Political Correctness and the Art of Overtone Singing.

Out of respect for Asami Nagakiya and her family, I had not intended to devote too much of this blog's space to the odoriferous controversy arising out of events following the murder of their loved one, but Asami, I hope that you know what is in my heart y con su permiso...

ADVISORY TO THE WISE

When the rain falls heavily over North Western Trinidad, there are often floods in Port of Spain. The weather advisory should warn that there is a danger of flooding especially if exceptionally high tides are expected to coincide with the runoff. If the Mayor of the City of Port of Spain, out of an abundance of caution and concern takes it upon himself to warn citizens that they should bring umbrellas, wear sensible shoes, stay away from open gutters, avoid the city centre if possible, postpone visiting Port of Spain if your business there is not urgent, and finally that parents relay these advisories to their children, wouldn't you say that he is doing his job?

Official advisories are meant to share information and very often serious warnings. Officials and countries release advisories all the time and not just about inclement weather, about threats to health, safety and travel. Since Asami's murder, for example, the Japanese embassy has put out a travel advisory warning its citizens to guard their safety in Trinidad and Tobago.

Are they setting themselves up for a charge of victim blaming if something unfortunate should happen to another of their nationals and if they should make the mistake of reminding media hounds that warnings were issued?

Or is it that crimes and tragedies do not happen if we remain silent about latent or active danger? Will the Zika virus be more likely to pass us by if we provide breeding grounds for Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes in our communities? If the Zika virus is an active threat that has not yet been brought under control, how can we not warn against it? And if the Zika virus should overwhelm our country and an official speaks the truth to remind us that we did not take the recommended actions, will that official be blamed, shamed and asked to resign.

Similarly, if violence in Trinidad and Tobago is systemic, and there seems to be no projected end in sight, and if women are easier targets, don't women deserve to be reminded?

The Brazilian Carnival is also a scene of violence against women. This article, for example, discusses one of the Brazilian campaigns to address the number of cases of sexual harassment and violence against women which occur more frequently in festive periods such as their Carnival. In this campaign they encourage victims and witnesses to report abuses through specialized public services. Included in their description of abuses which are to be denounced are: acts of physical or sexual violence, kissing a woman by force, detaining her by the arm and refusing to let her go, offending her by touching her body without permission and  attacking her verbally or disrespecting her when she says no.

Another article, "Assédio sexual: mulher, a culpa não é sua. | Sexual assault, the woman is not to blame." addresses the perception among 26 percent of 3810 Brazilian respondents in a study of social tolerance of violence against women, that women who wear clothes that show off the body deserve to be attacked. This is considered blaming the rape victim. Worrying also is that between 2009 and 2011, it is estimated that  there were more than 17, 000 femicides in the country. In Sao Paulo in 2014, there were 17 reported instances of women being abused on public transport. Of these, 16 were categorised as harassment offensive to modesty, and as rape. I have a feeling that the actual number of cases is probably much higher and that these incidents are shrugged off as traumatic but inevitable from what I know of similar behaviour in our country.

Back to our situation, I refrained from jumping to any conclusions about the Mayor's statements. I needed to review an original and unaltered recording of what Port of Spain's Mayor, Raymond Tim Kee actually said. I did not want to accept a conflation of discrete statements or excerpts that could have been cherry-picked to support allegations. Not having all of this evidence at hand, I could not in good conscience judge him in the court of "social media". To do so would have revealed me to be as reckless and thoughtless as he has been accused of being. The video clip which I have posted below is the only evidence which I was able to review. Suffice it to say that it did not make me see pink.

A TALE OF TWO MAYORS

Many of you must have heard about the mass assaults against merrymakers that were carried out by an estimated 1,000 young men during Cologne's New Year's Eve celebrations in Germany this year. At the time when the Guardian article was published on January 6, 2016, over 100 complaints had been made to German police, two-thirds of which are linked to sexual assault, including two rapes. Although police and witnesses claimed that the assailants were of North African and Arab appearance, the Guardian noted that up to that time, neither the identity nor origin of any of these men had been established. SOURCE

"According to witnesses, the males, between 15 and 35 years old, tightly surrounded women in groups of 30 or 40, before groping them and mugging them and their partners. Many threw firecrackers into the crowds, adding to the mayhem that ensued, which later forced the police to clear the square.

Police have said the men appeared to have been coordinated, comparing their modus operandi to that of criminal gangs that have operated in strength for several years in the area and turning it into a place many Cologners avoid after dark. Known locally as antänzer (waltzers), the men snuggle up to their victims, often twisting a leg around them in an apparently playful fashion, which causes them to lose balance, whereupon the perpetrator uses the opportunity to whip a wallet or mobile phone from a pocket or bag." SOURCE

Responding to these events on the 5th of January, the Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker spoke on live television and among other things, she advised that in future women would have to be better prepared in her city to deal with migrants. She would have thinking especially about the safety of women during Cologne's upcoming Carnival season this month and trying to prepare women for a possible repeat of the New Year's Eve attacks. She stated that “women and young girls have to be more protected in the future so these things don’t happen again." When she was asked by a journalist for specifics on how this protection could be achieved, she suggested that there was "always the possibility of keeping a certain distance of more than an arm’s length from strangers – that is to say to make sure yourself, you don’t look to be too close to people who are not known to you, and to whom you don’t have a trusting relationship.” Mayor Reker also advised women to “stick together in groups and to not get split up, even if you’re in a party mood.” SOURCE

Enlarging the protests about the initial attacks was then the outrage at her suggestions. The Mayor of Cologne was accused of blaming the victims.

Now back to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Keep in mind that the protests had already taken place in Cologne, and yes, the situation was publicised on Twitter with the inevitable hash tags. For example, #einearmlaenge - "an arm's length" become one of German's top-trending hashtags during the period. But it was now Thursday February 11 in Port of Spain and our Carnival had concluded a day before. The still costumed body of a murdered Japanese female had been discovered in the Savannah on Ash Wednesday and the city's Mayor was being asked for his comments. Judging by the ferocity of the protest which followed, if I had not listened to the recording I would have imagined that he had said, "She look fuh dat...jus' sayin'."  But he hadn't. Instead, his tragic error was in not having at hand a supply of brief and politically correct replies for such eventualities. He dawdled too much and sniffing the kerosene content in his clumsy words, a public and the media lit a match.

If you examine the articles which appeared both locally and in the international press, the conclusion was unanimous. The consensus was that the Mayor had callously blamed the victim for her murder. But knowing the situation on the ground and the culture from which I come, I could see what had prompted our Mayor's concern, something that he tried to explain after the protest and the demand for his resignation:

“I am compelled to write to the public about the statements I made about behaviour at Carnival time, and the responsibility of persons, women specifically, to safeguard themselves against the predators that come out to play in droves for the season. My statements about vulgarity were made in isolation when asked about safety, a week prior to the tragic incident with Asami Nagakiya.” SOURCE

A week prior. Was this made clear in the reports?

“When asked about Asami, like the rest of the public, I did not know the intricacies of the crime at hand. The news of her discovery was still very fresh and I was not completely prepared to discuss it in an intimate way. I could only have assumed foul play was at hand based on the nature of her discovery and the presence of bruises and wounds on her body, which is why my statement about women protecting themselves was very broad and very general. It was not about Asami’s case specifically and in retrospect, as I have said before, I regret the timing of this message.” SOURCE

As I write this, the Mayor has resigned. Was he good at his job? I haven't a clue. That inconsequential matter was never discussed publicly but I'm told by more brilliant minds that the good is oft interred. Also, I am not aware of his having ever been given the opportunity to explain himself before any impartial body. I have seen the results of one local poll where the majority of respondents felt that he should resign and our Prime Minister also sanctioned his decision. For some reason this official was considered a political write-off although I can think of at least a dozen undeniably outrageous and insulting remarks that have been made by public officials in the recent past which did not result in termination of jobs....and I am finding myself revisiting the experiences of Fazeer and Nizam Mohammed.

Back in Cologne however, the Mayor Henriette Reker is still the mayor. Like Mayor Tim Kee, she was lambasted on social media for her remarks. Like Mayor Tim Kee, she later apologised, and like Mayor Tim Kee, she said that her comments had not been reported in their full context. But the similarities end there. Her office is still hers tonight. Maybe that city understands that there is a whole lot more to be judged about a mayor's suitability than just his or her ability to rattle off at a moment's notice, flawless and politically correct statements. Maybe the culture is more about improving through dialogue what you already have in place rather than terminating dialogue and scrapping an official without allowing a second chance. 

Mayor Tim Kee could not change overnight a society created by decades of dysfunction including abdication of parental responsibility. The most he could have done as a short-term fix was to warn some of the most vulnerable ahead of a season when they do become fair game for aggressors. Ralf Jäger, North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister made an interesting comment about the marauders in Cologne. He said that "inhibition thresholds, in combination with alcohol and criminal energy from some of them, fell away." SOURCE

Inhibition thresholds fell away. No amount of political correctness can dress up dysfunction whether inculcated through nurture or brought on by mind altering substances. Even if we are not career criminals, we can still be inflamed by passions.

Would our Mayor have been open to constructive criticism after his remarks instead of the sustained condemnation that hounded him out of office? Would he have welcomed a delegation of concerned citizens approaching him with ideas about how to begin a discussion/programme about violence against women? I don't know. Was he ever asked? 

RESIGNATION STATEMENT FROM RAYMOND TIM KEE

"I wish to confirm that I have tendered my resignation to the Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Spain Corporation. When I was called to serve Trinidad and Tobago as Mayor of Port of Spain, it was not a decision that I took lightly given the great responsibility of the office to the Capital City.

"Public Officials must be held to a high standard of transparency, good governance, and accountability and I accept full responsibility for making the reference that cast a shadow on the death of Japanese National and pannist, Asami Nagakiya.

"I once again extend my sincerest condolences to her family, friends and countrymen, and wish that they be comforted by the outpouring of love which has been demonstrated by so many. Her loss is keenly felt as if she were one of our own, as over the years she has shown a deep love for the culture of this country and the national instrument in particular.

"Port of Spain is the Nation’s Capital, and the Office of Mayor has a vital role to play in establishing it as a city we can all be proud to reside in, visit for business, work or recreation. Although my time in office has been short, I have tried to lay the groundwork that will allow my successor to address some of the key challenges facing the city.

"These include the issues of street dwelling, parking, poor drainage and vending. It is my hope that my successor will continue to build relationships with all stakeholders, in spite of their diverse views, in an effort to solve these challenges.

"My patriotism and commitment to making a difference and contributing positively to my beloved country is not diminished by recent events. I express my sincere gratitude to those who trusted me to lead this city. I did my best, and I accept full responsibility for my actions and utterances. To the people of this country who feel they have been let down, I unreservedly apologize.

"As I demit office, I wish to encourage all of us as citizens and leaders to act in a manner that would best serve Trinidad and Tobago. To the residents of Port of Spain, I am indeed grateful for the opportunity to have served you.

"I especially extend my sincere appreciation to all Members of Council for their hard work and commitment to duty even under the most trying circumstances. I wish them the very best for the future and encourage them to work with greater determination to provide improved services to the benefit of all residents and citizens of our Capital City."
Raymond Tim Kee SOURCE

Finally, without a trace of facetiousness, a question keeps coming to my mind and I feel that it is an important question. Which parents tonight in Trinidad and Tobago are putting their young girl children through their paces as they train them for their Carnival debuts when they will be unleashed to expertly Bounce on it with friend or stranger, because it is their body and their choice? Which mothers exactly? Hypocrisy is king and queen in this land.

And now, I conclude by introducing you to a skill that is essential for all public figures - overtone singing, where your fundamental and selected overtones are hidden in plain hearing and may often leave your audience baffled but always pleasantly and politically correctly so.

Uploaded by Anna-Maria Hefele

See: Cologne Mayor: Women Should Be More Careful After Migrant Mass Rapes, Promises ‘Guidance’ So They Can ‘Prepare’. By Oliver JJ Lane | Breitbart | Jan 2016

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Cologne's Mayor accused of Victim blaming.

Cologne Mayor: Women Should Be More Careful After Migrant Mass Rapes, Promises ‘Guidance’ So They Can ‘Prepare’.By Oliver JJ Lane | Breitbart | Jan 201613,542

A political scandal is developing in Germany as ordinary citizens wake up to the scale of the migrant crime cover-up, and the callous reaction of the mayor of Cologne to mass-sex crime on new year’s eve.

The Mayor of Cologne has spoken out about the attacks,but her carefully chosen words are unlikely to delight many. Rather than addressing the root causes of the violence — unlimited mass migration and a totally failed system of integration — the newly elected pro-migrant mayor instead blamed the victims of the sexual abuse for having failed to defend themselves against the immigrant attackers.

Speaking on live television this afternoon mayor Henriette Reker, who was near-fatally stabbed in the run up to October elections by an anti mass migration campaigner, said in future women would have to be better prepared in her city to deal with migrants. She remarked: “The women and young girls have to be more protected in the future so these things don’t happen again.

“This means, they should go out and have fun, but they need to be better prepared, especially with the Cologne carnival coming up. For this, we will publish online guidelines that these young women can read through to prepare themselves”.

What form this guidance will take is presently unclear, the mayor could take inspiration from young victim whose modest clothes protected them from the worst consequences of walking at night in areas controlled by migrant men. The woman said: “Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. a skirt would probably have been torn away from me”.

Despite her words of warning towards women in the city they could prepare for more violence against them, she refuted the suggestion there was any link between the attacks and migrants, contradicting her own chief of police.

An opposition council member has today sounded the alarm bell on the deteriorating state of control the local government has over the city of Cologne, and in an official letter from the council group has warned those planning to come to the famous Cologne council next month “the city and the police… are unable to guarantee the safety of locals and tourists”.

Council group leader and lawyer Judith Wolter said in her letter to the people of Cologne today: “I want as a member of the Cologne City Council… to submit a travel warning for the carnival time in Cologne city centre.

“Especially the area in and around the central station, the cathedral and the adjoining area towards the banks of the Rhine for tourists (and locals) is no longer considered even in normal times as safe. For months, there is in these areas numerous thefts, open drug dealing, robberies and harassment of all kinds… Dozens of women were sexually harassed in public and there was at least one rape.

“Neither the city nor the police are able to guarantee in the territory described the safety of tourists and locals. Especially for women it must be assumed that a high security risk is here in the evening and night hours. At New Year’s Eve there was a legal vacuum and a no-go area for women. With the climax of the Carnival season it is unfortunately expected to be a similar situation”.

German police have admitted to losing several urban areas to migrant gangs as so-called no-go zones, but this is possibly the first time a public square in the centre of a European city has been acknowledged by officials as having been lost to criminality, and out of the control of police at night.

News of the attacks was suppressed for days, with just short reports of isolated incidents in Cologne city centre making it to local outlets on New Year’s Day.

The Kolnifsche Rundschau described the scene at the railways station as “largely peaceful” and made no effort to describe those who attacked the young women, one of which told press she had “fingers on every orifice” after she was stripped near naked.

Only after nearly 100 victims of assault and abuse came forwards to police, and stories of attacks started circulating on social media did the truth of the situation start to slowly emerge, forcing local police to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon.

Despite the chief of police admitting the enormous scale of sexual assault and confirming the attackers were of “North African and Arab” origin, much of the mainstream media is still in damage control mode, either trying to shift the focus from migrants, or avoiding the events completely.

Many have now spoken out to decry the self-censorship of the German media, and the apparent cover-up which only saw events truthfully reported after exposure on social media and the new media. Huffington Post Deutschland have published a scathing editorial criticising the police and media for their handling of events. Not just for failing to keep order in the first place, but for covering up events and even while appealing for witnesses obscuring exactly what was happening and not releasing descriptions of suspects.

The author said the fact Cologne police had so far only arrested five people in relation to the attacks — and even those only two days later — left people wondering “why precisely in places like train stations there is such enormous security camera surveillance if they obviously can’t be used to get more detailed descriptions of the perpetrators”. The reason for the cover-up, it was reasoned, is a desire by the police to preserve public order — and any sort of violent reaction to the attacks.

Breitbart London was the first news site in the English-speaking world to report on the horrific attacks that took place against German men and women on new year’s eve by a large gang of migrant Arabs and North Africans. Since that time, Breitbart has received a number of messages from eye witnesses to chaos in other German cities.

The daughter of a priest described Munich on new year’s eve as a “warzone”, with “Arab looking” “foreign young men” deliberately launching fireworks into crowds of revellers. Another woman emailed to report on girls being sexually assaulted and robbed in Stuttgart. In Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia local news media described an attacker there who assaulted two 21-year old women as “dark skin type” with a beard, but declined to say more.

In the United Kingdom, several news outlets have followed Breitbart’s coverage, including the Daily Mail which acknowledged Breitbart for breaking the story.

Most remarkable is the coverage by the state-owned BBC.

Despite the media giant even having their own offices in Cologne, their report published this afternoon sticks to the facts as published by Cologne local media days ago — and fails to mention migrants until the 18th paragraph.

In similar style, German BBC equivalent Deutsche Welle only mentioned the description of the attackers in the tenth paragraph of their reporting on Cologne published today.

Breitbart London is still waiting on comment from Cologne Police. SOURCE

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Run Away! [Song]

Uploaded by steelasophical

RUN AWAY!
By Singing Francine

Spoken: Every two seconds there is abuse of spouse, battered housewives in the streets and the homes. I have one solution and it's the only solution if you can't agree, agree to disagree. Otherwise they will read on their tombstone "Return if possible." The name of my song is entitled "Run Away!"

You went and you put gold ring on she hand [La la-la la la la]
You boasting in town that you is she man [La la-la la la la]
She say that you love she, bursting with joy,
She give you a baby boy.
Little did she know you wanted a maid [La la-la la la la]
Your next lady friend couldn't make the grade [La la-la la la la]
Now she sit down and wondering what to do
How to get away, how to get away, how to get away from you!

Chorus:
Dog does run away, fowl does run away
Lady, cat does run away when you treating them bad
Hog does run away, cow does run away
What happen to you? Woman you could run away too!

Get out! Down the road! Don't turn back! Run!!!

You went and you put gold teeth in she mouth [La la-la la la la]
As allyuh get vex, you cra---ing it out [La la-la la la la]
You making she shame all over the place
Man, you is damn disgrace!
Not even to church now, she cannot go [La la-la la la la]
She beg for lil love, you telling she, "No." [La la-la la la la]
She frighten like hell to make up a plan
How to get away, how to get away, how to get away from you!

Chorus:
Hog does run away, cow does run away
Lady, cat does run away when man treating them bad
Hog does run away, cat does run away
Don't sit down and screel, woman put two wheels on your heels!

Get out! Down the road! And don't turn back! Run!!! Take your child and run! Back to Mooma! Back to Poopa!

It ent easy to be a battered wife [La la-la la la la]
And getting abused the rest of your life [La la-la la la la]
When family come you does have to smile
And pretend that he so nice.
When he drink and drunk well now he turn beast [La la-la la la la]
You does have to wonder if he kill priest [La la-la la la la]
Is licks left and right and all in your head
Woman run away, look, woman run away, run away before he kill you dead!

Chorus:
Dog does run away, cow does run away
Lady, cat does run away when man treating them bad
Hog does run away, duck does run away
What happen to you? Woman you could run away too!

Get out!

Spoken: Now this verse, this verse that's coming up is for all the men, all the men that's listening. This is a serious matter. Listen!

If you know you don't treat your woman nice [La la-la la la la]
Start checking up now, you take my advice [La la-la la la la]
Don't let she have cause to fly out the coop
Woman never run from good. No, no, no, no!
When she give you food, just tell she it sweet [La la-la la la la]
Hold the lady hand when she cross the street [La la-la la la la]
Just do as I say, handle she with care
And she'd never run away, she would never run away, she would never run away from you!

Chorus:
Because dog does run away, hog does run away
Jackass does run away when man treating them bad
Cat does run away, them dog does run away
Don't sit down and screel, she would put two wheels on she heels.

She would get out! She go run! Back to Mooma! She go run! Back to Poopa!
"Come doudodu, you is mih daughter. You know I love you.
Come doudou, take yuh child and...."

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Singing Francine. Excellent advice! My mother loved this song and she would have given this advice to her own children. However, there are other "Moomas and Poopas" who are part of the problem and actually advise their battered daughters to return to their husbands, even when these men have received no counselling and there is no guarantee that the violence will not continue to escalate. "You cannot leave your husband," they argue. "Marriage is a serious thing." So even when it becomes deadly serious, some of these parents forget that their first duty is towards their children and defending their safety, not propping up some social convention for the sake of tradition or keeping up appearances.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

"Who Will Watch Over Me?" The Aloneness Of Sabrina Lalla-Mitchell

In this Tale From A Strange Land, the Strange Land is our aloneness as human beings and the savage ways in which this lesson is sometimes brought home to us. Sabrina Lalla-Mitchell left this life fighting to stay in it, surrounded more distantly by the people in her workplace and more immediately by an enraged ex-husband and her two young children, one of whom was actively engaged in trying to save her life. What were her last thoughts? What were the last images processed by her mind? Did she register this fact - as beautiful as it was tragic, that the child watching over her to the end was the one who needed her most to watch over him? - Her boy, who ignored his own physical weakness and safety to throw himself bodily into the fray to defend the mother that he loved.

"WOMAN STABBED TO DEATH"
By Stacy Moore
T&T's Newsday | Wednesday, October 27 2010

"Two young boys yesterday witnessed the brutal murder of their mother Sabrina Lalla Mitchell, 35, who was stabbed to death by a man with whom she ended an abusive relationship six months ago.

"Eleven-year-old Seth Mitchell and his brother Shayden, ten, watched as the man repeatedly stabbed their mother after he confronted her at her workplace at Bavarian Motors, Todd Street, San Fernando, where she was an assistant manager.

"The 36-year-old man begged Sabrina to reconcile with him and he attacked her when she refused. He then slit his wrists, ran out and got into his car which he crashed moments later in Gulf View.

"Although he was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital, sources said the man refused medical treatment and up to press time was reported to be in critical condition.

"Mitchell, however, was pronounced dead on arrival at the same hospital. Read more..."

The story is shocking enough, but then we learn that the son, a child only eleven years old, tried courageously and repeatedly to pull the assailant off of his mother while she was being murdered, the scene becomes even more poignant. But this is not all. The courageous child apparently had the maturity to appeal to the murderer's conscience,

"Seth said he tried to pull the man off of his mother and to convince him to stop stabbing her. “I tried to tell him if mummy’s dead who would look after us and he stopped and watched me but mummy was already on the floor and covered in a pool of blood and my school-clothes were covered in blood.”" Source

I don't know if I would have had the presence of mind to make such an intuitively, intelligent plea. It was the skill, I imagine, that would be expected of a hostage negotiator, yet this was only a young boy trying to break the assailant's blind fixation on venting his fury on his mother, trying desperately to reconnect the unhinged, adult human being with his humanity. This broke my heart and apparently it also touched the assailant because according to the child, upon hearing this plea he paused. The child was telling him that the repercussions of this act would affect more lives than just those of the two adults locked in mortal combat.

It was not enough. The mother of two would eventually succumb to the wounds and die.

The following day, more details emerged. The traumatised child continued to relive the horror of the experience, to recount in vivid detail, all his memories of the event. His maternal grandfather, Pastor Dennis Lalla, filled in the gaps about the abusive relationship to which his daughter had returned in the past but which she had finally recently ended.

However, there was another facet of horror to the story. Her father mentioned that other adult persons were present when his daughter was being brutally assaulted. I have no idea how long the entire incident took from the beginning of the attack to the death of Sabrina Lalla-Mitchell but it was long enough for her murderer to inflict twenty stabs to the upper part of her body. During this time Sabrina and her child were the only ones fighting for her life.

The details are still sketchy and these are just a distraught father's questions about the circumstances surrounding the death of his daughter. I sincerely hope that his fears are proven to be unfounded because if it is revealed that the adults present in that workplace were in the same area where this act was committed, that would be too much to bear.

"Son haunted by mom’s murder. ‘When I try to sleep I see my mother’s face.’"
By Radhica Sookraj
Trinidad and Tobago Guardian | 28 Oct 2010

"Meanwhile, the children’s grandfather, Pastor Dennis Lalla, questioned why nobody had bothered to save Sabrina-Lalla Mitchell, who was brutally slaughtered in front of a dozen witnesses, including her two children, at Bavarian Motors, San Fernando, on Tuesday afternoon. “Why didn’t anybody save my daughter?” Lalla said, after he witnessed the autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre, Port-of-Spain.

The autopsy revealed that Lalla-Mitchell was stabbed 20 times about the upper body. She died from shock and haemorrhage consistent with multiple wounds. The stabs punctured her left lung and ripped through her heart. The pathologist told Lalla she died about 12 minutes after a main artery to her brain was severed from her neck. Lalla said he saw every stab wound which defaced the body of his child. Saying he had forgiven the killer, Lalla was disappointed no one had intervened during the scuffle. He said: “My daughter put up a fight. While she was on the ground, she tried to brace and the knife cut her hand. Someone could have tried to save her. "


"11 YEARS OF HELL"
By Rhondor Dowlat and Stacy Moore
Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday | Thursday, October 28 2010

"Lalla questioned how the security guards, who were on duty at Bavarian Motors, as well six persons who were on the premises did not do anything to stop the attack on Sabrina.

“The security guards especially are their to protect. How can my grandson have the reaction to attempt to save his mother and those persons could not budge?” he asked."

Perhaps the excerpt below from the text "Introduction to Political Psychology" will provide some explanations for what causes people to hang back when they are needed most, when it is a matter of life and death for another or others. Although I understand the dynamics of it, I cannot excuse such behaviour and I hope that I will have the presence of mind to snap out of the fog of fear if I ever find myself in such a situation. Excuse me if you think I am being sexist but this is how I will see it until I die. Women and children must be defended at all costs and above all others from injury or the threat of injury.

"Seth: “I was watching them from a distance because, I don’t know, I was feeling something was wrong because his face was looking kind of angry but I did not say anything. I was just watching and then I saw him pull out a knife from his pocket,” Seth said. “I run fast from where I was, faster than a jet, I pushed everything that was in my sight. My shoes flung off, I wanted to save mummy so bad but he began to stab her. And I tried pulling him off her but he just continued stabbing and everybody was there in the room.”

"Seth said the man threatened to kill anyone if they got close to him. “Everyone was just so afraid but I wanted to save mummy but he already stabbed her so many times and he left. " Source

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BYSTANDERS AND ALTRUISTS

In New York City, one night in 1963, a woman named Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death. Her assailant beat and stabbed her for close to an hour, while dozens of people heard her screams and saw her being attacked, but did nothing. This tragic story is often used to illustrate the bystander phenomenon—when people do nothing to help others. Why does this happen? There is a tendency to blame the bystanders as being apathetic or uncaring. But researchers Latane and Darley (1970) argued that situational factors can explain the lack of

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help given to Kitty Genovese. When people are bystanders in an emergency situation, they sometimes experience pluralistic ignorance. They do not know how to respond, so they look to others to see how to respond (much like informational social influence, described in chapter 4). The problem is, everyone is looking at everyone else to figure out how to respond. Unfortunately, the result is that bystanders become paralyzed and do not respond at all. A second situational determinant, which can often explain the lack of help given to those in emergency situations, is diffusion of responsibility. If you were the only person available to help, then you would have 100% of the responsibility to give help. But if just one other person is present, then your sense of responsibility drops to 50%. The more people who are present in a situation, the more diffused is responsibility. This is partly the result of group characteristics. When people are part of a group, there is a diffusion of responsibility, and people feel less compelled to intervene and help. Many analysts believe that the bystander phenomenon is a crucial component in genocide.

Bystanders know, at least implicitly, that something wrong is happening, but they do nothing about it. Bystanders can be a person, a group, an organization, or a country. Indeed, the entire international community knew about the genocide unfolding in Europe, and in Rwanda 50 years later, and did nothing. They engaged in denial. Stanley Cohen (2001) argues that denial “includes cognition (not acknowledging the facts); emotion (not feeling, not being disturbed); morality (not recognizing wrongness or responsibility); and action (not taking steps in response to knowledge)” (p. 9). Milburn and Conrad (1996) argue that, at the individual and social levels, denial is a product of an unwillingness to face a reality that is horrifically painful. This, they argue, stems from childhood denial of punitive parental treatment. Denial is also often a subtle social pressure. Everyone knows and no one admits what is happening. Those who do are condemned or ostracized by the group. To admit that something bad is happening is often threatening to the group's self-image, so avoiding or ignoring information is necessary to maintain the positive self-image, and to be complicit in the general denial. Hence, many Germans could ignore the evidence that Jews and others were being exterminated in death camps, because Germans are good people, and good people do not do such things. For individuals, not to be bystanders in the face of political violence is often difficult. They are often threatened with severe punishment, if not death; they do not know what to do or how to act; and they know that as individuals they have little power to do anything. Yet, some individuals do act, hiding a Jew or a Tutsi, managing to save lives, one at a time.

Denial comes in many forms. People deny that they inflicted pain (“It was an accident”), that an injury occurred (“No one was really hurt”), that the victim is a victim (“He deserved it”), or that they had no knowledge about atrocities. Denial also comes in degrees, from knowing about but refusing to believe information, to knowing but maintaining only a vague awareness of the facts, to knowing, being aware, and choosing to do nothing (Cohen, 2001). For example, arguments abound to this day as to how much ordinary Germans knew about the Holocaust, and those arguments will inevitably continue, because many Germans did not then, and cannot now, recognize the extent to which they knew, but did not attend to information about the extermination of Jews and others. As Laqueur (1980) wrote, “It is, in fact, quite likely that while many Germans thought that the Jews were no longer alive, they did not necessarily believe that they were dead” (p. 201).

The likelihood that people will engage in denial, and will refuse to help victims of violence, is augmented when there are many people involved (as in a crowd surrounding an accident victim), when the situation is ambiguous, and when people are fearful of the reaction of others. People are also influenced by the belief in a just world. They believe that the world is benevolent, and that bad things only happen to bad people. Therefore, if someone is hauled off by the SS, they must have done something wrong. This belief comforts people by letting them

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think that the world is stable, certain, and predictable (Cohen, 2001; Staub, 1989;). These patterns can be seen in Germany and in Argentina, where bystanders abounded. In both cases, the information was, for many, very ambiguous. In both cases, there was no free press that provided concrete and undeniable information that atrocities were occurring. To speak out against regime policies was dangerous and deadly and was certainly discouraged by others, who did not want to rock the boat. And, as in so many cases of genocide and state terror, there was pride in a civilization that led people to believe that nothing so horrible could happen here.

In cases of state terror and genocide, there are always some people who help others and who speak out. The Madres de la Plaza de Mayo are an example. In Europe during the Holocaust, 90% of the Jewish population in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary died. But 90% survived in Denmark, and, in Belgium, where there was resistance to German dictates for rounding up Jews, 53% survived (Staub, 1989). Studies of rescuers or altruists, as these brave people are called, have found that one central characteristic is an ability to empathize with others, to imagine themselves suffering in the same way (Beck, 1999; Cohen, 2001). Empathy is defined as “an'other centered' emotion which is produced by observing another individual in need and taking that individual's perspective” (Batson, 1991; Rumble, 2003, p. 8). Rumble (2003) cites numerous studies of empathy and notes that the evidence indicates that people will be empathetic when they see another person in need and when they can adopt that person's perspective. In addition, rescuers tend to have an ability to identify with humanity at large, rather than only with their families, local community, or country. Oliner and Oliner (1988) found, in a study of 406 people who attempted to rescue Jews during the Holocaust, that they also had a strong sense of personal responsibility. Finally, Cohen (2001) notes that “these people reacted instinctively: they did not look for accounts or neutralizations for why not to help” (p. 263)." Source: Introduction to Political Psychology. By Martha Cottam, Beth Dietz-Uhler, Elena Mastors, and Thomas Preston, Mahwah, NJ. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

As the details emerge, this tragic story may prove to be yet another example of what the authors called "altruistic inertia" - when people do nothing to help others.

How does knowing how to describe this phenomenon help us to move on from here? Where do we learn to be afraid? It is natural for the individual to want to preserve his/her own life but we live in society, or so I am told, for a reason. We cannot survive as individuals. We need each other. We need community. Sabrina Lalla-Mitchell's story did not begin where it ended. She was raised in a family. The man who murdered her was also raised in a family. Where did they learn to be victim and aggressor? And even if they may have wished to abandon these roles, where could they have gone for help and support? They didn't need rescuers and heroes just at the end but at any point(s) along the trajectories that brought them to this horrific conclusion of their relationship.

We are alone when we use community only to supply our selfish needs. We are alone when we stand side by side, amazingly in sync, to protect our individual hides. Someone has to step forward to break the tyranny of the herd. Someone has to step out alone to break the aloneness, to move beyond the comfort zone of fear. We need to find the heroes in ourselves.

This story is not over. Pastor Lalla Dennis Lalla has promised to be a rescuer and hero to his two grandsons. He is fully aware of the possible repercussions of the trauma and has stated that he will make professional counselling available to his grandchildren. Seth especially should not be allowed to think for one second that he did not do enough to save his mother. He should know that he went above and beyond the strength of his little body and the responsibilities of his years, to try to intervene on her behalf, to be her hero. It is not over. We can all start paying close attention to the writing on the wall regarding all types of dysfunctionality. The interventions required are smaller, the earlier we offer them. As they say, that ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

My wish is for healing for all involved, the two individuals, their families, the witnesses, but not before we learn the lessons. We are meant to watch over each other. It is the only way that we will survive together.

PASTOR Dennis Lalla, father of murder victim Sabrina Lalla-Mitchell: “Seth looked at me and asked, ‘Who will watch over me now? Who will make me feel better? Because my mummy always hugged me and kissed me to make me feel better.’ I was so heart broken that I told him not to worry that I will watch over him and Shayden...” Source

HERO By Skillet
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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare