Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is confident that Trinidad and Tobago will overcome the scourge of gang violence presently facing the country. The PM says the problem of crime, particularly gang violence, is an old one in TT and one day that challenge will be overcome.
He as speaking last evening at the commissioning of the newly refurbished Balisier House, Tranquility Street, Port of Spain. Dr. Rowley explained to the audience gathered , that like many young people , when he was between ten and 11 years old, still living in Mason Hall, in Tobago he looked up to a gang member who had returned to the village from Laventille. He said he wanted to walk and dress like the man. He said by the time he entered secondary school his fascination with gangs had subsided and noted the man he once admired hanged for murder.
Dr. Rowley reminded the audience that Dr Eric Williams also had to deal with the problem of gangs during his tenure but he turned that challenge into a point of pride. He said: “The nation had the same challenge of having a requirement to steer our young people, like I was, away from admiring and falling prey to other people.”
He recounted there were steelpan gangs in Laventille, Belmont, Tunapuna, San Fernando and other areas, but then young people were fighting with razors, bolts and gas but with now with guns.
He said that Dr Williams came out and embraced the steelpan movement as our culture and asked the business community to provide sponsorship to steelbands, and that served as a turning point. He said the steelpan was embraced and now it was revered as an instrument of pride and an integral part of TT’s culture.