anything being done about it and to prevent it from happening? Sadly, the answer is no

Do our leaders care? It certainly seems that they don't for they fill us with stupid platitudes, and poor fools that we are, we just take it. Nobody  is responsible for doing anything and nobody pays the price. In the meantime those left behind will have to deal with finding closure any way that they can. Perhaps I should change my name to 'nobody'. That way I'd be able literally to get away with murder.

THE MURDER OF YA ELVIS

 Okay. Full disclosure: I have been (very happily) married to a Venezuelan girl for almost 25 years. As a result I think that it is fair to say that I know Venezuela (at least Caracas and it's environs) fairly well. I also have had the privilege of meeting and getting to know many Venezuelans from all stratas of their society - the rich, the middle class and the poor. To be frank, I like Venezuelans - in general, I have found them all to be a generous, fun-loving and kind people who will willingly lend you a hand whenever and wherever it might be needed.

That is why it saddens me enormously to see the terrible destruction of this beautiful and naturally wealthy country which had been blessed with oil, gold and abundant forests. There is no reason why Venezuela is in the dire straits that it is in except for two words: politics and incompetence. The fact is that President Maburro ('Burro' in Spanish means 'donkey' and the misspelling is deliberate) and his cronies aided and abetted by China, Iran and especially Cuba have literally destroyed the country with approximately one-fifth of it's citizenry voting with their feet and leaving.

Not many in this country (or elsewhere for that matter) have ever stopped to think how desperate a person must feel to take the decision to pack up and leave your home and your family and your friends of a lifetime and go to another country where you have no family, no friends and you don't even speak the language.

But there are elements in this society (including those in high office) who dance with Maburro  and his cronies and who refuse to criticize them even when a baby is murdered.

I have said it before but it bears repeating: if you ever want to understand a problem go back to basics. Why are so many people (especially poor people) willing and want to leave their homes to travel (often by illegal means) To another country? And the answer invariably is economics - they feel that they have no future in a country run by foreigners (mostly Cubans) and drug lords. And we sit here smugly and say and do nothing even when a child (read 'baby') is murdered by an over zealous and uncaring bigot who has a State sanctioned gun and who knows that the State will protect him no matter what!

But its not right. And it is not right when we don't call a spade a spade and refuse to even criticize the Donkey for creating the terrible conditions that make his people want to leave.

I have read the Donkey's statement in today's newspapers where he claims to bemoan the tragedy of the baby's murder. Yeah! Right! He is really sorry but it isn't his fault! And our Prime Minister "reaches out" to the Donkey's Vice President but doesn't criticize the Donkey et al for creating the conditions that led to the mass exodus of Venezuela's citizens which led to the murder. It would be reasonable, for example, to tell the Cubans that they are ultimately responsible or at the very least have helped to create the conditions that led to this child's murder.

But, you see, the murdered child was a nobody and a creature of no importance. On the other hand, the Donkey et al are persons of great importance and we must never offend them! 

P.S. I am acutely aware that because of this post as well as others that I can never go back to Venezuela again. And that is a great pity because I really do like it there. Its just that I don't feel like getting tortured and thrown in a Venezuelan jail to rot and while I like the country I don't like it enough to risk that!

WHY?

 

Why is the murder rate rising seemingly uncontrollably? Why does crime seem to be out of control? These basic questions are being met by those in charge of our security with excuses, obfuscations and outright lies. And what is  the basic reason for crime in general rising to what are, by any standard, absolutely intolerable levels - at least for any supposedly civilized society?

And the answer is as simple as it is seemingly ultimately difficult for us to deal with: the crooks and criminals simply are not getting caught; and when they are caught the chances of them being convicted are minimal.

When I last looked at the murder conviction rate, for example, it was way less than five percent; and the statistics on crimes being solved are almost as bad. If your chances of going free are 97 to three those aren't bad odds to take.

So? What are the authorities doing about this awful state of affairs? Because it seems as if they are simply content to drink coffee and ride around in limousines with flashing blue lights and letting the rest us catch as catch can. I mean, absolutely nobody is being caught! Corruption at ALL levels exists in the society and if you are caught it really is a case of (your) bad luck.

And despite all the pious bleating of our leaders of how we need more laws, the sad truth is that the BEST deterrent against crime is the fear of getting caught. If you think that you won't be caught the death penalty, for example holds little or no terror for you.

The second best deterrent is an efficient legal system. Why can, for example, the United States, catch the criminal and in less than a year try him/her? And why can't we do the same? Its all well and good to blame the lawyers, but the USA has some very clever lawyers also who know well how to work their system. So? Why does it take years to bring a person to trial? We should be able to catch and try the crooks in less than a year - set them free or send them to jail. Why can't we do that? Because it is clear that we can't! And why do we put up with this incompetence (because that is exactly what it is)?

 If you ever want to understand a problem go back to basics! And when a man (or woman) gives you an answer that you don't understand ninety-seven percent of the time it is because he (she) DOESN"T WANT you to understand; three percent of the time he (she) is so stupid that he (she) doesn't understand what he (she) is saying. So what is it?  Are we being lied to or are our leaders incompetent, or is it both? And why are we putting up with this? Because ultimately it is our fault because we put up with it!