Where is your compassion?

When 29-year-old Nalini Karina Telemaque listens to and looks at her young cousins, ages 11 and nine, her heart breaks for them. She cringes inside when she thinks of their heartache and the emotional turmoil, as they have yet to understand why their parents are being forced to seek asylum in TT. This hopelessness weighed so heavily on Telemaque's heart, that she felt the need to speak out about it on Instagram.

"My goodness, I simply stated how they feel...lost...not accustomed to what they see here. It's culture shock for them. They came from a middle class life and now feel lost in what they do not know or understand. They shared with me their feelings of being looked at scornfully, laughed at, treated differently, when they go out. I shared what these babies could not dare say and I am practically staked to a cross," she told WMN.

To most, as was recently posted on Instagram, the "little Venezuelans should just be grateful." But for Telemaque, life in TT now is nothing to what she had experienced as a child. She spent the last 17 years of her life in TT and holds dual citizenship, and it saddens her that society could be so myopic, even when it comes to how a child feels about having to leave their home and is caught up in situations beyond their control. At school, one of the children found a way to cry out when the class was asked to write an essay depicting their Worst Day Ever.

"I cried when her mom told me she stood up and said her worst day was leaving her home and coming to Trinidad. What a lot of uninformed people don't know is that this is terrible culture shock for children...they are uprooted...taken from what comfort and maybe in some cases, wealth they knew. They were middle class...they were not poor, as almost all seem to think. Where did that misconception come from, that we, and yes I say we, are all poor, that we all come from Venezuela drenched in poverty?

"I settled here through my dad, we pay taxes, observe the laws of this country, as most other Trinis do. The fruits of our labour paid off so that our family coming here temporarily can still hold their heads up a bit high, not better than, but with whatever little pride they can still muster. I am half and half, so I am caught in the middle of my emotions for my family here and my family in Venezuela and those that came here for help and are being treated differently than when I came," Telemaque said.

When she was five years old, Telemaque was already fluent in both Spanish and English. She is Venezuelan by birth, but has lived most of her life in south Trinidad. She credits her ease of adapting to the cultures of both countries, to her father, Trinidadian, Carl Seebaransingh. She insists that contrary to what most Trinidadians seem to be thinking, Venezuelans are neither here to "steal their jobs or their men." In fact, Telemaque says she believes migrating to TT is a temporary solution to the present ongoing turmoil in their homeland.

"How many of those who criticize, judge us, say disparaging things, class our women as sexual objects, make snide remarks and ridicule us, can truly endure what some of them have been through, in the past months? Can you even fathom having to flee your own country, the only life you have known, for a country that seems as foreign as its language?, I doubt it," she asked, as her voice cracked.

But Telemaque loves TT and said her love affair with this country begun the minute she first landed on its rich soil. It's no surprise she feels that way, as she has spent most of her school life in TT, having only attended primary school in Venezuela.

"I fulfilled my secondary studies at Cowen Hamilton Secondary School, Fifth Company, Moruga Road (and) tertiary education at the University of the West Indies, where I pursued and completed my Bachelors in Spanish and International Relations. The language barrier was not an issue for me, as it has been for most, including my cousins, as I could speak both. This and prayers made life easy for me, growing up here. My only challenge had been my mom, Maribel Telemaque, not moving from Venezuela with us, but I coped," she said wistfully.

The customer service specialist at Nestlé TT Limited has been featured in videos for soca artistes Erphaan Alves, Dexter "Blaxx" Stewart and Ian "Bunji Garlin" Alvarez, Mark Hardy and Yung Rudd. "I will not consider myself an actress, but more someone who’s willing to try new things once professionally done and guided by the right people."

Ironically, Telemaque said, she has never encountered the lewd or disrespectful treatment meted out to most Venezuelan women who visit or live here. "I did not. I strongly believe it is because I am so Trinidadian. You look at me and do not see a Venezuelan woman. However, I have been highly sexualised and harassed on the streets by men simply because I am a woman. There’s a part of me that simply ignores it. And there’s another part of me that wants to lash out verbally. I take deep breaths and sadly, try to limit my time on the streets by myself," she said.

She deems the term "Venny" as derogatory and believes it has prostitution connotations.

And while she is grateful for the good memories from her country of birth, she remains heartbroken over what she sees happening there. "It has affected my relatives, my friends, and definitely me. I pray. It is the only way to cope right now. I lost an aunt and cousin due to no medicines in our hospitals. My aunts and uncles are in an out of Trinidad but predominantly settled here, and it is a bit of a relief, however, I see how hard they work day in and day out as immigrants. Still, their being here, while I understand the concerns about Trinidad's resources being inadequate, that we are so many to the size of this country, the impact on the social services, need not be looked as competition, but as an act of compassion for a fallen brother or sister. If Trinidad was devastated in any way, really in crisis, I would rejoice knowing another country would open its shores to us, would seek to help us back to our feet. Wouldn't you?" she asked tearfully.

"I want everyone who contributed to the deterioration of Venezuela behind bars. I want each one to pay as per the law for the current socio-political situation of my country. I also want back the Venezuela I grew up in. I want a Democratic system that works. Accessible health care, education, jobs, food for all regardless of social class. Cuba's history is quite different from that of Venezuela. However, I am seeing change within the country and its affairs with other countries. Positive change," she said.

Telemaque sees positive in her future too. "I fell in love with makeup back in 2009. It is something I have always wanted to professionally do, and now ten years later, I said 'I’m going for it.'" She is also into fitness and prides herself on maintaining her svelte figure, but would much rather be remembered for her humanitarian spirit and for advocating against the mistreatment to any human being whether it's in their native land or while seeking asylum.

Telemaque said she will be pursuing a law degree in preparation for working in and around policy making where it comes to immigration laws. "I feel a sense of responsibility in reshaping laws to further assist immigrants," she said.