Demokrissy: murder

Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A path out of mayhem and murder

On my way to a river lime ('cause it In We Blood, if you know what I mean), but since you asked for a quick statement, here is, until I have time to review what is being said.

The Paris experiences in the midst of the attacks both within and outside UNESCO have made very real to me how fragile is a democracy, and how one or a few misguided individuals can precipitate violent extremist behaviour that is damaging to an entire country or the world. On the other hand, it also brought home to me the need to focus on areas of my much neglected private life, which I am trying to do, for there were times, caught near the attacks and in the ensuing panic aftershocks following the November 13th Paris attacks, I was not even sure if I would make it back home.

I am not a political football, nor ever envisioned being the subject of the latest episode of the national soap opera of slash and burn when I accepted the requests and nominations to serve by legitimate established processes including to serve as Chair of the Education Commission in a process that began at UNESCO in April 2015.

At a time when school children are being murdered, butchered, brutalised, raped and executed on our streets, and schools are increasingly becoming zones of violence and bullying, amidst a host of social ills and economic woes, it is astounding that persons have the time to train rhetorical and metaphorical guns on me, a citizen.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation in circulation that could easily be resolved through dialogue if officials wish to be so engaged, without turning all into a national and international circus. As our leaders set the national agenda, they ought to be sensitive to how their actions impact the society and youths and those who are looking for role models and patterning their behaviours on what they see being played out at senior levels.

I have not yet had the opportunity to examine what was said from the Hansard and I have no intention of engaging with anyone in a ‘he said, she said’ battle as I have been trying to recoup my energies as it was an extremely traumatic situation within UNESCO and outside with the Paris attacks.

When one is abroad it is the national flag one waves. I assure the national community that at all times I sought and received the best possible guidance from UNESCO officials and colleagues to manage some very precipitous situations not just in relation to the Trinidad and Tobago delegation, but other countries’ as well, with internal issues and strife much greater than what we profess to have.

UNESCO has a vast array of experience as a competent organisation charged with ‘building peace in the minds of men and women’ with a lot of experience in managing such situations and I was fortunate to benefit from that expertise in piloting through the challenges being presented as a national in an international environment and I thank the UNESCO officials for this. This was to ensure that the integrity of the established processes were maintained for shaping the UNESCO Global Education Agenda to 2030, which included addressing the rising violence and extremism in societies, failure and drop out rates, the digital divide, illiteracy, and poverty and disempowerment. To all reports those interventions were well administered and well received and there is a solid and forward looking global education agenda to the year 2030 with budgetary provisions that was adopted by international consensus.

UNESCO is a rich arena for workable solutions to many of these social ills that are not just localised to Trinidad and Tobago and energies of those attending the meetings should have been focused on harnessing those opportunities to maximum benefits they could bring home. Perhaps there could have already been pre-emptive interventions implemented to begin stemming this haemorrhaging of our youths in bloody attacks. Perhaps one or two of those lives that have been taken over the past weeks could have been saved, had such energies been redirected to find solutions. Paris itself is a city with a history of struggle in carving, developing and building the world's democratic traditions, as Trinidad and Tobago could well be too.

One expects that when there are so many demands on our resources, that our country and its leaders are refocusing energies to harvest every opportunity and harness every talent, skill and experience in trying to tide through very challenging social and economic situations and utilise the invaluable opportunities of being at a space as UNESCO, overflowing with visionary solutions for many of these social ills and help positively impact the national psyche.

This is what I am trying to do at the moment, drawing on international knowledge and experiences, those within UNESCO and in the context of the Paris attacks to examine and identify avenues for impacting the levels of violence and extremism and other social ills in our societies. One’s perspectives on life changes when one comes so close to near death, you see, and there were times I was not sure that I would see home again so I have never been so appreciative of meh friends and family and dem, and meh people, people.

As with all my other undertakings, I have tried to perform tasks assigned to me in relation UNESCO to the best of my abilities and to hold up my country in the best possible light in those functions. I hope that I would have contributed something to enlightening and enriching those spaces as they have augmented my life experiences.

None of my work over the last three decades, as a journalist, nor my involvement in strengthening civil society, national and international multilateral and international processes is dependent on the politics of the day, nor the office, nor title I hold which I view as mere transient spaces to be utilised, not to own as one’s private or individual serfdoms, although it is important that the political process understand, engage and dialogue to ensure that benefits are consolidated for the best roll out for the society. I imagine that that was how they have been using the time in Parliament.
I continue to wish the Honourable Ministers and Government every success

Postscript: I am on private time at the moment, much needed after some 30 uninterrupted years in public virtually round the clock. Could hardly bring myself to listen to the Parliamentary records just based on the feedback I am getting. My work speaks for itself.

Devoting much needed time to close friends and family only for some much needed regeneration of spirits and re- immersion in my country in perhaps the best season to so do, Carnival.

Hope and trust the public can respect that. Will revert with responses when I feel sufficiently renergised to resurface.

I continue to wish the Ministers and Government every success, and a happy Carnival to all.

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Monday, July 7, 2014

Dana Seetahal on the law: The Law as an Ass ...view..

Frank and fearless was assassinated Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal but what did she truly think and how did she really feel about the law, her profession and those around her, the judiciary, politics and politicians, the senate, security, crime, family and life in Stronger than Silk Postscript to Assassination

The May 4 2014 assassination of Dana S. Seetahal, Senior Counsel shocked not just Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean but the Commonwealth and legal fraternity of the wider world.

Stronger than Silk: Postscript to Assassination is a 90-minute up close and personal video by Dr Kris Rampersad with Ms Seetahal. ...Coming Soon. Visit our social media for more and stay tuned...visit www.krisrampersad.com; www.kris-rampersad.blogspot.com, If you would like to book showings for your organisation, community or country and for other enquiries and support email lolleaves@gmail.com.

Soundtrack: Song of Songs from Album Sweet Salt by Neville Yorke, St Maarten.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Death and other threats The Ash Wednesday syndrome

Death threats to journalists?
Is Trinidad and Tobago, the media, and related organisations just waking up this foreday morning?
Mark Bassant, forced to flee from death threats, as the reports say, is not an isolated case and did not surface overnight as I am sure his superiors and colleagues and others in various media and other institutions may well know. (See related article below. Pls note date of publication.)

This blinkered shortsightedness must be Ash Wednesday syndrome in Carnival city.
The current climate of unease and unrest did not start with last week's murder or drug haul.
That journalists, who dare to go beyond the boundaries of 'he said she said" or soapbox reporting are intimidated, threatened, face withdrawal of support, and even chased out of town in one way or the other, not just by some external third parties, but very much also from within the jurisdictions within which they function is not the new nine-day wonder.
That some must battle daily with their conscience on the personal price of their professional pursuit, without any support, systematic or otherwise, is not the new wonder drug in town. Guarding democracy could be a very lonely place even in a place clamouring for guards to guard t he guards and there is no where to turn, except grit one's teeth and bite the bullet, literally, as in the case of #DanaSeetahalAssassination.
This Ash Wednesday syndrome surrounding Bassant's plight only point to the degree to which even the media, and watchdog institutions are so mired in admiring their own reflection in the limelight as defenders of democracy that they fail or just plainly refuse to see or admit the presence of the shadows hanging over their colleagues in danger; some even taking great delight in feeding the climate of unease and unrest in the interest of a great sound bite or headline or to poke some political ire - until the next one takes the limelight.
The long sleep-perchance-to-dream state of the body politic and now this Ash Wednesday reawakening until the next band rolls along has our democratic institutions - the media, the judiciary, the executive and the legislature - on the sapotay soil that we now seem to find ourselves, and not altogether not of their own making(double negative intended). If only we would subject ourselves to some serious self analysis and self scrutiny and acceptance of responsibility and ownership, which surely must, like charity, start at home.
We must be one of the few countries in the world where the free media does more to censure itself, if by default, inaction or uninformed, ill informed or incredibly blinkered actions, than anywhere else I can think of, offsprings of the chicken and egg paraducks. (clarified below)
Do media institutions provide a facilitatory environment for journalists to function and also to voice complaints?
Does the media fraternity provide a safety net and support system for their colleagues who may feel threatened, outside of the driven need to sensationalise such cases in the interest of a soundbite, headline, the next day's news; the impulse to stir unease and unrest for ratings or pander to some political interest or the other?
If we were to think of a correlation between the rise of crime news, for instance and the crime statistics we may want to ask which come's first, wouldn't we? The proverbial 'chicken and egg paraducks'. (See article below. Note date of publication).
So seduced by our Carnival mentality, we have so lapsed in developing and strengthening healthy mechanisms for exhalation of the social toxins.
If we cant cultivate a society that appreciates independent thought and action, debates, transparency and challenge, should we be surprised that attempts at contradiction seem to stimulate trigger happy responses in spouses, in the police, and from those in whom we ought to be able to place our trust.
Come on my friends, colleagues. countrymen! Wake up, my people!
Or wake me up when 'tis all over.
This would be news.

Sunday 11th May 2003 (Guardian)

Dr Kris Rampersad

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Laventille’s chicken/egg paraducks

A radio talk show was asking callers last week who was responsible – the people or the politicians – for the problems of Laventille, manifested most recently in increased killings in that area. It might as well have been asking the proverbial impossible question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The implied paradox in that brain teaser has been that one must have eggs to hatch chickens. At the same time, any poultry farmer with commonsense knows it is the chicken, in the first instance, that lay the eggs that hatch into chickens. So, is it the politicians who have nurtured the culture of violence in Laventille? Politicians of the PNM can cockily profess Laventille’s rebellious spirit predates the PNM, and anyone with even a layman’s sense of the evolution of Trinidadian society and politics knows that to be fact. And every school child knows, too, that it was from among Laventille’s gangs came the divinity of steel pan music, for instance. And then came the PNM/politicians. (Now that may imply the PNM/politician is chicken; the people of Laventille, egg – something that certain MPs may want to roll up sleeves and tear off jackets to scuffle over, but in the interest of completing this evolution theory, can we not just ignore that, and obliviously take a line out of the Prime Minister’s book and pacify ourselves, if for the moment, that that question does not arise?) If the PNM did not create Laventille, then Laventille must accept responsibility for the politicians/(community) leaders it has spawned. Those who called in with that view reasoned the district voted for, hence created, its politicians. A contentious thought, but support for this view can be had in scientists’ attempt to crack the question: Chicken leads to egg; or egg to chicken. The answer actually proves wrong all poultry farmers, and similarly others who pride themselves on their commonsense, like politicians, Ministers etc (see “Virgin Births” inset). They conclude since a zygote (a non-chicken) must first split into cells that form the whole chicken, the egg must come first. If the scientists are to be believed, then it must be that “core” and “grassroot” supporters who egg on political parties/leaders in districts like Laventille (and in the case of the UNC, Caroni) are responsible for hatching their own problems – politicians. Their unflinching support “…no matter what; ’til ah dead,” is really a licence to their leaders to do as the leaders damn well please. And they do. It can hardly be in the politician’s interest to make his supporters less dependent financially or ideologically upon him. It must be in the chicken’s interest to make the egg believe without chicken, egg would not have been laid. The politician’s stable guarantee of core support – that is born out of their supporter’s ignorance and deprivation – may be upset when supports’ conditions improve. DEWD, URP, CEPEP ensure temporary appeasement, and permanent dependency, hence loyal support. Better education, greater income security may increase voters’ desire to choose leaders on the basis of criterion they set for themselves, rather than what is set by the leaders. All this implies, of course, that the country’s political situation – the inability of government to pass legislation it wants – is essentially not in Parliament or with the politicians at all, but rather rests with the grassroots, like Laventille and Caroni, where, assured of support no matter what, politicians have no real reason to effect change. If the egg knew it did not need the chicken to be, it has already turned the power tables on the chicken. If, then, as with the virgin growth, the eggs are made to know (or tricked into) a different method of hatching its leaders – a way of fertilisation that would produce disease-free cells – from the many good people of Laventille – that would multiply to create disease-free organisms, wouldn’t we have found a cure for the lesions on the body politic? For, certainly, if scientists believe that by using good eggs, they can produce good chickens, can’t one infer that it is the rotten eggs that are hatching such rotten politicians?

Published:

Friday, May 23, 2014

Bassant has since left the country.
In a video clip on the TV6 news on Wednesday night Bassant said on May 7 he got a call from an underworld source to say certain criminal elements wanted to harm him because of stories he wrote recently. “I made a report on it. The next day I was liaising with certain police officers involved in a specific investigation, only to later learn from other trusted sources that these same officers who I had spoken to earlier were leaking information about me and what I knew to the said individuals who organised for my demise,” Bassant claimed.

He said he then informed a high-ranking intelligence source and another trusted senior intelligence officer. The senior officer, Bassant added, later told him his name was on a hit list, together with others. “In fact, he told me they had already been given the order to engage the targets, including me, and that the hit against me was starting at $20,000,” Bassant added. He said the incident had left him angry, especially since journalists, who work for the people, could easily be threatened. Contacted yesterday, TV6’s head of news Dominic Kalipersad said when the threat was reported to Griffith he said the suspect was “ruthless.”

Griffith also assured the police were monitoring the situation closely. Kalipersad described Bassant as a strong and committed journalist who would not want to be put in a position which prevented him from performing his calling in a fair manner. Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams yesterday promised the police were doing all they could to ensure the matter was properly investigated and said Supt Kenrick Edwards, head of the Criminal Intelligence Gang Unit, was leading the probe.

Media groups concerned
The Media Association of T&T (MATT) also has expressed concern and urged the police to move swiftly. In a press release yesterday the association said if the allegations were proven to be true, law enforcement officers must bring the perpetrators to justice, adding that a free and fair press was important to the country’s democracy. “A free and fair press is crucial to the functioning of all institutions and right-thinking members of the society should also condemn any threat or attack on members of the media. “These threats can result in a journalist operating under fear which weakens the role of the fourth estate as a watchdog,” the association added. On its Facebook page the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) said the fact that Bassant had been forced to flee the country underscored the seriousness with which both his media institution and the State’s security forces were treating the matter. “We join with the Media Association of T&T in calling for urgent action to get to the bottom of this situation. “Our international partners are similarly concerned and we all look forward to a thorough and expeditious investigation and the prosecution of anyone found to be behind this threat,” the ACM added.

Pin your NVZs - Non Violent Zones of Trinidad and Tobago

I've been plotting the violent crimes in Trinidad and Tobago in red to see what complexion our country will take on if we were to pin the violent crimes and murders and crimes against children, and women. The resulting image is too depressing so I am asking citizens to instead join me and pin your spaces as Zones of Non Violence on this NVZ map to declare your spaces Non Violent Zones. welcome the Peace initiative of the Inter-Religious Organisation and Ms Ela Gandhi, holder of an international peace award, grandaughter of founder of the Satya Graha movement, Mohandas Gandhi to Trinidad and Tobago.

I share the Prayer for All of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO for use and adoption by any individual or agency who wishes to do so, an organisation devoted to "Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women and urge you to create centres of peace in your communities.

Creating Centres for a Culture of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago

Statement, Chair, National Commission for UNESCO and

Trinidad and Tobago Representative on the UNESCO National Commission on creating a Culture of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Kris Rampersad

May 5, 2014

I invite the national community to reflect on actions that will help promote and advance the cultivation of a culture of peace and non violence in Trinidad and Tobago as it works to help the society strengthen its peace-driven defence mechanisms to counteract what seems to be an escalating culture of violence among men, women and children in our society.

As the country tries to come to grips with the most recent of brutal actions on our citizens with the murder of Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal, we draw attention to the UNESCO programme of action for Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, and invite individuals, groups and agencies to work with us to devise positive actions to cultivate values and practices of peace and non violence in various spheres of daily national life. The action plan recognises that legal provisions are necessary to creating the right conditions and environment for the harmonious development of women, men and children towards building a culture of peace.

We believe more than ever in the relevance of the principles of a new humanism and soft diplomacy towards creating a culture of peace and non violence begins with, and in, our daily lives, as espoused by this action plan.

It states that: “that peace is more than the absence of war, but living together with our differences – of sex, race, language, religion or culture – while furthering universal respect for justice and human rights on which such coexistence depends.”

As such, we also draw attention to the UNESCO Constitution and Charter to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and the commitment made to advance universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms contained in Article 1, based on which the National Commission is developing its own Charter for Peace.

We see these as mechanisms that can be used to sustain hope for the new humanism that focuses not just on prevention, mediation, reconciliation and law, but also more proactive promote preventative actions to cultivating values and culture of peace and non violence in our everyday lives.

The United Nations has mandated UNESCO as its line agency to promote a culture of peace. It defines such a culture of peace as comprising values, attitudes and behaviours that promote “freedom, justice and democracy, all human rights, tolerance and solidarity, that reject violence and endeavours to prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes.”

As the line agency of the United Nations charged with building a culture of peace, UNESCO acts on the declaration that “since wars begin in the minds of men and women it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.

We look forward to the strengthening of national “culture of peace” programmes and creation of spaces for peace within communities, home, schools and other social institutions.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the President, Minister of Education, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Commissioners and the Secretariat of the National Commission for UNESCO, I extend condolences to the family and friends and the Trinidad and Tobago national community so deeply affected by the violence in our society in general, and the loss of Ms Seetahal in particular. The principles of law and justice to which Ms Seetahal devoted her life’s work are reflected in

We note that Ms Seetahal has added, not only in actions but also in words, considerably to the intellectual stock of knowledge and efforts at transforming agencies of the judiciary and the society in generalin the Commonwealth, among them in her work for promoting prison reform which speak to the environment of a new humanism that UNESCO driven by its Director General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has been promoting. Ms Seetahal’s publication of Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean has become one of the standard legal texts in international legal practice.

Dr Kris Rampersad

Chair, Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO and Trinidad and Tobago Representative on the UNESCO Executive Board

Related Links: LiTTscapes at Greeenpeace: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2014/05/littscapes-at-greenpeace.html

Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination

Creating UNESCO Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago

The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination

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Friday, May 16, 2014

Murder She Wrote Death written in stone in #DanaSeetahalAssassination

The assassination of Dana Seetahal was already being written indelibly into the landscape of Trinidad and Tobago in the days preceding her ambush and assault and brutal killing in early May 2014.
The death gong was already poised to toll her death even before the rain of bullets echoed off her vehicle and through her body in the dead of night.
Days before her murder, the bugle call of her demise was being sounded from the mountaintops of one of our most primeval landforms. More....

Her loves, Her Laughs, Her Life: FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW RELEASE COMING SOON Please Respect Our Copyrights: To Request Permissions and Digital Memory Capture Services click here To Support Leaves of Life initiatives click to visit Caribbean Literary Salon

Monday, May 5, 2014

Towards Centres for a Culture of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago

Statement, Chair, National Commission for UNESCO and

Trinidad and Tobago Representative on the UNESCO National Commission on creating a Culture of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Kris Rampersad

May 5, 2014

I invite the national community to reflect on actions that will help promote and advance the cultivation of a culture of peace and non violence in Trinidad and Tobago as it works to help the society strengthen its peace-driven defense mechanisms to counteract what seems to be an escalating culture of violence among men, women and children in our society.

It states that: “that peace is more than the absence of war, but living together with our differences – of sex, race, language, religion or culture – while furthering universal respect for justice and human rights on which such coexistence depends.”

As such, we also draw attention to the UNESCO Constitution and Charter to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and the commitment made to advance universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms contained in Article 1, based on which the National Commission is developing its own Charter for Peace.

We look forward to the strengthening of national “culture of peace” programmes and creation of spaces for peace within communities, home, schools and other social institutions.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the National Commission for UNESCO, and my own behalf, I extend condolences to the family and friends and the Trinidad and Tobago national community so deeply affected by the violence in our society in general, and the loss of Ms Seetahal in particular. The principles of law and justice to which Ms Seetahal devoted her life’s work are reflected in

We note that Ms Seetahal has added, not only in actions but also in words, considerably to the intellectual stock of knowledge and efforts at transforming agencies of the judiciary and the society in general in the Commonwealth, among them in her work for promoting prison reform which speak to the environment of a new humanism that UNESCO driven by its Director General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has been promoting. Ms Seetahal’s publication of Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean has become one of the standard legal texts in international legal practice.

Dr Kris Rampersad