On the heels of much debate over the past two weeks, first on whether local dancehall music should be allowed a space in Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival landscape, and then, the pronouncement by a former Minister that Soca Music encourages the perpetration of domestic violence, Trinidad and Tobago’s Arts and Culture Minister is saying the music is just a symptom of a much larger issue.

Speaking on Power102FM in Trinidad on Friday morning, Minister Nyan Gadsby Dolly said the music in itself cannot be blamed for the present state of T&T’s crime riddled society, but rather, the quality of citizens being produced, is the bigger issue. “Criminality in our society, I think, is something that none of us are pleased to see,” said the Minister.

Referring to Former Health Minister Fuad Khan’s provocative sentiment, she said, the question of domestic violence, prompts the question of what comes first. “It’s a kind of chicken and egg question because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh so what comes out in our music, is nothing different from what we are seeing in our society,” she noted.

The Minister went on to say that the music cannot necessarily be blamed. “I think we have a deeper issue at hand and we have to face that, and that really speaks to the type of citizens we are producing in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Arts and Culture Minister said that while the education system in Trinidad and Tobago is one that reaches far and wide, even in the school system there is clear evidence, that the citizens being produced, are not of the quality “we want.”