Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Express
Editorial :
A
nation in need of rescue
As
elsewhere, criminal behaviour is not new to Trinidad
and Tobago. But, beyond a doubt, it has accelerated
over the years of sovereign independence. Nor has this
acceleration taken place overnight, many perceptive
citizens, long before the onset of what we have called
a rising tide of blood, having warned that the country
was heading for "social breakdown as evidenced
by collapsing community bonds, runaway delinquency
in over-large schools, increased numbers of both absentee
fathers and mothers with consequent burdens being placed
on aging grandparents."
Moreover,
as we continue to argue, there has been at all levels
of the society "a disastrous emphasis
on materialistic values" fuelled by the flow of
disposable income that began in the early 70s with
the advent of the "oil boom". This trend
was forcibly suppressed by the belt-tightening that
was occasioned by the fall in oil prices but it got
a boost again with the rise of those prices in the
late 90s that made possible the present level of prosperity
that has been, at one and the same time, boon and bane.
In the midst of these periods of expansion and contraction
and then expansion again, the values and verities
which many had hoped would serve to help weld the
nation were de-emphasised, if not completely destroyed,
leading to new kinds of acculturation including,
most murderously, a rapid expansion of the gun culture
which, increasingly, has come to be a major factor
in the trauma that is so much a part of the modern
age.
All of this has changed, for the worse, the mindset
of an alarming number of our citizens who continue
to exhibit new levels of aggression as evidenced by
raging road behaviour, non-compliance with the norms
of civilised life, complete disrespect and disregard
for supposedly legitimate authority, befoulment of
the environment and a general lawlessness that has
made corrupt practices for gain widely acceptable,
even as life has been rendered cheap by so many who
believe that they have little or nothing to lose.
As the evidence mounts daily that this is a country
that, more and more, is living at the edge of its nervous
energy, thoughts turn to the interventions that have
to be made by both the political and non-political
leadership, but also by the citizens both as individuals
and as civic collectives. The overall challenge is
how to manage personal ambition and the sustainability
of the whole.
Trinidad
Express is
one of the most important newspaper in Trinidad &
Tobago . Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish
in Trinidad Express, Thursday, January 10th 2008.
Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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01/ 13 /07
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