News One Day May 9
I read the Guardian and Newsday headlines today, oh buoy:
“Cunupia Grandmother Chopped To Death“
“Venezuelan Migrant Knifed To Death By Lover“
“Palo Seco Family Critical After Cutlass Attack“
“Gunmen Posed As Police To Kill State Witness“
“Carapichaima Man Dies Of Vicious Sex“
Hmm. Which one should I read first? The 58-year-old man apparently succumbed to “vicious sex“ after swallowing “a concoction of male enhancement pills, alcohol, and energy drinks.“ The brothel he was visiting in Chase Village is well known, even among teachers in the Cave, and it is reportedly “a classy establishment.“ In light of the adjacent headlines of machetes and generally enhanced-male tendencies, it is probably for the best that the viagra-rum-coca killed the man.
“Stop! Police! Don’t move!“
This is what the men in black said before they gunned down the woman at her birthday party. She is yet the latest to die before testifying for the state. Indeed, AG Al-Rawi plainly admits that state witnesses cannot be properly protected on this island. Safe houses become discovered, no place remains unknown, anyone can be bought. Those with resources stay out of the country until they testify. Many never come back. In fact, former AG Ramlogan was arrested at the airport, at four in the morning. He says he was traveling for business to Saint Lucia.
Measles made a close call to our cruise port, which sits behind the shabby department of motor vehicles. Tom Cruise’s Ship of Scientology is quarantined in St. Lucia, with at least one documented case, causing Minister of Health Deyalsingh to require all TT students to provide proof of immunization for school admission, starting in September. The Minister opines that thousands of undocumented refugee children are at risk.
Should measles reach our shore, pandemonium will be contagious. Trinidad does not keep the most accurate vaccination statistics, but 83% is the latest estimate for measles, hardly a vigorous herd. Laws such as mandatory tuberculosis inspections for immigrants, which I was subject to, are strictly enforced, if not so strictly obtained. Analog paper work is invariably complex and capriciously notarized.
If the new national health law is anything like the new driving license law, intended to address an alleged Chinese outbreak of unlawfully obtained licenses, bribery will be epidemic. Parents will face yet another student fee. The rest of us pedestrians, meanwhile, apparently face a wave of Chinese immigrants who do not know how to drive their car. Neither does this one.