Community Leader Running Scared.

[Scorpio]

I read this article over the weekend and I was shaking my head in despair for TNT....I can't find the link right now, but it was basically a "community leader" saying that he feared for his life because of a conversation with a senior gov't official. The article said he asked about a construction contract and was told he would get it after the elcetions, IF HE SURVIVED.

I look around some more for that article and post the link.

[brag]

Just a cruder form of what has been going on in the developed countries for years. But these things must come to an end some day and justice will prevail.

[Solachica]

Yes I read tht in the Guardian.
and he was basically saying tht people in Gov't or some high office had/have some part to play in the recent murders taking place recently starting with Fresh.

[Scorpio]

^^Thanks Solachica, I found the story...

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007 ... news9.html (http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-09-30/news9.html)


A Self-Proclaimed community leader says he believes the killing of G-Unit gang leader Kerwin “Fresh” Phillips, on September 16, was a “hit from on top.”

Phillips was shot 20 times by gunmen, while leaving a party at the corner of Henry and Oxford Streets in Port-of-Spain.

Herbert “Screw Up” John, himself a member of the G-Unit gang, also is calling on the Government to give community leaders in Laventille jobs other than those in Cepep and URP.

In an interview last Thursday, outside the Guardian offices on St Vincent Street, where John remained seated in his car, he said he approached a top government minister, recently, to get help in obtaining a contract for his construction company.

“He turn around and tell me that after the elections he would see if he could help me, but that is only if I live long enough.”

John said the minister’s statement convinced him that the State had something to do with Phillips’ death.

Minister of National Security Martin Joseph has denied that the State had anything to do with killing.

Also recalling that Fr Jason Gordon, vicar for Administration of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain, said during a sermon last Monday at Holy Trinity Cathedral, that Phillips’ killing was a ground-level order. John said:

“I am not God, but Fr Gordon is not a man to lie. What he said could be true.

“After all, he is a priest and minister of God’s work, and would not lie for something like that.”

He said he knew Phillips personally, and saw him as a man who was fighting for change in his community.

“People say that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword, but it is not so. It is if you continue living by the sword without change, then you will die by the sword.”

Asked whether being a community leader meant not being involved in any form of crime in any way whatsoever, John said he could only speak for himself.

“When I say I am for peace, I am for peace. I will not indulge in crime and want peace, but there are leaders who are so frustrated by the treatment they are getting from the Government that they end up going back to the old way of life.

“What are they supposed to do?

“The main problem is: if a man does not have job security, then it gives him no other choice but to do something illegal to get money,” said John, admitting that if he himself did not have a permanent job he would have thrown himself back into a life of crime.

“My children would have to eat, and if I have six or seven children. What am I supposed to do, because the Government not giving anything, what am I supposed to do?”

No jobs, more crime

John predicted an upsurge in crime in Laventille and other crime hot spots, if the Government does not help the people of the area in getting monthly-paid jobs.

He said after the peace treaty was initiated in September, last year, community leaders, about 25 of them, met with Community Development Minister Joan Yuille-Williams.

Yuille-Williams arranged for the men to enrol in a six-week social intervention course, titled Defining Masculine Excellence.

He said Phillips spoke on behalf of the group and arranged for the classes to be held at the School of Continuing Studies, St Augustine.

“We were told that once we went through those classes we would be placed in monthly-paid jobs, but that never happened.

“Only one or two got jobs, including me.”

John, who works with the Housing Development Corporation as a contractor, said because of the unemployment, some community leaders had reverted to their “old way of life.”

“These jobs placements are important for us, because in my case, when I was given my first job as a monthly-paid worker, it motivated me.

“It does something to the individual to receive some kind of job security, but now everybody back to square one,” he said.

John added that there was a high level of frustration and insecurity among the leaders, and blamed the Government for this.

“Every block I go on, I try to talk to the youths to give some kind of encouragement, but they are still frustrated, because all I could tell them is to hold strain.

“I can’t promise them jobs.

“From day one, when the peace treaty started, if these leaders were placed in monthly-paid jobs then the men they control from their area would have been looking up to them and would try to make themselves better as well.”

He said the community leaders were now being told by government ministers that, because they had no certificates of training, they could not get jobs.

“They want to throw that in our faces, but what is the on-the-job training for?” he asked.

Level field

“They have to level off the field in terms of jobs for us. Killing us will not make a difference, because look at how ‘Fresh’ come and get kill. He have children coming up and they might end up under the same system.”

Noting that the community leaders ranged in ages from 20 to 45 years, John said most of the men, because of their age, felt they were too old to complete their education.

And, said John, contrary to the public’s belief, not all community leaders had criminal records.

“I have a criminal record, but I come and fit back myself in society and trying to walk the straight path,” he said, adding that his 22-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son kept him on the right track.

John also said it was because of the peace treaty that there was a drastic decrease in crime in Laventille.

“We (community leaders) have done this, but we have not gotten anything in return. Is that fair. Where is the justice?

“I believe these guys, if given the opportunity to make an honest dollar, there would be a great change in society, but we don’t want contract work; we want job security,” John stressed.

He said, though, that despite the unemployment pressure, community leaders would never threaten the peace treaty.

“Everybody want that peace. We would never think about that. The most we could do is protest.”

[King B]

His life on the line and he have time to do newspaper interviews? Steups.

[serenity]

One of the consequences of such notions as "entitlements" is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.
"Entitlement" is not only the opposite of achievement, it undermines incentives to do all the hard work that leads to achievement. What about all those ppl with degrees who cant find jobs? They should turn to crime too then, or demand jobs from the govt. Steups.
I wonder if he talks to his 9 year old son and explain to him how important it is for him to work hard at school and do well so that he too would not have this problem when he gets older...somehow I doubt it.

[Scorpio]

“The main problem is: if a man does not have job security, then it gives him no other choice but to do something illegal to get money,” said John, admitting that if he himself did not have a permanent job he would have thrown himself back into a life of crime.



Now society does not only owe people a job, but also job security. :shock:

[Double Trouble]

Ah luv it! That's justice for you, a terrorist looking over his shoulders! Ah hope he has many sleepless nights, before he finally gets to hell.

[Solachica]

Now you see how some people really think.
They have this attitude tht they are owed something.
Wht makes them different from some1 who is working hard to reach somewhere.
With tht attitude how far they reaching.

[Scorpio]

Ah luv it! That's justice for you, a terrorist looking over his shoulders! Ah hope he has many sleepless nights, before he finally gets to hell.


oh oh DT, I'm sure your post has upset all the bleeding hearts on the forum. :D

[Scorpio]

Now you see how some people really think.
They have this attitude tht they are owed something.
Wht makes them different from some1 who is working hard to reach somewhere.
With tht attitude how far they reaching.


This is like on the "Land for the Landless" Thread on the political board, where politicians are once again championing the idea that society owes something to people.

[sapodila]

His life on the line and he have time to do newspaper interviews? Steups.
Shared centiments! What he really up to?

[Scorpio]

His life on the line and he have time to do newspaper interviews? Steups.
Shared centiments! What he really up to?

Don't try to get into the mind of a community leader, I don't think they operate on the same logic as you and I. ;)

[scrunter]

Ah luv it! That's justice for you, a terrorist looking over his shoulders! Ah hope he has many sleepless nights, before he finally gets to hell.


Not just he but all de others including dem politicians.

[Double Trouble]

Ah luv it! That's justice for you, a terrorist looking over his shoulders! Ah hope he has many sleepless nights, before he finally gets to hell.


oh oh DT, I'm sure your post has upset all the bleeding hearts on the forum. :D

I hope so! :D

[Sly1]

When I say my prayers and ask God to clean up the crime elements and the criminals, then I say to God, "I know I am asking you to clean up T&T but I cya tell you how to do it and I should not think of the criminals doing away of each other and that I should leave it in your hands, the way you deem best" Amen

[KFCSpicy]

^^^ :shock: :? oook. Thanks for that Sly1.

I doh know what to say. I think when some people start off bad and then see the errors of their ways no one should persecute them continually for their past. That said I also think that pennance is a hell of athing to. Some people does be paying for their mistakes forever and ever amen.

I dont think anyone too old to learn but that's just my view I think they are all either lazy, doh care or don't have the right motivations.