Truth, I-Blog

There was a sense of purpose, when decades ago, he declared his mission in the name he chose. Almost always with a serious expression, but with the ability to make you laugh at yourself anytime, he said his duty is to be, for Trinidad and Tobago, the Watchman: “to look out for people, to warn people and to stop people from doing wrong.” Wayne Hayde (Gary Cardinez Photo) Is he still too serious for them? When the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) Headquarters was car bombed in the 1990 attempted coup and police men were utterly demoralised, as a police constable he was among  a small group that led from the ground and from the ashes came the Police Second Division Social and Welfare Association that successfully bargained for resources and respect. The homegrown, incorruptible, police officer‘s decades of experience in international conflict zones-in a non-military capacity- in Africa, the Middle East and Asia has groomed him for the job at hand. He sees the challenge as br...

Fitzgerald Hinds, in his first incarnation under the Patrick Manning administration, was largely a backbencher and his role as Junior Minister in National Security was one in which he seemed to revel more in the appearances since there was nothing he could fundamentally change even if he knew how to do it.   Now, almost two decades later e ven as his boss, Prime Minister Keith Rowley sanctioned the passage of 50,000 careless Trinidadians to play in Tobago over the Easter weekend, Hinds , on the orders of Rowley and in his first edict as new National Security Minister has threatened to create special police squads for public health regulations to make citizens "feel it in their pockets", as a cover for the government’s role in the post Easter  surge of cases. Masmen: Rowley and Hinds. Lets track backwards. On Carnival Tuesday 2006, I earned his anger- which he let me know through a third party by sending a message to me, after I took photos of him, wearing an afro wig and ba...