Admitting failure

The Ministry of National Security is reduced to meeting with religious leaders in a search for solutions to the seemingly insoluble crime situation.

Given that Trinis believe fervent prayer will solve the crime scourge and given the undeserved reverence and authority enjoyed by the various clergy, many will see this move by the Ministry as an encouraging sign.

Priests, pundits and imams are given a say in matters far beyond the grasp of their theologically indoctrinated minds. What can these men and women teach us about solving crime in the age of the Internet and jet travel, when their sources of inspiration are books written in the age of stone tablets and travel on horseback?

Too often, true believers will entrust their emotions, money or children to the care of holy men who violate that trust in the most horrendous ways.

When you consider the amounts of money denominational boards could probably obtain from the Government for half-baked ideas they can claim are aimed at crime prevention, I can imagine the elation some, or perhaps all, of those holy men must have felt when they got the call from the Ministry of National Security.

It would be an awful waste if religious organisations got money which would be better spent on schools or hospitals.

If the Government, which is charged with protecting its citizens, has to turn to God and his earthly minions for assistance, then that Government has already failed.

Rakesh Mohan

Enterprise, Chaguanas