Had she but stayed at home and expected her husband to take care of her, she would have been alive.
If she had had a glamorous job as air stewardess, or receptionist at a fancy hotel, bank teller in the city, or fashion consultant to someone rich and powerful, or had she been a lawyer, doctor or some other university trained professional, she would not have been walking the street at that "quality hour" (my mother Elaine's phrase) going to work and getting killed in the process. But she was of the working poor, the type who do not have cars, who walk the streets for the simple need to get to work, to pay the bills, to feed the children, to keep the family together, and for that she died. I lament for this woman, a symbol of working women.
She was like thousands of Trini women that morning, getting up early and heading out. I once did that, as a 15-year-old, walking from Mausica Road to the road by the textile factory to catch a bus to go to San Juan, then walking more that a mile down El Socorro Road to teach infants at the El Socorro Government School, and to mix the milk supplied by Unicef to supplement the children's diet. In the afternoon, I did the reverse trip (I could have waited for a taxi but they were few and infrequent), and while walking, looking back and sticking out my hand in hope. I covered the entire length of El Socorro Road. The opening of the Arima New Government School gave me a transfer. Now I could ride my bike to work and back.
Would she have lived if she had a bike? She certainly would have lived if she had a car, or if she could have persuaded a PH driver to drop her at her work site. Being poor, one holds on to the pennies, until death do them part. There is a part of me that soberly wonders how many dogs does one need to protect one from whoever, whatever. Five? Seven?Should a person not have a breeder's licence to have more than, say, two dogs on a residential lot? Do we have any laws about this? Should we have? What does that policeman have to protect that he needs four adult dogs and three juveniles? When Ezekiel was nearly killed in Palmiste a few weeks back, I called for the death of the dogs, to much condemnation from "dog lovers" of the "people do bite animals too you know" ilk. What defence do they launch this time, now that a woman has died as a result of dog attack, on the public street of an allegedly civilised nation, a street paid for by the victim's taxes, taxes she was going to earn by working?
Those apologists of "the dogs were probably protecting the grandmother" nonsense must be sharpening their arguments to respond, "So, a woman died, big deal. These things happen." The young men called the dogs into the house, and that was the end of that.Should it be the end of that? Suppose the children had got hold of their father's service pistol and fired it into the street, killing an innocent passerby, would the gun have been to blame for responding to someone pulling the trigger? Dogs are trained to kill, attack in packs, and draw strength from each other. It's always a pack that attacks, never a single dog. This may well indicate that those who own packs of dogs-more than one-want them to attack and kill people, even on the streets of the nation.
This place that passes for a civilised country has to do something about this, and do it now. We used to encourage tourists to come and see the Scarlet Ibis roosting on evenings, to see the hummingbirds at Simla. Perhaps we should change that to: "Come see our dogs tear pedestrians to pieces as they try to go to work. This show is available morning and evening."
Linda Edwards
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