People’s Roundtable presents report to ministers – Trinidad Tribune

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Members of the People’s Roundtable at a press conference outside the Eric Williams Financial Complex, Port of Spain on September 12. From left: JTUM Secretary General Ozzie Warwick, Artists Coalition Head Rubadiri Victor, Network of Women’s NGOs Head Carol Noel and People’s Roundtable Convener and MSJ Political Leader David Abdulah. – Photo by Gabriel Williams

David Abdulah, coordinator of PEOPLE’S ROUNDTABLE, led a delegation on September 12 that presented copies of a report to several ministers calling for funding to address a list of the group’s social and economic concerns.

The report was entitled: A Country in Crisis: When Everything Collapses, the Centre Cannot Hold – Crime and Violence.

He gave a briefing outside the Eric Williams Financial Complex before handing over the reports to staff, who then forwarded them to Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Planning Minister Pennelope Beckles-Robinson.

He also promised to provide copies to other ministers, including Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.

Abdulah said he hoped the government would release specific budget lines in the upcoming national budget to address the issues raised in the report, particularly crime and violence.

He was accompanied by Rubadiri Victor, head of the Artists Coalition, Ozzie Warwick, general secretary of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) and Carol Noel, head of the Network of Women’s NGOs.

Abdulah said the report was compiled from discussions held during talks organized by the group in January, which included 100 people, many representing NGOs and some as individuals. Abdulah himself heads the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ).

The report covered themes such as education, economy, business, communities, creative arts, gender-based violence, anti-crime initiatives, the criminal justice system and white-collar crime/corruption.

People’s Roundtable convener and MSJ political leader David Abdulah shows the media a copy of the People’s Roundtable report during a briefing outside the Eric Williams Financial Complex on September 12. On his left is Artists Coalition head Rubadiri Victor and on his right is JTUM general secretary Ozzie Warwick. – Photo by Gabriel Williams

Abdulah deplored the recent string of killings in Trinidad and Tobago, calling it “crazy, sad, tragic, horrible.”

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He noted that a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that many government measures against violent crime were counterproductive.

Warwick argued that corporations pursued profit, but created difficult social conditions for their workers.

Victor hoped that community centres would be used more often, proposed keeping schools open longer and advocated a mandatory 50 percent airtime for local music on the radio.

The report, which Abdulah made available to reporters, lamented: “Crime robs so many of our people, especially our youth, of their lives; of citizens of their peace of mind and body; and of businessmen, farmers and the self-employed of success.”

Reference was made to concerns raised in the UNODC report about criminal groups operating locally or internationally, and about alienated youth being drawn into street gangs.