I laughed quietly to myself (lqtm for the BBM crew) reading a blueberry message from a friend living in the USA. Darragh Moze, aka Pompadour, takes perverse pleasure in regaling me with romanticised stories of life in the big city of Atlanta. Such stories would be incomplete without an addendum of expressed revulsion for Trinidad and all that it represents: a failed society, pervasive corruption, rampant crime, wholly inept public institutions and services, generally unpleasant people and all this. "You are exhausting and depleting your soul in that intellectually barren wasteland!" he usually says to me. Many times I am hard-pressed to disagree with him, though I always put up a fight, if only to deprive him of the feeling that he has the upper hand, dat bastard.
There are probably a great many Trinis abroad who are severely stricken with homesickness. The cure for that is the occasional reminder of why they left this country in the first place. So it was with glee that Pompadour wrote me this week on the BBM about the attempted carjacking in the vicinity of MovieTowne.
By now, everyone must be aware of the response by MovieTowne chairman Derek Chin. His interview with state television station CNMG has been shared close to 6,800 times on Facebook. Just enter "Derek Chin MovieTowne attack response" and it will tell you how many times the link to the video has been shared by Facebook users. It has been viewed on YouTube close to 9,000 times. It's no piano-playing cat but still impressive.
I followed the matter closely as initially someone had e-mailed me about the incident thinking I could influence media coverage. Just a refresher: a young couple was confronted by blood-thirsty marauders bent on either theft or murder, in no particular order. The man was mercilessly bludgeoned as he tried to flee the attack. When it was reported to the MovieTowne security, the alleged response was "Dat does happen rong here all de time!" and "Dem fellas long gone." Looking at the bandaged back of the victim's head on the news report, it was clear the couple was still too traumatised to face the television cameras. They, however, felt impassioned enough about their experience to share it. The point of that news report though seemed lost, not only on Derek Chin, but a fair number of citizens chewing their cud about the attack.
Enough, however, were incensed by Mr Chin's now infamous remarks during the CNMG interview where he questioned whether one of the victims was a gun expert and "why would the bandits allow her to talk on her cellphone?" The MovieTowne chairman also stated that, other than supplementing and tightening up and maybe putting in a couple more guards in certain areas, he didn't know if anything else could be done to secure the place other than making it into a concentration camp. I am sure the survivors of Auschwitz and Sorbibor would have been deeply appreciative of the refinements and provisions of a concentration camp of that kind.
Even I have to admit that I was quite surprised by how quickly this thing spread on the social media. In fact, people are still online talking about the incident. Trinidadian businessmen have never been exposed to Trini consumers coming together in such numbers in a public forum to discuss such matters. In the news interview, Derek Chin could easily have mustered some empathy for the couple's ordeal, apologised unreservedly for what his security officers reportedly coughed up for the victims and vowed to tighten up on security for the multiplex. Instead, he chose the more popular low road. The real issue at the heart of this terrible incident was never security; we are all under siege in every corner of this country. It is now a reasonable expectation that when you set foot out your door, whatever your destination, you could be killed or at the very grateful at least be the recipient of some proper body music.
Now the only intelligent debate online, and it by no means constituted the majority, hinged on Mr Chin's insensitive and inappropriate response to what could very easily have been a double murder in the precincts of his establishment. There have been several calls for a boycott of MovieTowne and, since Mr Chin's remarks have made the rounds on the Facebook network, there have been quite a number of people "fist shaking" that their return to the facility is contingent on a public apology for his intemperate remarks. In my opinion, a boycott in this country will always be more a personal statement than a popular movement. Even as the din grew online, and favour toward Mr Chin appeared to sour even further, I passed by MovieTowne last Saturday at two in the morning and the car park was full.
Reading the online responses from Trinis in support of the facility, one would get the impression that back when MovieTowne was a mangrove at Invaders Bay, the only option for entertainment in this country was cuffin' down two case ah beers and going to pelt ladies of the night with water balloons in St Clair and on St Vincent Street... on Saturday nights... at around 8 pm... usually. And what is wrong with Globe? I always enjoyed the running commentary during a Golden Harvest kung-fu flick, "Dem Chinee does cook wit rell fyar boy, like Shaolin monk cyar feel de heat!" I guess the pull of cup holders and chicken tenders is irresistible; well, that and an opportunity to rub elbows with the people with that "good hair." Some have posted emphatically online that they will continue to patronise MovieTowne because of all the amenities on offer.
A few years ago I was menaced by a Cocorite cretin after he jumped the line in the KFC outlet at the Peake's service station. When I asked the cashier if she was going to serve this foul-mouthed carbuncle of society before everyone else who had patiently waited in the otherwise orderly line, she steupsed and took his order. I vowed then and there never to buy dead at that branch. There is this nagging suspicion though that they're not having any trouble moving that chicken. Go to MovieTowne, or don't go; at this stage in our unusually glacial evolution the only person to whom it makes a difference is you the individual. This incident though has heralded an epoch in consumer rights awareness. Businessmen in this country need to take note because I suspect this new breed of consumer will only continue to grow in number. Traditionally, the only boycotts that have ever really worked in this country are boycotts against work. The Internet is a hell of a thing though. Mark my words, the things that you once got away with will not slip past a people who no longer need a square to throng with placards.
Do you remember when no refund was printed at the bottom of every bill? Well that is long gone. That change was achieved through the legislative agenda of a government. The changes ahead of us will be led by the people, Green Lantern or not.