The Washington Post - By Michael E. Miller February 12
It was Ash Wednesday morning and Trinidad was waking up to a Carnival hangover. Trash from the raucous two-day festival still covered the streets of Port of Spain as daylight crept across the Queen’s Park Savannah. The huge expanse of grass and trees on the edge of the capital was serene compared to the past two days of music and dancing.
But then came the screams.
Geoff Adams had just woken up on a park bench and was walking home through the Savannah when he heard the shrieking. A homeless man was pointing at a patch of bushes and screaming, so Adams walked over to see what was going on, he told local paper the Guardian.
“The guy say he see something in the bushes. I say it was a manicou [possum] or iguana,” Adams said. “But when I look I see a bikini bottom.”
Underneath the bright yellow bikini bottom was the body of Asami Nagakiya, a 30-year-old Japanese professional musician. She had come to Trinidad to participate in Carnival, as she had in previous years. Now she was dead, still dressed in her bejeweled masquerade outfit.
“She had a laceration on her elbow and black and blue marks on her waist,” Adams told reporters. “It look like a rape/murder to me.”
Authorities released an autopsy report Thursday stating that Nagakiya had been strangled, according to television station CNC. They have not commented on the suspicion that Nagakiya was sexually assaulted.
Japanese musician Asami Nagakiya poses for a photogrpah during the International Panorama competition in Port-of-Spain on August 9, 2015. Nagakiya was found strangled to death on Wednesday, according to Trinidadian officials. (REUTERS/Andrea De Silva)Police have questioned a man and woman over the crime but have yet to make any arrests, reported the Guardian.
After two days of joy, the killing came as a shock for locals and the thousands of tourists who flock to the island nation every year for the famously vibrant festival.
“Life is so unfair,” her friend Mariah Rodriguez wrote on Facebook beneath a photo of them posing in their matching Carnival outfits. “This young lady loved our culture and people, and someone took that away from her…you monsters disgust me!”
Outrage over the crime, however, quickly shifted towards the city’s mayor after he suggested that by dressing in a revealing costume and dancing, Nagakiya was to blame for her own killing.
“You know before Carnival I did make a comment about vulgarity and lewdness,” Raymond Tim Kee said during a Wednesday press conference, according to local media station Loop. “The woman has the responsibility to ensure that [she is] not abused.”
Kee’s cringe-worthy comments kept getting worse, as he tried to link the Japanese musician’s killing to Carnival culture.
“And my argument was you could enjoy Carnival without going through that routine … of prancing and partying,” he asked. “Then why you can’t continue with that and maintain some kind of dignity?”
Kee kept digging his hole, however.
Raymond Tim Kee, the mayor of Port of Spain, speaks last year in his capacity as the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association. (Photo/Anthony Harris)
“You have to let your imagination roll a bit and figure out was there any evidence of resistance or did alcohol control?” he told reporters. “Therefore involuntary actions were engaged in, and so on ….
Replies
We often speak from our belief perspectives. For instance, when we hold an idea that women's bodies tempt men, we never think that men’s bodies may do the same for women. Thus we uphold the problem of gender inequality, by blaming women to make men appear righteous. Thus, for me, Tim Kee's remarks express this belief. They are shocking in the light of the ongoing national and international discourse on gender issues aimed to eradicate gender bias. Should this not be properly absorbed by leaders whose responsibility it is to strategise for sustainable management/development of gender equity in our society.
Recently a young man told me he is trying to mentor younger men who insist on saying quite boldly "I want to rape Miss X or, Mrs. Y" with reference to women in their community. If these men get this premeditated opportunity, should we blame it on women's behaviour?
The opinions on this page do not mesh with the realistic assessments on the news blogs.
The way I see it is that Tim Kee was damned because he did..but he would also have been damned if he didn't….
"Off with his head"….Mob rule is alive and well in T&T
Is he still the Mayor of Port of Spain? Shame!
No, he resigned, but he should have waited the 'proverbial' nine days and all would have been forgotten.
Patrick Ramdoo: Don't you think the VULGARITY on the streets at CARNIVAL has gone too far? Now that TIM KEE resigned, the same people who called for his head should start addressing the evils of the "dangerous local sub-cultures" that TIM KEE addressed (also) in his insightful but slightly unbalanced statement.
Yes, it has gone too far. I think when Tim Kee made his statements, he was not aware of what was happening or even where it happened. The merry monarch reigned with immorality and indecency and people defend that.
it seems that many of you forgot that the life of a vibrant and talented person was snuffed out violently. Like Andy Narell, she was a born-again Trini. Hope she can rest in peace, amidst all the ?????????
Allyuh twist up Tim Kee's words to suit allyuhself. The behavior of plenty women during carnival was atrocious, but like dey say, "it's my body and I can do what the hell I want with it". HELL, yes.
Do the men behave like priests should?
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