LIKE so many joyous events in this nation, the recent celebration of this year’s crop of CAPE scholarship winners has been cut short by news of the tragic murder of 2002 President’s Medal winner, Ravi Ramrattan, 30, in last Saturday’s terrorist attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

Some 68 persons were killed by gunfire and explosions when the Somalia-based terrorist group, Al Shabab, took over the upscale mall for three hours murdering shoppers at will, until eventually dislodged by the Kenyan army.

We offer our deepest condolences to Ravi’s parents, Bisnath and Parbatee Ramrattan, and his siblings, Rishma and Rajiv. With echoes of the 14 TT nationals killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Ravi’s death is a monumental tragedy for TT where one of our brightest and best had gone to foreign shores only to meet his demise in an event that appalled the world. This is a young man who had worked hard every step of the way in his career, starting in the humble village of Cunupia from whence he excelled at Presentation College, Chaguanas (which also produced this year’s President’s Medal winner, Abinav Karan). He then studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the London School of Economics, then opting to work for an agency, Financial Sector Deepening, seeking to advance Kenya’s financial markets, even as he pursued his PhD. Ravi’s loved ones testified how well he was able to balance work with leisure so as to live a full life, while remaining lovable, humble and friendly.

His mother said he was the pride and joy of his family and his community.

“He was my gem,” said Parbatee. “A hero to us and many other people”.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of Ravi’s death is that here was a young man who had not played the fool but had consistently worked hard from his earliest days, with the love, dedication and self-sacrifice of his caring parents, to become the best that TT had to offer to the world. Ravi’s parents also produced an attorney in Rishma and an engineer in Rajiv. While the whole nation mourns the death of Ravi, his death strikes a particularly deep chord with those of us who are parents, struggling each day to do the best to raise our children to make something good of their lives. Another tragic aspect of Ravi’s death is that he had left his homeland where life and limb are at a risk daily due to the high murder rate, to go abroad to do good only to meet his demise in Kenya.

“He could have stayed in England or even gone to Canada,” related Bisnath “but Ravi was a risk-taker and opted to go to Kenya”.

The account of Ravi’s last moments, pieced together in the lead story in yesterday’s Newsday, “Ravi’s last words: ‘I’m safe and hiding’”, illustrate the very fragility of life. After being separated from friends in the melee, he had used cellphone text messaging to assure them he was alright — itself a measure of his considerateness — but sadly his assurance was premature as he was then found by the terrorists and killed. His sudden discovery by the terrorists illustrates the randomness of anyone’s fate during a manmade or a natural disaster. Indeed the very intent of terrorism is to create an event whose victims are so randomly selected that all persons in that society cower in fear.

While the very social media such as Facebook and Twitter used by Ravi and his friends during and prior to the tragedy has itself helped make the world a better place by hosting conversations that create bridges and break down barriers around the world, on the other hand extremism still exists in some areas.

We truly hope that someday we’d see an end to terrorist attacks that create such grief among the families and the communities of victims who ironically are not even known to the attackers.

Even as Ravi’s body is due to be returned to TT for his funeral, we’d encourage his loved ones to display his life’s work such as his contribution to Kenya and his academic dissertations.