Time for review of petroleum tax régime.

Since March 2000, when oil was priced at U$28/barrel, the price of a barrel of oil has increased four hundredfold. Today, it hovers at around U$118/barrel. As a result, during the period, oil companies have been making humongous profits. That scenario seems well-set to continue into the foreseeable future, encouraged, in great part, by falling output from some major international oilfields.

In view of this and, seeing that they made us kow-tow to them when oil prices were low, isn't it time for us to review, to our benefit, the overly-generous tax concessions oil companies have been given and are still enjoying, especially over their exploration activities?

Powerful essay on the international water crisis.

Below is an excerpt from Matthew Power's essay on the international water crisis. It was published in Wired magazine.

"One barrier to better management of water resources is simply lack of data — where the water is, where it's going, how much is being used and for what purposes, how much might be saved by doing things differently. In this way, the water problem is largely an information problem. The information we can assemble has a huge bearing on how we cope with a world at peak water."

The prospects outlined give cause for our major concern.

Hmm!

Would Patrick go down as the the catalyst that led to the breakup of the unitary state called Trinidad and Tobago?

Simply put.

What can you learn from the following sentence?

rice,

I always relish oven-barbecued lamb chops, well-done, stewed pigeon peas, the homegarden-grown kind, with tossed salad on the side.

I'll tell you! That rice gone up!

In Corcort's opinion.

Hear what my good friend, Corcort, from Paria Main Road, Blanchisuesse, Blanchiseusse (Jeez! Dah word does always give me trouble to spell!) when he saw this newspaper front page.

Buh wait nuh! Dis Rowley fella? He is not de same man who de PNM use dey majority in Parleement to clear of bad behaveea in parliament after he did pelt de teacup behind Sharma? No! Not de Chief justice, de nex' Sharma, Chandrish!

And, is not de same man who the DPP, on he own, block from facing making ah jail, even though it did have mo' than enough evidence to heng him?

Sigh!

Just another day in paradise.

I cannot understand why all the fuss about who get fired and why. We like it so, we free! Remember?

So, in reality, it's just another day in paradise.

When did they change their names?

I gotta go check to see if/when the relevant deed polls were done!

For, as far as I know, name of this guy>> is Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning.

And, the name of this other guy>> is Calder Hart.

Oops! I didn't tell you what prompted me to write on this occasion. Sorry! My bad! It was this Trinidad Express newspaper headline:
PM: Everybody knew about 60-room hotel

Sometimes it's good to speak in parables.

Any geologist worth his salt would agree that any mineral that's fired becomes roiled, a process that's germane to its being cleansed of all infirmities, thus, in the end, rendering it more valuable to all who yearn to trade with it.

Imagine that! A Taylor advising us what to eat!

So! The Consumer Affairs Minister wants us to consume "blue food"?

Dear Minister Taylor,

On your salary and other perks, you might not be faced with having to buy less cloth due to increased costs, but, in case you don't know, sir, we, lesser mortals, have been eating blue food for a while now, since every trip to the grocery, market, parlour, Breakfast Shed, what-have-you, consumes at least a blue note!

103 years old, but "grew up" with movies? Like "Sound of Music"? :-)

The reporter must be mad! In her growing up days it didn't even have cinemas in T&T! lol

Nonetheless, I gleefully join with everyone to wish "Mama" happy 103rd and I ask God to continue to bless her and allow someone to record her life story for posterity.

Click the picture.



--
God bless to you, Mama and to your family and your friends!
"Be simple and you'll simply be!"

The signs are there for all, but the blind or despotic, to see.

I return to this topic because I just read today's Trinidad Express newspaper's report that Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday, "there will be no subsidy on food... because "it lends itself to corruption and black-marketing".

Now, mind you, just yesterday morning the Prime Minister returned from Mexico, where he held "fruitful" discussion with a number of foreign countries (sic) regarding rising food prices and the drug trade.

Mind you, as well, that he promised that, "in due course" (whatever that means), the Minister of Consumer Affairs Peter Taylor, will be addressing the nation shortly on his Government's plan to reduce food prices."

He also made it clear that Valued Added Tax (VAT) on food items will not be reduced. His reasoning? "If it is removed it will only serve to increase the margin of profit to the traders." As if to suggest that VAT was introduced for the opposite purpose.

It is obvious hat the Prime Minister and his administration does not view the out-of-control food prices situation as one that wrrants most urgent attention and pre-emptive intervention. Some, myself included, have recommended that the fuel at-the-pump price sunsidy of two billion dollars plus, per annum, be diverted, instead, to subsidize the cost of food.

But the government has refused.

Now, it's refusing to remove VAT on food items, this so, even though the signs are there for all, but the blind or despotic, to see, that we are about to be hit with a firestorm of protest, expressed through anti-social behaviour, in like fashion to when

"...bandits took things into their own hands yesterday (April 3, 2008), attacking and looting two vehicles transporting flour, milk and juice-three items which are now in the high-end price range is supermarkets across the country - along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, in the vicinity of the Beetham Gardens.

And as the van's driver, Ian Hitlal, 29, was making a report at the Besson Street Police Station, police officers had to return to the Beetham to respond to another robbery. This time, orange juice and milk were stolen off another transport vehicle.

Since those incidents, there have been several similar others, in other parts of the country. That's why my earlier statement that it's just a matter of time before we descend into the abyss that Haiti has, still holds true.

Now, today, I'm reading where

Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

"It's the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years," said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and special adviser to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. "It's a big deal and it's obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there's more political fallout to come."...

...There are no scripts on how to handle the crisis, either. In Asia, governments are putting in place measures to limit hoarding of rice after some shoppers panicked at price increases and bought up everything they could...
"This is a perfect storm," President Elías Antonio Saca of El Salvador said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Cancún, Mexico. "How long can we withstand the situation? We have to feed our people, and commodities are becoming scarce. This scandalous storm might become a hurricane that could upset not only our economies but also the stability of our countries."

...In Indonesia, fearing protests, the government recently revised its 2008 budget, increasing the amount it will spend on food subsidies by about $280 million.
"The biggest concern is food riots," said H.S. Dillon, a former adviser to Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture. Referring to small but widespread protests touched off by a rise in soybean prices in January, he said, "It has happened in the past and can happen again."

...Leaders who ignore the rage do so at their own risk. President René Préval of Haiti appeared to taunt the populace as the chorus of complaints about la vie chère — the expensive life — grew. He said if Haitians could afford cellphones, which many do carry, they should be able to feed their families. "If there is a protest against the rising prices," he said, "come get me at the palace and I will demonstrate with you."
When they came, filled with rage and by the thousands, he huddled inside and his presidential guards, with United Nations peacekeeping troops, rebuffed them. Within days, opposition lawmakers had voted out Mr. Préval's prime minister, Jacques-Édouard Alexis, forcing him to reconstitute his government. Fragile in even the best of times, Haiti's population and politics are now both simmering.

...The rising prices are altering menus, and not for the better. In India, people are scrimping on milk for their children. Daily bowls of dal are getting thinner, as a bag of lentils is stretched across a few more meals.
Maninder Chand, an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, said his family had given up eating meat altogether for the last several weeks.

...Real solutions will take years. Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself. Outside investment is the key, although that requires stability, not the sort of widespread looting and violence that the Haitian food riots have fostered.

In recent days, Mr. Préval has patched together a response, using international aid money and price reductions by importers to cut the price of a sack of sugar by about 15 percent.

Meanwhile, most of the poorest of the poor suffer silently, too weak for activism or too busy raising the next generation of hungry. In the sprawling slum of Haiti's Cité Soleil, Placide Simone, 29, offered one of her five offspring to a stranger. "Take one," she said, cradling a listless baby and motioning toward four rail-thin toddlers, none of whom had eaten that day. "You pick. Just feed them." (Marc Lacey, New York Times, April 18, 2008).

Maybe, rather than going to have "fruitful" discussions with foreign "countries", the Prime Minister needs to sit with Marc and have him light up the dark tunnel into which we're inexorably headed, for to continue to ignore the obvious signs of the clear and present perils just ahead, is to invite them, all, upon us.

Before we go any further,

Before we go any further, sex with a fourteen year-old is statutory rape in Trinidad and Tobago.

A prostitute's tale
Sex to avoid arrest

Colombian sex worker Maria after an interview with the Guardian.
Photo: Andre Alexander

BY ASHA JAVEED

A 14-year-old Colombian prostitute is claiming that a police officer had sex with her in exchange for not arresting her during a raid at a hotel in Chaguanas, last week.

In the pre-dawn hours of April 9, police officers staged a raid at the Santa Maria Hotel at Bagna Trace, Chase Village, Chaguanas.

Twenty-nine Colombian women were piled up into police vehicles and taken away.

One was left behind.

Maria (not her real name) said two police officers found her under the bed of her room while the raid was taking place.

She was told if she had sex with an officer, she would not be taken to the police station.

Maria, who arrived in the country 15 days before by boat, hesitated.

She was scared to be deported back to Colombia but her greater fear of the police won out.

She submitted.

A police officer stood guard while the other officer had sex with her.

She was left in her room while the other women were taken away.

The women are now at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca awaiting deportation.

Maria had paid for her freedom with sex.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-04-17/news2.html

>500 found, 100 lodged. Whaaaat?

I'll let the story speak for itself, if you promise to read between the lines.

Some of the 100 ganja plants at Besson Street Police Station.
Photo: Abraham Diaz

ONE hundred marijuana trees, planted in buckets, were seized at a house in Rock City, Laventille, yesterday, during a raid spearheaded by Insp Sahadeo Singh of the Besson Street CID.

No one was arrested during the raid though.

Police said around 6 a.m., after receiving information, a large group of officers from the Inter Agency Task Force and Besson Street CID went to the house located at upper Erica Street, Laventille, where they found more than 500 marijuana plants of various sizes around the house.

During the raid, the Special Anti Crime Unit's helicopter kept watch overhead.

At the house itself, more than 400 of the smaller plants were destroyed. The other 100 was taken to the Port of Spain CID. -GG (Trinidad Express, April 16, 2008)

Okay, well, since you din't read between the lines, here's what's odd.

1. How come the >400 small plants, which would be less cumbersome to tote, were destroyed at the scene?
2. How come there was no mention of precisely how many police officers went on this raid? Was it like, 400, 200, 100? They did say that it was "a large party", didn't they? I wager what was smoked at that party.

The means determine the end.

Like all sane people and especially as an Aroucan, I am horrified over the murders that occurred in Arouca on Monday night last.

MURDERED: Malina Michael, MURDERED: Ariston Mauge

As expected, the newspapers today (April 16, 2008), all scream out the gory details.

Yet, as I read one such, I was stunned by a comment made by a relative of the victims. Could my eyes have deceived me? Or, did I really read the following?

"...While reporters were on the crime scene yesterday, (Ricardo) Boynes also admitted that (murder victim, Malina) Michael(,) "used to sell a little drugs to make ends meet as a single parent" (Trinidad Express April 16th, 2008)

Having confirmed the accuracy of what I quoted by second, third and fouth readings, I hope and pray that the Ricardos out there, would study that statement and come around to a better undrestanding of what ends one meets when one pursues such activities.

Billion$ planted! To grow what?

I'm asking again, "How much money is being spent on all these mega-buildings that Patrick and his construction crew are putting up on the shoreline of Port of Spain and in Tarouba, San Fernando?"

Nobody seems to know/want to say what the true figure is. Maybe yall could help?

And, while you're at it, answer me this: "Are these buildings edible?"

For food prices have gone crazy, delete that! have been going crazy for a while, six years at least, yet, instead of planting our money to boost food production, we're saddled with a government adminstration that's planting billion$ in the ground to raise concrete and steel.

Kudos to the Trinidad Guardian for randolph Johnson's tale.

Dear Editor/Head of News,

Kudos are in order to the Trinidad Guardian peeps for running the following story in their today's edition! A pity they didn't see fit to feature it as their front page banner story, for, by it being there placed, it would have captured the attention of many a current and wannabe criminal, thus, giving them the opportunity of hearing, traight from the horse's mouth, why a life of crime does not/cannot pay.

Randolph Johnson

Randolph Johnson, an inmate of the Maximum Security Prison: I was born on December 14, 1959, and grew up in Arima.

I only made it to standard three when I began to make "L'Ecol Biche"—that is leaving home for school, but not getting there.

I did this for a long time until I was caught by my parents and their investigations revealed I had not been attending school so I was taken out with the intention to learn a trade.

My childhood days were very painful. I was afraid of my father.

When evening came so did fear because he would be home soon from work. I eventually ran away from home and ended up on the streets.

I was brought back home three days later but shortly after, I did it again, only this time I spent months on the streets, stealing for a living.

I soon started smoking cigarettes, then marijuana, and was held for larceny and sent to the Boys Industrial School.

I ran away from the institution but it wasn't long before I was held for shopbreaking and larceny which landed me at YTC for three years.

At YTC, I went to learn joinery but I really did not take the trade seriously so obviously I did not learn the trade properly.

My parents were there for me during my incarceration and when my time came to leave, arrangements were made for me to live with them.

Once out, I started working as joiner but because of my inability to do the trade, I left.

Sometime after, I received a job with the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries where I worked for almost two years until I got injured and never went back to work as a result of the injury.

The say idle hands are the devil's workshop, so to fill my time I started smoking crack cocaine, and to sustain my habit started breaking into people's homes and stealing their property.

In 1980, I was held, convicted and sent to prison—my first "big jail."

I served eight months in prison but that did not change me.

I went back to my old ways, because it was the only way I knew to make fast money to support my bad habits.

My prison stay was 12 months' hard labour and upon my release as sure as—old habits die hard—I picked up where I left off.

In 1988, my third time around in the adult prison, I served 14 years and still never understood the value of learning a trade, or making use of the time.

I was eventually released from prison in 2002, and I genuinely did not want to return.

While I was in prison my father died and when I came out my mother welcomed me home.

She gave me everything I needed and I started working...I had everything under control.

But the roller-coaster ride soon started.

To support the habits I could not afford, I started stealing again so next came my fourth prison sentence—17 cases and I am now serving 14 years.

This time is different...you may be asking the question why? Right?

Well, my approach in understanding life is better.

The programmes in prison have helped me to build my self-esteem, taught me to be responsible and accountable for my actions; it has also helped in understanding my character better.

I thank God for understanding through his Son Jesus Christ; I now know who I am and what God wants for me. I am not where I am supposed to be today. But I'm definitely not where I used to be.

Mentally: I can do my own thinking and reasoning.

Physically: I am healthier than when I used to smoke and drink...I have been enrolled in as many educational programmes as possible.

Spiritually: I have a relationship with my God and Creator.

Socially: I can speak to people about life and it defects.

Emotionally: I am very sorry for the things I did to people—all the distress, pain and suffering I have caused them; and

I ask for their forgiveness and the opportunity to be forgiven.

I am looking forward to entering the next programme so that I can learn a skill to take me through the rest of my life.

I must say thanks, not for prison, but for the opportunities and information that I received through the various programmes being facilitated in prison.

Dear Dr. selwyn Ryan,

Dear Dr. Selwyn Ryan,
We're not interested in hearing from the Caribbean intelligentsia that are left! We're interested in hearing from the Caribbean intelligentsia that, in their thinking and problem-solving processes, are right, thus, would not lead us astray.
Your article at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161308655 refers.

Does this mean I'm an Iacoccain addict?

After all, the man is venting the same way that yours truly has been doing?

'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where
the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a
gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right
over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't
even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of
getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads
when the politicians say, 'Stay the course'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned
'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!' You might
think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country
anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in
handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody
seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom
poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the
America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How
about you?

Excerpted from

Excerpted from: Click the pic!

A hundred lines would have made more sense.

Ohhkay!

"Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s suspension from Parliament can be lifted easily if the Opposition admits his behaviour on March 28 ought not to have happened, Information Minister Neil Parsanlal said yesterday.
Parsanlal made the comment yesterday, while accusing the Opposition UNC of a carefully-crafted plan with yesterday’s boycott of Parliament.
Panday, now in London while his wife has heart surgery, was suspended on March 28 for using his laptop in the House without the permission of the Speaker.
He has been suspended until December, when the Parliament session ends.
Last week, Panday was refused entry to Parliament and Opposition MPs stayed away from the Lower House..." (Trinidad Guardian, April 12, 2008)

I find Neil damn farse and outta place! And kinda retarded, too! Because the Opposition has been saying, from day one, that Panday's behaviour ought not to have happened for it only happened because of the unilateral and misguided action of the Speaker in making a Standing Order when, clearly, he had no legal authority so to make.

Why do I have to point this out again, seeing as I already did?

At least, I observe, elsewhere, that, at last, the Speaker has come to his senses:

"(The House Committee (HORC) is) gonna meet sometime next week and we're gonna see what happens in the UK Parliament, in the Australian Parliament, New Zealand, India, that kind of thing, you know, Commonwealth Parliaments, see what is the practice with laptops and then we will make a recommendation to the House as to what should be done" Imbert said. (Trinidad Express: April 12, 2008)

Maybe the HORC would also recommend that MP Basdeo Panday write out, a hundred times, "I admit to my behaviour in Parliament on March 28, 2008!"? And recommend that he deliver his much-sought-after admission to the Speaker (and to Neil, if, thereof, he desires a copy), straight into his/their lap/s via email?

We like it so! We free! (Thank you Mighty Sparrow!)

I'm sure the Mighty Sparrow would not mind my filching from his immortal ballad, "We Like It So!", to portray how most citizens and I feel about life in Trinidad and Tobago today. Not so, Birdie? Actually, I was prompted to juggle Sparrow's words a bit, after a recent, spirited conversation with a buddy of mine who, poor chap, is one those "I is ah PNM till ah dead!" crowd! The topic centred on the now famous Panday laptop affair.

Here goes:

Neighbour! Look! If I was selfish man,
I wouldna campaign for UNC last election!
I done old already, I ent want fame,
Plus, I ent looking for fortune again,
All I'm asking is that you pay close attention to
The many problems we all face from day to day,
You're intelligent, I think and should face issues,
Not behave like a blinking clown,
And abuse me saying I supporting Indian.

But yuh pipe ent have no water
You pay too much for butter!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
This terrible school system
Is such a bloody problem!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
Agriculture in a state,
Planning is inadequate!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
The northern and southern idol
The two kingpins of bobol!
"We know! We like it so!
We like it so! We free!"

Anything that's wrong, he go put right,
Patrick tell we so the other night.
So! Cool it, Panday, before ah lose patience!
You had your turn now is Patos chance.
How the hell you could say UNC could do better
We go send yuh back India in ah drum,
We an Patrick goiing to put it together yeah!
We have freeness and freedom!
Plenty cocaine, plenty gun!

But yuh late for work everyday
Cause is traffic jam till yuh tootoolbay!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
This terrible justice system
Creating so much problem!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
Poor people in a state,
Housing is inadequate!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
The northern and southern idol
The two kingpins of bobol!
"We know! We like it so!
We like it so! We free!"

It ent have a single thing you could say
Could make me abandon mih baleezay!
No laptop go make mih bounce mih head,
Tommy, I is ah PNM till ah dead!
Rich! You may be shocked when I tell you this,
Panday shouldn' even be dey!
He and the whole damn UNC is real racist,
They'll take CEPEP away
And make black people work fuh dey pay!

But yuh cyar get bed in the hospital,
If not jet, is some new bacchanal!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
This perrenial vagrant problem
Plus criminals have streets in mayhem!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
Nobody feel safe here anymore,
Not even behind closed door!
"Take yuh laptop and go!"
The northern and southern idol
The two kingpins of bobol!
"We know! We like it so!
We like it so! We free!"

Panday was wrong!

April 9th 2008.

The Honourable Basdeo Panday,
Member of Parliament Couva North,
Caroni Savannah Road,
Trinidad and Tobago.

Re: Your suspension from the hallowed Chamber of Parliament.

Dear Sir,

After considerable reflection and research, I have formed the view that the Honourable Speaker, Barendra Sinanan, was quite in order in his moving, swiftly, to have you suspended from the Parliament for defying him after he stopped you from using a laptop computer.

I have so concluded because, despite the furore caused by the matter of your suspension, in my view, you were wrong to use the paid-for-and-provided-by-the-people laptop in the people's premier forum. Indeed, sir, the whole scenario prompts one to think that you are under some sort of delusion, as, obviously, you do not envision that we are still several light years away from the year 2020?

I trust that, upon your reading this my missive, you would, finally, see the light?

With best wishes,

Sincerely,

Richard Wm. Thomas,
Five Rivers,
Arouca,
Trinidad and Tobago.

It's just a matter of time!

Recently, Haitian anger at the authorities over rising food prices took a giant leap forward, as...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Four people were killed in Haiti when demonstrators protesting the high cost of living clashed with security forces, a local official said on Friday (April 4, 2008).

and,

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) April 8, 2008- Hungry Haitians stormed the presidential palace Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices and U.N. peacekeepers battled rioters with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Rioters were chased away from the presidential palace but by late afternoon had left trails of destruction across Port-au-Prince. Concrete barricades and burned-out cars blocked streets, while windows were smashed and buildings set on fire from the capital's center up through its densely populated hills...

``We are hungry! He must go!'' protesters shouted as they tried to break into the presidential palace by charging its chained gates with a rolling dumpster.

While, back home, ours took one small step,

"...bandits took things into their own hands yesterday (April 3, 2008), attacking and looting two vehicles transporting flour, milk and juice-three items which are now in the high-end price range is supermarkets across the country - along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, in the vicinity of the Beetham Gardens.

And as the van's driver, Ian Hitlal, 29, was making a report at the Besson Street Police Station, police officers had to return to the Beetham to respond to another robbery. This time, orange juice and milk were stolen off another transport vehicle.

I fear that, in short order, we shall descend to the utter chaos of Haiti! It's just a matter of time!

I wonder what the imported Chinese workers think of Tibet's struggles for independence?

In fact, I'd like to get the views of our government on the issue!

For one must not be left to interpret these matters merely by observing government behaviour, lest, as I have done, one concludes that the current government administration supports the Chinese government massacring of hundreds of Tibetans, many of them monks, during the ongoing "clampdown" against the people's pro-independence campaign.

To know the official stance is the least we deserve, since we claim to a freedom-loving people.

We gas tank full, but, we belly running on fumes!

For the life of me (I eh joking when I say that!), I cyar understand why dis govament doh realize dat food in mih belly more vital to my well-being than fuel in mih car gas tank!

In twelve months, mih grocery bill gone up by $1,000.00 per month, though ah been eating less, in quantity and quality! But, mih gas bill ain't change one cent, though ah driving the same amount as usual!

Me ent in no position like dem who raise dey pay bout three, four time since they get dey office, so dey could keep up wit or probly keep ahead of de Joneses dem! Me is one who ketching he nennen to keep heself from getting waterboard by de Manning bad management tsunami.

So! Ah begging yuh, Patos, "Have ah heart nah? Show some mercy nah! Susidize food, not gas, dammit!"

Cause everybody (meaning we, the people) gas tank full, but, belly running on fumes!

Time to ban ex-Presidents from doing paid work.

Now that the Clintons' financial records have been released to the public, one is astonished at the humungous amount of money the Clintons earned in the years after leaving the White House, their personal financial circumstances bordering on bankruptcy!

Once the astonishment abates, it becomes easy to conjecture that a President, or Vice-President, while in office, can use his/her position to line the pockets of friends/associates/lobbyists/shady characters etc., with payment for such "services" deferred till after he/she demits office.

Now! Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that such is the case with the Clintons, but, after all, looking at Veep Cheney and Halliburton, one also wonders.

Maybe it's time that there be a constitutional amendment to ban ex-Presidents from engaging in paid work.

Their till-death-of-themselves-and-spouse-whichever-is-later pension (equivalent to full presidential salary), plus other perks, such as free housing, travel, health care, Secret service protection are more than adequate to take care of their most epicurean worldly needs.

Such an amendment would deny the opportunity for legitimate kickbacks through lucrativwe contracts to be given them after demitting office.

I believe a similar arrangement exists with Supreme Court judges?

The recommendations above also apply to Trinidad and Tobago, mutatis mutandis.

What say you?

P. S.: I also posted the above in another blog >>here<<

Not "routine", "family"!

"A Routine Affair."

That, in a nutshell, is how Consumer Affairs Minister Peter Taylor yesterday, as he sought to downplay certain misfortunes which befell two truck-drivers on Thursday' April 3, 2008.

Consumer Affairs Minister Peter Taylor

In case you didn't know, the details can be had in the Trinidad Express newspaper article of April 4, 2008, headlined:

"FOOD LOOTERS

Drama on Beetham Highway as drivers robbed of flour, milk, juice",

where it is stated that:

"...bandits...yesterday, attack(ed) and loot(ed) two vehicles transporting flour, milk and juice -three items which are now in the high-end price range is supermarkets across the country- along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway (sic), in the vicinity of the Beetham Gardens.
And as the van's driver, Ian Hitlal, 29, was making a report at the Besson Street Police Station, police officers had to return to the Beetham to respond to another robbery.
This time, orange juice and milk were stolen off another transport vehicle.
The incidents, which were two hours apart, were also a stone's throw away from each other."

Routine affair? Routine?

Seems more like a family affair to me me, seeing as the Beetham area is/was/seem-like-it-always-will-be of and for the baleezay!

Then, it must be the ending?

Somebody pelt a bomb into a crowd of people on the public footpath right outside the holiest of holy Roman Catholic places in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Who ent badly wounded, physically, badly wounded, emotionally!

And, everbody vex! Whappen? Like having to cope with Manning and food prices is not enough worries for we?

Now! Up comes a police Commissioner, trying to calm we down, even, as the bomb dust and shrapnel still settling. Hear he:

"We (Not me and you, eh, he and his pohleece!) are almost at the end of our investigations and there is no need for the public to be panicking. People can go about their business as usual in the city. (I understand why people) would (be firghten), -an explosion in the city in the midst of a conference that is focusing crime and security- but, as I said before this is one that is clearly linked to some domestic situation and, as I also said before, there is no need to panic, or (to) take it down the road of terrorism! I don't think that (this incident) is something that is the beginning of some trend, I don't think so at all!" (Trinidad Express April 4th 2008)

So! The terrorist is a domestic worker or something? And, if the trend not beginning, then, it must be the ending?

@*%$#?!!@@##!

Add one jackarse police commissioner to the list of evils we have to fight up wid.

We reach!

Pretty soon, blimps would have to acconpany vehicles like these:

Flour stolen from delivery truck.

A trail of flour on the the side of the eastbound lane of Beetham Highway, yesterday, is all that remained from a delivery truck laden with bags of flour.

While travelling east on the highway, the truck was robbed of its tray full of bags of flour.

Eyewitnesses reported that the truck was caught in the usual afternoon traffic, when scores of men approached and announced a robbery.

Officers of Besson Street Police Station arrived on the scene almost immediately.

A search of the residential area was conducted and minutes later the suspects and some of the flour were retrieved.

The suspects, flour and truck were taken to the police station.

Up to 6.55 pm yesterday, no charges had been laid.

Supermarket shelves had been wiped clean of flour and rice this week, because of panic-buying after National Four (sic) Mills advised of an impending price increase. (Yrinidad Guardian, 2008 April 4, Friday.)

No pity deserved!

Word for word!

From the Trinidad and Tobago Express, April 3, 2008, the following letter to the editor:

COP needs no pity
Thursday, April 3rd 2008

With reference to a letter written by Kline Khan published in the Express of April 1, I have but one simple comment. What brazen arrogance! How in your apparently exalted opinion has the COP failed us? Is it because the sel-respecting COP did not heed a "pappyshow" unity call?
Now, most blatantly and condescendingly, you seek to forgive the COP? For what? It's attitudes like this that will ensure that the PNM has free reign for many, many years. Keep your forgiveness for those that have need of it!

Kevin Gomez
via e-mail

Can't find the letter to which Kevin referred, though I everywhere for it.

But, I'm sure that Kevin never suggested that he was extending any pity or symnpathy to the Congress of The People (COP), for, quite frankly and, as luck would have it, the COP doesn't deserve our pity.

Mr. Spock would conclude that I am an evil man.

None can/would deny that some of the evils which could afflict a nation are:

1. Runaway crime;
2. Runaway cost of living;
3. Runaway homelessness;
4. Runaway corruption in elected and public officers;
5. Runaway stupidity and ineptitude, as well, in elected and public officers;
   
6. Runaway immorality;
7. etc., etc., etc.

Likewise, none can/would deny, that I, Richard Wm. Thomas, of Five Rivers, Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago, have been talking, day in, day out, for years, against the above evils and, then, some! Yet, these evils abound and abide, thus, wracking this nation to its very core.

Since, for evil to succeed, good men must remain silent, then, the likes of the gentle half-Vulcan below would readily conclude that I am an evil man.

He would also conclude that, in Trinidad and Tobago, I am one of a good-sized company.

Hold it, Holdip! These men are no criminals!

Yesterday, two adult Trinbagonian men hung their heads in shame after being scolded by a High Court judge in open court.

They were not criminals, unless being unable to read is a crime.

"A HIGH Court judge yesterday threatened to charge a man for contempt of court because he was unable to read the oath to be empanelled as a juror in a murder trial. Justice Malcolm Holdip could not fathom the reason (why) a man works at the iron and steel company in Point Lisas, but could not read.
Another man employed with the Ministry of Works could not read the oath which (sic) the judge also refused to accept as an excuse. “The court will consider contempt of court proceedings against you,” Holdip told the Ispat employee. The trial of Jason Elis John for murder began before Holdip with selection of 12 people to serve as jurors in the First Assize Court, San Fernando." (Trinidad Newsday, April 2, 2008)

Hold it, Holdip! These men are no criminals!

Milud! As a learned man, you ought to be aware that both the Adult Literacy Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ALTA) and the University of the West Indies have done surveys which reveal statistics completely at odd with what the "official" statistics? Both ALTA and UWI agree that, in Trinidad and Tobago, approximately 25% of the adult population, or, every fourth adult person you encounter, is functionally illiterate, meaning that they unable to cope with everyday reading and writing. The government hyperbolically boasts that everybody in Trinbago could read and write. Huh?

In any event, it is the constituional right of both, all, men (and women) to choose NOT TO learn how to read or write.

It's a cause for great relief, then, that, in the end, milud, you took the humane approach and guided the two men on how to improve their communication skills.

I would have been the hallmark of literate behaviour if you had so done in the presence of everyone who was there when you berated them. It is also cause for much relief that the names of the men were not published!

I would also suggest, given the sensitve nature of the issue, that, in future, such assessment be conducted in private, meaning, in the presence only of the accused, the accused's attorney(s) and the prosecutor(s).