*MY STUPID FUCKING TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER DID SOME SHIT THAT CAUSED ALL OF THE FUCKING PHONE LINES ON THE ENTIRE STREET TO BE DOWN FOR 48 HOURS. THIS ENTRY WAS ACTUALLY WRITTEN LAST NIGHT*
My day began with a murder. I was walking through City Gate (the transport centre of the capital of Trinidad) when I noticed that people were staring at the ground. I followed their gazes and saw a mouse scampering out of the paths of several people a few feet away from me. The guy in front me, exclaimed:
“What the jail is this?” – typical Trini expression
He then stomped down on the mouse with the heaviness of his boot as it tried to scamper past him. The man moved his leg so casually that I honestly did not expect his boot to meet anything except the ground. The survival of mice, after all, is running away. You’ve seen those Tom and Jerry cartoons, haven’t you? I am certain you’ve heard of Speedy Gonzalez. Cats are fast little fuckers, but they have yet to catch up with those mice. But sure enough, the man got Speedy Gonzalez. And as I walked past, I saw Mickey Mouse’s misshapen body twitching on the ground.
Two women saw the entire incident and started laughing hysterically, though I am not quite sure at what – the mouse’s murder, or the expression on my face.
This murder though was not the only one to occur in the capital city in the past 24 hours. Let me bring out the newspapers for you, because if this were not my country, I would have killed myself laughing (and added to the murder rate):
“ ‘Real people have to dead up in the Terrace by Thursday.’
Members of a John John gang ensured their leaders’ word bore fruit when they shot and killed Plaisance Terrace resident Oba Jones on the bustling Independence Square minutes after midday struck yesterday.
The incident occurred around 12.05 pm on the Brian Lara Promenade, directly opposite Republic Bank and just across from the Police Mobile Unit.
Shoppers and many workers out on their lunch break were forced to scamper for cover when the four shots rang out…
…According to reports, the shooting evolved from an incident at the Treasury Building where a number of residents from John John had gathered to cash their Unemployment Relief Programme cheques.” – The Daily Express, Friday 22nd April 2005.
The police eventually held 19 men. Nineteen men were spraying bullets at fucking noon on Independence Square. BROAD FUCKING DAYLIGHT IN INDEPENDENCE SQUARE. I’ve written about Independence Square already. Independence Square and the Brian Lara Promenade are one and the same. It is the busiest part of the city – always full of people, bustling with activity. This is like a gun fight breaking out in the middle of Madison Square Garden in New York. Or in front of Big Ben in England. In the fucking daylight. Nineteen arseholes with guns turned the busiest part of the fucking country (which I walk through several times a day, mind you) into the fucking O.K. Corral.
And did anyone notice the part about this show-down happening within a 60 second stroll of a police mobile unit? WHAT THE FUCK is this country coming to where gang-members believe themselves to be so invulnerable that they can hunt down and kill a man in front of the fucking police?
Some reports say that they chased the man down to Independence square, and when they finally catch him with a bullet, one man went up to his body, which was lying on the ground, and fired off two more shots. In the middle of fucking Independence Square.
But let’s continue, because it gets more interesting than this:
“Oba was the elder brother of Abina McCarthy, the two-year-old girl who was shot in the chest near the Central Market on March 23. It is believed that the bullet which struck the infant was meant for their (Oba and Abina’s) father Ricardo McCarthy who sustained minor injuries then.
At Plaisance Terrace yesterday where Jones lived, a furious and hostile McCarthy was crying.
‘Just tell them the same man who shoot my daughter in she chest, kill my son! That is all I have to say.’
It is believed that Jones was killed to make a point and further torture McCarthy.”
This is where I can link it to an even funnier story:
“Two-year-old girl, Abina McCarthy is in unsatisfactory condition at the Intensive Care Unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at Mt. Hope, after being injured by a bullet meant for her father a Jamaat al Muslimeen member.
The Express understands that around 7.50 am yesterday the girl’s mother Onika Perez was driving the child’s father, Ricardo McCarthy to collect his salary at an Unemployment Relief Programme field office near to the Police Traffic Branch in Port of Spain.
As Perez approached the entrance to the Central Market she slowed down her vehicle to drive through a pot hole.
Two men who were reportedly monitoring the couple’s movement – crept out from some nearby bushes and began firing wildly at the car.
The back glass was shattered and the two gunmen pumped round after round into the vehicle with no regards as to how close they were to the police. Both gunmen were not wearing masks.
Following the shooting the attackers fled on foot.” – The Daily Express, Thursday 24th March 2005
Let me pause here and point out the startling similarities.
• Both occurred in the broad daylight.
• Both occurred in a public place.
• Both were related to the Unemployment Relief Programme – both father and son were collecting their URP cheques.
• Both occurred within walking distance of a police station.
The Unemployment Relief Programme is a funny thing really. It was initially implemented by the government, but later taken over by the Jamaat al Muslimeen. As you may or may not have noticed, McCarthy is a member of the Jamaat. The Jamaat is alleged to be religious organisation. I use the word “alleged” because I really do not know what is quite so religious about being involved in the vast majority of this country’s murders.
Another fascinating fact about this organisation is that this is the same that committed treason by performing a coup and temporarily overthrowing the government a few days after my birthday in 1990. That’s right, the Jamaat, and its leader, Abu Bakr, burnt down Police Headquarters, took over parliament, and when he ordered the then Prime Minister, ANR Robinson to tell the National Guard to stand down and he refused, he shot the PM in his leg.
I will always have the deepest respect for ANR Robinson, who later went on to be President and then part-founder of the International Criminal Court because this man has what you call testicular fortitude. Mr. ANR Robinson had a gun pointed at him, and an instruction to tell the National Guard to stand down thrown at him (all of this done on the national television station, mind you – the Jamaat took over the television station as well). And what was Mr. Robinson’s response:
“Attack with full force.”
He is the only politician I will ever respect.
I wish I could say that the major players in that coup d’état, including Abu Bakr, their leader, are now getting arse-fucked every day in jail, but this is not the case. A lawyer called Ramesh Lawrence Maraj (a man he deserves a fate worse than death) not only found a loop hope in the law that got them off, but he got the state to pay the Jamaat for damage caused to the Jamaat’s property when the police raided the building to arrest the Jamaat members.
That’s right. You can burn down the police’s headquarters, you can take over a television channel, you can storm parliament, you can overthrow the government, and you can shoot the Prime Minister. But if the police dares to break a window pane when they come to your house to arrest you, the state will have to pay for that broken glass, and then some.
But let’s get back to the story, because the laughter never ends:
“He (McCarthy) slammed his enemies as not being devout Muslims (as he was) adding that they didn’t have total submission to Allah hence the reason they were unable to kill him.”
Wait a second. Just hold up there. Let me check my understanding. This man is saying that the reason they did not manage to kill him (but succeed in seriously wounding his daughter) was that they were not devout Muslims? Does that then mean that if they were devout Muslims, Allah would have smiled upon their desire to kill him, and they would have subsequently succeeded?
Is that what you’re saying? Yes? Okay… just making certain.
As at Thursday 20 April 2005, just the day before the murder of Oba, 110 days would have passed in the year. There were 100 murders in those 110 days in Trinidad & Tobago.
I think I will end this entry here.