Bring back love and unity into our communities

As a young guy (around nine or ten) I grew up in a community that was cultu­rally and ethnically mixed. We had the Indian family living on top of the hill, the red lady and her family living next door, the Baptist lady and her family down in the valley, and an assortment of others spread around. My own family is mixed, with my mom being East Indian and my dad African (as is most of my extended family). All of this to say that back then, we had no inkling of what made us different or if there was even a presence of difference. There was love and harmony in the village, with the occasional spats; the kids addressed all adults as Mr and Mrs, no compromise. The elder kids looked out for the younger ones. I remember one neighbour was doing an addition to his home, and all of the neighbourhood boys arrived there early that morning, and we had a scrumptious breakfast and we assisted; then we had a delectable lunch and went home to clean up, and returned to have dinner. That wasn't work, it was fun; we all played in that yard anyhow, so for us this was just another fun activity. I can keep relating so many wonderful memories—'Mr Tom's' mango tree being the target of many big stones; the lone governor plum tree in the village that was bombarded by the kids; there was a bird pepper tree every ten feet; and so much more. Mango chow was akin to ice cream; sugar cane was better than the best candy. What happened? The roads were paved, pipe-borne water was added (we no longer had to jostle at the water truck or stay awake in the wee hours of the morning to get a trickle, or push the reliable box cart to the community standpipe). Television went from one channel to hundreds; we no longer play literal football, we play Wii; we no longer gather in the proverbial schoolyards to play sports, we now gather online. We no longer keep ourselves 'sharp' and stepped outside just to catch a glimpse of that one beautiful young lady you grew up with, just to say hello; we now gravitate to the impersonal realm of online dating sites. Gone are the days when the neighbour's yard was the unofficial community centre. Now, we don't even know our neighbour's name. Travelling by bus was not only the norm—it was economical and convenient. A hanging 'spouting' (guttering) was the assembly point during rain, as the water gushed out like a river. We've replaced the indomitable 'brown bag' with fancy lunch bags—gone are the days when you have to hide that greasy bag. What happened? Modernisation happened, and with it came a better standard of living—or did it? A greater level of comfort was created, with facilities and amenities, but we also created a very distant and impersonal world, a world where the mind is now focused on the accumulation of 'things', and gone are the basic tendencies to show love and compassion to each other. Don't get me wrong, I am all for continued growth and development, but it must not be at the cost of division, hate and/or estrangement. If we can somehow bring love and unity (regardless of our religion or race) back into our communities, we can save the country as a whole. Just to add, I remember as a kid, a Christian kid, we counted down the days to Divali, simply to go eat at our Hindu neighbours. The fact that they were of another religion didn't even matter to us, we were only inte­rested in the food! This is the Trinidad I once knew and enjoyed. Akim Carrington