Shal­iza Has­sanali

Trinidad and To­ba­go gained its in­de­pen­dence from Great Britain on Au­gust 31, 1962.

It marked a ma­jor mile­stone for our coun­try when the Union Jack (British flag) was low­ered and the T&T flag was raised for the first time in Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain.

Bells tolled and sirens blared to her­ald the birth of our in­de­pen­dent na­tion.

This year, as T&T cel­e­brates its 60th year of in­de­pen­dence, the Sun­day Guardian reached out to five cen­te­nar­i­ans who re­flect­ed on what in­de­pen­dence meant to them and the strides we have made as a na­tion.

In shar­ing their views, they all agreed that our coun­try’s pro­gres­sion six decades lat­er is be­ing hin­dered by ris­ing lev­els of crime and mur­ders grip­ping T&T and leav­ing cit­i­zens in fear and wor­ry.

Stel­la Ar­mour–102, moth­er of nine, re­tired cook and care­tak­er, wid­ow, St Au­gus­tine

I can still re­mem­ber stand­ing proud­ly in Wood­ford Square on the night we achieved in­de­pen­dence and lis­ten­ing to Dr Er­ic Williams de­liv­er his speech to the na­tion. As a cit­i­zen, I felt ho­n­oured to be a part of this his­toric cel­e­bra­tion. It was an ex­cit­ing time for me just see­ing our red, white and black flag be­ing hoist­ed for the first time. In the years that fol­lowed, I think our coun­try grew in many ways when you look at our ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, in­fra­struc­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, growth of busi­ness­es and the pro­gres­sion of our peo­ple.

We have im­proved as a na­tion, but I don’t know what is hap­pen­ing to this coun­try with the num­ber of killings we have every day. This is pre­vent­ing our na­tion from mov­ing for­ward. Evil is stalk­ing our land. The Gov­ern­ment is try­ing their best, but I don’t know what is go­ing through the heads of these young men who have be­come so trig­ger-hap­py. They don’t want to work.

I am re­al­ly dis­turbed by the num­ber of killings. Now, these crim­i­nals have picked up a new habit, they are wear­ing po­lice uni­forms to rob law-abid­ing cit­i­zens. You can’t tell who is po­lice from ban­dits. Where are they get­ting these uni­forms from? What has our beloved coun­try come to? It’s a sad state of af­fairs.

Sybil Wilson

Ministry of Social Development and Family Services

Sybil Wil­son-100, moth­er of three (one de­ceased), wid­ow, Pe­tit Val­ley

In ret­ro­spect, I would say our na­tion has made some up­ward move­ments in pro­vid­ing pub­lic trans­porta­tion, free health care, pen­sion to se­nior cit­i­zens and build­ing sky­scrap­ers in the city. We have come a long way. So I salute our coun­try for its ac­com­plish­ments. Our coun­try’s first prime min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams paved a good path for our peo­ple. Then George Cham­bers took over, fol­lowed by Patrick Man­ning.

But now, I don’t know what go­ing on with our cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter, Kei­th Row­ley, be­cause he has been in a con­stant tug of war with Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. So the coun­try is kin­da up­side down. It seems that we can­not get a grip on the killings and se­ri­ous crimes. The crim­i­nals seem to be in charge as they go about their dai­ly busi­ness. Nowhere is safe any­more. You could be in­side your house and still get killed.

The young peo­ple just look­ing for an easy way out. They don’t know what is the mean­ing of our watch­words–dis­ci­pline, pro­duc­tion and tol­er­ance. A sim­ple thing like say­ing good morn­ing or evening, it’s too hard for them to do. You would quick­er hear the four-let­ter word come out of their mouths. Nowa­days, chil­dren are cussing their par­ents in full view of the pub­lic. They don’t know about pray­ing and go­ing to church. They have lost all re­spect for their el­ders and those in au­thor­i­ty.

Times have re­al­ly changed in those 60 years. Look what is hap­pen­ing in and out­side of schools. To­day’s stu­dents are more con­cerned about fight­ing with their peers and teach­ers than ob­tain­ing an ed­u­ca­tion. They are grow­ing up in vi­o­lence. Those things nev­er ex­ist in my days. The men­tal­i­ty of our peo­ple changed. In­stead of go­ing for­ward, we go­ing back­wards with the blood­shed and bat­tle for drug turf.

Naomi Rogers

KERWIN PIERRE

Nao­mi Rogers–104, re­tired ed­u­ca­tor, Mar­aval

When our coun­try achieved in­de­pen­dence I was abroad, but I re­mem­ber feel­ing ex­cit­ed be­cause we were no longer un­der British rule which meant we could have made our own de­ci­sions.

In my opin­ion, I would say that we have not pro­gressed as a coun­try be­cause of the frame of mind of our peo­ple. The lazy at­ti­tude of work­ers, the lack of re­spect for those in au­thor­i­ty and the gen­er­al be­hav­iour of our young peo­ple to­day have been caus­ing the na­tion to regress.

Even among the teach­ing fra­ter­ni­ty now, I find not much is be­ing done to help chil­dren who are falling through the cracks. Most of us look at it as what the coun­try can do for us, but not what we are do­ing for the coun­try. The way I see it, every­body fight­ing for po­si­tion and pos­ses­sion. Every­body is try­ing to be as high as pos­si­ble. Even those who say they are here to help, they are more help­ing them­selves than help­ing the coun­try. And in so do­ing, they don’t care what they do to get there, and it have the coun­try in a mess.

Basoo Adjodha

We ought to put our minds and ideas in­to mak­ing Trinidad a par­adise again. But in­stead of that, there is a lot of di­vi­sion among the peo­ple. Now we are fight­ing a crime scourge that has grown out of con­trol. Bod­ies are drop­ping like flies every day. What has hap­pened to sweet T&T?

Ba­soo Ajod­ha–101, moth­er of eight (three de­ceased), house­wife, wid­ow, San Fran­cique

I was sev­en months preg­nant with my last child when our coun­try gained in­de­pen­dence. Look­ing back, I would say our coun­try has im­proved in those 60 years. For in­stance, I nev­er fin­ished pri­ma­ry school, but my chil­dren ben­e­fit­ed from our free ed­u­ca­tion. Long ago I had to put iron bar­rels at the side of the road to get wa­ter from the de­liv­ery trucks. For years, I had to tote wa­ter from the road­side to our house to do our chores un­til we got a con­nec­tion from WASA. At night, we used kerosene lamps un­til T&TEC sup­plied us with elec­tric­i­ty.

I gave birth to my eight chil­dren at home. Women to­day can go to pub­lic hos­pi­tals and have their ba­bies. I grew up plant­i­ng crops, but now things are so ex­pen­sive in the mar­ket and peo­ple are bare­ly sur­viv­ing. So these are the changes we saw.

Our lives were full of strug­gles, but the sac­ri­fices we made were for a bet­ter life for our chil­dren. But young peo­ple to­day are go­ing down the wrong path be­cause of their as­so­ci­a­tion with gangs and guns. It’s sad to see what our coun­try has be­come. These crim­i­nals are brazen­ly com­ing in­to your house to kill you for what is yours. The dai­ly mur­ders have you so scared be­cause you don’t know who is next. This place was nev­er so. Every­body lived like one fam­i­ly, but now so­ci­ety is so frag­ment­ed.

Matilda Charles

Matil­da Charles–103, moth­er of eight (two de­ceased), wid­ow, Mara­cas-St Joseph

In­de­pen­dence marked a sig­nif­i­cant day in our coun­try’s his­to­ry, and it was one of my proud­est and finest mo­ments.

As one of the coun­try’s cen­te­nar­i­ans, I can say we have made great strides, but we could have done far bet­ter. Look­ing at our coun­try 60 years lat­er, it pains my heart to see what we have be­come be­cause of a few gun-tot­ing crim­i­nals who have no re­spect for law and or­der and are mak­ing the lives of cit­i­zens mis­er­able. Many fam­i­lies have been left in pain and agony af­ter los­ing their loved ones all for ma­te­r­i­al things and a few dol­lars.

Yes, we have ac­com­plished a lot, but the crime and dai­ly mur­ders are cast­ing a bad light on our na­tion. This is not the same Trinidad I grew up in and so loved. Long ago, every­body had some­thing to eat. Too many peo­ple are un­able to feed them­selves due to ris­ing em­ploy­ment and pover­ty. There is just too much vi­o­lence and killings in our land.

The mil­lions of dol­lars the Gov­ern­ment will be spend­ing to cel­e­brate this year’s in­de­pen­dence could have been bet­ter used to cre­ate jobs or pave some bad roads. Dis­play­ing a flag or ban­ner to show that we are cel­e­brat­ing our 60th an­niver­sary, to me, is a waste of mon­ey. In my view, I think we should host a day of prayer in­stead. The coun­try needs prayers. On­ly God can help us now.