Double standards for bars

THE EDITOR: It has been said that the TT society operates on different levels. A casual Friday night drive through the streets of Woodbrook where I live showed me in no uncertain terms that this is true.

While daycare centres remain closed, August holiday camps for children are not being allowed to operate during the “summer” and worshippers have to sit in alternate pews in church and distance between themselves, bars are allowed to pack people in like sardines and have massive gatherings of far more than the stipulated 25 people, spilling out onto the streets and sidewalks.

Pass by a certain bar on Carlos Street and you’ll see this as plain as day – with a police station not even two streets away. Friday night was like a fete without music – no masks, no social distancing were evident. Along Ariapita Avenue the bars between Rosalino and Ana Streets continued to have massive spills onto the roadway.

Even if the owners are quoted in the newspapers as saying they are not responsible for the behaviour of their patrons, then the authorities should be there to ensure that the crowds are dispersed – as per the regulations. Or is it that rum and fete trump everything in our divided land?

I don’t understand the double standards. Why are some allowed to flout the law while others are made to rigorously toe the line for fear of being fined or shut down? Where are the “loitering” laws that were supposed to be used to break up the crowds that swarm these places?

Trinidadians should be using these times to prepare and ensure that good mitigation habits are created in their daily lives as routine. Once the borders are open again, we will then be exposed to risk. If we continue with the attitude that this is a “plandemic” as many are saying on the airwaves, then we are in for a severe body count in the future.

DR Z NIMA

Woodbrook