“Rivers are dump” Taken by Darryl James

This photo was taken by one of our colleague’s blog entitled ‘Cost of Urbanisation’. The photo show the sheer magnitude of pollution in the east dry river, this photo coincides with our blog as it help explain a deception that rivers are being used as garbage dumps. Mostly all the rivers in Trinidad are used as dumps or a place where one assume after throwing their garbage in the river, the garbage will disappear. This site is very disturbing and shocking to see rivers being used as dumping ground. The post in the blog ‘Cost of Urbanization also explains the fact the pollution lead to another common problem flooding which has immense consequences.

Link to colleagues’ blog - http://costofurbanisation.blogspot.com/2016/03/urbanizationwater-pollution.html

Another one of our colleague’s blog we would like to admire is the ‘Pulse of the city’ and more in depth their post on pollution. Their post is very intriguing as it starts off with one of the best quote which explains our responsibility to the planet that is ‘we did not inherit this from our ancestors, but borrowed it from our children’. The piece goes on show the mass of pollution in Port of Spain which tie to the urban deception we are trying to alert the population of. What make us interested in their post is their understanding that behind the ‘tall building’ of our city is a large polluted area.

Link to our college’s blog -http://urbangeographers.wix.com/port-of-spain

Straying from the topic of pollution but keeping the same urban theme deception I would like to share another post from a blog entitled ‘Slums- The King of Urban Decay’ and a post on the blog ‘Challenges of crime in the core cities’. The post highlights the fact that crime has dominated our country as we grow. The deception that is present in this article is not that crime has grown but the fact that communities and homes are now gated and armed with guards. This blog show a gated community which to some extent has become a by-product of crime. The post talks about crime as being an important factor in urbanization as it may influence a lot of decisions. The blog is very unique and not just gives option but back them up with some shocking facts.

These three blog are vital in make our audience fully aware of the urban deception in Trinidad and Tobago.   

'Water Front'

‘Water front’ Taken by Stephen Tikasingh  24/03/16

Beautiful aren’t they? This picture shows the waterfronts in Port of Spain some may describe them as one of the jewels of Port of Spain. The Water front is made up of three extremely tall buildings which has an estimated 25 floors, housing several ministries from planning to gender to education. The Waterfront is quite impressive, when facing the water fronts at the back the building on the left has a flowing of murals which depict Trinidad’s proud achievements. The reason I would like to highlight this building is to show the fact that urbanization can have some positive aspect. According to the Oxford dictionary, deception is someone or something being deceived, this is can then be tied to the factor that urbanization while it can be negative at times it can produces spectacular building like the water fronts. Being given the privilege to step foot in the waterfront gives one the feeling of national pride. It shocks you of the ability of our country to construct such a monument. Drawing reference from a lecture given to the urban geography class by Mr. Mark Raymond about different architectural design of building in different countries, it is important to understand the meaning of the waterfronts to Trinidad, whether it be as economic development or nation pride.

‘What is the purpose?’

‘What is the purpose?’ Taken by Yussuff  Babwah 31/03/16

Many of us from the southern part of Trinidad can identify this ground as Skinner Park, for most of us this ground is where it began sport wise. This ground is located in the heart of San Fernando. The field at first may look ideal but that is not the case, see the deception is uncovered when trying to play any sport whether football or cricket one has to be cautious of not break their ankle in the many holes in this ground. The reason we would like to bring this to the public attention is not the fact that we deserve a better ground but being located in the heart of San Fernando one may thinking the quality of such ground will be perfect and not in the deplorable state. If you think we are just making a political scene, try playing football on this ground your control has to be better Messi. Skinner Park is a widely used park at nights and also can be laden with so many people mostly playing football hence my fight to improve or highlight the condition of this park. This particular deception is closest to us are we were once those boys who try to used Skinner Park as a football ground but soon found out we could not. The deception then lies with that is being located in a city you should expect top quality or even applicable services, well that is not the case in Skinner Park. 

"Traffic congestion in the city'

'Traffic congestion in the city' taken October 20th, 2015

The picture depicts the traffic entering and exiting the city where everyday commuters go to conduct business or shop as well as people getting to and from work. Being subject to this on a regular basis can be a nuisance and people can become stressed and tired at the end of the day. It also leads to pollution due to the emissions on a daily basis which is one disadvantage of urban areas. However, while there can be many negative impacts of traffic congestion, there can also be some positives to it as well. People who are stuck in traffic can experience longer bonding time with their families as they would spend long times in the car together for example when dropping children to school. Also, waiting in traffic can sometimes be relaxing as they would sit and wait for the road to clear up they can get a chance to rest a bit from as long, tiring day. This of course depends on the situation.

‘Disturbance of the environment due to development’

‘Disturbance of the environment due to development’ taken in 2012 and 2016

In the above collage, fours photos are shown from behind my house where used to be one of Caroni’s sugar cane fields. It depicts a before and after scenario. The above photos show all the trees which existed before some of which we grew and had as a source of fruits. The grass is a beautiful green and the trees throughout the area provided a habitat for various birds and other animals. In 2014, the Land Settlement Agency (LSA) proposed the area as a site of development to sell of land to the ‘landless’ but in doing so cleared many of the trees destroying the habitats and the environment in the process as in the bottom 2 pictures which were taken just last month showing the brown grass, stones and the few trees that remained. It also shows an access road to the back where the plots of land were situated. Work stopped in 2015 and until the present day it remains abandoned and since then the area has been attempting to revive itself and the grass has slowly began growing back as well. The picture also shows a poorly constructed box drain behind the fence which is another indication of an attempt to develop the area but water in the drain is stagnant so it barely serves a purpose.

‘Long wait for the bus’

‘Long wait for the bus’ - Picture taken on 5^th April, 2016

The above photos depict the bus service at the University of The West Indies. The problem that occurs here on a daily basis is that persons who depend on this service usually have to wait a long time for the bus. For example, if a bus is scheduled to arrive at 3:30pm, it arrives at 4pm which shows how inefficient the service is. This is a problem that needs to be addressed as the service being provided needs to be more efficient. There are even some occasions where the bus would not come at a scheduled time and persons have a long wait until the next scheduled time which would be another hour (we were subject to this many times as students who use this service regularly). It represents a perfect example of deception. The photo on the left shows the persons waiting on the bus and the one on the right shows when it arrives. However, some of the times the bus is efficient and reaches on time.

Government job

“Government job”  Taken 01/03/16

At first glance we may think it’s a warehouse with office supplies but it is a government building which purpose is to situate the staff of the central statistical office. Being a developing country, we expect that that our public servants will be given required space to carry out their role in society. This office space has no individual office or even separation between employees. In my option, this office looks like a ‘sweat shop’ which brings the deception that with all these fancy building there is proper space for our public servants. It is good that these employees have an office, however, how one can expect efficiency in this environment. Furthermore, this shows the faults of urbanization.   

Journey to the city

‘Journey to the city’ Taken 01/03/16   Collaged 01/03/16

The above collage shows the waterfronts of Port of Spain in the middle picture and at each ends of the picture shows parts of the Beetham Gardens. The reason these photos were taken and collage is really to show the ‘journey to the city’ in its most ironic form. When one travels to the city, the journey has you thinking you are going to a dump however apart from the slumps you see a beautiful city graced by urbanization. Now one must think why the city is so easy on the eye but the surrounding journey towards it is embarrassing. Well as we all know, cities are surrounded or bordered by villages filled with people in search of jobs in the cities. The issue that is at hand is why urbanization has to create such an ugly scene on the journey towards the city when it supposed to display improvements of the city through development.

The kitchen is an important room

The kitchen is quite an important room Taken Sunday 21^st 2016 Riverside homeless shelter kitchen

Following the theme of homelessness, this picture shows the deplorable condition of a kitchen in this given shelter. Many may argue that kitchen must be the cleanest part of a building or home, this space should always be kept up to mark and sanitized. This picture clearly shows the dirt or grim on the ground, the paint peeling, the tiles chipping etc. at least the bins are new right! The reason I choose this picture is that it is based on the exposure of ‘deception’. Now we have governments talking about “get these homeless people out of the streets and giving them a place to stay”, but if I was in that position I would not stay there. There are also rumours that this place is used as a drug den. Given the purpose of this building, it is quite shocking that it is in this deplorable condition which deems it unable to perform its roles and functions in society.

Education through dialogue

Education through dialogue taken Wednesday, ‎07 ‎October ‎2015, San Fernando promenade

In our opinion, this picture is quite unique as it shows a conversation with a homeless man and me. The reason I choose to highlight this picture with the theme urban deception is due to the conversation and the story that enlightened my understanding. This homeless man who goes by the name Leon, probably in his mid-thirties, was paid a visit by the 141 foundation with the goal of feeding and having a rewarding day with these persons. Leon out of the rest had a note book and a red ink pen where he was doing mathematics but not the mathematics we were accustomed to but rather his own idea of maths. Now in trying to help him with some questions, he claimed he had to finish but he told me that his teacher gave him these questions and he didn’t understand what he had to do. There, it became apparent that this education system we were oppressed into has failed another one (Leon). The education system moulds us into a vessel ready to repeat and memorize information handed to us with lack of ability to critically think or in Leon understand what is going on. However, I am not saying that Leon may have been a homeless person because he could not do mathematics I am highlighting the ‘deception of our educational system’. Also, feeding homeless persons out of shelters should not condoned or practiced. 

Just a regular day

In the above photo, the main idea behind the blog is urban deception and the point we are trying to bring across is that urban is not always a good thing. It shows a homeless man sleeping next to a developed drain and there is also a lot of garbage surrounding him. The drain is located next to a homeless persons shelter but the picture clearly shows that he rather sleeps near the drain than at the homeless shelter. This shows that the development that took place is not really suitable or not really doing its job because we are seeing here that even in an urban area we are still seeing homeless persons on the streets.