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We’re begging for respect says scrap iron dealer
Published: Thu, 2011-09-01 21:05
Gail Alexander
Beetham residents, complaining Tuesday night about the state of emergency’s effects on the community.
“I from Beetham...I come to the Independence parade every year and bring the children.” The statement came with a broad, open smile from the pint-sized young mother of four small children as they walked from Park Street, Port-of-Spain, back home around 9.40 am yesterday. All were dressed in Independence red. It was hot, but the children didn’t seem tired after watching the big military trucks pass, soldiers waving to spectators. “These days in Beetham I fraid to come out but every year come and watch the parade and I promise the children...” she adds. Behind, two older men walking back home also. “I wasn’t going to come with all these people being jailed and thing but is habit to watch the parade every Independence,” says one of the men clad in white T-shirt and shorts.
Those residents of Beetham and Laventille “hot spot” areas may have been inclined to join spectators who waved to parading armed forces along Tragarete Road yesterday. But it was highly unlikely other Beetham residents would have felt like waving to troops. It’s dark days for some in the well known Sea Lots community bordering the Priority Bus Route. Beetham folk liming in the dusk ahead of curfew now scatter when they see headlights approaching. It is first sign of the times in Beetham which the Trinidad Guardian noticed on entering the area Tuesday evening, four hours after yet another police exercise detained several people there. Groups of people outdoors in Beetham these days are mainly women and children. The men are in jail, indoors or lamenting the loss of the scrap iron businesses which they lost to army confiscation last Sunday.
Businessman Joel Lee is desperate to appeal to the authorities. His scrap iron business which sold materials to recycling companies and which employed six was wiped out, causing thousands in losses, he says. Lee stands alongside Junior Williams, who had a scrap iron business for 24 years and who lost 200 tonnes of iron, he says. Lee, a well-spoken father of four, holding his last baby in his arms, pleaded for Beetham. “We can’t build guns with rusty old iron and not everybody has a receipt for their material to get compensation easily,” he said. “They will cause crime to rise by causing unemployment this way...Right now we have no rights and we worse than a dog on the street.
“We begging please, please, please—Kamla, Attorney General, the nation—give us a proper hearing, respect for Beetham, we begging. “Not everybody in Beetham are criminals. Every creed and race have an equal place...Is time to show that now. “We’re sorry we born in this community because they label us all thief, bandit and criminal. “But police, prison officers, nurses and UWI graduates live in Beetham. Don’t say all of us are criminals, if it have a few here...we not against the state of emergency, but search the proper way. “School opening Monday, how will I survive with four children and no income?
“I apply for jobs but my address is Beetham Estate...you know how much people call me back?
“If this state of emergency continues another three months, there might be nobody in Beetham because every day, police holding people. “Every male under 30, they label gang member...God, not everybody bad here! “Why not go Siparia and do these same exercises. I just worried that people might refrain and abstain, but for only for a while.” Women of Beetham are mourning other losses and the bitterness is almost palpable. (And Guardian had only reached Phases One and Two of the five-phase community.)
Makeda, a “thick” fashionably-dressed young woman is on the phone discussing the arrest of her boyfriend who was detained in Beaucoup, Tobago. He’s not yet been brought to Trinidad and Makeda is seeking information.
“I didn’t even know my man was in Tobago...I had to cry tears, long tears today to a police to find out when they bringing him,” she says. Makeda’s boyfriend is one of three people from a household who have been detained. Head of the household, Barbara, 43, says her eldest and youngest sons and her nephew footballer Keon Quow were taken. Barbara says: “Keon just start playing with W Connections. He even play with police. My son in Golden Grove tell me, ‘Mammy, we trying to behave because when anybody do anything is licks for everybody in the cell.’” Shenice,19, holding a three-month-old baby, adds: “They take my child father when they come this evening. They say he in a gang.”
Community activist Sherma added: “It’s looking like a numbers game: once you’re young, black and present, you gone. But the real guntas (crooks) and dem hiding.” Shirley Ann Alexander claimed security forces broke into her home to search it last Friday, when she was in Santa Cruz. “They knock down gate, tank, bore a hole, the door was on the ground...Who paying for this?!” she said. “They hold my son today for ‘grouping.’ They say they don’t want more than one or two people standing around. Then they charge him for gang thing.” Marva, whose Rasta plaits are wound around her head, says she once voted UNC.
“Nobody ent doing Ms Kamla nothing wrong here, but police pick up a dozen boys...you can’t do poor people dat!” she said. “When dem gone and you give people $26 pay. How you buying powdered milk when it cost $96 a bag?! “Jack Warner warn we that we didn’t vote PP and we mustn’t look for nothing but all we had they take away! “Some of we own hard-head black people vote for she because she talk bout what PP going to do with pension—but God be with them yes...” says Marva, crossing her arms in disgust.
Published: Thu, 2011-09-01 21:05
Gail Alexander
Beetham residents, complaining Tuesday night about the state of emergency’s effects on the community.
“I from Beetham...I come to the Independence parade every year and bring the children.” The statement came with a broad, open smile from the pint-sized young mother of four small children as they walked from Park Street, Port-of-Spain, back home around 9.40 am yesterday. All were dressed in Independence red. It was hot, but the children didn’t seem tired after watching the big military trucks pass, soldiers waving to spectators. “These days in Beetham I fraid to come out but every year come and watch the parade and I promise the children...” she adds. Behind, two older men walking back home also. “I wasn’t going to come with all these people being jailed and thing but is habit to watch the parade every Independence,” says one of the men clad in white T-shirt and shorts.
Those residents of Beetham and Laventille “hot spot” areas may have been inclined to join spectators who waved to parading armed forces along Tragarete Road yesterday. But it was highly unlikely other Beetham residents would have felt like waving to troops. It’s dark days for some in the well known Sea Lots community bordering the Priority Bus Route. Beetham folk liming in the dusk ahead of curfew now scatter when they see headlights approaching. It is first sign of the times in Beetham which the Trinidad Guardian noticed on entering the area Tuesday evening, four hours after yet another police exercise detained several people there. Groups of people outdoors in Beetham these days are mainly women and children. The men are in jail, indoors or lamenting the loss of the scrap iron businesses which they lost to army confiscation last Sunday.
Businessman Joel Lee is desperate to appeal to the authorities. His scrap iron business which sold materials to recycling companies and which employed six was wiped out, causing thousands in losses, he says. Lee stands alongside Junior Williams, who had a scrap iron business for 24 years and who lost 200 tonnes of iron, he says. Lee, a well-spoken father of four, holding his last baby in his arms, pleaded for Beetham. “We can’t build guns with rusty old iron and not everybody has a receipt for their material to get compensation easily,” he said. “They will cause crime to rise by causing unemployment this way...Right now we have no rights and we worse than a dog on the street.
“We begging please, please, please—Kamla, Attorney General, the nation—give us a proper hearing, respect for Beetham, we begging. “Not everybody in Beetham are criminals. Every creed and race have an equal place...Is time to show that now. “We’re sorry we born in this community because they label us all thief, bandit and criminal. “But police, prison officers, nurses and UWI graduates live in Beetham. Don’t say all of us are criminals, if it have a few here...we not against the state of emergency, but search the proper way. “School opening Monday, how will I survive with four children and no income?
“I apply for jobs but my address is Beetham Estate...you know how much people call me back?
“If this state of emergency continues another three months, there might be nobody in Beetham because every day, police holding people. “Every male under 30, they label gang member...God, not everybody bad here! “Why not go Siparia and do these same exercises. I just worried that people might refrain and abstain, but for only for a while.” Women of Beetham are mourning other losses and the bitterness is almost palpable. (And Guardian had only reached Phases One and Two of the five-phase community.)
Makeda, a “thick” fashionably-dressed young woman is on the phone discussing the arrest of her boyfriend who was detained in Beaucoup, Tobago. He’s not yet been brought to Trinidad and Makeda is seeking information.
“I didn’t even know my man was in Tobago...I had to cry tears, long tears today to a police to find out when they bringing him,” she says. Makeda’s boyfriend is one of three people from a household who have been detained. Head of the household, Barbara, 43, says her eldest and youngest sons and her nephew footballer Keon Quow were taken. Barbara says: “Keon just start playing with W Connections. He even play with police. My son in Golden Grove tell me, ‘Mammy, we trying to behave because when anybody do anything is licks for everybody in the cell.’” Shenice,19, holding a three-month-old baby, adds: “They take my child father when they come this evening. They say he in a gang.”
Community activist Sherma added: “It’s looking like a numbers game: once you’re young, black and present, you gone. But the real guntas (crooks) and dem hiding.” Shirley Ann Alexander claimed security forces broke into her home to search it last Friday, when she was in Santa Cruz. “They knock down gate, tank, bore a hole, the door was on the ground...Who paying for this?!” she said. “They hold my son today for ‘grouping.’ They say they don’t want more than one or two people standing around. Then they charge him for gang thing.” Marva, whose Rasta plaits are wound around her head, says she once voted UNC.
“Nobody ent doing Ms Kamla nothing wrong here, but police pick up a dozen boys...you can’t do poor people dat!” she said. “When dem gone and you give people $26 pay. How you buying powdered milk when it cost $96 a bag?! “Jack Warner warn we that we didn’t vote PP and we mustn’t look for nothing but all we had they take away! “Some of we own hard-head black people vote for she because she talk bout what PP going to do with pension—but God be with them yes...” says Marva, crossing her arms in disgust.
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