Broken oaths invite retribution, ent?

Section 84 of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago declares that:

A Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary shall not enter upon the duties of his office unless he has taken and subscribed the oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of his office.

The Constitution then goes on -in Schedule One- to detail the oaths, as follows:

Form of Oath (affirmation) for
A Minister or Parliamentary Secretary

I, A.B.. do swear by............ (solemnly affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Trinidad
and Tobago and will uphold the Constitution and the law, that I will conscientiously, impartially and to
the best of my ability discharge my duties as ………… and do right to all manner of people without
fear or favour, affection or ill will.

[See: http://www.ttparliament.org/documents/1048.pdf]

Questions!

1. What are the consequences to Ministers or a Parliamentary Secretaries, if it is found that they, having taken and subscribed such oaths, are not giving their all in discharging their duties, or are treating with some people in a bigoted, or spiteful, or malicious manner?
2. And, by whom are such consequences to be visited upon the errant?

The Devil nearby still lurks -his sulphurous odour still reeks!

The Devil nearby still lurks -his sulphurous odour still reeks!

Anyone who believes or believed that, upon their receiving the second-soundest cutarse they ever got, the People's National Movement [PNM] would have just rolled over and died like a semp -with its two feet up in the air- has to be a raving lunatic, for every PNMite lives, eats and breathes that MAGNUM EST PNM ET PRAEVELIBIT [Great is the PNM and it shall prevail!]. "PRAEVELIBIT", you see, translates to "it shall prevail".

As used in its fifty-five year-old motto, "prevail" is a verb, an intransitive one, derived from the Latin verb "praevalēre", that means "to be superior in strength" and derives from two other Latin words "prae" [beyond] and "valēre" [to be strong]. "Shall", as all know, is a command word, as it imposes a duty to act upon whomsoever "shall" applies.

So when PNM says PNM PRAEVELIBIT, better believe PNM means it, then take necessary precautions and pre-emptive actions...else shall be taken your hindmost by The Devil himself!

The Devil nearby still lurks -his sulphurous odour still reeks!

Never mind the weapon, but the mind!

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

Criminals now appear to be rule the roost.

Connect the dots, people!

The solution to crime lies not in removing or making it more difficult to obtain a gun, but in how we mind our offspring!

Therefore, never mind the weapon, but the mind!

Ignore and, to the devil the hindmost!

The social panacea.

The human, by nature, is a social animal.

The definition of "social" straddles many domains:

adjective:

1. (Sociology) living or preferring to live in a community rather than alone

2. (Sociology) denoting or relating to human society or any of its subdivisions

3. (Sociology) of, relating to, or characteristic of the experience, behaviour, and interaction of persons forming groups

4. relating to or having the purpose of promoting companionship, communal activities, etc. a social club

5. (Social Welfare) relating to or engaged in social services a social worker

6. (Sociology) relating to or considered appropriate to a certain class of society, esp one thought superior

7. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology) (esp of certain species of insects) living together in organized colonies social bees.

8. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Botany) (of plant species) growing in clumps, usually over a wide area

noun:

an informal gathering, esp of an organized group, to promote companionship, communal activity, etc.

Etymology:

Latin "sociālis": companionable, from "socius": a comrade]

[See: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/social]

Thus, everything man thinks, breathes, or does is driven by social immanence or experience. Thence comes the dictum that "No man is an island!"

To understand that is to understand where lies the key to promoting social good, or turning a blind eye to social ill.

The key is: "It takes a village to raise a child!"

That key, however, also opens an opposing door, for no child can be punished, or abused, unless the village concurs or demurs.

Many labour their entire lives without ever grasping such realities.

Having already explained what "social" means, let me put on the record for the umpteenth time, how vigorously I endorse using social welfare programmes to right the many ills affecting Trinidad and Tobago, for, in this context, "welfare" can only mean:

noun:

a. Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being.

b. Prosperity.

HABEMUS KAMLAM REGINA PRO TEMPORE ET NON PLUS ULTRA EST VERUM SOL LUCET OMNIBUS SED EX VOCE CLAMENTIS IN DESERTO MEMENTO TEMPUS FUGIT SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI PNMITIS DELENDA EST IN CAUDA VENEMUM PAX VOBISCUM

Translation:

Kamla is now our Prime Minister. At present there is no better than her for such role. As a result, indeed the sun shall bestow its energising light on everyone. But, take it from the voice of one crying in the wilderness, time waits on no one, thus very fleeting is temporal fame or glory. PNMitis has to be destroyed, for the sting of the PNM lies in its residual dominance of the landscape! Peace!

Let it not ever be said of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration that it dropped the baton when the key to providing social welfare was passed to it!

People, not machines!

Crimes -whether against the person or not- are committed by criminally-minded people, never by any any machine: for every machine -whether the machine is sophisticated or not- is a tool wielded by a human being...nothing more, nothing less!

Thus, to minimize or eliminate crime, don't focus on the machine -change the mindset of the criminally-minded!

Frightening disclosure by Senior Magistrate Cardenas-Ragoonanan.

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/LICENCE_TO_DRINK-112045814.html

wherein it is reported that Senior Magistrate, Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan, in granting, carte blanche, liquor licences to scores of applicants, opined:

"You must come to make objections if you are serious, otherwise the committee will assume everything is okay and I can go ahead to grant applications,"

even though, in her view, the granting, in such fashion, of such licences comes against a worrisome backdrop, for she commended

"the [Port of Spain] Mayor [Louis Lee Sing] for looking at the situation and trying to quell it. It has been a problem over the years,"

Suffice it to say that perhaps that's why so few have faith or hope in the judicial system these days? For how could a judicial officer simply approve things carte blanche, despite personal knowledge that, by so doing, a problematic, untenable or objectionable status quo shall be maintained?

Not glibly do I allude to that, for, in Section 18 of the relevant law -Liquor Licences Act [Chapter 84: 10]- it is clearly stated that:

(1) Sessions for the granting of certificates for the issue or renewal of licences shall be held four times a year on convenient days to be appointed by the licensing committee in each licensing area or district, as the case may be, and any such session may, at the discretion of the licensing committee, be adjourned, either generally, or, as respects any particular applications, to such other days as the licensing committee thinks fit.

(4) The licensing committee in the exercise of its discretion may, at any session, or at any adjournment thereof, examine any person who, in the opinion of the licensing committee is able to give evidence relevant to the application before it and for that purpose may summon that person to appear before it.

[See: http://rgd.legalaffairs.gov.tt/Laws2/Alphabetical_List/lawspdfs/84.10.pdf]

Furthermore, Section 21 of the same law also clearly itemises a comprehensive list of the criteria of which account must be taken in considering liquor licence applications. At least three of such criteria are worthy of herein mention:

(2) Objection to the grant of a new licence or the transfer of any licence to new premises or to any person may be on any reasonable ground including including any of the following grounds:

(b) that the district is already adequately served by licensed premises;

(c) that the premises in respect of which the application is made are in too close proximity to a school or place of worship;

(d) that the premises in respect of which the application is made are unsuitable either owing to difficulty in supervising them, [etc].

As if the legislators who made that law had envisaged days such as in which we now abide, Section 21 (3) sticks in the omnibus provision that:

(3) Objection to the renewal of a licence may be on any reasonable ground including any of the grounds mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (e).

How, then, in the face of what Her Worship is reported to have articulated [as at caption], she did not adjourn the session and summon His Worship the Mayor to appear before he committee requires urgent explanation, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

So, therefore, recommend I that, were she not to explain, someone higher than her does! Such is my humble appeal.

Ringing a bell for the wise rather than the foolish.

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/letters/0,132550.html,wherein Stuart Bell, of St. James, proclaims that:

"indeed [the basic] peril of our democracy...is that the major decision on who is to be voted into power is left to the uninformed, the fickle, the prejudiced, who are all bereft of the fundamental ideas as to socio-economic development, in an election process influenced by those who have the gold. Hence those elected from a vast pool of aspiring politicians (an indication of the skill set required to be elected) are not there because of their understanding of the social and economic problems we face, or what to do in these circumstances. Hence the elected ones satisfy the basic needs of their supporters via handouts, subsidies etc that may be in conflict with good social and economic governance."

In other words, Stuart is making an appeal for noocracy [government by the "highly intelligent or educated"] to replace the democratic system now followed. Noocracy was first propounded by Pythagoras.

PP: Perfect polity!

Persistently, post Persad-Bissessar's perspicaciously-proportioned People's Partnership pre-empting perpetual Patrick predomination, plenty "perusing" persons, publicly, privately, plethorically pretend panic -pertaining proceedings pursued per public personages.

Pretence! Pure, preposterous, pretence, pathetic parody! Pretenders profusely PNMite pathogens! PNMites passionately pooh-pooh probity!

Pathogen-pitted? Pursuing potent PNM preventive, perhaps, perfect political preference? Prohibit PNM! Praise, promote, People's Partnership polity!

Peace!

JB takes on a new meaning.

Not that of it I partake -alcohol I abhor- but, the tradition at this time of year is for spirituous beverages to be consumed ad vomitum.

One such beverage is a malt whisky named J & B -popularly summoned to the bar counter by the slurred of speech as "JB".

And there are others, local in origin -of the J. B. Fernandes legacy plus the one many simply proclaim as Just Babash.

So it seems that tis the season for those who follow the season without rhyme or reason to be seasoned with JB!

Thing is, this season, others seem to have joined the merrymaking, but by merrying themselves with another type of JB -Jack Bashing.

Sigh!

Death by not-drinking?

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Bar_managers_alarmed-111644624.html,
wherein it is claimed:

"THE DEATH of St James as we know it." This is the way bar managers have described Port of Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing's plan to stop the sale of alcohol in bars along St James and Ariapita Avenue by midnight.

It is incomprehensible that a town which has existed since pre-Columbian times [it originally accommodated my First People ancestors in a huge settlement called Cu-Mucurapo (Land of Silk Cotton Trees)]; and that, over hundreds of years, has evolved to house many thousands of upstanding citizens -some of whom have contributed to the birth and progress of the steelpan [Tony Williams, please take a bow!]; of which citizens, one became the love of my life and mother of our two children [God bless her soul!]; and which has thrived, despite the demise, firstly of slave-driven and indentured-driven sugar industry, secondly of the Yankee bases at Chaguaramas; and which, further, nurtured Nobel laureate, Sir Vidya Naipaul and his sibling Shiva, would suddenly grind to a halt, then wither away and die, because a dozen watering holes [each catering mainly to the non-St. Jamesian lot] were ordered to curtail dispensing mind-altering libation whenever the Cinderella knell is tolled.

Incomprehensible, I tell you!

Of such and such and such.

 Re: http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2010/12/03/labour-boilunion-leaders-declare-war-govt...wherein it is warned that Trinidad and Tobago union leaders have "virtually declared war on the People’s Partnership (PP) Government..., claiming nothing has changed for workers since the May 24 general election"

Ordinarily, such belligerent rhetoric would trigger apoplexy [or grave perplexity].

But, if one juxtaposes such speechifying with the nowadays common perception that many pilots nowadays enjoy well-heeled lifestyles off the sweat of passengers, no such distress would ensue.

As such, such fustian is to be treated as one would similar rants escaping the lips of any Midnight Robber character on any Jouvhay morning -listen bemusedly, then give such a tuppence tip to send such on such and such merry way till next Jouvhay.

The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness! Remix.

To: Honourable Minister of Finance,
Winston Dookeran; and, by extension,
The Prime Minister and entire Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago.
Also to: All Media Houses in T&T.

Dear Minister,

Re:

1. http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,132143.html and
2. http://jyoticommunication.blogspot.com/2010/12/manningh-govt-gave-grenada-315m-for.html

I've noted where you said that it was only very recently you became aware of the giving-away of TT$315b to the Eastern Caribbean arms of CL Financial Group, back in early April 2009.

May I remind all, through you, sir, that, on April 10th 2009, I had sent to you and to everyone else on my then mailing list, the below email, which exposed everything concerning that transaction?

The contents of the said email were also simultaneously posted in one of my blogs. See: http://kid5rivers.blogspot.com/2009/04/voice-of-one-crying-in-wilderness.html.

The issues raised in my email -especially regarding the Auditor-General's lethargy and the breach of the law re: the Caribbean Petroleum Fund- are as yet unresolved.

Perhaps my choice of caption for said email alert was indeed uncanny? Sigh!

Nonetheless, I remain committed to the labour of love I began eons ago, thus will continue to use wit and pen in defence and encouragement of democracy and justice wherever.

God bless!

Of Prime Ministers and Commissioners of Police and how their views are publicly Expressed.

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/NO_CONTROL_OVER_SIA-111501979.html

The Trinidad Express of Wednesday December 8th 2010, under the rubric "No Control Over SIA", has reported:

1. "Regarding the [Security Intelligence Agency] SIA and the recent investigations into this unit, the Office of the Prime Minister wishes to point out that the Commissioner of Police had and continues to have sole and exclusive jurisdiction and control over the SIA and all matters concerning investigations into its recent operations fall exclusively under the ambit and purview of the Commissioner of Police."
2. Questioned by the Express...on Monday night, Gibbs said he maintained his previous statements that he has no control over the agency.
   

Because of my well-known habit of reading between the lines, it is clear that, again, the Express newspaper is up to its tricks, for the expressions "jurisdiction" and "control over", while ordinarily going hand-in-hand, refer to two distinct, separate things altogether:

• "jurisdiction": the territorial extent of someone's right to exercise control over a thing or person.
• "control over": the actual powers, resources and abilities to dominate, manage or direct a thing or person.

In other words, one may exercise control over a thing or person over which one has no jurisdiction. Or, vice versa.

Regarding the SIA, it is the second of such scenarios that the very recent decisive actions of the Honourable Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, have addressed, since it was she who warned the populace of the horrible things the SIA had been doing, then took the speedy and decisive steps required to right those roguish torts.

The galvanic actions of the Honourable Prime Minister resulted in the Interception of Communications Bill 2010, as amended, [ICB 2010] being unanimously approved in Parliament.

ICB 2010 gives the Commissioner control over the what the SIA does. It is a control which he shares alongside the Chief of Defence Staff and the Director of the Strategic Services Agency. Sections 5 (1) and 8(1) of ICB 2010 clearly or impliedly say that!

[See: http://ttparliament.org/legislations/b2010h22-1rH.pdf or, the copy of the Bill that's hereto attached.]

However, as at the date of this writing, the Bill is yet to be assented by the President of Trinidad and Tobago. So while the ICB 2010 awaits His Excellency's seal of approval, the Commissioner of Police is quite in order to say he has no control over the SIA...even though the Parliament has already indicated that so he has.

Conclusion:
No worries, Mr. Express Editor! No worries!

Recommendation:
Please desist from alarming this nation with your jousting at windmills, especially when there are so many very real and gigantic social issues that need ventilating.

To: The Browns, of St. Augustine; re: Anand Ramlogan.

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Wrong_way_to_say_the_right_thing-111361044.html

To: The Browns, of St. Augustine.

By law, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service [TTPS] not only has the responsibilities of inhibiting, tracking down and apprehending lawbreakers, but also all the powers for it effectively to undertake those responsibilities.

For too long have citizens been reluctant to call a spade a spade where the TTPS is concerned. Such reticence has encouraged rather than discouraged efficient policing of our country.

Anand Ramlogan has always been forthright in speaking out and acting in furtherance of justice.

Now that he is Attorney-General, if anything, he must take such forthrightness to a higher level, higher pitch.

In the instant issue, so has he done.

Were he otherwise to do, it would be to our peril.

Reparation time.

Inasmuch as we are on the business of making reparations to those who invested with CLICO the tangible fruits of their blood, sweat and tears, how about now, at last, giving me my Great-grandfather's Backpay?

State spying on citizens.

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,130587.html

One very frightening aspect of the PNM-led-and-ordered maccoing of unwary citizens' email and mobile phone accounts has to be the question of whether the technology and expertise applied to such unlawful exercise were also used to hijack those accounts, thence to generate malicious and false email and SMS transmissions.

Frightening...very frightening.

Most Trinbagonians have a penchant for letting things die a "natural death", even when High Heavens cry out for a therapeutic response. True patriots, however, would not rest till the full truth of the entire sordid affair is exposed and the instigators thereof brought to justice.

Hello? Hello? Is anyone listening? I find the place suddenly is very quiet!