Garvin Heer­ah

In T&T, the alarm­ing trend of our youth be­ing lured in­to gangs and a life of crime has reached a cri­sis point. The heart of this is­sue lies in the ab­sence of strong fa­mil­ial struc­tures, par­tic­u­lar­ly the role of fa­thers. Our young men and women, many of whom grow up with­out fa­ther fig­ures, are left vul­ner­a­ble and ex­posed, seek­ing be­long­ing and se­cu­ri­ty in the wrong places. Why are our young peo­ple choos­ing a life of crime over a ca­reer or aca­d­e­m­ic foun­da­tion? This is a ques­tion that haunts us. The an­swer lies in the stark re­al­i­ty of fa­ther­less­ness. When fa­thers are ab­sent, their chil­dren are de­prived of guid­ance, sup­port, and the emo­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty nec­es­sary for healthy de­vel­op­ment. This void is of­ten filled by gangs, which of­fer a twist­ed sense of fam­i­ly and se­cu­ri­ty.

The al­lure of quick mon­ey, pow­er, and a false sense of re­spect draws our youth in­to a dan­ger­ous path. The mind­set of vi­o­lence and guns has in­vad­ed our com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing the once-peace­ful To­ba­go. The preva­lence of this cul­ture of vi­o­lence begs the ques­tion: Why? Why are our young peo­ple choos­ing to rob, rape, steal, and kill?

This be­hav­iour is a des­per­ate cry for at­ten­tion, for recog­ni­tion, and for a place in a world that has large­ly ig­nored them. It is a trag­ic cy­cle where the ab­sence of pos­i­tive role mod­els leads to the em­u­la­tion of neg­a­tive ones. The lack of re­sponse from ar­eas of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty to quell and re­store or­der is an­oth­er crit­i­cal is­sue.

We must ask our­selves: Are we do­ing enough to pro­tect and guide our youth? The an­swer is, alarm­ing­ly, no. Our na­tion's fu­ture is at stake if we con­tin­ue along this path. The next gen­er­a­tion is sup­posed to build on the foun­da­tion we have laid, but if that foun­da­tion is crum­bling, what hope do we have for a pros­per­ous and peace­ful fu­ture?

This piece is a wake-up call for all sec­tors of gov­er­nance. We need com­pre­hen­sive poli­cies that ad­dress the root caus­es of crime, not just its symp­toms. This in­cludes in­vest­ing in com­mu­ni­ty pro­grammes that pro­vide men­tor­ship, sup­port, and op­por­tu­ni­ties for our youth. Schools, church­es, and com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres must be­come sanc­tu­ar­ies of hope and growth, not just places of tem­po­rary refuge.

More­over, we need a cul­tur­al shift that re­in­states the im­por­tance of fa­ther­hood. Fa­thers need to be present, in­volved, and ac­tive in their chil­dren's lives. This will not on­ly pro­vide the guid­ance and sup­port our youth need but will al­so help to break the cy­cle of crime and vi­o­lence.

Re­cent videos by vlog­gers and YouTube in­flu­encers have shed light on the des­per­ate plight of our na­tion's youth, who are job­less and have nowhere else to turn. These brave in­di­vid­u­als have crossed our self-im­posed bor­der­lines to in­ter­view young peo­ple en­trenched in a life of crime. How­ev­er, the sur­face-lev­el needs they un­cov­ered—such as the lack of em­ploy­ment and di­rec­tion—are on­ly part of the sto­ry.

My re­search delves deep­er, re­veal­ing a more com­plex nar­ra­tive. At one time, these youths were at­tend­ing school, in­volved in a struc­tured learn­ing sys­tem, and had ac­cess to op­por­tu­ni­ties that could have paved the way for a bet­ter fu­ture. They were part of a build­ing process that of­fered the promise of a sta­ble and suc­cess­ful life.

Yet, some­where along the line, they be­came dis­in­ter­est­ed, drop­ping out of school and aban­don­ing their ed­u­ca­tion­al pur­suits. This shift in their mind­set was not ran­dom; it was a re­sult of the in­sid­i­ous in­fil­tra­tion of gang­land ide­ol­o­gy. The glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of gang life be­gan to take root in their young minds as ear­ly as pri­ma­ry school.

What was once a pe­ri­od of in­no­cence and learn­ing be­came over­shad­owed by the al­lure of gangs and the false sense of iden­ti­ty and be­long­ing they of­fered. The no­tion of pow­er, re­spect, and quick fi­nan­cial gain promised by gangs be­came more ap­peal­ing than the dis­ci­plined path of ed­u­ca­tion and le­git­i­mate work. The trans­for­ma­tion of res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ties in­to gang-con­trolled ter­ri­to­ries ex­ac­er­bat­ed this prob­lem.

These neigh­bour­hoods, once places of safe­ty and growth, be­came hotspots of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. The crim­i­nal de­mar­ca­tion of false bor­ders not on­ly cre­at­ed phys­i­cal di­vi­sions but al­so fos­tered an en­vi­ron­ment where young minds were eas­i­ly swayed by the promis­es of gang life. The sense of com­mu­ni­ty was re­placed by fear and con­trol, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for pos­i­tive in­flu­ences to take root.

In these gang-dom­i­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ties, the youth found a mis­placed sense of be­long­ing and iden­ti­ty. The gangs pro­vid­ed them with a pseu­do-fam­i­ly struc­ture that they lacked at home, es­pe­cial­ly in the ab­sence of strong fa­ther fig­ures. This en­vi­ron­ment made it near­ly im­pos­si­ble for them to see be­yond the im­me­di­ate grat­i­fi­ca­tion and false glo­ry of gang life. The gangs of­fered them a way to cope with their so­cio-eco­nom­ic chal­lenges but at a dev­as­tat­ing cost to their fu­tures and the safe­ty of our so­ci­ety.

This analy­sis re­veals the crit­i­cal need for tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tions that ad­dress the root caus­es of youth crime. It is not enough to pro­vide su­per­fi­cial so­lu­tions like job op­por­tu­ni­ties and recre­ation­al ac­tiv­i­ties. We must com­bat the gang­land ide­ol­o­gy that has in­fil­trat­ed our com­mu­ni­ties and schools. This re­quires a mul­ti­fac­eted ap­proach that in­cludes strength­en­ing fa­mil­ial struc­tures, es­pe­cial­ly the role of fa­thers, and re­claim­ing our com­mu­ni­ties from crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

We must al­so en­hance our ed­u­ca­tion­al sys­tems to keep young minds en­gaged and in­spired. Schools should be safe havens where stu­dents can learn and grow with­out the loom­ing threat of gang in­flu­ence. Com­mu­ni­ty pro­grammes that pro­vide men­tor­ship and sup­port are cru­cial in this fight. By of­fer­ing pos­i­tive role mod­els and a sense of pur­pose, we can steer our youth away from the de­struc­tive path of crime and to­wards a brighter fu­ture.

Our na­tion stands at a cross­roads. The choic­es we make to­day will de­ter­mine the fu­ture of T&T. We must act de­ci­sive­ly and com­pas­sion­ate­ly to save our youth from the clutch­es of gang life and pro­vide them with the tools and op­por­tu­ni­ties they need to thrive. The time for ac­tion is now. Let us come to­geth­er as a na­tion to re­store hope, se­cu­ri­ty, and pros­per­i­ty for all.

In con­clu­sion, the cri­sis of youth crime in T&T is a mul­ti­fac­eted is­sue that re­quires im­me­di­ate and con­cert­ed ac­tion. It is not just about in­creas­ing po­lice pres­ence or im­ple­ment­ing harsh­er penal­ties. It is about reach­ing the hearts of our youth, show­ing them that they are val­ued, and pro­vid­ing them with the tools and op­por­tu­ni­ties to choose a bet­ter path.

Our na­tion's fu­ture de­pends on it. Let's act now, with ur­gency and com­pas­sion, to save our young gen­er­a­tion and se­cure a hope­ful fu­ture for T&T.