When I first read the Trinidad Express about Permanand's murder, I called Ami up on his lunch hour and I told him the details of it. Ami told me, "doh worry, they go fix he up in jail." It bothered me a lot, even up until yesterday about what a person could be thinking to go to such an extent. I wondered after what point did this kid die. Was it when he was being soddomized, when his throat was slit, when his spine was broken, when his limbs were being sawed off...when? Did the moron realize that the kid was dead and therefore, could not feel anymore? Did it occur to him that he did not need to bash the kids face in? Did Permanand know that he was going to be killed when he was taking the box of food over to the moron's place?
As a Hindu, it is easy to be passive but we also live on this planet. We should at least strive to see it better off than to sit and watch it going from bad to worse. I can easily say that Permanand was "burning out" his karma. But no, not this time. He did not deserve this and no one deserves this. This is not karma, this is atrocious! This is the result of a sick and twisted mind. No human being can do this. It mocks the very thing that makes one human.
Yesterday, the murderer's mom was featured in the Express. She was begging for her son's protection while he stayed in prison. See, what happened was that as soon as the guy gets to Golden Grove Prison, while he is being escorted to his cell, a couple of prisoners jump him and stab him a few times with "makeshift" weapons. On top of all that, a prisoner calls from a cell phone!!!!!! while outside in the yard and gives an account to the Express. I found that incredible. According to the article Ronald Bisnath (the murderer) loses so much blood that he has to be taken to Mt. Hope to be treated. Now Ronald Bisnath's mother is pleading for her son. She is blind due to advanced diabetes and she is saying that her son is a good boy and he would never kill anyone. She says that the villagers are telling her that her family is murderers and she should leave the village. Now, i have already stated what I think of the villagers and the village mentality. The mom did not do anything wrong. She should be left alone. However, I do not think that her son should be pitied.
With Trinidad's failing justice system, I will side with the prisoners. They have low tolerance for crimes against children. It is an understood fact that when a person is arrested for crimes like the one against Permanand, the criminal will suffer in jail for it. I thought about it. I thought of whether we should let the law dictate but then, I thought of how much this innocent little boy had to suffer before he died. No amount of time in jail will compensate for this. Nothing will remove the pain from the mother and people are frustrated with Trinidad's government and justice system.
Now, Golden Grove Prison is where they send all the seasoned criminals. That is what one will call a jail in every sense of the word. It looks filthy, inside out! The look of it should just make people want to stay out of it. It is in Arouca, Trinidad and if you take the Old Golden Grove Road on the way to or from the airport, you will pass it on the way to the Eastern Main Road. When I was little, I lived in the street behind the prison. In the morning, on the way to kindergarten(I was three) with my mom, I would see the prisoners cutting the lawn in the prison's back yard with their brushing cutlasses. Sometimes, they would come up to the fence and whistle at my mom. There were times, the neighborhood kids and I would run over to the fence and throw stones at the prisoners. I always remember the faces they used to make at us when they were throwing the stones back at us. It was one of the safest places to live though. I don't think that I was ever scared of the prison or the prisoners. Maybe it was childhood. Now that i think of it, I had a pretty exciting childhood!
Since the weekend until now, there were more murders and suicides. A young mother of three was stabbed to death on her way home from work by an ex-boyfriend. For a small country, Trinidad has a collosal crime rate. I pray for TnT. It is such a beautiful country!
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