Learned Helplessness?

Are Trinidadians & Tobagonians learning helplessness in the face of an unabated crime (especially murder) rate?

I ask the question because some days ago, a friend posted a link to a survey done in the Caribbean that lists Trinidad as the fourth best place to live in the Caribbean. Well there was a time whenI would have said, "How come we not first?" but these days, what with the crime, the corruption, the health system in disarray, water woes and what all else, I wondered what the criteria were for the selection. So, I asked. Well who tell me do dat?!

Two responses to my post included the standard, "there's crime everywhere" retort. Yes indeed. There is crime everywhere in the world, but how many places in the world does a woman drive in to the Police Station parking lot and get shot there.....in full view, one would imagine, of officers on duty? Where else in the world is kidnapping a cottage industry? Where else in the world is the murder rate more than 1 per day and I'm not considering war zones? 550 killed in 2008; 509 in 2009. These are not normal numbers.


The more I think about it the more I think that as a people, in the face of this dreadful reality, we are simply becoming more and more inured to the horror. Truth to tell, that's probably not unheard of. What might be occurring in Trinidad & Tobago might be some kind of modified Stockholm Syndrome. Trinidadians and Tobagonians, particularly those with no place to run to, are hostages. They're held captive by a government that seems to be making limited efforts to deal with criminal activity and they're held hostage by the criminals themselves. The violence is in some instances completely random, in others, pointed directly at other criminals or persons with knowledge of crimes committed.

At the end of the day,what seems to be happening is that people are becoming defenders of the status quo, in an attempt to protect the reputation of their country. Hey, I love my country as much as the next person, but that's not about to stop me from expressing deep dismay at the situation. My love isn't enough to cause to me to blind to the danger and scared when I set foot on the ground there.