Based on police records from 1991-2000, the study shows that 68.2 per cent of the homicides perpetrated in Trinididad and Tobago during that period were by Afro-Trinidadians and that 79.2 per cent of the suicides were by Indo-Trinidadians.
[Source: Trinidad Express, April 23 2006]
Ooh. Softly, softly.
The study in question was conducted by one “Dr Gerard Hutchinson of the Mt Hope Psychiatric Unit.”
This is hugely interesting and massively political.
Further extracts from the Express:
“Once the country was divided regionally, it was found that areas which had a high incidence of homicide had low suicide rates and vice versa. The study states that this inverse relationship is most striking in the South Western and Central regions where “the suicide rates are twice that of the homicide rate” and in North East and Port of Spain where “the homicide rates are three and four times respectively that of the suicide rates”.
And more:
Another factor that seemed to be related to suicide was “low income”. Hutchinson, attempting to explain this term wrote, “low income (is) in the context of a more rural lifestyle…with a more agricultural type activity.”
Homicide, on the other hand, seemed to be linked to social factors such as low marriage rates and a high incidence of school drop-outs, the latter supporting Hutchinson’s conclusion that “education may be a crucial deterrent to this form of violence”.
In the same issue of the Express, the usual UWI-rant from Denzil Mohammed (btw: wtf is a “nuts man prophet”?)
…the big election forum takes place, not in the JFK Auditorium, not in the Learning Resource Centre, not anywhere racially neutral and conducive to intellectual discourse, but rather in the Student Activity Centre�a hub dominated by males, pool players and Afro-Trinidadians where few others dare to tread.
So what else can one expect than marketplace politics where Indo-Trini candidates are booed and ridiculed and where candidates appeal to the masses via physical and personality likeness rather than through aptitude and fortitude
There are so many layers to this discourse. I wonder what the responses will be like. I am preparing mine.
