Cummings slams negative media, begs East Port of Spain residents to ‘stop killing each other’

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MINISTER of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings used the occasion of the launch of the recommissioned Basilon Street Youth Development Centre to complain about the media's coverage of the area, in his address on April 10. However minutes later, he urged residents to stop murdering each other.

"The media! Stop only putting murders on the front page! Give us a front page and put Basilon Street Youth Facility where positive things will be happening for the young people of Trinidad and Tobago. Put that on the front page! Papers will still sell!

"What pride do we have in our society when the negatives that affect us and we are all trying to solve, every day it has to be plastered in our face?"

Cummings suggested solving crime was "more than a government responsibility."

He said, "It is a societal responsibility. It starts in the family, the school, the church, the mosque, the mandirs. All of us, coming together as a village to raise that child we could all be so proud of."

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Cummings urged residents to treasure the facility and to shock TT by the good work they would do there.

"And for God's sake, I want you to stop killing each other!"

Cummings suggested offering conflict resolution programmes.

"We could talk things through. Not so? We could have a conversation.

"I might not always agree with every matter the mayor (Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne) might come to deal with, or I'm sure he might not always agree, but we don't go cuffing down each other.

"We need to love each other."

He said the centre would offer training in areas such as auto-electrical repairs, plumbing, welding, woodwork, cosmetology and IT.

Cummings urged youngsters to visit the centre to meet its youth officers for their career guidance.

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Earlier, Minister in the Ministry of National Security Keith Scotland was the first to complain about the media.

Saying he hoped to make the capital city a technology hub of the Caribbean, he told Basilon Street residents, "I want to see you building robots and drones."

Scotland said the facility must be open to every young person who desires access to it.

"I want no borderline," he said, referring to young men from one area being unable entering a neighbouring area for fear of violence of a local gang in that new area seeking to defend its "turf."

Scotland said programmes run at the centre could create pathways for people's career's by boosting their pride and self-worth, and connecting a person to society. He urged that training be followed-up by interviews for genuine job opportunities.