By Johnny Commansingh
Many moons ago, while reading for a masters in communication science, I was engaged as a guest columnist for the University Leader at Fort Hays State University, in Hays, Kansas. On March 31, 1998 the University Leader published my article titled: ‘Ignoring a problem won’t make it disappear.’
In this article, I referred to the script on ‘Germ Warfare’ that was published the week before. In the exposé I harped on the need to wash our hands because of what I noticed. I was aghast! Many young men did not wash their hands after using the urinal or the loo. However, when I thought that ‘Germ Warfare’ was the issue, I was just ‘stamping out ants.’
I realized that there was something more sinister with which I had to contend. I continued:
“It’s either I did not see the elephants or they were invisible. For those who know the story of the ‘Titanic,’ they would surely remember that what the ‘lookout man’ saw was just the tip of the iceberg on that fateful night. I stake no claim to be a mariner, a ‘lookout man’ a prophet or a deep sea diver, but I have this strange fear that somewhere out there in the darkness, in the mist, there is an ‘iceberg’ and we are not taking heed.”
In review, this 20-year-old article made me turn to my homeland Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and the problems with which we are saddled. I must announce that there is an ‘iceberg’ that’s too close for comfort. There are baleful problems we cannot ignore, chief of which is crime. These problems will not go away! We cannot keep wringing our hands in despair. We must do something! The question remains: How do we put an end to the miasma of crime when some of our police officers in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) are also involved in committing crime.
Vasti Singh in her article: ‘PCA, TTPS working to keep out ‘rogue cops’ published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian on June 18, 2024 stated:
“The head of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has revealed that his organization has been working with the police service to ensure rogue cops are brought to justice. PCA director David West says the PCA’s relationship with successive Commissioners of Police has been good and growing even stronger, as a clearer understanding of the PCA’s role has developed. “We’ve assisted in a lot of matters, and they help us.” He added: “It’s a collaborative responsibility because they understand there are rogue elements in the TTPS, and it’s in their best interest to get rid of those rogue elements.” The PCA boss…admits the number of complaints filed against police officers continues to increase, despite its improved relationship and collaboration with the Police Service. The PCA has closed 144 complaints against police officers in the first three months of 2024. However, some 700 probes are still ongoing.”
Mangled in the philosophy of this developing country is that ‘Trinidad is nice. Trinidad is a paradise,’ and that ‘God is ah Trini.’ Nevertheless, the law abiding citizens of this wonderful country are being held prey to the never-ending violence that is rampant in every sector. Many people fear for their lives and the evil that may befall them that may arise from home invasions. One of the evils is rape! Domestic violence, illegal gun toting, illicit drug running, human trafficking, and murders continue to ravage the landscape.
On Thursday 27, June 2025, Ian Alleyne’s Crime Watch on television has shown a total of 190 murders to date. On a recent post on Facebook, T&T is seventh in the world for crime. It’s next door neighbour, Venezuela, is number one! During the time when cocoa was king, the music known as Parang probably arrived on the shores of T&T from Venezuela via the ‘cocoa panyols’ who came to work the cocoa fields. We Trinis enjoy the Parang and we have even adopted the cuatro, the Venezuelan national instrument. It is almost the same with Venezuelans storming the shores of Trinidad in search of a better life. All of them bring with them their cultural baggage. Crime is also one of the components of that baggage; no getting away from that.
In every biome, when an invasive species arrive on a landscape that species seeks to dominate. Just look at what Kudzu (Pueraria montana) is doing in the American south. It was labeled as ‘The vine that ate the South.’ Without any doubt, this Venezuelan migratory situation has exacerbated the problems relevant to crime that T&T is having today, especially human trafficking.
The article, ‘Two Hispanic women found buried in a shallow grave’ reported by Anna-Lisa Paul and Shastri Boodan in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian (27/06/2025) indicated a smidgen of the nature of the crimes committed:
“Acting on information received from an informant, officers of the National Special Operations Unit (NSOU) went to Ramsaran Trace, Warren Road, Cunupia, around 11.30 pm on Wednesday and found a disturbed area approximately 42 feet north of the roadway. Upon investigating, officers found the bodies of the two women lying beside each other in a shallow grave estimated to be about four feet deep…Senior police officers were unable to say if the victims bore any tattoos or scars but confirmed items of jewelry found on both will be used in the identification process.
“They confirmed the area was a “normal dumping ground.” Meanwhile, Venezuelan and human rights activist Yesenia Gonzalez yesterday condemned the killings…Gonzalez argued that Hispanic women often bear the brunt of gender-based violence and public stigma. “People do not have the right to kill someone if they are a prostitute,” she added, pointing to widespread xenophobic sentiment online and a lack of support for victims trafficked from Venezuela. Gonzalez said many women are either lured or kidnapped and brought to Trinidad to work as prostitutes, often forced to repay large sums for their release.”
Taking a closer look at the criminality occurring in T&T it is clear that too many of our children, youth, and even some older citizens are now caught in the web of all kinds of banditry. It seems that the element of God is totally absent from the landscape of T&T. I have news for the many who believe that ‘God is a Trini.’
Look at what I wrote in Trini dialect in one of my books published in 2010 titled: Sweet and Sour Trinidad and Tobago:
“One thing ah know is dat some people say dat God is a Trini. Although this might be so, ah find it rel disheartening to sense the morass of the present atmosphere of Trinidad and Tobago. It is quite likely dat God was lucky and he geh ah visa and duss it…I am almost sure that Jesus would not hang around in Trinidad and Tobago too long either because he ‘fraid dey go kill him again. And with all the Sunday morning bawling and shouting and screaming “hallelujah, hallejujah, hallejujah, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus” in all dem church an dem, the Holy Spirit eh coming back…he dun wid dis place because the devil take over the place.
“God and the devil cyar dwell in the same place…everybody know dat! Dis place is hell! It is as though there is an odium of evil stalking the land. Maybe God decided to take a holiday, a long holiday; maybe God is afraid to be shot or knifed by some arrogant bandit in Tunapuna, Maloney, Grande, Arima or Sando. There is no need for Jesus to die twice and certainly not in Trinidad.”
Where do we go from here with this problem that is festering for decades in T&T? Imagine that I wrote the book in 2010! For crying out loud, it is now 2025! Fifteen years have elapsed, and in terms of progress, we have not gotten any better. Our communities are still rotting with heinous crimes. In T&T we have more vehicles on the jammed up roads; more than any other country in the Caribbean region. Some families have three, four, five and six vehicles; one for every member. Trinidad and Tobago is an oil and gas producing state.
Could the affluence generated by the ‘oil money’ give rise to such inconsistencies in a society? The problem of crime that is extant on the T&T landscape is stifling! People cannot ‘breathe!’ Everywhere you turn there is bound to be a purse snatcher, a car hijacker, a gold chain snatcher and an extortioner; and the judicial system is backlogged! No one is safe and nowhere is safe; not even the beach!
My spiritual needle points back to 1997. To fix our problem I must invoke the words of Basdeo Panday, a former prime minister. The ‘Silver Fox’ was what he was. His words in the article written by Suzanne Sheppard: ‘Panday: Let us go back to God’ published in the Sunday Express (28/09/1997) advocated that religious leaders should take a more active role in the country’s affairs. He declared that T&T was becoming “increasingly dichotomized into religious and secular.” He warned that there’s “a real danger in leaving the rebuilding of the society to economists or development experts alone…or even politicians.”
Uttering these statement at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Trinidad Muslim League at St. Joseph, Panday, said in the keynote address: “there was a need to put God back into the lives of all citizens of the country.”
Sheppard’s article provided a window into Panday’s mind when he mentioned:
“While the pious people seclude themselves in mosques, temples and monasteries, could we then pray to God to solve our problems, without committing ourselves to the struggles against the evil that surrounds us?Religious values were meant to be demonstrated in the very day-to-day existence and practical affairs of human life…Our education system, one of the major keys to social transformation, has deteriorated into an arena for competition and rivalry and corruption with the very tools of education-schoolbooks…For too long we have emphasized the utilitarian value of education at the expense of developing young minds to become useful, productive and upright citizens.”
Trinidad and Tobago cannot continue like this. Crime will stymie the developmental progress that we hope to achieve. As I wrap up this article, I must return to what was written by William J. Benneth, former secretary of education of the United States of America published in the Reader’s Digest of April 1994. Benneth said in “What really ails America:” “Our culture seems almost dedicated to the corruption of the young…Our real crisis is spiritual, a corruption of the heart.” I am of the view that what ails America is the same thing that ails Trinidad and Tobago.