Trinidad radio host takes drug fight to London
Radio personality Garth St. Clair (left), host of the popular Eye On Dependency programme aired every Sunday from 6:10 - 7:15 p.m. on the I-95 F.M. frequency, recently broke new international ground for local broadcasters.St. Clair's 'Eye On Dependency' co-host Natasha Nunez accompanied him on a trip to London, England, where they conducted an interview with T&T national Owen Alfred who was recently imprisoned there, for drug-trafficking.
Alfred who is Tobagonian, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for his drug-dealing deeds along with Tobagonian accomplice Oswin Moore who was dealt a harsh 16-year jail-term by the strict British law-upholders.St. Clair and Nunez visited the HMP Wandsworth in London (Britain's largest penal institution) on May 6 where they conducted a taped interview with inmate Alfred.
According to St. Clair, who is himself a recovering cocaine addict, the Tobagonian had more than a mouthful to share about what landed him in the UK prison. Segments of the interview were aired on the May 24 edition of the 'Eye On Dependency' programme.
Sponsored by NADAPP, a division of the Ministry of Social Development, the hugely informative awarding-winning programme addresses the issues of drug-abuse, and its attendant societal hazards. It also seeks to open the corridors of conversation to guests (in-studio and via the phone) from various walks of life. Meaningful remedial measures for drug-users and wide-ranging drug-related matters, are continuously sought.
The prison pilgrimage to London, was a distinctive first for local broadcasting. It is a statistic about which Mr. St. Clair and Ms. Nunez are justly proud.
At the Female Prison Welfare Project, Hibiscus Foundation, St. Clair met and interviewed its director Ms. Olga Heaven MBE (above right) at her office located in the central London borough of Islington. This organization was behind the largely effective and successful regional 'Eva Goes To Foreign' education and poster campaign. The campaign was specifically designed to discourage women from becoming drug couriers.
St. Clair says Ms. Heaven revealed that as a consequence of the Eva Goes To Foreign campaign, "there has been a perceptible decline in women from Trinidad & Tobago being arrested for drug-trafficking in the U.K."
The Trinidadian duo also embraced an opportunity while at the Hibiscus Foundation, to interview a Jamaican woman referred to only as Norma. Norma who served a six-year sentence in a U.K. prison for being a drug-courier, is now an employee of the Hibiscus Foundation.
Reflecting on their ground-breaking UK prison-interviews sojourn, both St. Clair and Nunez stressed the importance of expressing generous gratitude to a number of people who made their trip successful.
Included on their extended "Thank You" list are Ms. Olga Heaven and Messrs. Malcolm Lewis (a deputy Governor the Wandsworth Prison), and Andre Baptiste of Toyota Trinidad & Tobago Ltd., the Ministry of National Security, the Embassy of the United States of America and Constellation Travel.
St. Clair indicated that plans are being put in place for another U.K. trip. This time his eyes will be on women who have landed in British prisons, because of their dependency on drugs, or their hoped-for dependency on the irresisitbly large sums of money promised to drug-mules.
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CREDITS:
- Photo courtesy 'Eye On Dependency' shows Olga Heaven presenting St. Clair with a Hibiscus Foundation's report on incarcerated females in England.
- Story by Caribbean Islands News Network (CINN)