Catholic Commission for Social Justice
RECENTLY I gave a woman and her two young children a lift to their home. On the way the children suddenly started to sing along to Kees’ song, ‘Savannah Grass’ that was playing on the radio. Their young voices filled the air as they sang along to the hits of this 2019 Carnival season. They knew all the lyrics. I playfully asked them if they remember their school work as well as they recall the lyrics of each soca/calypso. They laughed without answering.
“WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO?”, cried my friend in frustration after reading about the 19 young Venezuelan women, between 15 and 19 years old, who were rescued following police operations in West Trinidad. The media reported that police have cracked a major drug and prostitution ring.
Pope Francis has stated that: “Human trafficking is an aberrant plague and a modern form of slavery.” Sadly, this multibillion-dollar global plague shows no signs of slowing down.
I watched the video-clip on Facebook in which six girls in school uniform at a school in north Trinidad were smoking what has been described as ‘spliffs’. The Minister of Education has asked for a report and the matter has been referred to the police.
The incident should lead us to reflect on issues relating to home/school/community links. This is a wake-up call for all our families and schools to be alert to this danger.
By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ, & Director, CREDI
It may be timely to remind ourselves of legislation that exists in T&T to deal with various kinds of discrimination. I am also an attorney-at-law and Lay Assessor on the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (EOT).
The Equal Opportunity Act, Ch 22:03, prohibits certain kinds of discrimination and seeks to promote equal opportunity between persons of different status. The Act covers four categories of discrimination—employment, education, the provision of goods and services and the provision of accommodation, if the discrimination is: (i) discrimination on the ground of status as defined in section 5; or (ii) discrimination by victimisation as defined in section 6; (b) offensive behaviour referred to in section 7.
Recently someone remonstrated stating that the Catholic Church should not “get involved in refugee and migrant issues”. I was floored by her reasoning—particularly as she is also a Catholic. Our Church has always urged us to have a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. This is a key social justice principle.
If Christians are disciples of Christ, if we are to follow in His footsteps, if we are to build His Kingdom here on earth, if we are to recognise Him in the face of our neighbour then we must take heed of His words in today’s Gospel (Lk 1:1–4; 4:14–21): “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”