Squatters bacchanal

“No legal tenants were evicted on Saturday... only squatters and people with some kind of pumpkin-vine relationship. What is the noise about? Everything in Trinidad has to be a bacchanal. What would people prefer, for people to live in squalor forever? Is that their aim?”

Chairman of HDC Noel Garcia’s comments last week after squatters were reportedly legally evicted by the HDC from apartments in East Port-ofSpain.

Now, people may forget and forgive what you say or do, but never forget how you made them feel.

So Saturday before last, HDC officials, accompanied by police, faces covered like bandits, went into government-owned subsidised apartments on Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, and lawfully “evicted” illegal occupants.

People will remember how they felt seeing their possessions thrown on the street, their doors and windows removed—violated, demeaned and dehumanised.

It may well be correct that, as Chairman Garcia said, the eviction came after an extended notice, after consultations with the inhabitants (I don’t see how that worked out given the power dynamic between squatters and the State), that the demolitions were part of a plan to “revitalise” Port-of-Spain; that residents did not have a title or an agreement to remain in occupation in the housing units, that HDC was not legally required to relocate the residents.

But Mr Garcia forgets that the State has a social contract with citizens and is a servant of citizens with a duty of care to ensure citizens’ fundamental human rights, which include housing and safety.

This social contract requires that citizens abide by the law and, in return, are protected by the State.

People have a right to complain when state largesse is done carelessly (residents were offered apartments in south Trinidad) means displacement from their community, proximity to jobs, and children’s schools.

It was unfortunate but inevitable that the incident turned into a political football. The Opposition seized the opportunity to gain political mileage by berating the ruling party without providing an alternate long-term plan.

Yet, the personal is undeniably political. So when a resident of East Port-ofSpain, a die-hard PNMite who will probably still vote PNM till her last breath, told me, through tears, that the PNM will lose elections, or at best, win narrowly next time over this incident, that this is the final straw that could break the camel’s back those in power would be wise to sit up and listen.

She says the ruling party has forgotten how tough living in the East-West Corridor is. It’s not “normal” to live where your child can be gunned down for stepping over the line to lime or play football on another street, in her case, Duncan or Nelson street. She says people in East Port-of-Spain are unprotected from being gunned down, from rising unemployment, from homelessness. The MP for East Port-of-Spain, Keith Scotland and the councillor whose name she doesn’t even remember are invisible in the area. It’s hard enough that CEPEP and URP jobs are hard to get. They are run by cabals— you need a light bill and a NIS number. If you’ve never worked, how do you get that? Why do you think, she says, there are more gang killings? Why are boys springing up like mushrooms selling water, singles from a pack of cigarettes to make something to eat something, and rapidly being fathered by gangs? Women, mothers, and grandmothers are getting more aggressive, daughters fighting in school, all battling for pampers, food, books, transport, and medicine.

All people matter. This is what the bacchanal is about. Not understanding that all humans have a right to a roof over their heads, to be treated with respect when being asked to leave a borrowed roof or being relocated could be the last straw and (self-interested politicians take note) could lose you your next election.

Civilised societies are judged by how we treat our most vulnerable. Squalor is never an “aim”, Mr Garcia–it’s a state of helplessness.

The human impulse is to live in dignity. The lawlessness of squatters is a direct result of the failure of the State to keep its side of the bargain. In this case, the State was not civilised.