Following a symposium on crime and violence in Trinidad and Tobago, regional leaders are optimistic as they tackle an upsurge of violent crimes across the Caribbean. The two-day event ended on Tuesday and was attended by some 300 delegates, including Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, and other Caribbean leaders.
Speaking at a press conference at the end of the symposium, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness said the idea of doom and gloom at the symposium in the face of the rising crime rate in the region is not accurate.
“The fact that we are gathered here shows the challenges are common across the region and therefore there is opportunity for regional collaboration…,” he said. “And it has given us an opportunity to speak with one voice about the problem.” He said that if the symposium is seen or broadcast across the region, it might help change the mindset that it is all doom and gloom.
“The truth is that in the forum we were able to discuss and exchange solutions about what is happening in Trinidad, what we are doing in Jamaica, what we are doing in the Bahamas, and how we can learn from each other,” Holness stated. “So in that regard, I think we should take a more optimistic view of what the future could be for us to finally get a hold of the problem of violence and crime in our society.”
Prime Minister of St Lucia, Philip J Pierre described the symposium as “a learning experience.”
“A gathering where you find some solutions but you try to entice the entire society, everybody, civil society, churches, family, everybody to get together to fight a scourge that at all levels in the region is affecting us,” he said.
Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, said what people from the region should take from the symposium is that “we are here, that we are serious.”
He noted that the political will in the region to fight crime may have been waning but is now restored. “And that there is hope… it is not doom and gloom,” he remarked. “The challenges may appear to be daunting but I don’t think we took this job on as leaders to shirk our responsibilities from tackling the challenges that face us. And I think this symposium
demonstrated that.”
He thanked the Prime Minister of Trinidad, Dr Keith Rowley for organizing the event. “I want to thank Prime Minister Rowley for allowing us to be able to come and demonstrate our own personal commitment to this fight in respect to the scourge of crime as impacting our region and particularly to recognize it as a public health issue so that we could diagnose it, identify all of the specific ills and inform that health issue and get the prescriptive drugs that [are] necessary to heal those illnesses,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Rowley expressed confidence that regional attorneys general, who were tasked with formulating legislation to combat crime, will meet and agree on such legislation given the perceived slow pace at which things get done in CARICOM.
“I know it is frequently said that things take a long time or don’t ever get done in CARICOM and we keep repeating that but we did get a lot done since CARICOM has been formed, so it is possible to get some things done,” he stated.
He added that it is now easier for the attorneys general to have virtual meetings and to advance the issue. “Nowadays what we have found is that the use of virtual meetings can facilitate the speed at which decisions are made – we don’t have to travel to a meeting and make plans well in advance to spend two or three days for a one-day meeting.”
“So we are anticipating that it will facilitate faster flow,” he said. Dr Rowley stated that the relationships between heads of government and the frequency with which they can now meet will allow them to do things a bit faster.
“So, I am optimistic that that can be done and also say that the attorneys general that I am familiar with now, they have the enthusiasm for giving some priority,” he remarked. “And the issue itself is so serious, I think the attorneys general grasp that we need to give it the time that it deserves.”
The symposium was held at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain under the theme, Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge.
When you point one finger more than one point back at you. These leaders talk about stopping crime however they themselves are involved in well publicized criminal activity. Consider the sending of heavily armed police into Dominica to cover for the local police to terrorize the sleeping village of Salisbury. The governments of Antigua and Dominica alleged involvement in the kidnapping and torture of Choksi. Government ministers involved in the treating and bribery at elections, the judiciary allegedly allowing a company in Dominica which hasn’t paid the taxes it’s owing for years to not meet it’s obligations. The government of Dominica weakening the Integrity in public office watchdog committee so certain people will be protected from reporting criminal activities and the list goes on. Yet these same guys sit in their talking shop and seem to point fingers at others and not at themselves. Hypocrisy will never end until we see action to stop crime at all levels.
“— regional attorneys general, who were tasked with formulating legislation to combat crime —”
After all these years of the criminals attacking and murdering people, those individuals having responsibility for dealing with crime are just now talking about ‘formulating legislation to deal with crime’; what have they been doing all this time?
The biggest crimestars are seated right on the symposium.
Aye DNO & the rest of y’all, Ralph Gonsalves had quite a few interesting things to say at the 2-day regional symposium on crime:
Report #1 – Some men kill to mind pretty, high-maintenance women, PM Gonsalves says – https://www.iwnsvg.com/2023/04/18/some-men-kill-to-mind-pretty-high-maintenance-women-pm-gonsalves-says/
Report #2 – JUDGES UNDER FIRE – https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/judges-under-fire/article_9a8a1994-dd88-11ed-9cb5-8f543bf4b828.html
Excerpt: “On the issue of the death penalty, Gonsalves said: “I am a Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic church says we shouldn’t have the death penalty. My mother was a Legion of Mary and she taught me that you shouldn’t have the death penalty. I happen to think that both my mother and the Pope are wrong. For murder, other than a crime of passion, you should get the death penalty.”
I definitely agree with Ralph re: the death penalty & that a number of criminals are just plain wicked – NO EXCUSES for their criminal ways.
For the kinds of leadership I see expressed by black negroes in the region and elsewhere – If I had to be rebirth again I would not want to be a Negro. Plain and simple.
@Valarie Valaha, how sad of you acting like the white man, applying collective punishment to the entire proud and historic race, the negro race, because of the actions of a tiny minority. You need to do some research and I’ll direct you to the series on “Great African civilizations” by Henry Gates. Feed your intellect not your ignorance.
Stop referring to these reprobates as leaders. Leaders guide, coach and inspire others. These guys should be called controllers. The control the country’s purse/treasury, resources, public jobs, scholarships, laws, judicial systems, the police, parliament, every aspect of life in these countries they micromanage.
Look what they have brought to all our countries: thievery, crime, lawlessness, poverty, malnutrition, poor healthcare, bad roads, low productivity, victimization, opacity, etc.
One other thing they have brought to the table – empty talk.
What have these leaders ever done to inspire confidence in their decisions and actions? They meet, they talk, return to their respective countries, then sit on all the decisions discussed. That’s their mode of operation.
Most of the guns and ammunition that are used to commit these frequent murders and crimes are illegally imported from the USA. The USA must make a real and more concerted effort to curtail the flow of these sophisticated weapons to our region. The rulers in the Caribbean should impress on their American counterparts that they have to implement stricter measures to lessen the number of guns and bullets coming into the Caribbean countries.
These Caribbean leader will have no influence on US policy makers regarding the importation of weapons into the Caribbean. Despite repeated requests for the US government to act, Canada and Mexico have not been able to stop the flow of US weapons into their countries. Heck the US has not been willing to stop the mass slaughter of its citizens at the hands of murderers on its own soil; they will have little interest in doing anything that will help the Caribbean nations.
Ha!! They cannot dictate what crime will or wont happen. TriniBad. They cannot even control what happening in Laventille.
Crime has been rising in the Caribbean for a long time and not one of these guys or their predecessors have been able to stop or reduce it. What I know they are good at is talking. Our leaders make very good speeches (written by somebody else) and then they move on to something else. I have zero confidence in these guys.