Holding on to hope

THE YEAR is off to a gruesome start, with a pre-school teacher murdered in front of her students, a triple murder at a family home in Arima, and a police-involved shooting in which two civilians were killed. And that was just the first week alone. Comfort levels among the population continues to decline, as the spectre of heinous crime continues to dwell among us.

Over and over again we are forced to confront the brutal reality that we live in a country in which people have no regard for the value of human life. So routine have killings become that in one incident a neighbour reportedly woke up to sounds of screams, thought nothing of it, and returned to bed.

All of these incidents must be fully investigated, and measures put in place to deal with their fallout. They include counselling as well as reviews of security measures in place at communities, at schools, and in relation to the way the police conduct their duties. Body cameras must be fully operationalised.

We call for justice, which is more than just the swift apprehension of any fugitive perpetrators. Justice requires timely and properly conducted trials that get to the bottom of the facts.

Whenever someone dies as a result of domestic violence or whenever a woman falls prey to violence, the same concerns are aired time and again. What are we teaching young boys? What messages are we sending as a society as a whole? Are we doing enough to combat the misogyny that is at the root of all of these violent incidents involving jilted lovers?

But it is not only that males feel women are their chattels, it is also that they regard women as less than them while not venerating the value of human life more generally. In addition to being a society in which women are routinely targeted, we can sometimes seem to be an uncaring, unfeeling country as well. But not all of us. And not all the time.

Consider the employees at Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd who donated thousands of dollars in food to flood victims who were affected in mid-December. Or the taxi drivers who took it upon themselves to repair a road at their own expense. These are the reminders of the hope we must now draw upon in terrible times like these.

The pre-school teacher’s murder is another blow for downtown Port of Spain, coming on the heels of the Old Year’s Day shooting spree, as well as a recent scare at the South East Port of Spain Secondary School in which it was feared bullets had penetrated the school compound. Some suggest the secondary school should be moved.

However, relocating a school every time something bad happens is not practical. It may also set a precedent that could be impossible to replicate elsewhere. As difficult as it is, the community must now hold on to hope if it is to ever recover.