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.)
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