Farley blames Tobago mothers for rise in crime

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Moth­ers in To­ba­go have come un­der fire from Chief Sec­re­tary of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Far­ley Au­gus­tine. The Chief Sec­re­tary said that crime has been in­creas­ing on the is­land be­cause moth­ers are not hold­ing their sons ac­count­able, al­low­ing il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties to con­tin­ue with­out ques­tion. He ac­cused moth­ers on the is­land of en­joy­ing the fruits of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.

With two months be­fore the year ends, To­ba­go has record­ed a record high of 25 mur­ders, sur­pass­ing its 2023 fig­ure of 14.

Au­gus­tine raised con­cerns about the rise in crime across vil­lages dur­ing To­ba­go’s Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion on Sat­ur­day night.

Au­gus­tine linked this de­cline in val­ues on the is­land to the con­cept of “light” be­ing ab­sent in both homes and com­mu­ni­ties.

“Look at what’s hap­pen­ing in our lit­tle vil­lages—the fact that crim­i­nals have been able to flour­ish. It is be­cause light has been ab­sent. It is be­cause the light is ab­sent why moth­ers are sup­port­ing the crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties of their sons. They’re en­joy­ing the fruits of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. They are not ask­ing ques­tions about why their sons are be­hav­ing the way they are.

“So how did we ar­rive at a place where we have be­come so com­fort­able with crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, so com­fort­able know­ing that the drug deal­er is liv­ing down­stairs or in homes? Dark­ness is, in essence, the ab­sence of light.” He urged To­bag­o­ni­ans to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for restor­ing a sense of moral­i­ty and in­tegri­ty with­in their neigh­bour­hoods, ul­ti­mate­ly bring­ing safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty back to the is­land.

Au­gus­tine said that to make a bet­ter so­ci­ety, a bet­ter T&T, a bet­ter To­ba­go, then light has to re­turn.

“I want to en­cour­age this To­ba­go com­mu­ni­ty to not be ab­sent, to not al­low light to be ab­sent, to open the doors to light, to open our com­mu­ni­ties to light, to open our tem­ples and our mosques and our church­es to light.”

Au­gus­tine urged To­bag­o­ni­ans to take the Di­vali mes­sage to heart by fos­ter­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where crime can­not thrive and where light, in the form of pos­i­tive in­flu­ence, is al­lowed to shine.

Al­so at the event, the Hin­du So­ci­ety paid a spe­cial trib­ute to for­mer chief sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don for his sup­port of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty on the is­land. Lon­don was ho­n­oured for his role in ad­vanc­ing Hin­dus on the is­land dur­ing his tenure and be­yond, in­clud­ing his con­tri­bu­tion to the con­struc­tion of To­ba­go’s first Hin­du tem­ple.

In 2014, Lon­don grant­ed the To­ba­go Hin­du So­ci­ety four lots of land in Sig­nal Hill. Since its found­ing in 1992, the To­ba­go Hin­du So­ci­ety has played a key role in fos­ter­ing cul­tur­al and re­li­gious prac­tices on the is­land. The tem­ple, now 50 per­cent com­plete, still re­quires ma­te­r­i­al do­na­tions to be com­plet­ed and be ful­ly com­mis­sioned.

The Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion drew scores of peo­ple who en­joyed an evening filled with vi­brant cul­tur­al dances, soul­ful songs, and tra­di­tion­al del­i­ca­cies.

NGO: Hold men ac­count­able for their role in par­ent­ing too

While Au­gus­tine wants To­bag­o­ni­ans to take the Di­vali’s mes­sage to heart by fos­ter­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where crime can­not thrive, founder of the NGO Women of Sub­stance Oni­ka Mars is dis­ap­point­ed by his fo­cus on moth­ers.

She said Au­gus­tine, who is a fa­ther, should al­so hold men ac­count­able for their role in par­ent­ing. Mars al­so called for a re­ac­tion to his state­ment. She said, “Where is the ac­count­abil­i­ty for the men?

“That is a se­ri­ous prob­lem. Why sin­gle out the moth­ers with­out re­mind­ing fa­thers of their roles?”

Mean­while, Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy de­clined to com­ment on Au­gus­tine’s re­marks, stat­ing she was not aware of them. She in­stead di­rect­ed Guardian Me­dia to a Face­book post of a ca­lyp­so, “Os­trich So­ci­ety”, which spoke of the need for col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in ad­dress­ing ris­ing crime.