Is the devil stalking this land?

In the middle of last week, standing in my kitchen, a preacher on radio was asking whether the devil was walking the land of Trinidad and Tobago. I didn’t wait to hear his answer but muttered angrily that the devil really seemed to be in control of the country these days.

The night before I had heard about the very awful and brutal murder of six year old boy Sean Luke, sodomised to death with a piece of sugar cane and then buried in a shallow grave in a cane field. The autopsy revealed that Sean’s internal organs were ruptured when the cane was pushed through his body, reaching to the chest cavity.

I’m sure you’re shuddering as you read this. Tears too. Many people who don’t know this beautiful child cried, imagining his pain and suffering at the hands of a monster/monsters.

People called on the radio stations, choking back their tears. Some could hardly finish a sentence. Men and women. How in God’s name can this happen to one of our’s.

I felt embarrassed that I had to write this tragic piece of news of the little boy for an international audience to read. What are people in far away countries, reading this horrible article would think about Trinidadians?

What manner of monsters and fiends stalking this land, they may ask.  Have we lost the essence of our humanity?

And the police? How do we begin to describe these law enforcement officers who are supposed to protect and serve but who failed to immediately jump into their vans and cars and join the scores of villagers in their search for Sean who had disappeared a few hours earlier.

There was no response from the police Sunday, neither on Monday. They only responded when mom, Pauline Lum Fai in all her desperation decided to report his disappearance to the US embassy since Sean was an American citizen, having been born there but living most of his life in Trinidad.

On Monday, his pants and underwear were found. By Tuesday, with the help of tracker dogs, the broken body of the little boy was found in a shallow grave in a cane field.

His mom described him as being very friendly, who could talk the ear off anyone. We can only imagine this innocent chatter-box, full of stories and giggles.

Sean Luke is the second boy buggered and killed this year.

Last month, the body of 12-year old Dane Andrews was found in a crocodile-infested pond near his home. An autopsy showed he was buggered. No one has yet been arrested. The trail has gone cold, police say.

There’s also constant reminder in the media about the unsolved murder of 11-year-old Akiel Chambers whose body was found at the bottom of a swimming pool in 1998.

An autopsy also found that he was buggered before his death.

Sean’s death brought the country’s murder toll to 102 up to March 28. In this month so far, there has been 43 murders. In February there were 20 and in January, 38.

Monsters, devils, evil-doers, all varieties of people without a semblance of conscious in their souls are all around us in this land.

They are also responsible for burying alive 45-year old Samdaye Rampersad. Kidnapped last November, Rampersad, whose kindness was described as being legendary in her neighbourhood was taken by gunmen from outside the small shop she ran in front of her home.

An autopsy concluded that she died from asphyxiation by dirt, indicating that she was thrown alive into the makeshift grave, which police discovered last January.

How can I also describe the killers of kidnapped 64-year old Trini-American Baliram Maharaj whose body parts were found in two containers and buried in separate shallow graves.

How do these evil stalkers begin to conceptualise these awful deeds. Burying a woman still alive and chopping a man in several pieces and burying them in two graves? Sounds like something out of a Stephen King or Dean Coontz book.

Reality is that crime is taking a toll on the psyche of Trinidadians.

Despite all the evidence of a very buoyant energy-propelled economy, crime is continuing to drive people out of the country. In two weeks time, I’m going to be saying farewell to another family who will be making Dubai their new home.

If ever they had doubts about packing up and moving, an incident two weeks ago, cemented their view that they were making the right decision.

Turning into their street, they came face to face with a gunman who minutes earlier had brazenly killed a vegetable vendor and apparently crashed his car while making his getaway. The murderer menacingly pointed his gun at people driving their cars. My friends, fearing for their lives and for their six year old, slammed on the gas to get out of harm’s way.

They’re now pleading with my husband and I to follow them to get out of the hell hole that Trinidad is becoming.

I joke with my husband that we cannot even consider going to his country, Iraq, because of the continuing violence and bloodshed there. So we will remain in the lesser of the two evils.

Crime is also beginning to bite into the tourism industry in sister-isle Tobago. It was just a matter of time when foreigners blank Tobago because of the robbery, rape and violence against them.

Tour operators in the United Kingdom, the largest tourist market for Tobago, sent letters to Tourism Secretary Neil Wilson expressing concern about the crime situation on the island.

More damaging is the fact that the the tour operators, acknowledging their responsibility to their clients, have began warning British holiday makers about visiting Tobago.

I’ve long stopped inviting friends to Trinidad. I’m afraid I can’t guarantee their safety. So I’ve stopped gloating about eating peppery doubles on the side of the road; taking a drive up to Maracas Bay just to eat freshly fried shark and bake or a drive down to Debe in the Southlands to eat all types of Indian delicacies standing on the pavement.

But with all the trouble that has befallen the land, I haven’t lost my faith. It is really the only thing that is keeping me sane these days, as I battle the daily demons.