Ill-advised

A SICK irony attends the ongoing discussion surrounding the latest travel advisory on this country issued by US authorities.

That discussion, involving government and opposition officials, is a waste of time and effort given the real and more pressing issues that cry out to be addressed in TT today.

We are under no illusions that these travel advisories can have a detrimental impact on tourism.

We also appreciate that were TT officials to issue advisories to our nationals about travelling to the US, an unflattering picture of that country could easily be sketched, given its lax gun regulation, its race problem, its judicial backtracking on rights and its dangerous politics.

None of this is reason for the Government and Opposition to get carried away, however.

There has been too much ado over last Wednesday’s advisory issued by the US Department of State.

Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds took to the airwaves to push back against some of the department’s findings, particularly relating to terrorism threats, while Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has pushed back against Mr Hinds.

Yet while both sides spent the last few days quibbling over the finer details of the phrasing and terminology deployed in the latest document (which is largely identical to previous updates, incidentally) the country continued to reel from all manner of horrific and gruesome events.

Police are now probing the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the body of a 15-year-old who was reportedly killed and stuffed into a latrine in an incident that may well have involved an illegal gun.

It is the nature of US travel advisories – which are issued by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs – that they often seem needlessly alarmist.

At the same time, it is clear these advisories do not go far enough. They paint a portrait of a country touched by crime. But they clearly understate the case.

For example, the latest advisory singles out, yet again, certain areas as off-limits to US citizens: Laventille, Beetham, Sea Lots, Cocorite, and Port of Spain at night.

You could say this perpetuates the stigmatisation of these areas.

But you could also say this list is simply not long enough. Crime no longer seems to care where you are. Three murders took place in Tobago alone last month.

The advisory classes this country as “Level 2,” meaning US citizens are urged to exercise “increased caution.”

But also classed as Level 2 by the Department of State, owing to terrorism risks, are countries such as the UK, France, Denmark, Germany and Belgium.

At the end of the day, the US is simply protecting its citizens.

TT officials should buckle down and do the same.