An honest account of the State of Emergency in Trinidad and Tobago
Shortly after we arrived in Tobago the government announced a State of Emergency.
We woke up to WhatsApp messages from family in Trinidad and our landlady next door saying ‘don’t panic, briefing at 10am’. Not yet plugged into local news or media we had no idea what was going on and readied ourselves for a lock down scenario. I mean what does State of Emergency even mean? This was our first experience of living in one and we had no idea what to expect.
It turns out, not very much. The cause we learned, was a spate of localised gun violence in Trinidad, the State of Emergency was being put in place to protect the public by quelling any reprisals and to give the police and army extra powers to get guns off the street.
The biggest news was there would be no curfew. Phew. The twin party islands both breathed a huge sigh of relief. With Old Years tomorrow and Carnival just a few short months away, a curfew would have been catastrophic for small businesses, the government knew this and acted accordingly.
We went out that day expecting road blocks, searches and a heightened police presence. We saw nothing, and to this day we have seen no sign of a State of Emergency here in Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago are one country but two very different islands, and while parts of Trinidad do have problems with gang killings, just like most other places in the World – one of our primary reasons for getting our boys out of London was the knife crime affecting young black men – Tobago does not.
The news outlets report on Trinidad and Tobago as one country and give the impression they are both affected by the same things in the same way, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
So, what is it like living in a State of Emergency here in Tobago, well we haven’t seen any sign of it. The beaches are calm, the clubs are jumping, island and boat tours continue as normal. Everything is open and the people are as friendly as every. We feel completely safe and unaffected. Indeed, somebody asked me recently, how has it been living in a State of Emergency and up to that point I had totally forgotten that we were.
Leave a Reply