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Mine. I spend money on worse, hopefully I can do something with them in the next few years. Maybe if Will will ever get back to me on the name change for my Ltd. company...

I've found it.

As many of you Trinidadians living in the US have found, New Zealand cheddar ain't easy to find. I have found the alternative. Edam cheese from Holland, tastes the same, but it's almost $9/lb. Ouch.

For me, worth it, nothing America has to offer comes close to back home. If however any of you have found a cheaper alternative, please fill me in. I'm sure Chris will thank you (you should have seen her face when I came waltzing over to the shopping cart).

"Gourmet cheese...?"

Heh.

...

Which reminds me, until she starts making bank at her new job she's tutoring, they say she's good.

I wrote this very soon after Mark was killed and I was listening to my godfather's radio programme, I may be way off base on the accusations of inaction relating to Mark's death but I felt compelled to write this and send it in. I later learnt Umbala doesn't read any of his emails, but has since promised to start. I believe we have a lot to say, and I for one am a lot better at expressing myself with the written word.

To: George "Umbala" Joseph of the "Today Show"

To your question of what real solutions are at hand to address the rampant crime in our society, and also to the question of whether we are truly a nation of murderers...

One thing struck me of particular importance when I learned of what happened to Mark Rattan, the fact that no one was notified before the police apprehended the men due to their own carelessness, no tip, no alarmed passerby making a point to alert the authorities hours earlier. You mean to tell me, that a young boy can be stabbed and forced into his automobile in Curepe junction, in front of Royal Castle no less, without ANY citizen realizing something was afoot? No glance passed that boy’s way that returned the possibility he was in trouble?

I believe it our duty, especially in this day and age for Trinidad & Tobago, to look out not only for ourselves but for our neighbour, and I am utterly ashamed of my fellow Trinidadians if one saw and did nothing, or if because they were “minding their own business” ignored it entirely. This is a time more than ever that we should be our brother’s keeper, we have a civic and moral duty to keep vigilant and take an active role as citizens to protect our people. You ask in your programme almost daily, “what can be done?” I hear the words POLICE, and GOVERNMENT echoed time and time again by the callers, and of course there is no denying their failures and the desperate need for reform, but instead of continuing to blame others for our woes I wonder what changes would emerge if the average citizen of this once-beloved island looked no further than himself. We say we’re tired, sick to death of the downward spiral our country is caught in, yet it seems for all our big talk we’ve already accepted defeat, or worse - deluded ourselves into believing that since this “crime” hasn’t touched us personally it exists somewhere outside our reality.

I truly believe this is evidenced by our “seeming” priorities - just minutes ago in i95.5’s news segment I heard Denise Plummer express her concerns for how the crime will impact 2006’s Carnival. Why do we even care? Is a “safe” Carnival so important to our people - what of the other 363 days of the year? It amazes me - and I believe a truly telling fact - that when government puts forth so much effort to ensure a safe Carnival, and does so well to ensure citizens’ feel safe to party and make Mas, that we are all sated. Do we really buy so deeply into this utterly false sense of security for 2 days of the year that we can continue to live in this suspended state of disbelief (to the crime erupting all around us), until we can reconfirm the illusion the following year?

Do we really care because it will hurt our tourism, hurt our country in global sense? I submit to you that we do not - it is in my humble opinion that we care because if something were ever to happen to disrupt our “regular” way of life we couldn’t go on pretending everything is alright, or that it’s not a problem because it hasn’t touched close to home. And what more permeating an event than Carnival. In that respect, I only use Carnival as an example for the more mundane distractions we use to perpetuate the illusion every day. We go to a party, or to a wedding, or to get some chicken in Curepe junction, and everything seems okay, life goes on as usual. We tell ourselves that if we look after ourselves and mind our own business everything will be fine. If we “hear” about something happening we’ll feel bad, but quickly put is aside because if we stop for a moment to let the ugliness and desperation set in it will turn our world upside down.

I implore your listeners, and the people of this country to stop pretending everything will be alright, or to continue to shift blame by doing a lot of talk - take an active role in the protection of not only your life, but the life of your brothers, your sisters - your fellow man and woman. Realize this IS your problem, and if things continue to go down this path every one of us will know first hand the loss which so many in our community have already suffered. By doing nothing we ARE becoming a nation of murderers, our inaction and complacency serve no other than the murderers themselves.