In 1976, while I was a university student in Toronto, I would spend time in the library after classes completing my daily assignments because of the traffic on evenings.
I would often take a break from school work by reading the Guardian. The newspaper was sent to the library by the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate in Toronto.
At that time there was no Internet, no social media.
As a matter of fact, even telephone communication was a challenge.
Those were the days of telex, where the motorcyclist would deliver a paper message to my parents’ home almost a week after the message was sent from Toronto to Trinidad.
Although the paper was a week old or more, I would anxiously await its release from the library assistant who, co-incidentally, was from my village, and who was also a university student.
What caught my interest then was the election of 1976 when the newly minted United Labour Front, led by Basdeo Panday, got ten seats to form the opposition.
The government was then led by Dr Eric Williams.
In one of the first sittings of the new Parliament they had a debate on the runaway crime situation in general and in particular, the disappearance of several school girls. Of the several cases of missing girls only one was solved with the discovery of the body of a female pupil from the Couva Junior Secondary School.
I recalled that the school was a new creation of the government in its effort to increase school places. It was the neighbour to my alma mater, Couva Government Secondary.
The body of 14-year-old Joanne James of California, was found in some bushes. Joanne was a pupil of the Couva Junior Secondary. She was one of several girls who had gone missing.
An arrest was made and a conviction was eventually obtained against the accused, a young pandit from Balmain, Couva, who was found guilty for the murder. According to the police investigation, he would pretend to be a PH driver to lure his victims. He was caught by evidence from pupils from the school who testified in support of the police evidence.
The opposition contribution to the debate in Parliament on the crime situation was interesting.
The opening salvo in the debate, was led by then new MP for St Augustine, Haffeza Khan, could not help but cry for most of her maiden contribution. So too did opposition senator, Dora Bridgemohan.
The convicted felon, served his time in prison, and was also a beneficiary of a pardon, thus escaping the hangman.
Then later on I recalled the disappearance of Omarie Nanan from Talparo in Central Trinidad.
Again, the opposition used to have a field day in highlighting the disappearance of another unfortunate student. The opposition senator leading this matter was Wade Mark.
It is now more than 45 years that as a country we have had to deal with this scourge of kidnapping of our young daughters in particular and women in general. When are we going to get a handle on this frightening aspect of our country’s history? Time is running out.
Robert Ramsamooj
Chaguanas
