Friday, 25 June 2010
Domestic abuse! Oh how it I abhor!
Doesn't the technology exist precisely to trace someone's location by monitoring their cell phone activities? And, if it does, do we have it? If we don't, given situations ---such as confront Ms François: situations which are all too frequent and very predictable in their grim outcome--- why not?
I pray that an early and acceptable end soon comes to the instant case and all such others, for, as to this domestic abuse hydra, oh, how it I abhor!
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Running on autopilot?
The 2010 general elections are over; a new administration is in place.
Our style does not permit a phased transition ---as obtains with the
USA. Here, new administrations are expected to hit the ground running.
And, why not? Aren't new administrations always a serious entity ---one
that had entered the election fray with a determined view of taking
over the government? Therefore, only groupings which had some intimate
awareness of how governmental business is conducted ---or is required
to be conducted--- are permitted by the electorate to take charge of
steering the Ship of State.
The 2010 general elections are over; a new administration is in place. Why, then, are those who voted out the old getting the ever-increasing impression that, except in one or two areas, the new is not moving swiftly to take charge, that the country seems to be running on autopilot?
I pray that they are wrong, for autopilot mode is always set by the last pilot at the yoke; and, the last time this passenger peeped out the window, he was most perturbed ---the ground seemed rushing upwards too rapidly for anything but panic to prevail.
The 2010 general elections are over; a new administration is in place. Why, then, are those who voted out the old getting the ever-increasing impression that, except in one or two areas, the new is not moving swiftly to take charge, that the country seems to be running on autopilot?
I pray that they are wrong, for autopilot mode is always set by the last pilot at the yoke; and, the last time this passenger peeped out the window, he was most perturbed ---the ground seemed rushing upwards too rapidly for anything but panic to prevail.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Next up, Patrick and his sidekick!
Let the chips fall where they must!
Now that Ish and Steve are in custody awaiting their inevitable court date, let us proceed
with haste to haul Calder and his tricky mentor(s) before the appropriate judicial panel.
Post-haste! Property Tax repeal.
Seems like the already-declared intention to repeal the draconian
Property Tax Act has generated bothersome fallout, for no one is at
present able to pay their Land and Building taxes; neither is anyone
able to complete real property transactions, since stamp duty cannot
be/isn't being assessed?
Post haste, then, to repeal the nefarious!
Post haste, then, to repeal the nefarious!
Let the record show how they stood!
One of the first adjustments I'd like to see made ---when the new
Trinidad and Tobago Parliament convenes on Friday June 19, 2010--- is
that the Standing Orders be amended to demand that the relevant Clerk
record how each and every parliamentarian votes whenever the occasion
arises. For, over time, nothing is more reflective of a
parliamentarian's position, or more germane to assessing how heedful
they are of the people's needs and or wishes.
Let the record show how they stood!
Let the record show how they stood!
Kirk and Anand.
In the captioned Letter to The Editor ---as published by the Trinidad Express on June 17th 2010--- an obviously aghast Kirk Waithe opined that:
"...AG Anand Ramlogan’s comments last week regarding the Integrity Commission (IC) were both disappointing and disheartening..."
and that:
"...As citizens we need to pro-actively (sic) create the standards for and guide
the behaviour of our leaders.We must keep them honest -- ethically,
morally, and legally..."
In short, Kirk was inferring that, somehow, the AG is uncultured, while he, Kirk, is not! Which, in turns, prompts one to ask: "What is Trinidad and Tobago's culture, if not 'wine and jam'?"
Perhaps Kirk would've less subjective, had he first drunk of what David Mamet had to say at the Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture given by him on November 23rd, 2008, especially the following part:
"...A culture predates
society and it evolves before consciousness. The culture of a country,
of a family, of a religion, or of a region, is a compendium of
unwritten laws, worked out, over time, through the preconscious
adaptations of its members, through trial and error. Culture is, in its
totality, “the way we do things here!” And it’s born of the necessity
of people getting along. It does not come into being because of the
inspiration, nor because of the guidance of any individual or group,
but it evolves naturally: those things which work are adopted, those
things which do not are discarded.
Culture is what we actually do. It’s the sum of uncountable transactions every day and the implementation of our unspoken, unconscious and shared assumptions about the nature of the world. In a family, in a country, it is the priceless essential gift, the instruction, the assurance that this is the way we do things here. Civilisation is preceded by culture, which is worked out by innumerable interactions over ages. Culture may be obliterated by force: that is moral revolution; but it can and will naturally evolve at its own speed neither in response to individual nor communal will, but through interaction toward an unknowable end..."
Culture is what we actually do. It’s the sum of uncountable transactions every day and the implementation of our unspoken, unconscious and shared assumptions about the nature of the world. In a family, in a country, it is the priceless essential gift, the instruction, the assurance that this is the way we do things here. Civilisation is preceded by culture, which is worked out by innumerable interactions over ages. Culture may be obliterated by force: that is moral revolution; but it can and will naturally evolve at its own speed neither in response to individual nor communal will, but through interaction toward an unknowable end..."
David Mamet ---the Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture 2008 [The entire BBC-broadcast lecture was transcribed by me. See: http://mangochatnee.blogspot.com/2009/07/beyond-speechifying.html]
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Red X.
Were His Excellency, Jack Austin Warner, instead, the Vice-President of
Red Cross International, would there be a hue and cry from Dr. Keith
Rowley ----who, by the way, is yet to give satisfactory explanation re:
how and why certain publicly-owned materials ended up being
incorporated in a certain privately-owned property development project?
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Begging to differ re: salary cut for government ministers.
Cast your banana peelings upon the grass and, after not many days, it
shall return to you in it's pristine form ---as manure wherewith may be
fecundated once-barren soil.
From the dawn of time, corruption was ordained as necessary ---The Originator and Sustainer so ordered earthly affairs that Mother Nature's basic tool for our sustenance is Her ability to recycle waste to the benefit of human growth and development. Left to Her own devices, Mother Nature does a marvellous job; the problems begin when us humans, driven by greed or nonchalance, interfere with the natural processes ---plastic and Styrofoam manufacturers and users are chief amongst this category--- thus frustrating natural corruption to occur.
Some countries, in a fit of enlightened leadership, have at last introduced measures to halt the havoc-wreaking tide of incorruptibility ---by legislating against the use of non-corruptible products for transient purposes. For restoring the natural order in the physical scheme of things, that's good.
But, what of the metaphysical? And, in particular, the political? In the political sphere, is corruption too the natural order, or is it, as with the plastics business, one contrived to withstand the best efforts to transform it into something forever beneficial to mankind?
The answer must lie in the lure ---corruption in politics germinate and flourish only where the lure of indulging in it heavily outweighs the attendant dread. The lure is born of the same that drives the plastics and Styrofoam industries ---greed and nonchalance. Greed because the corrupt lusts after more than that to which he is entitled; nonchalance, because the watchdog is not sufficiently motivated to remain alert ---whether through his downright incompetence or inadequate remunerative package.
In the lure, then, also lies the solution ---the remunerative package of the politician must be such that would easily devise him away from corrupt devices; mutatis mutandis, the same applies to the boosting the vigilance of the anti-corruption watchdogs.
All this to say that I do not agree to cutting the salaries of government ministers, for, to each of them, the assigned lot is most certainly an onerous one, one the undertaking of which not even forty thousand dollars (TT$40,000.00) a month can satisfactorily make amends. Why, operators of large maxis make more than that! Furthermore, the budgets over which they oversee most cavernous, thus, hovering always at the back of my mind, is the caveating adage regarding the candle that cost the bereaved more than the funeral itself did, as well as the equity-invoking one of not muzzling the ox that threshes the grain.
I beg, therefore, to buck the tide by differing, as above, regarding any cut in government ministers' salaries.
From the dawn of time, corruption was ordained as necessary ---The Originator and Sustainer so ordered earthly affairs that Mother Nature's basic tool for our sustenance is Her ability to recycle waste to the benefit of human growth and development. Left to Her own devices, Mother Nature does a marvellous job; the problems begin when us humans, driven by greed or nonchalance, interfere with the natural processes ---plastic and Styrofoam manufacturers and users are chief amongst this category--- thus frustrating natural corruption to occur.
Some countries, in a fit of enlightened leadership, have at last introduced measures to halt the havoc-wreaking tide of incorruptibility ---by legislating against the use of non-corruptible products for transient purposes. For restoring the natural order in the physical scheme of things, that's good.
But, what of the metaphysical? And, in particular, the political? In the political sphere, is corruption too the natural order, or is it, as with the plastics business, one contrived to withstand the best efforts to transform it into something forever beneficial to mankind?
The answer must lie in the lure ---corruption in politics germinate and flourish only where the lure of indulging in it heavily outweighs the attendant dread. The lure is born of the same that drives the plastics and Styrofoam industries ---greed and nonchalance. Greed because the corrupt lusts after more than that to which he is entitled; nonchalance, because the watchdog is not sufficiently motivated to remain alert ---whether through his downright incompetence or inadequate remunerative package.
In the lure, then, also lies the solution ---the remunerative package of the politician must be such that would easily devise him away from corrupt devices; mutatis mutandis, the same applies to the boosting the vigilance of the anti-corruption watchdogs.
All this to say that I do not agree to cutting the salaries of government ministers, for, to each of them, the assigned lot is most certainly an onerous one, one the undertaking of which not even forty thousand dollars (TT$40,000.00) a month can satisfactorily make amends. Why, operators of large maxis make more than that! Furthermore, the budgets over which they oversee most cavernous, thus, hovering always at the back of my mind, is the caveating adage regarding the candle that cost the bereaved more than the funeral itself did, as well as the equity-invoking one of not muzzling the ox that threshes the grain.
I beg, therefore, to buck the tide by differing, as above, regarding any cut in government ministers' salaries.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Dr. Keith Rowley vs Jeremiah.
Shortly after being sworn in as Leader of The Opposition, Dr. Keith Rowley, in attempting to malign His Excellency, FIFA Vice-President, Jack Austin Warner, is reported to have promised that: “In the Parliament, (he) will support everything that is good for the people of T&T and (he’ll) oppose everything that is bad for the people of T&T.”
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, thus, by Dr. Rowley's pledge, also doomed to be suckered, for in his many years as a Member of Parliament of the PNM clan, despite what on the odd occasion he said, he never acted in the manner which he now says in future he'll act ---ECCE RES IPSA LOQUITOR TANTUM ERGO RES NON VERBA*--- as the Hansard record of how he voted in the House of Representatives will condemn him, rather than give us any hope that now he is a reformed man.
Epilogue: Jeremiah 13:23 (King James Version):
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then how may ye do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
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