A right frustrated is a right denied.

Re: http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,159003.html

Wherein it's reported of how the CrimeWatch host, Ian Alleyne, had to spend the night in detention, for magistrates "had done wuk fuh de day" so nobody "coulda take he bail".

From time to time an otherwise routine event gets transformed into groundbreaking or watershed status because of the lives on which it impacted -a fruit disobediently plucked and Pandora's Box foolishly prised open are two legends of yore which readily attest.
The habitual inadvertence of the State to ensure that, twenty-four-oh-seven, all accoutrements are in place to have a person lawfully apprehended access to bail may yet prove its undoing in Ian Alleyne's case and thereafter, as a right frustrated is a right denied in the same way justice delayed is justice denied.
Time shall tell. In time,Time always does.

An expressly grotesque obsession with the UNC.

RE: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/UNC_POWER-148031455.html

A particular daily rag's headline this morning expressly trumpets: UNC POWER.

It's curtness, lack of verb and prominence combine expressly to imply whatever it heralded would go on to substantiate why it was chosen to be used.

Amazingly, the details don't -they deliberately speak of the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar being Political Leader of the United National Congress while studiously ignoring the glaring fact that she's Political Leader of the People's Partnership.

With respect to the latter political group, it mentions "other leaders of the coalition", then identifies certain other Honourable gentlemen by name and partisan affiliation as if to imply such Honourable gentlemen are Deputy Political Leaders of the Partnership.

However, truth be told, there's no position of "Deputy Political Leader of the People's Partnership" -the Fyzabad Declaration attests to this.

One is therefore perplexed; hence, one must ask why the particular rag chose to express itself as it did today.

The only plausible answers are:

1. The particular rag is trafficking in sensationalism, whereby it hopes:

(i) a couple hundred thousand extra copies would sell today, as the hundreds of thousands of UNC members/supporters throughout the Caribbean zero in to buy a copy; and

(ii) for a huge spike in hits on its online edition, as the hundred million-plus UNC members/supporters worldwide zero in to relish, or the thirty thousand UNC haters worldwide rush in where angels fear to tread."

or:
2. The particular rag is continuing to express its hateful opposition of the UNC, as was recently reconfirmed by its owners marrying it to the I95FM media group.

Both scenarios paint a picture of an expressly grotesque obsession with the UNC and of its Political Leader, the Most Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

He who is not with me is against me. If your agenda is intractably opposed to mine, furthermore, is throughout pursued in a manner which expressly shows that, despite my undisputed vibrancy and beneficence, your intention at all costs is to bury me, not praise me, then, sorry, I wash my hands -I can no longer support you in any tangible manner.

Nonetheless, history does also record I am quick to forgive, especially when an attacker desists or is hapless.

By no stretch of the imagination is the express attacker hapless -despite having all the information in hand, it expressly failed to mention who is the Head Chef of People's Partnership. It'd have only neglected because it knew what we all know -a Head Chef has the final say as to whether an item is under-prepared, just right, or overcooked, thus has the final say whether an item is fit for consumption.

So, no more espresso for me, till every expressly unmagnificent (sic) obsession with the UNC ends!

Elderly couple brutally attacked and robbed in the US!!! Obama therefore ought to resign!!!!

I've noticed where the hounds have been baying that the Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, ought to resign because some malevolent criminals stalked an elderly couple then brutally attacked and robbed them, as a result of which brutal attack, one of the victims died.

Well, if the hounds are to be allowed any credibility, then they also need to demand President Obama's resignation over a similar incident occurring under his watch, don't you think?

http://tinyurl.com/7sc5qtf

What's Obama got to do with this, you might asking? Well, Obama is known to have Kamla in grip! D'oh!

But, then again, maybe it's just plain jealously that tripping out them hounds and making them froth at the jowls, since, even though they tried every trick in the book -including ambush- they coulda never get President Obama to embrace their viewpoint on anything?

Who gets the spoils the fallen would've still had in grip, if the fallen hadn't fallen?

The universally-accepted significant consequence of war/battle is: to the victor belongs the spoils.

It's a tenet which necessarily requires the victor to be alive to claim the prize and, therefore which, inevitably, requires this question squarely to be confronted:

"Who gets the spoils the fallen would've still had in grip, if the fallen hadn't fallen?"

Nowadays, it seems a cogent answer's beyond the ken of many whose hands are on the wheel -for too many now calling the shots were calling the shots before their party's shot called.

Express!!! Expresss! Read all about it!! Winston Dookeran resign!!!

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Prakash_taking_on_too_much-147467605.html

wherein the Sunday Express of today's date emphatically states that Santa Margarita, Trinidad, was, during the week of April 8th to April 15th 2012, a part of the Parliamentary Electoral Constituency known as St. Augustine and that, consequently, the Parliamentary Representative thereof is the Honourable Prakash Ramadhar.

May I point out that I didn't know that the Honourable Winston Dookeran resigned -as he is the gentleman elected on May 24th 2010 to represent Santa Margarita.

Not wishing to believe the Sunday paper was so gungho about continuing to muckrake about the People's Partnership that its editors didn't factcheck what Kim Boodram wrote and, being a person who, without seeking compensation, habitually brings beneficial information into the public domain, I've taken the time to do up a lil something which, I'm sure you'll agree, will set the record straight concerning the topic at hand and, furthermore, will trigger a shakeup of the newsroom at CCN.

As for the Honourables Prakash Ramadhar and Dr. Winston Dookeran, I'm sure they'd not wax apoplectic over the Express blooper, yet will demand a retraction, for, clearly, even the persons in Santa Margarita to whom they spoke may be as devoid of bona fides concerning St. Augustine as Prakash Ramadhar is.

Hope what I did helps:

A couple parting shots:
1. a picture is always worth at least a thousand words. Given the issues mentioned in the Express story, I figured a heap of photos would've been included...if they were snapped.
2. there's plenty work to be done in fixing T&T, since Manning dem real mashup de place between Christmas Eve 2001 and May 24th 2010, so, make haste and draft in all the capable and willing but idle hands on deck.

T&T!!!!!

Russell Martineau levels with us.

It was only a sound-bite, of the type sensationalist media and commentors love to "shob in yuh face" wherewith to justify their hyperbolic conclusions, nonetheless, it merits discussion, since the matter is, in my view, is a high-stakes one -potentially as pivotal as Percy's petulant obstruction of Patrick's play for public fortification to the day almost two years before Cheryl Miller was arrested and carted away to St. Ann's Psychiatric Hospital.

The sampling of which I speak is of what TV6 quoted reported as being said by Senior Counsel Russell Martineau when interviewed at the Hall of Justice at the end of today's court proceedings before Vashiest Kokeram, J., earlier today:

"a public office is a public place"

Attorney Martineau of course was referring to the provisions of the Mental Health Act, since it was by the authority of the MHA it seems to have been alleged that Ms Miller was apprehended, to wit, Section 15. (1):

"A person found wandering at large on a highway or in any public place and who by reason of his appearance, conduct or conversation, a mental health officer has reason to believe is mentally ill and in need of care and treatment in a psychiatric hospital or ward may be taken into custody and conveyed to such hospital or ward for admission for observation in accordance with this section."

and, before that, in Section 2 (1):

"In this Act—

“public place” means any place to which the public has access with or without payment.

“mentally ill” or “mentally ill person” means a person who is suffering from such a disorder of mind that he requires care, supervision, treatment and control, or any of them, for his own protection or welfare or for the protection or welfare of others;"

As far as I know from hunting, the following is the sequence for firing off any shot:

• the trigger activates the firing pin;
• the activated firing pin strikes the primer;
• the struck primer ignites the propellant;
• the propellant violently, but in a controlled manner, then explodes, so that almost all its kinetic energy is directed towards the projectile;
• the projectile then speeds on its way to whatever target lies in its path.

I also know that if the hunter has an unsteady aim, or an itchy "trigger finger", the quarry more than likely will escape unscathed or, worse yet, the hunter might "lick-way dey own dawg" or inflict serious hurt on their own colleague(s) via "friendly fire" folly; and that, regardless of what caused the firing pin to strike, if the subsequent sequence isn't followed as above, the bullet is/was a dud.

So, in Ms Miller's case, having regard to Martineau's bite, we, being logical laymen, let's lay into what's already in public domain to pick sense from nonsense.

Ms Miller is an Accountant. When she was held, she was in her cubicle, at her desk. Her cubicle is on the 21st floor of the tightly-guarded  skyscraper known as Tower D, International Waterfront Complex.

Questions:

1. Was she "found wandering"?

If no, then everything that thereafter happened to her was ultra vires, baseless and without merit.

If yes, then, off to the next question:

2. Was she at the time "at large"?

To answer that, we must first be clear as to what "at large" means:

"At large" means being neither confined by rope, pasture, pen, enclosure nor physically restrained by a leash or harness. In short, being where you not lawfully or reasonably expected to be at the time.

So, if the answer to Question 2. is no, then everything that thereafter happened to her was ultra vires, baseless and without merit.

I honestly believe there's no need for further questions; so, lemme stop while ahead...providing always that I reserve the right to cross-examine. lol
But, before going, call upon those who may or may not be still believing the High Court cannot intervene as it did in Ms Miller's case -to remove her from the St. Ann's Psychiatric Hospital- to explain what Section 59 of the Mental Health Act means by "lawful authority":
"A person who without lawful authority interferes with or obstructs any person in the execution of his duties under this Act or the Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine of five hundred dollars and to three months imprisonment."

Sorry, Madam Minister St. Rose-Greaves, but we WON'T let you be scalped for this.

Recently, I penned and circulated the below email, from the reading of which anyone may easily understand my purpose:

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: kid5rivers<5rivers.kid.publik@gmail.com>
Date: 24 March 2012 01:24
Subject: I have been assessing them for donkey years...
To:

...at last the chickens are coming home to roost!

Chairman of the JSC Independent Senator Subhas Ramkhelewan said, “it is most amazing that for the past 50 years that we have nobody assessing the performance of Permanent Secretaries (PS) who carry such a heavy weighting in terms of being able to deliver services that policy-makers would want.”
He said this situation could be interpreted as Permanent Secretaries being lords and ladies unto themselves.

http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,157390.html

Mutatis mutandis, the same applies to the Public Service rank and file! That's why so many public sector unions are aghast at the idea of their members being replaced by "contracted employees". And why those of us who really want our country to blossom are adamant that our Esteemed Prime Minister and her administration bite the bullet where public sector reform is concerned.

The above was also posted in one of my blogs:

(See: http://trinbagorenewed.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-have-been-assessing-them-for-donkey.html)

Recently too, like many in and out of Trinbago, I've been publicly and privately arguing the cause of Ms Cheryl Miller, whom the High Court set free from virtual imprisonment at St. Ann's Mental Hospital. Ms Miller was taken to her "prison" on March 21st 2012, immediately after being summarily snatched away from her work desk by nut catchers summoned there by somebody for the purpose -ironically, her work desk is at the tightly-guarded Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development: it's tightly-guarded since it's located high up in the clouds at Tower D of the Waterfront Complex, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

When the incident occurred, the public wasn't alerted, even though those who perpetrated the dastardly act would later and still insist that her work station is a "public place". It would take all the investigative journalistic wit of the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday to sniff out and bring news of what had transpired. The rest of Trinbago's journalistic world have since jumped on board, for, in Trinbago, the rest of the mainstream media is known to stream mainly where others "done make track for 'gootee to run", or to pursue everything but our agenda.

Thank you, Newsday! Despite your odd and intermittent aberrations, just don't know what we'd do without you!

At once on Ms Miller's unfortunate displacement being brought to public notice by the Newsday, the Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development -the Honourable Verna St. Rose-Greaves- hit the streets with a forthright announcement that, as Minister, she would take full responsibility for everything done, as aforesaid, to Ms Miller.

Based on the bald facts, her reasoning was sound, thus, at the time, I was willing to let her pass. Indeed, her prompt offer to be vicariously sacrificed did have some salubrious spin-offs, significant among which is that, apart from the expected braggadocio from an attorney named "Hinds", the public tenor has been slanted more towards Ms Miller's well-being than anything else, as, rightly so it ought to be.

Nonetheless, a most grave injustice has been visited upon Ms Miller. And an injustice to one is an injustice to all. The culpable therefore must be sought and with all fervent diligence at that -for justice is denied  if justice is delayed. It behooves resorting to circumstantial evidence where concrete is difficult to find.

Cement is presently scarce -thank you, MSJ...just love how you're looking out for the country's welfare! At the present time therefore, circumstantial extrapolation is the mix we'd all have to stomach for the present purpose!

Cheryl Miller is a public servant. As such, she is a cog in a long-established wheel. In fact, the wheel would really be a chain of command, as best represented by the Public Service organization chart of the government Ministry where she is employed. At the head of that chart, for Ms Miller's all intents and purposes, would be the Permanent Secretary, through whom the line Minister would issue directives.

In the Ministry of  Gender, Youth and Child Development [MGYCD] the Permanent Secretary is Ms Sandra Jones -see screenshot below of the Trinbago Government's official website that lists all the Permanent Secretaries...I tacked on the photo of her, for we in Trinbago have a backward habit of perpetually permitting public powerhouses plenty parameters which they use to remain hidden from public view:

http://www.news.gov.tt/pdf/PS%20_contact_list_Jan_2012-GISL.pdf

Before being transferred to the MGYCD, Sandra Jones used to be the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health. Perforce, she would have established close contact with the St. Ann's Psychiatric Hospital -the Hospital is one of the institutions in the Health Ministry's portfolio. Stands to reason she would've been regarded by those in charge of said Hospital as their boss and, over time, might have even become friends with one or more of them...bosom friends even...to the point of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours".

Of the last point, don't feel I stand on very shaky ground, or/thus that I may only say such a thing if I have court clothes on standby, for, over the past fifty years or more, no one has ever assessed what Permanent Secretaries did/do, remember? In case you don't, look at this again:

Chairman of the (Joint Select Committee [JSC]) Independent Senator Subhas Ramkhelewan said, “it is most amazing that for the past 50 years that we have nobody assessing the performance of Permanent Secretaries (PS) who carry such a heavy weighting in terms of being able to deliver services that policy-makers would want.”

(To which the Chairman of the Public Service Commission [PSC], Christopher Thomas), responded, “that is the question we would really like to get some assistance on. The performance appraisal of the Permanent Secretary is not, as far as I understand, done at the moment.”

Thomas said the appraisal would involve various factors: their (the PS's) response to the human resource requirements, satisfying requirements in the Financial Regulations and other things. He said the appraisal of the Permanent Secretary should be done by a body, or committee.

The PSC has raised the need for a system of accountability by Permanent Secretaries in its submissions to the JSC. “That system has not yet been worked out,” Thomas said.

Director of Personnel Administration Gloria Edwards-Joseph said discussion was ongoing with the PSC and the Ministry of Public Administration on what would be the appropriate mechanism for assessing the Permanent Secretary.

(Again, it's the Newsday which reported on that: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,157390.html)

The absence of their appraisal means Open Hunting Season on every Permanent Secretary in Trinidad and Tobago and, as a man who simultaneously loves and hates beating about the bush, I'll now come straight to the chase:

I, Richard Wm. Thomas, have concluded:

(1) That all scents intercepted point to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Sandra Jones, as being the one (nearly said "the bitch"...but, I'm a very charitable man) who, on March 21st 2012, used her considerable influence and position to get officials of the St. Ann's Psychiatric Hospital to come (or send nut catchers) to Ms Cheryl Miller's workplace for the twin purposes of taking said Ms Miller into custody then therefrom forcibly carrying said Ms Miller away to said Hospital.

(2) That, for reasons yet inexplicable, the actions of said Ms Jones -as identified in (1) above- indicated said Ms Jones had formed the opinion said Ms Miller was not a cog in the Public Service wheel, rather, a fly in its ointment.

(3) That, because of the scents mentioned at (1) above and the subsequent softening/wavering of his public comments, the early strenuous objections he made of the attempts by certain concerned parties to free Ms Miller, Dr. the Honourable Fuad Khan, the Minister of Health, was deliberately misbriefed by said PS Jones.

(4) That all of the above did occur at a date and time when the said Hospital was, by Warrant of The President, under the purview of a Ministry over which she, as MGYCD Permanent Secretary, no longer had any official authority.

(5) That the time has come for urgent amendment of the Constitution so that the conduct of Permanent Secretaries may be easily officially assessed;

(6) That, further to (5) above, a critical component of any such amendment be that Permanent Secretaries, because of their overarching weight in the scheme of any administration's things, be political appointees, meaning, they come and go as and when an administration does and requires.

Conclusions having been drawn and concluded, it is now necessary for me to announce:

Sorry, Madam Minister St. Rose-Greaves, but we WON'T let you be scalped for this! It seems as though it was yet another attempt to bring this administration to shame!

Oh gorm! Look at de time! 11 o'clock and I eh take mih pills yet???!!! I gone, before "they" come and "jones" me yes?

T&T -Tulsa and Trinidad.

Sometimes, the innocuous titbit leads to remarkable discovery. Yesterday afternoon, in between taking in the First Test between West Indies and Australia and the pressures Tiger Woods was undergoing at the Masters, regular scheduling was interrupted to bring an update concerning several shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma -three blacks were murdered while two others critically wounded.

Since Tulsa was mentioned, I mentioned it to my sibling, he having lived in Tulsa for several years as a university student. I figured he'd be stunned as I was, for, over the years, he never once intimated that Tulsa was a place which didn't cotton to blacks. His nonchalant reaction therefore struck me as odd, but not for long, as he quickly recounted  the story of Tulsa's shame -the Northside Riot of 1921.

Naturally, soon as I got the chance, I began surfing to see what additional info I could find.

I wasn't prepared for what I encountered, for it seems that conditions in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 were about the same as existed in Trinidad and Tobago not too long ago, as follows:

TULSA in the 1920s was a boomtown with a short fuse. Originally part of the sprawling Indian Territory, Tulsa had for years been beyond the reach of state or federal law, and after the discovery of oil nearby at the turn of the century, the town became a notorious haven for criminals. An otherwise boisterous history, ordered up by the city in the 1970's, speculated about those early boom years: "There seemed to be an unwritten law between the town and the outlaws in which Tulsa furnished them with asylum in exchange for being spared from criminal acts."

Even after Tulsa fell under the American legal system, it remained unusually rough. The volatile mix of desperadoes, gamblers, prostitutes, cowboys, wildcatters, roustabouts and Ku Kluxers was enough to weaken the knees of the bravest law-enforcement officials.

Many a town father decided it was more prudent -and sometimes more lucrative- to join the miscreants rather than fight them.

James Mitchell, a student at the University of Tulsa in 1950, wrote his master's thesis on the politics of Tulsa in the early 1900s. "A vice ring consisting of newspapermen and politicians, operated a protection racket for illegal enterprises," he concluded. "Many crusades against open town conditions by newspapers in Tulsa's boom years were said to result when the editors were denied their part of the payoffs." 

By 1910, Black Tulsans made up 10 percent of the city's population. Most of these residents were immigrants from the East and South, but many others were native to the area, having been former slaves of wealthy Creek Indians. The Blacks in Tulsa, totally segregated on the north side of the railroad tracks, were building up a prosperous community that boasted the second highest black literacy rate among Oklahoma counties, and a neighbourhood of shops, hotels, gaming halls and restaurants that was gaining a reputation across the Southwest. The Greenwood section of Tulsa bristled with such energy, prosperity and promise, that Booker T. Washington himself -so the legend goes- dubbed Greenwood Avenue "the Black Wall Street." 

This Black prosperity caused resentment among poorer whites, and the city elders worried that it was bad for the city's image. In 1912, the Tulsa Democrat complained: "Tulsa appears to be in danger of losing its prestige as the whitest town in Oklahoma."

The paper went on to ask: "Does Tulsa wish a double invasion of criminal Negro preachers, Negro Shysters, crap shooters, gamblers, bootleggers (sic), prostitutes and Smart Alecs in general?"

At the time of the riot, the Ku Klux Klan had something of a stranglehold on Tulsa. Mitchell found that during the early 1920s the Klan "operated as a phantom regime," putting its imprimatur on political candidates. In the year of the riot alone, 59 Blacks were lynched in border and Southern states. Just six months before, in Oldenville, Oklahoma, a young Black man accused of assaulting a white woman was taken from jail, strung to a telephone pole, and riddled with bullets...

Don't you agree there are a lot of similarities between Tulsa and pre-PP T&T?

Or, are you one like the majority of Tulsa and wider America who, for more than half a century, went into denial of what happened in Tulsa?

The gory details of the Tulsa Northside Riot of 1921 may be read at http://www.africawithin.com/maafa/tulsa_burning.htm

Attention, Jack!

The world's longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge opened to traffic!!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6ce_1333256754

And they want to murder you for the Point Highway and Maracas Tunnel?
I say, let's on with building futuristic infrastructure and to rass with the recalcitrant party who feel we forget the messy physical environment with which we are forced to deal today was forced upon us because, in the past, how we live in the future was never a governmental consideration in spatial planning...and it was never a consideration because said party, poor thing, was so tunnel-visioned and or hot-headed, it just didn't have the heart to make it across the hurdle.

Unwittingly, Prakash has confirmed that the COP is of vestigial value.

Things of vestigial value serve no useful purpose -they are mainly trite and ceremonial, like the ornamental/sentimental wares in every cabinet they exist merely for show, to be removed, washed/polished/dusted and promptly returned to sentinel duty on the shelves every Deewali, Eid or Christmas!

By pronouncing the Mayoral Chain of San Fernando to be COP territory, that party's current Political Leader and all who support him in that regard have unwittingly confirmed that the COP is of vestigial value, since the same line of reasoning he used to justify the former assessment may be applied to justify the latter.

You see, by stipulating the conditions which caused Sando to be the COP's as being the antebellum distribution of spoils agreement, he triggers a review of what forced the founder of COP to form the COP.

The COP was sired by Dr. Winston Dookeran on September 10th 2006 at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, Tunapuna. In its delivery room speech, Dr. Dookeran categorically stated to an expectant throng that he was literally forced to break from the old UNC and form a new UNC -the name COP is purely incidental- because he was ostracised by those who then led that party. And, for the record, the person who led the old UNC is now the advisor to the Generation Next -Basdeo Panday.

Without further ado and to remove any doubt, let's have a mouthful or two of what Dr. Winston Dookeran said that fateful September day in the cavernous Centre of Excellence Auditorium:

"My friends, I welcome you all to the new politics of the 21st century!

RE: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/COP_STANDS_FIRM-145709385.html

whereby, inter alia, the entire world has been informed that the COP Political Leader, the Honourable Prakash Ramadhar vehemently denied ever making a statement that the COP will walk away from the People's Partnership over the Marlene Coudray issue.

All I have to say takes the form of one question, as follows:
"So, the relevant Hansard lied ?"

All eyes on Prakash as COP top brass goes into emergency closed-door meeting.

According to today's Sunday Guardian -my, oh my, it's an All Fools' Day to remember, isn't it?- COP leader, Honourable Prakash Ramadhar has summoned his elite to a closed-door meeting today, April 1st 2012, to treat with the strains and stresses affecting them consequent upon their being a partner in a coalition government. Guess that means he is the man squarely in the middle, so, all COP -and other- eyes would be on him, ent?

 

I sincerely hope good sense prevails at the end of the day, for the good people of Trinbago have fought too hard to regain some say in their own affairs to allow intractable heads now to deny them an extended foothold.

Click the picture for the Guardian story, please. And see also what Jyoti has to say.