…….in attacking T&T fete culture
What is taking place in these fetes have to be considered a national security issue. The Prime Minister is absolutely correct to raise this issue. We cannot in good conscience ignore the violence and mayhem and pretend that somehow that is part of the national culture.
It is not. It is time for promoters to be as interested and invested in what takes place IN their events as they are with the profits from events. The volume of security officers in parties have to be increased, with advice sought by the licensing committee on the correlation of size, time, location, branding message and other informative criteria including the names of promoters whose events are likely to erupt in chaos when determining the strength of police personnel required INSIDE the fetes.
Promoters whose fetes routinely erupt in violence should not be granted licenses. Then there is the issue of traffic management. I’ve personally spoken to one large venue owner who is interested in speaking with the leadership of the police stations in the area with a view to coming up with traffic plans that would have to be paid for by the promoters to end the nightmare of traffic into and out of Chaguaramas when big events are being hosted.
Multiples of big events on that peninsula at the same time cannot be allowed to continue and, unlike the elites of Bayshore who shut their gates to the traffic even though a few of the promoters causing the traffic live IN Bayshore, the residents of Carenage are left with nowhere to turn for relief.
Dr Stephen Ramroop, is warning that the confusion at the end of the Stink
and Dutty fete in Chaguaramas highlights serious weaknesses in crowd
management planning
No other business can run for long throwing the negative consequences of its activities on the public with impunity for long. Similar to the effect the plastic bottles from the beverage industry are wreaking on the environment and society, it is time to call these issues for what they are and to bring them to heel through legislation and enforcement.
Trinidad can be labeled a lawless dump for the actions of a few. Another issue of concern is the unregulated nature of the party boat industry, and it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophe and possible mass loss of innocent lives with one of these overloaded party boats.
We are not the only jurisdiction in the world that thrives on fete culture. Two and a quarter million people descend on New Orleans in one week for Mardi Gras and despite the drunken revelry, the law is strictly enforced. I am happy the Honourable Prime Minister herself has taken note of these issues.
Like the school violence that has all but been eradicated by the direct intervention of law enforcement based on government policy, it is time we became a society where people paying money to go to an event are not disproportionately putting themselves in harm’s way.
The promoters association would do well to get in front of this and to make proposals that would bring an end to fete violence, including the creation of something like a ‘no fly’ list banning persons who behave violently at public events, and the naming of promoters whose events are mismanaged to the point where fete goers are at risk.
Phillip Edward Alexander
