debut: 2/16/17
35,084 runs
How the T&T PNM government ardent supporters live Sea Lots
In the backdrop of Sea Lots’ tightly-choked network of single-storey concrete homes and wooden shacks, the hub of the country’s economy, the Eric Williams Financial Complex, towers over Port-of-Spain.
The community in the Twin Towers’ shadows outdates it by more than 150 years.“There has been a lot of development over the years, but of course, there is still poverty. We are living paycheque by paycheque, but not everybody has that opportunity or having money coming in,” 62-year-old lifelong resident Helen told Guardian Media. As one goes deeper through the narrow, snaking lanes of Pioneer Drive in Sea Lots West, piercing eyes from young men on the block examine vehicles and their occupants. Using walkie-talkies, the scouts alert others of any suspicious activity. While this may seem strange in many communities, in Sea Lots it is a norm established to check out potential threats. The significant number of men sitting on chairs or walls in the alleys at 10.30 am is noticeable, and so too is the number of women in lime green CEPEP uniforms. Almost all of the women in the uniforms, we were told, are single mothers. Almost all of the young men, we were also told, are unemployed.
“We have a committee which we call Positive Vibes, trying to save the youths from crime and the streets, but there’s only so much we can do. We would really like that strength, that support because I believe that every youth in every ghetto in Trinidad and Tobago has something good. “A woman does have it so hard when she has three youths to feed and educate and show a better way. When you don’t have a father figure in a youth life and it is the mother alone, it is extra hard. These people coming in here, they talk about sports and all kinds of things for the youth, but they not fulfilling what they talk about. It’s only when elections come or some kind of election campaign that they come and hear the problems or solutions. They get solutions also. When you go to a community and hear solutions, you need to take them seriously,” Sean said articulately in a deep voice. ‘They only need us for certain purposes–voting’
But when you grow up in poverty ... Poverty is the outbreak of crime in Trinidad and Tobago. It is the number one problem that causes crime in Trinidad and Tobago. And the Government now, with all the millions in expenditure in Parliament, you does see them, what is the Government doing for youths and them in remote areas like these? “We are creating a problem we cannot control in the end. The Government is the main factor because they are not involving themselves. They want to come now, when they allow it, and realise when it is out of control to come now, and it is the innocent paying for it, you understand what I showing yah?In the presence of increasing poverty and an accompanying prejudice against those in the community, he said there was hate breeding–one that is boiling over on the streets. And he sees the hate taking hold of people overwhelmed by their circumstances. “Sometimes them youth and them might want to go to school. I might see four or five of them stay home. Why yuh ain’t go to school? They don’t have any money to go to school. And I might assist in whatever way I could, but I too catching my arse.No school, hungry bellies for children.There was a disturbing sense of melancholy to Ryan. His eyes appeared hollow, while he was devoid of energy. His facial muscles drooped, as if they had forgotten how to be used to smile. When asked, he confessed that there are mornings, many mornings, he wakes up and has nothing to eat.
“My mother does struggle for we to get money for we to go to school. She working CEPEP right around here and that’s the salary she does get at the end of the fortnight.
In the backdrop of Sea Lots’ tightly-choked network of single-storey concrete homes and wooden shacks, the hub of the country’s economy, the Eric Williams Financial Complex, towers over Port-of-Spain.
The community in the Twin Towers’ shadows outdates it by more than 150 years.“There has been a lot of development over the years, but of course, there is still poverty. We are living paycheque by paycheque, but not everybody has that opportunity or having money coming in,” 62-year-old lifelong resident Helen told Guardian Media. As one goes deeper through the narrow, snaking lanes of Pioneer Drive in Sea Lots West, piercing eyes from young men on the block examine vehicles and their occupants. Using walkie-talkies, the scouts alert others of any suspicious activity. While this may seem strange in many communities, in Sea Lots it is a norm established to check out potential threats. The significant number of men sitting on chairs or walls in the alleys at 10.30 am is noticeable, and so too is the number of women in lime green CEPEP uniforms. Almost all of the women in the uniforms, we were told, are single mothers. Almost all of the young men, we were also told, are unemployed.
“We have a committee which we call Positive Vibes, trying to save the youths from crime and the streets, but there’s only so much we can do. We would really like that strength, that support because I believe that every youth in every ghetto in Trinidad and Tobago has something good. “A woman does have it so hard when she has three youths to feed and educate and show a better way. When you don’t have a father figure in a youth life and it is the mother alone, it is extra hard. These people coming in here, they talk about sports and all kinds of things for the youth, but they not fulfilling what they talk about. It’s only when elections come or some kind of election campaign that they come and hear the problems or solutions. They get solutions also. When you go to a community and hear solutions, you need to take them seriously,” Sean said articulately in a deep voice. ‘They only need us for certain purposes–voting’
But when you grow up in poverty ... Poverty is the outbreak of crime in Trinidad and Tobago. It is the number one problem that causes crime in Trinidad and Tobago. And the Government now, with all the millions in expenditure in Parliament, you does see them, what is the Government doing for youths and them in remote areas like these? “We are creating a problem we cannot control in the end. The Government is the main factor because they are not involving themselves. They want to come now, when they allow it, and realise when it is out of control to come now, and it is the innocent paying for it, you understand what I showing yah?In the presence of increasing poverty and an accompanying prejudice against those in the community, he said there was hate breeding–one that is boiling over on the streets. And he sees the hate taking hold of people overwhelmed by their circumstances. “Sometimes them youth and them might want to go to school. I might see four or five of them stay home. Why yuh ain’t go to school? They don’t have any money to go to school. And I might assist in whatever way I could, but I too catching my arse.No school, hungry bellies for children.There was a disturbing sense of melancholy to Ryan. His eyes appeared hollow, while he was devoid of energy. His facial muscles drooped, as if they had forgotten how to be used to smile. When asked, he confessed that there are mornings, many mornings, he wakes up and has nothing to eat.
“My mother does struggle for we to get money for we to go to school. She working CEPEP right around here and that’s the salary she does get at the end of the fortnight.
- edited -
