An­drea Bharatt, 23, will be laid to rest to­day. On this day in nor­mal times, it would have been Fan­tas­tic Fri­day, the day mark­ing the start of Car­ni­val ri­val­ry.

This year how­ev­er, there is no Car­ni­val. But there would a mas of a dif­fer­ent kind. Hun­dreds of busi­ness­es across the coun­try will shut their doors to­day for a woman who this coun­try knew noth­ing about pri­or to her kid­nap­ping two Fri­day’s ago, but who has achieved in her mur­der­ous death what no politi­cian has ever been able to do, unite a coun­try in a sin­gu­lar cause for those who walk the cor­ri­dors of pow­er to do bet­ter and deal with the grow­ing in­ci­dence of crime and vi­o­lence against women.

An­drea’s kid­nap­ping and mur­der and the dis­cov­ery of her body just over a week ago, trig­gered un­prece­dent­ed lev­els of ac­tivism, a grow­ing so­cial move­ment against gen­der-based vi­o­lence as com­mu­ni­ties and civ­il so­ci­ety groups mo­bilise to call for change.

In death, a na­tion that nev­er knew An­drea has come to­geth­er to fight for a com­mon cause. An end to crime, an end to vi­o­lence against women, an end to the mon­stros­i­ty of those who take ad­van­tage of women who are un­able to de­fend them­selves.

It is im­por­tant that these events not take on any po­lit­i­cal hues be­cause the mes­sage must be heard loud and clear: Enough is enough!

Even trade unions, which have long ral­lied and called for na­tion­wide shut­downs for bet­ter work­ing con­di­tions, have nev­er man­aged to draw the crowds that have been turn­ing out at night­ly demon­stra­tions, fu­elled by an­ti-crime fer­vour.

So, on this Fri­day when there is solem­ni­ty in­stead of rev­el­ry, the main events will be de­void of cos­tumes and the­atre. In­stead, at­ten­tion will be on the sad pro­ces­sion as An­drea’s fu­ner­al cortege stops at her home, her work­place the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates Court and then to the church and the place of in­ter­ment.

Si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, at oth­er lo­ca­tions across the coun­try, mo­tor­cades and solemn vig­ils will be held in the mem­o­ry of An­drea and oth­er vic­tims of sex­u­al vi­o­lence. Cit­i­zens have been asked to wear pink or white as they join in this day of mourn­ing.

Late yes­ter­day, a grow­ing list of busi­ness­es an­nounced clo­sures as a mark of re­spect and sol­i­dar­i­ty for a cause that has seen a groundswell of sup­port over the past week. A na­tion an­gered by crime and the slow pace of the de­liv­ery of jus­tice, reached the tip­ping point with the mur­der of An­drea one month af­ter Ashan­ti Ri­ley was mur­dered. Fri­day is a huge busi­ness day, but these hun­dreds of busi­ness­es took the de­ci­sion to shut down the usu­al hec­tic com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty of a Fri­day to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with calls for politi­cians on both sides of the po­lit­i­cal di­vide to get their act to­geth­er and fix what is wrong in this coun­try. They have joined the ral­ly­ing cries for a safer more hu­mane, Trinidad and To­ba­go.

This may well be a mo­ment of change for the coun­try. In the space where Car­ni­val should be, these days of ac­tivism sig­nal a turn­ing point for T&T. At least that is what the peo­ple hope for. Will it hap­pen? On­ly time will tell whether those in au­thor­i­ty to make the change need­ed for a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go will hear the cries of the cit­i­zens and do what is re­quired.

One hopes that An­drea’s kid­nap­ping and mur­der will be the turn­ing point in a coun­try that has reached tip­ping point.