MINISTER of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds said the Government was working very hard to curb crime but private individuals must now each do their part in this effort as he spoke on the Eye on Dependency programme on Radio I95.5 FM on Sunday.
Saying violent crime was not unique to Trinidad and Tobago, Hinds said a friend abroad recently cited the same kinds of crimes in Toronto, Canada as were happening in TT.
"The things he's hearing in TT are no different to what he hears (in Canada) on a daily basis - who gun down who house, who chop who, drugs, all of the social issues.
"That tells me that human beings anywhere, everywhere, do not seem to be getting any better."
Hinds lamented that despite advances in living standards, technology and medical care, some degradation in human behaviour was being seen internationally.
"Man's inhumanity to man is rampant everywhere in the world including TT, where they will feed ten year olds and 11 year old drugs in order to numb their sensitivities and abuse them and run videos for the diet and consumption for the rest of the warped world."
Lamenting human-trafficking as a form of modern-day slavery like that of Africans a few hundred years ago, Hinds said mankind was not getting much better.
He also warned that a more dangerous form of cannabis had been found in TT, where the active ingredient had been increased from a normal/natural level of 27 mg of THC per gramme of cannabis, to 80-85 mg/gramme.
"When the youngsters smoke it, it burst their head. It has them behaving strange."
Hinds said what TT faced was transnational crime, such as guns and cocaine which were not made locally, or girls being trafficked internationally in and out of TT.
He said TT has three major issues. Firstly, regarding productivity he said he did not think all engines were firing.
"Our productivity level is not what it is supposed to be. A lot of services and things that are supposed to get done, don't get done."
Secondly, he said corruption was too rampant in TT, including some perpetrated by individuals shouting the loudest in complaint.
Thirdly, he found there was precious little being done to quietly assess and fix problems, but rather everything was reduced to a bacchanal.
"That is the context in which I work as a Minister of Government, and all ministers."
'TT has potential for greatness, stupidity'
He said TT had much beauty and potential for greatness but also much potential for stupidity.
"All of us created this. This is where we are."
However, he also condemned those individuals who viewed TT's problems as insoluble.
He said his role was at the administrative and policy level, but with implementation to be done by officers and public servants.
Hinds said former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had scrapped the purchase of three OPVS, including the cost of training crew abroad for months.
He chided her for having said the fight was not on sea but on land, whereas in his view, TT's borders must firstly be protected by air and by sea.
