FIXING CRIME - post script

 I had intended writing only three posts on the subject of fixing crime, but last night as I got into my car at the airport and tuning the radio to BBC I got the tail end of a story whereby it seems that some women in Europe have filed a claim in court against certain European politicians for failing to take appropriate action on Climate Change. I apologize for my own scanty report on this, but I didn't hear the BBC report properly. But it got me to thinking: what if some persons sued the Prime Minister, the Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Police personally for failing to do their jobs and keeping the country safe?

If you take your car for a check up to the mechanic and he does (or doesn't do) something that he should or shouldn't have done and this failure on his part was his fault and damage to your car was the end result, your mechanic would ne liable to you for the damage that you have incurred. If as a lawyer I give you bad advice or I was negligent in failing to file a document on time or something else, I would be liable to you.

In other words, when somebody fails to do his/her job properly and damage results from that failure, in the normal course of things the person responsible would have to pay for the resulting damage.

So? The Prime Minister is the head of the National Security Council which is the ultimate authority for the security of the Republic. He appoints the Minister of National Security who also has responsibilities in matters of this regard. And the Commissioner of Police also has responsibilities.

So? These people are allowed to pontificate month after month saying in effect that they are not responsible for dealing with the terrible scourge of crime. But if they are not responsible, where then does the buck stop? Who is ultimately responsible? In law if I fail to do something that I am responsible for and you suffer damage, then you can sue me! Perhaps a law suit against those office holders in their personal capacity making them personally liable for the damage that you have suffered might just wake them up and we might get somewhere.

And, no,  I am not offering myself to do this case, and neither can I be involved in it in any way (though I can still cheer it on from the sidelines). That would be touting and the rules of my profession strictly forbid me from touting. But if you or anybody you know has suffered damage as a result of this scourge then perhaps you should encourage them to go and see their lawyer and pursue it vigorously. Surely somebody is responsible and should be made to pay? In any case, you better believe that if I am right on this point that you would see some action very quickly! Nothing motivates an office holder like money, especially if it will cost him/her personally!

FIXING CRIME - Part Three

 I have always looked with scorn upon those who criticize but have no solutions of their own to a particular problem and refuse to admit that they don't know how to fix whatever "it" is.  I hope that I have made it clear in my last two posts on the subject of fixing crime that I have no short term answer for this scourge. Frankly, I believe that what is required is a long term fix that will probably take about 30 years before we see any results. But if we don't start now the problem will only get worse. And I do recognize that there are few (if any) politicians that think beyond 5 years.

As I said in my first post on this subject that the answer lies in education. But we have saddled ourselves with a system that hasn't been revamped for about 60 years (although successive administrations have fiddled with the system during that time). In the meantime, except for the brightest kids or those whose parents can afford private schooling (either by way of private lessons or expensive private schools), the vast majority of the children continue to receive a substandard education.

I would fix this by immediately trebling the salaries of ALL qualified teachers. Right now, the starting salary of a qualified teacher is less than US$1,000 per month. If we pay peanuts to what are probably the most important people in our society what do you think we'll get?

But (and it is a big "BUT") no teacher will get this increase unless certain things happen: Anybody (meaning any QUALIFIED teacher) who wants the increase will have to sign a contract:

1) Agreeing to a yearly performance review; if he/she fails that performance review then he/she will be immediately dismissed without any claims whatsoever for backpay or any monies whatsoever. That would be final.

2) In order to get this increase he/she would have to be properly qualified. By this I mean that at the very least the teacher would have to have an undergraduate degree as well as a teaching diploma/certificate. If someone has been teaching for a period of time, say, 30 years or more, then the requirement for a teaching certificate/diploma would be waved, but not the requirement for an undergraduate university degree. This is to ensure that only properly qualified people would be accepted as being qualified to teach our kids. You can't fool around with this.

Some people may argue that TTUTA (the teachers' union) would never agree to this. My answer is that no teacher that has a job today will lose his/her benefits under the agreement with TTUTA. But anybody who wants the increased pay will have to sign my contract. And no new hirings will take place unless the person signs on with the new contract. I am not interested in what TTUTA might or might not want unless they can show how the children will benefit. It seems to me that this significant fact has been ignored by everybody.

It has been suggested to me that TTUTA might call a strike over this. My answer is let them. I firmly believe that the country will not support the union on this. I also firmly believe that this suggestion will eliminate our system of so-called 'prestige schools' (which are NEITHER prestigious NOR world class) and will forcibly create a system that eliminates bad teaching (including the nationwide curse of absenteeism on the part of teachers nationwide). The name of the game is performance.

Okay. That is my suggestion to fix the problem. As I have said, I honestly don't have a clue how to fix this problem in the short term. But I firmly believe that if we take the proverbial bull by the proverbial horns that we can fix it. I should also say (if it is not already clear) that part of our problem is that our teachers are woefully underpaid. I think that my proposal would fix this.

FIXING CRIME -Part Two

 I had promised to give a solution to the crime problem that we are experiencing here in Trinidad & Tobago. I don't hold out my solution as the only one or even the best one. It is simply a proposal for you to consider. I just want to use first, by way of example, how and why things are so bleak that we need to step back and think - think very seriously - as to how we can fix it.

The crime problem has been created by the fact that we have one of the worst education systems in the world. Take for example, the plight of a young man, say 19 years old, born and raised in Laventille, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country. He was born to a young 20 year old mother who already had 3 children before him from 3 different fathers. Although he is highly intelligent, his education has been do awful that he can barely read or write. His mother went on to have 2 more children besides him. None of his siblings (including him) know their fathers. Because he comes from crime infested Laventille and is functionally illiterate he can't get a job. The prejudice is too strong. In any case, because of his illiteracy people tend to think that he is stupid. But he is anything but stupid!

So at 19 years old he finds himself cast upon the rubbish heap of life - unable to better himself through conventional means. But, as I said at the beginning of this post, he is highly intelligent. He sees young people his own age driving fancy cars, going to universities and generally having a bright future. He, on the other hand, has no future. No job. Nothing. He burns with resentment as to how unfair life is. Had he been born into a family with some means his whole future would be different.

So, what do you think he should do? What would you do in order to have a good/better life? If you said 'turn to crime' you are beginning to understand the problem. Just because a boy can't read or write properly doesn't mean that he is stupid; it just means that he has been constrained by society to spend his life in a box! But he is highly intelligent! So? Are you surprised that he turns to crime and violence? Do you know of another way that he can break out of this awful hell hole that he has been born into?

In order to understand a problem we have to go back to the beginning. And the beginning here is that the education system in T&T is so poor that unless and until we fix it crime will only get worse. Next time I'll give you my solution. You will already have understood that my answer is fixing the education system. And yes, I am aware that this fix will not take effect for 25 years or more. I am also aware that politicians don't think for more than 5 years at a time (and less as elections draw closer). But a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The longer we don't take that first step the worse the crime will get. 

FIXING CRIME - Part One

 Yes. The crime situation in Trinidad is clearly completely out of hand. And the symposium on crime involving the leaders in the Region that took place over two days this week did nothing except fatten the wallets of those who own the Hyatt hotel in Port of Spain where the symposium was held. There was absolutely no original thinking or any original solution presented by anybody. Instead all that we heard was "hang them high" and "throw away the key". And that is (sadly) the quality of what passes for leadership here in the Caribbean. Talk about a total waste of time and money!!

The truth is that there IS a solution to the runaway crime that we are experiencing. The problem is that it will take about 20 to 25 years to take effect - far longer than the shelf life of any of the politicians currently in office. Let me spell out the solution for you

                         E-D-U-C-A-T-I-O-N

And therein lies both the answer and the reason why our 'great' leaders won't fix it. Because if they fixed it and educated our populations then they wouldn't be able to pull the nonsense that they pull on their blind and uneducated supporters with such great electoral success.

Let me put it to you like this: Question: Where in the world (i.e., what countries) is crime the lowest? Answer: In those countries which have the best education systems.  Next question: Where in the world is crime the highest? Answer: In those countries where the education system is poor or practically non-existent. 

Kind of obvious when you think about it, ain't it?  But fixing the education system (and the resulting crime) is a long term fix. But as my old mammy used to say, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." And we simply aren't taking that essential first step! So? Take the pressure!

I have an idea of how we might fix our broken education system and will write about it in a future post. Let me say, however. That I don't hold out my solution to be the only one - or even the best one. But if I can get one person to start thinking of a workable solution to this terrible scourge that we are experiencing then I will have achieved  a lot! In any case, as I said at the beginning of this post, my solution is a long term one. Sadly, short of a State of Emergency (SOE), to which I am opposed, I really don't have any short term solution. (And why do I oppose an SOE? Because it is an anti-democratic device that can be horribly abused and it will have to be for far too long in order to be effective, thus giving would be dictators a beautiful chance to run amok.)

WE HAVE LOST THE DIVISIVE RACIAL WAR

 It is too painful to admit it, even to yourself if to nobody else, but it's true. We have lost the war against racial politics and the racial divide that plagues this country. Maybe in about a hundred years from now things might - in fact, probably will - change. But for the foreseeable future, and certainly in the lifetime of anyone reading this post right now, the war is effectively over and the right thinking peoples of this country have lost it. 

I put a large part of the blame on BOTH political parties who draw their support from either the African or the Indian side of the divide. If you are Indian you are a traitor to your race if you have the temerity to vote for the PNM and vice versa if you are an African and vote for or support the UNC. It is easier to make the racial appeal than it is to actually make policy proposals, and that is what BOTH sides do with absolutely no shame, even where the racism is blatant and in your face.

For example (as if I needed to prove this point), can anybody tell me clearly and succinctly what are the policy differences between the two major parties? Because basically the UNC seems to be saying (when all the verbiage is stripped away) simply that they can do a better job of running the country than the PNM. And conversely, the PNM seems to be saying that they are not the UNC.  And that's it! There are no arguments (intellectual or otherwise) except for race that differentiate the two parties.

Left by the wayside are the real decisions and arguments about the economy, health care, education and so on. For example, if the PNM (who is in government right now) were to take what many economists believe to be necessary by trimming the workforce in, say, WASA they would probably be voted out of office immediately because most of the overstaffing in the public sector economy comes from or is made up of their supporters. The UNC is acutely aware of this problem of overstaffing in the public sector but is appropriately silent on this issue. In other words, the UNC (probably correctly) assumes that there is no profit in that issue of overstaffing because they allowed it when they were in power and have signally failed to point it out probably reasoning that there is no profit in exposing that particular issue.

So? All politics is (are?) personal. And because those who offer themselves for leadership (on BOTH sides) are singularly devoid of any ideas on how to make things better other than don't vote for "them" because "they" are African/Indian and "our" people will suffer, we are clearly doomed to suffer the terrible consequences of racial divisiveness for a lllooonnnnggg time to come. Maybe we can yet save ourselves by forming  a new political party and calling it the Free Democratic Alliance of Trinidad & Tobago - FDATT for short!

RATIONALIZING PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The Spiritual Shouter Baptist holiday on Thursday last (30th March) gave me pause to think. Apart from the fact that it certainly is a well deserved recognition of this small, but important, faith and the role that it played in the development of our country, it is extremely important that we recognize and acknowledge the  roles that these small groups (faiths) have made to the society. But then I got to thinking: how many of us have had a birthday fall on , say, a Tuesday but have celebrated it on the week-end with friends and family? I would venture to suggest that just about every adult on the planet has done this at least once in his/her lifetime. After all, what is important is the acknowledgement and celebration of the person's birth (which is more important than the actual day itself).

So, I got to thinking: there are many religious public holidays (e.g., Christmas, Divali, Eid ul Fitr, etc.) which can't be moved for rather obvious reasons. But what about those public holidays that can be moved such as Spiritual Shouter Baptists Day, Emancipation Day, Labour Day, etc.? Why don't we celebrate them on, say, a particular Monday in the relevant month? That way we would all get the benefit of a long week-end, the particular event (e.g., emancipation) could be still celebrated and the particular section of society (e.g., the Spiritual Baptists) could still be honoured and acknowledged.

If we rationalized our public holidays and moved them to a particular Monday in the relevant month an immediate benefit to the Society as a whole would be an increase in production as many studies have shown that when a holiday falls on, say, a Tuesday or a Thursday there are more people who simply make the weekend a long one and take the relevant Monday or Friday off. Of course, there is a very large proportion of the work force that don't do this, but if we're being truthful we will recognize that there are a lot of people who do indulge in this practice. In other words, production would be affected positively. 

Sometimes we need to understand that not all of our problems require political solutions. Oftentimes some of our problems can be solved and things made better by the application of some good old commonsense. Oh! Its obviously more fun to blame the "other side". But sometimes the "other side" really didn't create the problem in the first place and simply went along with the original thinking that experience has shown is more than a little wonky. And our collective goal ought to be thinking about how to make our country more efficient and consequently a better place to live.