Theme: C.R.I.M.E

The Theme: Cultural Reality Imitated in a Mutual Environment

Recently in Trinidad and Tobago, a constitutional State of Emergency has been declared to address the crime situation. The TEDxUWI team recognized that relevance is a vital factor and hence decided to focus on crime. Crime will be viewed different as part of the cumulative narrative of Trinidad and Tobago and its connective ability. The topics hence reflect different ideas on crime and the source of our ideas on crime.

Main Focus Areas
Authority of Opinion
In crime reduction discourse what becomes the determining factors of authority of views. Media, government, radio and other sources of information, what determines their reliability and validity? In the narrative of crime, why do some stories matter more than others?

2. Vigilantism or Justice
The state is constructed to provide its citizen with security and an adequate perception of safety. Does there become a time whereby the state cannot perform such a responsibility and as such citizens need to become their own security providers.

3. Cultured for Crime
What becomes the cumulative effect of a society plagued with nepotism and personification of the adage “it’s not what but who you know”. The corruption and ineffective bureaucratic networks become just a phenotypical expression of a societal genotypical defect. We shall examine this view and see if we are cultured for criminal behaviours and how to resolve such socialization.

Centre for Language Learning Auditorium
University of the West Indies
St Augustine
Trinidad and Tobago

Valerie Youssef

Valerie Youssef works in the Linguistics Section of the Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Originally from the UK, she has lived and worked in Trinidad for more than thirty years. She specialises in sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and discourse analysis, with a keen interest also in descriptive linguistics. Her most particular concern is to produce socially relevant linguistics that analyses discourse in the support of those who may be disempowered by the socio-political system.

Kevin Baldeosingh

Kevin Baldeosingh is a newspaper columnist and public intellectual, who deals with issues ranging from philosophy, literature, science, social psychology, religion, pedagogy, economics, and policy matters. In twenty years as a professional writer, has written over 2,000 newspaper articles, over 30 periodical articles and papers, 20-plus short stories, three novels, and a history textbook. His novels are: The Autobiography of Paras P (Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1996); Virgin's Triangle (Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1997); and The Ten Incarnations of Adam Avatar (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2005). This last is the only work of fiction by an Anglophone Caribbean writer that covers five centuries of Caribbean history. His most recent fiction has been included in the short story collection Trinidad Noir (Akashic Press, 2009). In May 2011, CSEC History, a textbook he has co-authored with Dr Radica Mahase, will be published by Oxford University Press. He is a co-founder and chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association, the only organization of its kind in the Anglophone Caribbean. He is also vice-chair for ASPIRE (Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity), a lobby group seeking clarification and updating of Trinidad and Tobago’s laws on abortion in order to reduce health risks and maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion

Dianne Williams

Conferments: B.Sc. Accounting (York College, City University of New York) MBA (High Point University, High Point NC) Ph.D. Criminal Justice (Capella University, Minneapolis, MN) Position: Lecturer Courses taught: Theories and Research Issues in Criminology Reading Course Beyond Race and Racism Research Interests: Restorative Justice, Alternatives to Incarceration, Prison Reform, Juvenile Justice.