WHO DOH HAVE UMBRELLA? Development of Underdevelopment By David A.M. Fraser

WHO DOH HAVE UMBRELLA?

Development of Underdevelopment

By David A.M. Fraser

Government is not going to find solutions to gang related crime in seminars, reports, parliamentary tits for tats, public consultations, and most of all in hiring more consultants.

Everything has been tried and tested, with little or no effect. There is a tendency to blame the Police for poor performance. The sad but stark truth is that we are not coming to terms with the social reality that Trinidad is a failing state held together with some natural resource money earned from oil and gas taxes, nothing else. The Police only come in at the tail end of the problem, not at the start or the beginning, when children are young. This is where parenting plays a pivotal role in the development of competent citizens.

Our talk shows are littered with people arguing for crumbs and dying for it also. URP and CEPEP seem to be engaging the attention of the Media instead of the myriad of issues that really are at the heart of our social problems.

To quote from Lennox Raphael world renowned play writer, spin doctor and journalist he said in our group today that ‘each time he tunes in to Trinidad and Tobago the discussion seems to be a big shouting match’, and ‘it’s appears the art of discussion has fled our shores’. This is an excellent summary of our media and what has been taking place.

Murder and Gang related activity is fostered by the lack of proper intervention into the ghettos across Trinidad and Tobago, since it was easier for us to feed a few Gang leaders to keep the rest in check. Soon enough this model did not sustain.

Community leaders now recognize they have power, and once organized, could control the criminal underworld, increase crime at the drop of a command, and cool things down when it suits their fancy.

Trinidad’s Ghettos were swept under the carpet evolving into a pandemic which society now has to contend with. What applies in the normal lives of citizens have no place in the reality of those people who live in Hell Yard, Bagatelle, Powder Magazine, Charford Court, the Harp and the countless ghettos scattered throughout the East West Corridor and in Central Trinidad.

The social reality is that we neglected planning at the expediency of the get back rationale. 'Nationalism' after independence was a rubric for black empowerment, not true national mobilization based on fairness and that competence would be the principal driver of our development model. This is also true in countries like Jamaica, Guyana and all the failed states of Caricom.

The people of the already existing depressed communities were tricked into believing that their time had reached, so to speak. The sad reality is that only the actors were changed, but the rules remained the same.

Albert Einstein said that ‘few people are capable of expressing with equanimity’ - evenness of temper even under stress, ‘opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions’.

Frank Lloyd Wright, the greatest planner of all time and one of the world’s most renowned architects said those famous words ‘the environment shapes us’ when discussing how planning, social and physical, are important elements to ensure social progress and development.

Neurologist and founder of the school of psycho analytics Dr. Sigmund Freud said that ‘a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt, neither has, nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence’.

Our society has been guilty of malaise and putting plasters on infectious sores instead of treating the problem. We neglected social and physical planning after independence focusing our attention on imaginary issues which never really dealt with building a strong platform for progress.

If we are to conquer the bogey of murder and underdevelopment then we must confront the issues bang on, stop playing politics and scoring cheap points while the society decays and falls completely apart.

Trinidad has become engaged in the 'development of underdevelopment', a phenomenon which was strongly propelled by the previous PNM administration when it built Maloney, La Horquetta, Powder Magazine, and the myriad of ghetto housing schemes designed to transfer loyalist votes to sustain political power.

It would be noteworthy to say that the HDC/NHA model has definitely achieved one objective, which is to transfer the problems from one place to another, serving to under-develop the entire country.

When I say that Trinidad is a failing society, it is against this background that we must realize what is really taking place on a daily basis - murder, squatting, hunger and social fragmentation.

How the society can change the destructive underdevelopment model that presently obtains, to a policy framework which is truly reflective of an independent country moving forward, will be the next social revolution to either develop or permanently destroy the society.

Social tensions are high, the society is unhappy, and when no sensible solutions are around, people take things into their own hands.

Government’s blinded by power are unable to see the problems affecting society. Phillip Alexander’s commentary was dead on target when he quoted Marie Antoinette ‘that if one does not have bread why don’t they eat cake’ is so true of our politicians who are not in touch with the real issues. However, Marie Antoinette lost her head in the throes of the French revolution.

As Phillip Alexander said in his blog, “the storm is coming” when, will be a matter for the social scientists. Who doh have umbrella will get wet!

Respectfully Submitted,

David A.M. Fraser

Blog: FRONTLINE By David Fraser http://davidamfraser.blogspot.com

Blog: DAF Social Media Poll http://dafsocialmediapoll.blogspot.com/

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