By Raffique Shah
November 23, 2025

It would later be branded “The Summer of Discontent”, a period during which the temperature and humidity of the island-state rose to intolerable levels, where natives and tourists alike walked around saturated in sweat. Tensions in the society rose to threatening heights. It was as if the population would implode with a fierceness that had never been seen before. Yet, nothing like that happened. Seething in sweat-driven fury, the natives wore their discontent with stoic harmony, leaving a façade of happiness that belied the building hate that will consume this country, someday, someday.

From my air-conditioned comfort, I sat at the window overlooking the heat that rose in waves. Never before had the natives experienced such engineering feats as air-conditioning that made life easier. We knew we were destined to clash with nature because of our appetite for harnessing heat that in turn moderated the temperatures—­whether we sat in cars on baking streets in the midday sun, or we stewed in global temperatures that had risen from my boyhood days to hot but tolerable sweat; we could live.

I tried to imagine where these confluences of emotion would take us. Scientists warned that the combustion would lead to global disaster, but living as we did in artificially modulated temperatures…

I heard the staff of the radio station labour on the top item of the day. Some woman who came across as a distressed citizen who had allowed her emotions to get the better of her, and who thought she would vent her spleen on social media by targeting Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in what she perhaps thought was ­freedom of speech, instead ended up facing a detention order issued by none other than Homeland Security ­Minister Roger Alexander.

Now, in normal times, one would skip something as trivial as that. But these are extraordinary times, so one has to be very careful in what one says or does—or, as is in my case, writes. It is the first time in our 400-year recorded history that started with colonisation that we are facing government by “vaps”. Oh, they will tell you that’s not true; government is guided by vision. They have produced documents, audio and video clippings that, taken together, give the citizens their vision of a new Trinidad and Tobago. I plead guilty to not having read any of it. That is because I think I have read all of it before—some from other governments; others, dreamers like myself; and yet others from individuals who are invariably labelled as being mad.

And now there is social media, a kind of wilder beast—some might say wild beast—that breaks every rule in the dissemination of information, and yet no one has ever been charged with breaking any law in that ­netherworld.

In the instant case, the offender is said to have posted a photo of what she said was the Prime Minister’s residence—an image widely available on social media. She is said to have invited Venezuela’s President Maduro to aim wisely and hit the right house. The post, in the words of the Homeland Security Minister, aimed to influence public opinion in a manner “likely to be prejudicial to public safety”. His words, not mine.

The funny thing is, prior to an hour or so ago, I had no idea this woman even existed. As a matter of fact, unless I see video footage of an arrest, I might be tempted to believe they fabricated all of this. I don’t know. But, here I am, and I can only confirm this if I see the order for detention, signed by Roger Alexander, the minister. Because the Government has been ruling by “vaps” or by open-style communication, they are exposing all of us to danger.

What is to say my response to the alleged offender doesn’t put me at risk? The premise of the order is, in itself, confusing, because I have seen and heard of multiple posts on social media worse than what this woman has put forward. Is it an attempt to scare the public—especially those who do not support them and are biased against them—into not voicing their opinions and concerns?

Or was it really a genuine fear that this virtually unknown person where opinions are concerned could have the power to incite revolt and rebellion in the wider population? Even typing this, I feel ridiculous asking those questions.

However, this is our reality today. We live in a country where you can wake up one morning, where police ordered to arrest you are about to board your house, and you are oblivious to why you were singled out for this action.

I have read about and experienced dictatorships where police boots signal your fate for the next few months or years. Let’s hope this is not the beginning of dictatorship rule.