Breaking "Breaking Barriers"

Trinidadians have few oportunities to see themselves as they are: to see and share in the suffering of others in the society. Few victims of crime feel secure enough on any existing forum to share their trauma and loss with the National community. No programme has had the wherewithal to fearlessly bash public officials for their respective failings in Office using "Late Show with David Letterman"-type bravado. That is until "Breaking Barriers" came along. In little under a year it became the most watched programme in the country. Its host, Inshan Ishmael, selflessly put himself at risk of political victimization in the hope that his programme may give to so many of Trinidad's citizens living in fear, disenchantment, disenfranchised, and demoralized something to hold on to. Naturally, in an act borne only out of the cesspool of retaliatory political expediency, the programme has been stopped by the Telecom Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT).

This is the same body that refused to investigate racial slurs made against East Indians on a PNM party supporter's radio station. TATT was ordered to carry out an investigation by a High Court Judge months ago after judicial proceedings were instituted against TATT. To this day, there have been no findings released, or sanctions levied. The owner of the said radio station is the same individual, Louis Lee Sing, who receives, self admitted, advice from the Integrity Commission on how to straighten out his financial improprieties as Chairman of the National Lotteries Control Board. While a past Prime Minister gets jail-time, Lee Sing gets a "get out of jail free card".

TATT allegedly received four complaints brought against the "Breaking Barriers" programme. To put that into perspective, there were four complaints made of a programme with a viewership of over one hundred thousand. No one knows who wrote the complaints, or the nature of those complaints. Other media houses are, of course, silent about this latest travesty against the freedom of the press as they seek the "greater good": more viewers for them. Dishonourable behaviour is the norm for this bric-a-brac patchwork excuse for a country.

Our constitutional right to express our opinions and thoughts as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago seems as alien to us as an UFO landing in Penal (other than a blimp). Try this nonsense in the US, and watch TATT fry. The sound of silent Trinidadian zombies once again assails us. Once again, the voices of the victims of a cruel and uncaring society, the disenfranchised, the ordinary "you" and "me", have been silenced. Already a selfish society, the last vestige of hope to engender some sort of empathy among us all is no more.

As for TATT, we have bad news, and worse news. The bad news is that Trinidad Dreamscape, with help from Mayaro Beach, is beginning to surpass 500 international and local visitors per day. You can't switch us off. If you want to play the politics game with citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, we will make sure the whole world knows about you.

- January 2007