KILKAYTAY EVERY STONE! An undevout look at mainly Trinidad and Tobago current affairs.

Loudicrous Louquacioness.

2012-01-27T07:37:00.000-04:00

One potent litmus test to determine the quality of life in any society is the evaluating of the way it treats its senior members:

Fantastic? Loving, focused on the lofty, dismissive of everything banal and venal.
Lukewarm? NIMBY...to the point of being callous.
Hateful? Flippant, cavalier, preoccupied with the veneer not the substance, as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

Senior Citizens are worth their weight in silk -whatever value Trinbago today possesses is due mainly to their sterling contribution. Thus, by right, they deserve to be accorded SC honour and glory -Senior Citizens...Sterling Contribution, d'oh!

But His Worship, the Mayor of Port of Spain, Louis Lee Sing, is opposed to anything of the sort -he's insisting all T&T SCs must pay their way. (See: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,154332.html.)

Perhaps His Worship confused SCs who are worth their weight in silk with SCs who are waited upon because they wear silk?

Or maybe His Worship is just being Loudicrous?

Either way, it's worth doing a simple analysis to determine whether our innate SCs deserve the privileges SCs in the developed world take for granted.

As always, a picture is worth a thousand words, so, here goes:

And that's based on just silk, eh? Which is far less than how our SCs ought to be measured -in gold.

In closing, it's better for His Worship to direct his Louquacious energies towards whipping his Corporation into shape, for, last time I did an efficiency evaluation of the place, for every dollar spent, value received in return hovered around twenty-two cents.

Groan! Genuine Guardian goof.

2012-01-23T08:36:00.000-04:00

"...Speaking to reporters following the funeral service of fallen comrade Gary Patterson, Abdulah (sic) said McLeod’s resignation will auger well for the MSJ..."

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-01-23/errol-mcleod-resigns-political-party

It's eethar Radhica Sookraj kan't speel propally, oar the Printa's Devel has resofaced:

"Abdullah" is of Arabic extraction and is the correct way to spell Jamaican-born Comrade David Abdullah's surname -in Arabic, "Adullah" means "son of God"...his father was a Bishop, so I guess the surname's deserving. On the other hand, "Abdulah", is of Hindi or Marathi extract -phonetically, "ab" means "now", "dulah" means "dust". From the sound of it therefore, "Abdulah" literally means "now dust".

Is it that you meant, Radhica? Or did you find the man-in-the-street connotations more germane? For, colloquially "dulah" augurs any of the following:

confusion;disconcerted, baffled, or posed state (as of a disputant);
discomfiture, rout, overthrow (as of an army);
destruction, demolition, ruined or damaged state

from which these genitive case applications of "dulah" are derived:

dhulice dive khata jane To beg all about the place in great disgrace and wretchedness;
ndhulice dive lavane To become infamously notorious;
ndhulisa milane To be mingled with the dust; to be utterly destroyed;
ndhula phunkane (Literally: To stir up the dust...as done by cattle in scanty pastures.) To be destitute of the means of support;
ndhula udane (ṃseta-gaṃva-mulaka-ghara-madhye.) To lie desolate;
ndhulinta ratna sampadane-mmilane To get an utterly unexpected boon.

(Methinks 'twas from the last abovementioned genitive example Radhica or the devil turned to derive the cheek to scribble "Abdulah" instead of "Abdullah".)

Moving on! In the context, "auger" cannot be used! Here's why:

A. au·ger [aw-ger]

noun

1. Carpentry.

a. a bit, as for a brace.
b. a boring tool, similar to but larger than a gimlet, consisting of a bit rotated by a transverse handle.

2. earth auger.
3. a device consisting of a shaft with a broad helical flange rotating within a cylindrical casing to force bulk materials from one end to the other.
4. snake ( def. 3a ).

verb (colloquial)

1. to drill or bore a hole (especially a deep one), or move material, by means of an auger.

B. au·gur [aw-ger]

noun

1. one of a group of ancient Roman officials charged with observing and interpreting omens for guidance in public affairs.
2. soothsayer; prophet.

verb (used with object)

3. to divine or predict, as from omens; prognosticate.
4. to serve as an omen or promise of; foreshadow; betoken: Mounting sales augur a profitable year.

verb (used without object)

5. to conjecture from signs or omens; predict.
6. to be a sign; bode: The movement of troops augurs ill for the peace of the area.

But, I wasn't there, Radhica was...if she wasn't, how else would Comrade Abdullah's verbatim quotes be used? Like I said, maybe on hearing the announcement -and, like I now conjecture, in subsequent discussion with the affected parties- she concluded the colloquial "auger" most apt? Whatever! It doesn't augur well for august annals to cause readers to gasp in aghast like that.

You have to bow to untie sandals.

2012-01-22T09:27:00.000-04:00

I remember maccoing a PNM election meeting during the 1976 general election campaign. Back then, the representative for Arouca, the late Hector Ormesbie Naughton Mc Clean was our representative -never mind he was a PNM, he remains the best representative any constituency could ever have, perhaps because his name from birth destined him to be such -H.O.N. Mc Clean. May his soul rest in pace!

Back then, the heavily-bearded Irwin Merritt was the Public Relations Officer of the PNM and, as such, invariably emceed PNM affairs on the hustings -may his soul, too, rest in peace!

The meeting in question was a huge one -PNM, regardless, is/was a party of considerable weight- and held on Broadway, Arima, just northwest of the Dial (see map)

It being a General Elections and one fraught with uncertainty -the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) was chomping at the bits to have Tobago get it way in its own affairs, plus, it was the first time that the United Labour Front (ULF) was contesting a General Election. So, for the PNM meeting, there was a battery of speakers...some inspiring, some boring, all perspiring -the heat of the night was intolerable due to high humidity. Yet, no one departed, for with such meetings, the main event is the last on the card -perhaps by collusion with the concessionaires?

Nearly four hours after its 6:30pm start, when the turn of then PNM Political Leader, Dr. Eric E. Williams, came to take the microphone, PNM PRO and outgoing PNM Senator, emcee Irwin Merritt introduced the great man this way (and I paraphrase):

"...And now, dearly beloved! Let me introduce the man you have been waiting for whole night to hear speak! The man the latchets of whose sandals I am unworthy to unloose! I give you our Political Leader, the first, the only, the present and the next Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Father of the Nation.....Dr. Eric Eustace Williams!..."

And the Baleezay Crowd let loose a cacophonous fanfare of approval.

Now! Tell me again about PNM's protest over a bow someone made to her ancestral "grandmother"?

I gone!

Conjugal rights for wrongdoers.

2012-01-17T12:41:00.002-04:00

Given out forced Eurocentric predisposition, the suggestion of conjugal rights for incarcerated wrongdoers makes sense -though it may invite unwelcome bugs and tribulations- for the thrust of punishment must be to restore, not further weaken, social wholesomeness and the basic social unit is centred on conviviality.

Subhas has taken in front by raising his objection.

And, Subhas is an honourable man, so expect the notion to take some time to come to any fruitful climax.

Meantime, other things can be done to speed the reduction of recidivism. One such is to allow controlled open communication from behind bars, such as exists in the case of Jeremy Bamber, whose life sentence was yesterday confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights as being "for the rest of his lifetime". His legal team had unsuccessfully "argued that any sentence under which the offender's rehabilitation cannot lead to a review of release breaches articles three, five and seven of the European Convention on Human Rights". (See: BBC News "Murderers lose appeal against whole life tariffs" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16591164)

Bamber, who maintains his innocence, has been imprisoned for the past twenty-six years, having been found guilty of shooting to death five members of his family. Yet, through sympathizers on the outside, also maintains an interesting blogsite whereby his opinions -mostly related to his plight, obviously- are, surprisingly, dispassionately disseminated. For instance, his first reaction to the Court's recent decision was this:

"Both the trial judge and the Lord Chief Justice set my minimum tariff as 25 years. Quite why the Home Secretary felt that I should die in jail when the judges felt otherwise is a mystery. To then be told by the European Court that it was reasonable and fair for the Home Secretary to re-sentence me to die in jail is quite extraordinary. This ruling does not really surprise me; it is no different to the injustice of my conviction.

The evidence upon which the Crown have built their case is no longer credible, yet my imprisonment must continue until I’m dead, as evidence of my innocence cannot be disclosed because the Criminal Cases Review Commission have refused to even request it from Essex Police.

I will continue to campaign to prove my innocence and I am hoping that this will happen before my death sentence is carried out.

If the State wishes to have a Death Penalty, then they should be honest and re-introduce hanging. Instead, this political decision that I must die in jail is the Death Penalty using old age or infirmity as the method. It is a method whereby I’m locked in a cell until I’m dead – no matter if it should take 70 or 80 years to happen – I shall be dead the next time I leave jail. This despite that the trial judge said 25 years was punishment enough for a crime I did not commit."

(See: "Jeremy Bamber The Official Blogger" at http://jeremybamber.blogspot.com)

Eye-opening, ent? Especially seeing as we're a society which likes to cap things which belong in the public domain.

Maybe it's time we stop bamboozling and begin giving prison reform a serious shot?

Take aside, Subhas!

Over to you, Commissioner Martinez!

Give way! PNMDemons at work.

2012-01-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

This is inspired by an unrelated email circulating the Net.

Every road user knows what this sign means, ent?

Not that long ago, in the days which, somehow, to many seem as misty as yore, One Manning's heartbeat became so blatant by our dollars that his heavy hand reverberated throughout the land, forcing every non-PNM person (human) to eat PNM's humble-pie, else eat dirt to survive. Remember? I do -for I broke a tooth chewing on a handful of melajo and still have grit stuck in my craw.

Thus it was for eight-and-a-half years, as we humans were forced to dine on dirt, while the PNM crowd feasted themselves to their hart's content. All the while, we humans seemed totally confused -we couldn't marshal our forces into one, though we experimented with gusto...with every conceivable metal too...someone even tried to to refashion what they thought was a duncey dalliance into a party hat made of copper. Remember? I do -I still have the memorabilia to show as proof.

Then came the First Tsunami, triggered by a deft piece of tectonic-plate rattling put down by a Gypsy, a Badgering-Ram, a Jackhammer and a namesake of mine. Remember that too? It was a tsunami reminiscent of the one the older heads used to describe had happened when Dr. Eric Williams entered the local political fray -sensing swiftly shifting sands, lickety-split he let down his bucket and, within two shakes of a duck's tail, he beat back a fragmented opposition in the race to become ruler of the land. That one I don't remember -I was a toddler then- nonetheless, as a topper-topper student of Caribbean history and Net surfer, I could rattle off the details with certified accuracy...but not now, later.

The First Tsunami is also like the ancient one, in that, within months of it happening, it resurrected, as if with...ahm...supernatural power, to overwhelm the land -except for Laventille and similar diehard outposts- like a true-true lavasse at times does to Port-au-Prince...or like how this next "Give Way" sign got his:

Now! Before you start asking, "Like RWT eh take he pills, or what? Cause, we're lost as to where he going with this discourse!", let me right-away delve into it, for what I want to ask is this:

We heading for the second anniversary. Whither, fellow human?

I see you're dumbstruck, so allow me to answer my stoopid question, okay?

Shortly after receiving a sound flogging, the Evil Master called a special convention of his demons. The venue was in a brand new auditorium, a snappily-bedecked one. As to the summoned, they came from the East, they came from the West! They came from the North, they came from the South! They came in all shapes and sizes too. Some grumbled (they were on their way to the airport to catch a flight to Panama, when they got the beep via Blackberry). Some mumbled (these were part of a Chinese delegation, so no local mediasphere nightowl covering the event could decipher what they were saying...except when one of them said "No see Hart?"). Others just sulked (of the lot, these made up the bulk).

In a huff and a puff, at the appointed hour (stroke of midnight, d'oh!) Il Capo swept his way onto the stage, mooned the audience (that's how demons greet) and, satisfied all eyes were upon him, swished over to the lectern to deliver his urgent spiel. A hush fell over the motley audience, if not prompted by the raising of his hand, then from what he spat out immediately on opening his speech.
"Comrades!" The Underworld Boss proclaimed, in shrill, blood-curdling a-la-rohj-ay tone, "I've summoned you here to discuss a matter of grave import, which, if not addressed, will mean Doomsday for us! This year, it's war, as never before!"

The audience stillness pervaded to such depths, one could hear precisely where a pin would drop were one to drop on the U$1,500.00 per sq. metre plush carpet floor, or a cock stretch and flap on the branch of the Silk Cotton tree near the Courthouse 2 km away.

The Villain Of The Piece continued, "Comrades! It is alleged the world's human population now numbers seven billion! And it's climbing fast! At the present rate, comrades, by the next All Souls' Night (and for the first time in our history), humans would outnumber demons! That means they could turn the tides on us -for, in numbers, there is strength and, as you all know, try as we might...and Lord knows we've tried... since the Dawn of Time we've neither been able to stop the God-fearing attending congregational worship, nor from reading their Scriptures in search of The Truth."

"How did we allow this to creep up upon us, comrades? And, is there a solution to the untenable situation? I say, yes! But, for you to understand, let me quickly identify the reason why we have not been able to take complete charge of the humans: We have been thinking inside the box for too long!"

"My beloved demons, how could I, the great deceiver, have been so led astray? We need to shift paradigms! The old way won't work! The question is, "How?"

"Well, I've done the homework and I have called you here today to tell you that all we need to do is focus on keeping the humans from forming an intimate relationship with The Boss Of Us All. Yall know once they gain that connection, our power over them is lost forever, ent?"

"So! How do we do that? How do we break that link?"

"Well, my take on it is, we let them go to their places of meeting, if they want...let them have all the Law Books that they want..but, make sure to steal their time! Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, you must distract them from gaining hold of The Real Issues and maintaining That Vital Connection so necessary for their ascendancy! Once you do that, they won't have time to develop a healthy relationship among themselves, far less for with The People, Who Is The Real Boss!"
"How does Il Nostro Capo expect us to do this?" his demons whispered to each other, as demons do, "The humans are so preoccupied with their electronic gadgets these days it's hard to get them to focus on anything serous!"
"Bingo! You've hit the nail on the head!" interrupted The Midnight Robber (he'd read their minds, as he well can do, they being crapos, after all), "If you bear with me I'll explain."

"We'll use their own whips to flog them into submission, as follows:

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life by inventing innumerable insidious schemes to occupy their minds! Tempt them to spend, spend, spend...and borrow, borrow, borrow to pay for the things on which they spend! Persuade wives and husbands, especially who have children of school age, to go to work for long hours...7 days each week preferably...12-16 hours a day -8 on the job, 6 commuting...so they can afford the empty lifestyle called La Dolce Vita! in other words, keep them from spending quality time with their gullible children. The added sweetener for us would be that as an institution, the human family would fragment and collapse, for quickly not a single human 'home' will be able to offer any escape from the pressures of work!"

"Also, over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear the Small Voices anymore and instead preoccupy themselves with maintaining and strengthening the status quo. Sway them away from wholesome planning and implementation by drowning them in the greasy, salty pipedreams we left behind, none one of which, try as they might, they would be able to commission!

Entice them to have only diatribe and lewdness jamming on their radios or I-Pods, to keep their TVs, DVD/CD players and PCs going constantly in every home, office or car, every office, store, taxi and restaurant, morning, noon and night! Pummel their minds with reality shows and negative and socially-divisive news 24-oh-7! (Even when in serious lockdown, Trini main pastime is party, wine and jam, doh forget!")

"So, as I was saying, disturb their focus by flooding the airwaves and Internet with doltishness, junk mail, dumbed-down fora 'discussions' that peddle lies, innuendo, false hopes and viruses of the virtual and real-life sort."

"In their official pronouncements, appointments and events, encourage them to give prominence to just-comers and soon they'll become dissatisfied with one another and the trailblazers will become overwrought by migraine!"
"You see, comrades, this year, it's war! But of a different kind! Tactics, comrades! Tactics is what will win this war for us! Once we get partners not to give each other the love and respect they need, they will soon begin to look elsewhere. That will flounder their 'ship' more quickly than you could say 'Jackson'!"

"Also, even when they take a timeout for their own recreation, let them be excessive rather than introspective, for Father Time has long told us that constant introspection is the only means whereby they could absorb energy necessary for renewal of franchise...at very minimal cost too. In other words, my lowlife Comrades, the key to our victory over the aspiring humans lies in us keeping them busy doing idle things!

"Remember, it's they who came up with the notion 'The Devil find work for idle hands', so, let's turn it to our advantage, shall we?"

At this, every demon turned to each other nodded in agreement.

Jab took a sip of hot water, then continued, "And if perchance there be humans who do meet for spiritual fellowship, disguise yourselves and sit in their midst to involve them in gossip and irrelevant talk, so that they leave with consciences more muddled than before."

"Oh! And don't forget this one! Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek Power from The Real Force. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family 'for the good of the cause'."

"I'm telling you, my fellow Despicable-angels, my scheme will work! It will work! Well? Don't I deserve a round of applause?"

The demons went into a frenzy -everyone was eager to take on their old assignments with the new twist. The techno-savvy of the lot eagerly tweeted of it (there were hundreds of demons on guard duty in Hades, thus couldn't attend in person, but were following proceedings by realtime online stream).

EPILOGUE
As to whether and how well the plan is working, you be the judge. All I know is, back then, when the tsunami swept across the landscape, the mood of all humans towards the PNM was signalled loud and clear:

But, nowadays, the waters having sufficiently subsided to afford a reasonable view of the changes, it's kind of alarming -downcouraging too- to see so many itinerant appointees of the former regime still running the routes.

If something's not done soon, soon even the most placid humans will start saying "PP" means nothing more than "Patrick's People", for every time we humans try to cash in some of our chips, we must:

How else to explain the heavy and heavy-handed Baleezay presence, except by saying it appears that while we weren't looking, the demons have not only mastered the underground, but, as the tsunami wanes, everything underwater too?

Dry Season beckons! Or, pure hell!

2012-01-10T10:45:00.002-04:00

The Dry Season beckons! Now is the time to ~~desilk~~ desilt our watercourses and theiregresses. Otherwise, when the Rainy Season arrives, we'll see pure hell.

I gone!

Abolish the silk trade!

2012-01-07T10:47:00.003-04:00

I dreamt I was listening in on a Supreme Court matter in which some unnamed person was petitioning the court (coram) to rule whether silk ought to abolished. Thought you might wish to be a part of my dreams (to turn Trinbago into the paradise isles they were created to be, but, are not). Here goes!

The essence of the case
Are silks any longer relevant to any modern legal jurisprudence?

The current situation
To qualify for appointment as assessors of the artifice of all attorneys, judges and magistrates are themselves required to be attorneys. In Trinbago, though the legal professions were fused eons ago, attorneys are still legally-graded -there is Junior Counsel and there is Senior Counsel.

The distinction and privileges enjoined upon and enjoyed by the two have been already articulately and aggressively adumbrated, so no need here to detail them, except by reminding that, unsilked lawyers who become judges and magistrates always demure to their silk-clad brothers and sisters in law appearing before them, rather than regard them as mere supplicants. Furthermore, that in certain matters, it is required the litigants engage Senior Counsel...else, no case.

Clearly, the instant matter is of heavy import, for the ordinary citizen is the one who stands most to benefit by its resolution. For that purpose, the thinking here applied reaches outside the box rather than within cloistered quarters.

The precedents
One famous melodic adage advises:

Lean on me when you're not strong, I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on.

A prosed second that:

Out of evil, good sometimes cometh.

And, a prosed third, that:

Advocacy is a business whose stock in trade is the time and advice lawyers offer for sale

As a friend of what's right and proper, this coram has heavily heeded the latter two. Thus, it has decided the silk trade is so muddled there is need to hasten its rectification, for silk, being what it is, its purchase does not come cheap!

The decision
Let the Invisible Hand determine who is top dog in the advocacy business, the same way the Invisible Hand does with any other business that provides/offers goods and services to the buying public.

Nationally and internationally, Trinbago has long established and or portrayed itself as an open market economy. Indeed, many laws which offered preferential treatment to particular business interests have long been repealed, or, where not repealed, no longer enforced. In passing, this coram notes that nothing yet has been done to remove the Fuel Subsidy, though it is clear it benefits not those for whom it was intended.

To remove all doubt, the coram states its unanimous agreement that the Law has no business codifying professions in a manner that forces conjecture as to how and why such codes are set and enforced. Accordingly, any such practice by the Law, except as hereinabove ordered, must cease.

Layman's interpretation of what the above judgement means
So, Honourable Members of Parliament, having already defused the distinction -by fusing legal professions of barrister and solicitor into one- the time is come to make the necessary circle-completing constitutional rearrangements. And there is no better way to do that than by altogether abolishing the silk trade! With no silk trade, the clients decide who is the best attorney to suit their purpose, hence, by their fruit, not their suit, the attorneys themselves will have to demonstrate the mettle of their high-priced accolade.

On 7 January 2012 06:24, MFRahman <mfr1@tstt.net.tt> wrote:

MFRahman. 683 4698. 7/1/12.

Diminishing the CCJ.

“Precedent is no criterion for correctness.” Yet impropriety has its degrees and a speck in another’s eye is the greater magnified by him who surveys with a beam in his own.

What ought merely to have raised eyebrows received venom befitting criminal culpability from sanctimonious colleagues who were silent as lambs in serial precedent instances and worse whose own practices can ill afford scrutiny of similar degree.

Our silken road if ever it were trod by donkey carts was much so traversed by earlier luminaries whose vanities were never criticized least of all so vociferously as by current agitators.

The taint of political bias is flagrant in the current campaign that has forced the eminent Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice of Appeal Wendell Kangaloo to admit tacitly that they erred in judgment when they are innocent of having sought honour as their predecessors did.

Rather than cleanse the Judiciary of any imagined taint, the politically driven saboteurs have diminished the stature of two distinguished luminaries who did not stand to benefit basely from the accolade they received.

There are ways to accomplish rectification in camera, and any perception of irregularity ought to have been addressed thusly rather than publicly in the unseemly manner in which it was done.

There clearly is some vendetta against the CJ and JA that has manifested.
What cannot be disregarded is that the iconoclasts all live in glass houses and purport to stand on holier ground.

No ascendant CJ has ever relinquished his Silk, no temporary Judge has ever suspended his Silk, and no SC his ever surrendered his Silk after being humiliated by the Privy Council for immature Counsel.

Hypocrisy has laboured to slander innocent men.

With such a skewed and vicious perspective demonstrated by its head, the CCJ has found itself plunged into diminution in some eyes.

The ship of Justice has foundered on the shoals of political expediency as criticism intended against the political directorate has exploded within its hallowed stateroom.

The wider issues of propriety regarding legal recipients such as PM, AG, DPP and others are dealt with in detail in the statement by new SC Mr. Surendranath Capildeo and need not be repeated. One hopes that these will stand their ground as firmly as others have been allowed to by the earlier approving silence of current dissidents.

A misperceived indiscretion has been made scandalous by men who preferred to urge on a donkey cart across our luminous legal highway.

The continuing contributions through our learned CJ’s publications, essentially Higher Counsel of the loftiest order, cannot now be appropriately recognized. Outstanding Judges who must rubbish SC’s arguments must do so from a disadvantaged position.

The arguments of compromising judiciary status is patently specious since any award by the state must have the same effect.

Hypocrisy and slander have temporarily become the stock in trade of a few. Mature reflection has been aborted and reason has fled to brutish beasts.

MFRahman.

The deaths must not be in vain!

2011-12-22T14:27:00.002-04:00

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/FAR_FROM_HOME-136044613.html

wherein, in trying to defend the indefensible, HDC Chief Cook and Bottlewasher, Jearlean John, reportedly said the limit of fire safety measures required at HDC buildings up to 2007 extended merely to smoke detectors and fire extinguishers;

also re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,152585.html

wherein said Chief Cook and Bottlewasher, more than thirty-six hours after the Trou Macaque inferno, is unable to to say precisely how many HDC units are fire-escapeless and, worse yet, informs a nation weary of Public Service apathy that, in 2011, fire-escapeless HDC multi-level units are still being built.

May I rebut as follows?

The inescapable conclusion is that our building codes at the time did not require for fire escapes to be incorporated in such buildings. However, longstanding standard civil engineering practices certainly did/do. So, too, commonsense. So, too, did/do our laws of tort, particularly negligence. The unavoidable inference is: the fire escapes ought to have been installed from the outset.

In the civilized world, people woulda done tender their resignation! We are not civilized! Were we, by now someone woulda surely pay for the lethal episodes as at St. Ann's Hospital (salmonella-laced eggnog snack) and at the Caroni Bridge on the Old Southern Main Road (unbolting a bridge from midspan)!

I say, this time heads must roll! That kind of response, among other things, is for why we, who voted this administration into office, voted. And why we, who voted this administration into office, must lead the charge in seeing they do roll!

Time for another State of Emergency!

2011-12-20T19:33:00.000-04:00

Time for another State of Emergency! This time, throughout all Housing Development Corporation housing estates! Why? To retrofit them so they'd fall in line with adequate 21st-century Occupant Safety Standards! Bring it on, Kamla! Bring it on!

Rowley flipping-flopping.

2011-12-19T02:18:00.000-04:00

On TV6 news last night, in reacting to the pyrotechnics and gunplay at Beverly Hills, East Dry River, Port of Spain, on Wednesday night, Opposition Leader, Dr. Keith Rowley, flatly stated that, to prevent violent criminal acts from ever happening, the government must ensure round-the-clock police presence in such areas.

Mind you, this is the same man who had previously insisted there is no need for a State of Emergency, nor for "stigmatising" "such areas" by designating them as "crime hotspots".

Great is the bewilderment generated by the flip-flop! That's why flippers-floppers must never be allowed to prevail!

Then again...

2011-12-18T10:31:00.002-04:00

Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, someone (not of us) just asked me, "Richard! How come the PP administration for which you stoutly campaigned and bat ent yet ketch any of crooks who allyuh was bitterly complaining between 2001 Christmas Eve and May 24th 2010?"

His smirk vanished, just before he himself did, when, I straightaway replied, "It takes a thief to catch a thief!"

Colm! Are you saying PNMites are all sycophantic, spineless sheep?

2011-12-18T10:01:00.001-04:00

Dear Colm Imbert,

Honourable Member of Parliament for Diego Martin North/Central; and
Vice-Chairman, People's National Movement.

For the benefit of an attentive public, kind sir, would you care to elucidate on the following statement you made (as reported in The Sunday Newsday of Dec 18th 2011)?

“...one of the problems with a coalition (is, they) have the power to change the leadership of the party,”

(http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,152420.html)

If you neither don't, nor can't, nor don't recant, then, I'm afraid, we will have to take it that, in your party, unlike in mine and in the COP, democracy does not, nor will ever prevail.

So! Tell us, Colm! Are you saying PNM is a tyranny and or autocracy? And that PNM comprises a slew of sycophantic or spineless onlookers?

Why COP was born...therefore, must not suborn.

2011-12-15T09:28:00.002-04:00

CAVEAT: Please excuse any factual error in this discourse...of late my brain has been wracked with fever wrought by a combination of the flu virus and the ongoing frenetic kinetic energy of partners-in-coalition adjustment.

Before certain persons get carried away, let me remind all why COP was born, therefore, must not suborn.

The long and short of it can be found in the acronym for Congress of the People -COP- for, before COP was, everyone who wanted the PNM to "take aside" openly opined there was one person and only one person preventing that reality from materialising: Panday.

Put another way: there was a strong and deep Criticism Of Pandayism, Crabbiness Over Pandayism sentiment sweeping the land. (Call it what you will, just make sure its acronym spells "COP"!)-.

Pandayism is the other side of the coin -maximum leadership- of the type practiced for twenty-five uninterrupted years by the PNM under Dr. Eric Eustace Williams -1956-1981, then again by the PNM from 1988-1995 under the son of a PNM; and, finally, from the end of 2001 to May 24th 2010.

Giving credit where it's due: between 1981-1986, when he was Prime Minister, the late George Michael Chambers never operated that way!

So quickly acculturated we became to Dr. Eric Williams style of ruling that, early o'clock, we coined the phrase "Doctah Politics" more properly to describe it. The acculturation was so thorough it hornswoggled a people who were numerically superior to the PNM and who hated PNMism (which was/is/and forever will be the overwhelming majority of T&T's population) to believe only a giant personified could bring down the likes of Dr. Williams.

What's worse, it led many to think once the Doctah was defanged, PNMism would come tumbling after and all the King's men and horses would not ever be able to put PNMism together again. Of that assessment, history has shown how mistaken we were...but, that's another story.

Because we were deluded to search for an Eric counterweight, we suffered to encourage autocratic rule within our own political groupings though the very canons of such groupings expressly declared otherwise. In short, our delusion was such where every political peewat thought to himself he harboured manrat material.

Hence, against the PNM in electoral battles over the years, perhaps one hundred or more political parties forayed and fought, all futilely.

Now, Father Time inexorably guides even the most unwilling to Epiphany -sometimes the awakening comes at Death's Door- so, despite the death of the Doctah bringing us to our knees in the first epiphanous shock (his death forced us to acknowledge our leaders as flesh and blood, just as us) when the opportunity first thereafter arose for us to shake loose from the PNM's clutches, we rejected it, preferring to "give de new man ah chance", especially after his famous "Fete over! Back to work!" dictum.

The effervescent Explainer expounded exquisitely on that: in his delectable ditty "Chambers", where he admonished Mr. Chambers as follows:

An open word,
To our Prime Minister,
Your job is hard,
But I want you remember:
Come down from your height,
Meet the poor and the humble,
Keep them in sight
Any time they may grumble,
Take up you role as disciplinarian,
And use your sword on the evil called "corruption"!

Chorus:
If you true, we go follow you,
Chambers!
If you true, we go follow you,
Georgie!
If you true, we go love you too,
Please, treat the nation as you ought to!
Tell him! Tell him!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERjWZ364Sn0&feature=related

Against the tide, Chambers won, a victory which, to this day, I swear he galvanzed by the last minute rallying of his troops with this second famous dictum: "Not ah damn seat, fuh dem!", by which he called on the voters to teach some PNM neemarkharams a lesson.

(A neemarkharam is a most despicable creature: he/she betrays his ow/her own. The two neemarkharams were Karl Hudson-Phillips and Ferdie Ferreira, the latter, a foundation member of the PNM whose balls, in his youthful days, it is alleged no one ever held in their hands, but who, as he draws nigh to the end of his earthly days, seems to be once again having a ball with the baleezay fold. In 1981, they challenged for control under the Steel Beam banner of the Organization for National Reconstruction (ONR).)

The Grandmaster, Lord Kitchener, Aldwyn Roberts, rhythmically, roundly rebuked the ONR in his catchy "Not A Damn Seat For Dem".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ZUREKRwjE

And Lord Pretender, Aldric Farrell, fluently finished flailing the duo with a similarly-named rendition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97DQq-qaLuY

But, it was the Mighty Sparrow who more accurately assessed the outcome of the ONR's humiliation in his immortal, "We Like It So!", the full lyrics of which you may get in my blog, here:

http://kid5rivers.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-like-it-so-we-free-thank-you-mighty.html

To his eternal credit, Chambers took a different road to the colossus he succeeded, for he assumed an astute and almost acceptable approach to the business of being Prime Minister of a multi-ethnic nation and Political Leader of the most enduring political party in this neck-of-the-woods. However, in cahoots with the incumbent President, Ellis Clarke, his stalwart parliamentary colleagues never gave him the space he needed to ring in the tectonic shifts needed to maintain the PNM's hegemony. Therefore, in short order, his fate was sealed as the thirst for democracy which had boiled over a decade prior to the Doctah's death soon resurfaced, then spread and deepened with a ferocity that made it impossible for him to win a second chance at bat. Not even the forces of hell could restrain the quest by us, the patriotic people, for meaningful participation in our own governance: the hunger to remove the baleezay yoke was epiphytic: the very air we then breathed fuelled its growth.

Accordingly, it came to pass, by the fourth year of Chambers term, seeing no sign of anti-corruption action being initiated, as if in chorus we suddenly remembered how the death of Dr. Williams had demonstrated our leaders were flesh and blood, just as us. In that instant, as a people we understood the taking us for granted business had to end. Thus, we epiphanised, if ever we were to wrest power from the PNM and hold on to that power once wrested, we had to wax iconoclastic: we had to break the murtis!

So, what did we do? We broke the murtis! We did what, but for one man, we ought to have done in 1971: girded our collective loins as a united front to take on the common enemy.

With urgent speed and purpose, during 1986 the proliferation of opposition political parties was waved away and their members reconstituted as one unit, steely-willed to take on the PNM -The National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR)! Of the then political parties opposed to PNMism, the Tapia House opted to remain aloof...maybe in Robinson its Bestian manrat smelt a rat? For Dr. Lloyd Best went to his grave insisting what presently obtains is the Best way of holding the PNM at bay: a Party of Parties!

When the dust settled on December 15th 1986, for every one seat the PNM won, the NAR had captured eleven! The PNM which boasted of being a PRAEVELIBIT had tumbled more than a bit! Even it sPolitical Leader and incumbent Prime Minister, the demure George M. Chambers, had fallen in the rout. Only the rock and the hard place named Laventille stood ground, with Morris Marshall and Muriel Donawa-Mc Davidson...and another, named Patrick Manning, down San Fernando way. Manning would have been dismissed into the pastureland too, however, one man again stayed Merle Stephen from calling on the third umpire. But, that too is another story.

Of the thirty-three seats won by the NAR, one was Chaguanas. The one who won the Chaguanas seat was an academic by the name of Winston Dookeran.

Dookeran had been first brought into Parliament by Basdeo Panday, who had handpicked him to contest Chaguanas in the 1981 general elections. Brilliant academic though he was, he always seemed not cut from the cut-and-thrust cloth of which politicians are fashioned. Pedantic by nature (perhaps, per practice?), his contributions in Parliament and on the platform focused more on serious issues: things fiscal, budgetary or economic, but were delivered with a style reminiscent of a lecturer admonishing, cajoling his somnolent students to sit up and take notes. Some did; most didn't. Like I said, he lacked the oomph necessary to grab and sustain the excitement of the masses. And, if you don't have the oomph, you soon lose touch with those who place great emphasis on it. It surprised none but the blind then, that Dookeran would refuse to stick with his mentor when the unthinkable began to happen: the NAR Titanic hit the iceberg shortly after setting sail.

Fast-tracking through the chain of events (it is a story sufficiently well-told), the magnitude of the 1986 NAR victory at once negated the influence of the former United Labour Front (ULF) component, even though the former ULF leader, Basdeo Panday was the de facto Deputy Prime Minister. (By the way! Why don't we have a constitutionally-appointed Deputy Prime Minister?) If the margin were smaller, the eight (8) seats which the ULF brought to the table would have given Panday the leverage he needed to check the ex-PNM elements: Robinson and his Democratic Action Congress -DAC- and Karl Hudson-Phillips and his ONR). Like I said, I'm fast-tracking here, so I'll skip the Club '88 business, okay?

A maximum leader may forgive his enemies...but never forgets them! Hence, long before 1991 elections came around, Panday had made it a first point of order to humiliate the man whom he had dog-eared back in 1981 to be a future leader: enter Hulsie Bhaggan.

Hulsie was the petite firebrand from Guayamare Village whom Panday appointed to contest Chaguanas seat in 1991 on UNC's behalf. By pitting Hulsie against Dookeran, Panday again showed how impish he could be: he irony of his selction was that Hulsie had come to public notice courtesy tremendous help from the Jamaat al Muslimeen, the same Jamaat al Muslimeen from whom Dookeran's PR machine was boasting he saved the country just one year prior, in 1990, thus entitled him to the country's eternal gratitude: by way of another pass into high office. Oh, Bas! You not easy nah?

The sun had not set beyond the Gulf of Paria horizon in Waterloo, that fateful December 16th day in 1991, when news came crashing ashore of how Panday's handmaiden, Hulsie, had blown away his former protégé. The final count said: Hulsie 9,259; everybody else, entirely -6,383!

Not understanding how, in politics, twenty-four hours is a very long time, the vanquished Dookeran promptly opted out of political life, returning to the more familiar landscape of high finance and related planning. He would remain away from the local political landscape for many years, until 1997 when, again, his political guru brought him back aboard as Governor of the Trinidad and Tobago Central Bank, then, when his term ended in 2002, offered him a very safe UNC seat in Parliament (the constituency of St. Augustine, where he happened also to live). Being a safe seat for the UNC, not much campaigning or political savvy was needed for him to win it...in a straight fight with the PNM, that is...so he duly won. In so doing, the proximate cause for the birth of the Congress of The People was triggered.

[End of Part One. Part Two shall be presented next week, please God, by which time, God willing, the virus would've vanished.)

Without belabouring the point.

2011-12-10T06:06:00.001-04:00

Re: http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2011/12/10/day-reckoning-near-says-roget-trade-unions-out-full-force-after-emergency

The most poignant aspect of Friday's SOPO (Shindig* Of Public Officers) was this comment by Mr. Roget:

“We have to be better next time around. We have some work to do still. “I like the crowd. I am happy that after 107 days we are ready but we have more work to do. We have to go back and do the work.”

which he ruefully made, after headcounting the gathered crowd.

Clearly, Roget et al do not have the ability to partner with their own people...or their own people do not view being part of such activity as partly or wholly in furtherance of the country's interests.

Meantime, I repeat my call for the public to be told of the remuneration packages (including retirement) of these trade union leaders. (See: Go ahead! One day the cheese will stand alone!)

Laevae! Laevae! Mweh kah ahlay!

© Richard Wm. Thomas,
    kid5rivers.com
    Five Rivers,
    Arouca,
    Trinidad and Tobago.

*Um! It was a shindig, wasn't it? Else, why would the Trinidad Guardian publish the below?

Hope the reader noticed the path which said Guardian deemed most apt for the above photo and its related story? That's right! sport!

Hilton castrates Trinidad and Tobago sovereignty? What nonsense yall talking?

2011-12-08T09:30:00.003-04:00

Concerning the hurricane in the snocone cup over the shifted location of the 2011 CARICOM-Cuba Summit, seems like two fundamental points are being missed:

Hilton Trinidad is owned by somebody/somebodies; and,
such body/bodies is/are not the State of Trinidad and Tobago!

One of the basic tenets of ownership is: the owner has exclusive control over who enjoys use of the owned-property.

Regarding 2. above, if you doubt me, then doubt the Ministry of Finance listing of all the local enterprises which are wholly or partly owned (and or controlled) by the government of Trinidad and Tobago, as at April 12, 2011! Trinidad Hilton is nowhere to be found!

To facilitate the readers, I've downloaded the relevant pdf report, which I'll email to you if you include your email address in the comments box and which. mind you, is posted and viewable on the Internet at http://www.finance.gov.tt/content/state-enterprise-company-portfolio.pdf!

So, I fail to understand how the local media did not check that before swallowing the bull fed to them by Mr. Ali Khan, Trinidad Hilton's General Manager:

that even though the State owns the hotel, its operations are subject to the directives of Hilton Worldwide which runs it as the manager.

(see: http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,151929.html and the below screenshot)

Unless this Kamla-led government somehow managed to buy into the shareholding of Trinidad Hilton (given the candour with which it operates, I can equivocate, it has not), then Trinidad Hilton remains no different to any similar business operation: its management reserves the right to refuse admission, especially when, the last time it opened its doors to the one who wishes again to use the privately-owned facility, a part of hell broke loose, even in the midst of the tightest of security, damaging the property of other guests as they did!

As to the future though, I'd expect Trinidad Hilton won't be benefitting from the public purse anymore, for that purse we, the people, own!

A word of advice to Hilton Worldwide...before saying what Raul (pun intended) would say: "¡Punto final!"

Dear Hilton Worldwide!

You boast how your vision is:

To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality.

(See: http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/about/mission/)

And how your mission is:

To be the preeminent (sic) global hospitality company - the first choice of guests, team members, and owners alike.

(See: ibid)

How come, then, in this instance, you didn't allow your core values to guide you in this thing? No doubt, had you, you would have passionately remained owners of your actions by being a leader not a follower, something which you can neither be nor sustain unless you're a team player in the whatever community you operate and unless you have the sense of urgency and discipline to do the right thing all the time?

(See screenshot below!)

Next time, do the right thing: tell Raul, "¡Bienvenido, Excellencia!" ¿Especialmente cuando todos estan preparando para La Feliz Natividad, ok?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wXaFhjALNs

¡Ayi! ¡Ayi!

¡Punto final!

SoE done! To hell we're back!

2011-12-06T00:25:00.002-04:00

Those who doomsay or pledge that "all hell would break loose as soon as the State of Emergency ends" thereby all unwittingly confess the said State of Emergency, while it lasted, was instrumental in containing the forces of hell, thus, that Kamla damn well did the right thing at the right time. (Please forgive the familiarity...the context would lose its flavour if I were more formal!)

By the way, Kamla when are you going to get it: that the mindset of the PNM is to rule at all costs, all times, all places, therefore, even when someone other than the PNM is elected to rule, they will exert their considerable, accumulated-over-the-years power by being a vehemently recalcitrant minority?

Therefore, Kamla, I beg you: to eff (France) with the PNM! We voted for you to lead us, not for them!

Government; government; Opposition.

2011-12-05T05:24:00.002-04:00

From time to time, persons who ought to know better would state that the Opposition is part of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It's time to settle this nonsense, once and, hopefully, for all!
The Opposition is not part of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago: to be part of the Government, one must be a part of the Cabinet!

75. (1) There shall be a Cabinet for Trinidad and Tobago which shall have the general direction and control of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and shall be collectively responsible therefor to Parliament.
(2) The Cabinet shall consist of the Prime Minister and such number of other Ministers (of whom one shall be the Attorney General), appointed in accordance with the provisions of section 76, as the Prime Minister may consider appropriate.

76 (3) The Ministers other than the Prime Minister shall be such persons as the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, shall appoint from among the members of the House of Representatives and the Senators.

79. (1) The President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may, by directions in writing, assign to the Prime Minister or any other Minister responsibility for any business of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, including the administration of any department of Government.

81. The Prime Minister shall keep the President fully informed concerning the general conduct of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and shall furnish the President with such information as he may request with respect to any particular matter relating to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

83. (1) There shall be an office of Leader of the Opposition and appointments thereto shall be made by the President.
(2) The President shall, if the person concerned is willing to be appointed, appoint as Leader of the Opposition the member of the House of Representatives who, in his judgement, is best able to command the support of the greatest number of members of the House of Representatives who do not support the Government.

However, being part of Parliament and as Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Opposition, through...

53. Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good government of Trinidad and Tobago...

Please note the lower-case spelling of the word "government", as compared to upper-case when referring to the Government. Obviously, the difference in casing is not unintentional, for they refer to two different things.

Yes, one may argue that the Leader of the Opposition must be consulted by the President (interestingly, never by the Prime Minister, you hear that, Kamla?) where certain appointments are to be made, however, as far as the author's concerned, every zandolie must find dey hole because of this: the crowning piece to confirm the Leader of the Opposition not being part of the Government is this:

83 (6) Where the office of Leader of the Opposition is vacant, whether because there is no member of the House of Representatives so qualified for appointment or because no one qualified for appointment is willing to be appointed, or because the Leader of the Opposition has resigned his office or for any other reason, any provision in this Constitution requiring consultation with the Leader of the Opposition shall, in so far as it requires such consultation, be of no effect.

Did you get that? What it says is there is not bound to be a Leader of the Opposition, even though there may be elected Members of Parliament who occupy the opposition benches! So, if Leader of the Opposition is not bound-to-must, then Leader of the Opposition cannot be part of something that bound-to-must.

No need then to write any further, is there?

Read your Constitution! It's accessible online here: http://rgd.legalaffairs.gov.tt/Laws2/Constitution.pdf

Phrased, phased and fazed. Homonyms and the straight!

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Kamla__I_m_not_frightened_by__alleged__plot-134803568.html

Wherein, in its haste to turn something straightforward in something sinister, the penultimate paragraph directly, as follows, quotes our Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar:

"It would be reckless and foolhardy to go into the details that were shared with me by the Commissioner of Police and the other protective services. There will always be doubting Thomases; we know that, but I am not phased by that; all I can do is act on the recommendations made by the police and the Defence Force," she said.

Given my surname and the context wherein the Honourable Prime Minister's quote was phrased, one would understand my doubt over the availability, capacity, or, perchance, penchants of the Trinidad Express's proofreaders: they seem to be going through a phase where homonyms are preferred over the straightforward, since, in the clause, "I am not phased by that", the verb "fazed" is incorrectly spelt as "phased".

As to the overall intent of the article? Major fail! For the plot remains in the "alleged" phase, until the hatcher(s) is(are) found guilty.

I'm phasing out of here...the salt mine beckons!

Threaten a national leader, threaten a nation.

2011-11-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

Regardless of one's station in life, every morsel concerning an imminent threat to one's life, liberty, health or property, needs to be taken without salt, moreso if the one threatened is elected to conduct the national business.

It is only thereby that appropriate measures may be implemented to arrest or avert the cause of danger.

Hence, anyone who is reckless in such regard, is unfit to lead me anywhere or anymore and, seeing I'm just an ordinary, law-abiding citizen, unfit to lead any...except the lawless, or those given to wajankiness.

No salt is needed to assimilate the above advice or the next comment!

Indeed, every problem besetting the world has been born of the recklessness of the one for the time being behind the steering wheel!

So do, so like!

2011-11-26T10:34:00.002-04:00

One thing with politicians: they love to be politically-correct. One thing with life: reality is what's perceived.

Loving to be politically-correct, this author will say, "So do, so like!", for that's the most apt idiom by which to describe the response of Dr. Keith Rowley to the alarming news of a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and matters subsequently thereto incidental: to wit

"And Rowley said he was not prepared to share any of the specific information provided to him by Deputy Commissioner Richardson with whom he met yesterday morning. But having met with and having been briefed by the police, he could now tell the national community that he was not satisfied that the Government's action in the last 24 hours, was in the nation's best interest"

So do, so like, Dr. Keith! If you choose to withhold what you learnt, then what you say by way of interpretation is nothing more than the rant of a madman.

300m, divided by 20,0000, cannot!

2011-11-10T11:36:00.003-04:00

Just for the records and by way of forewarning:
300million, divided by 20 thousand, cannot! For, after allowance is madefor administrative fees and procurement of goods and equipment, a yieldof approximately 10 thousand is left for each of the 20 thousand toearn.

Limited curfew needed.

2011-11-10T11:36:00.000-04:00

Dear Madam Prime Minister

and, Head of The National Security Council.

Markme among those who support your administration's efforts to staunch thecrime spree that so blighted our land for many a PNM-ruled year.
Because of such, I am here suggesting that what you recently lifted bereimposed, but in limited fashion: so that every known criminal(including every one out on bail) be curfewed between 6pm and 6am.

Wanton outpouring of joy over curfew's end.

2011-11-10T11:35:00.005-04:00

It surprised me none that so many of our population seemingly took tothe streets in wanton display of enthusiastic joy over the lifting ofthe curfew, for, over the decades, with official encouragement, we havefine-tuned Carnival mentality to such an extent that things whichwarrant sobriety are taken with frivolity unseeming.

Did someone once urge that the fête over, back to work?

Secrets laid bare.

2011-11-10T11:35:00.002-04:00

The time shall come when all secrets shall bare be laid.
Such is the promise of The Ancients.
Thus far, The Ancients have been unerring in their accuracy.
All we thus have to do is wait.
And, as we wait, make amends so when the time inevitably arrives, our slate is clean.

Concerning the rape of the under-aged and mentally-challenged girl.

2011-11-10T11:34:00.005-04:00

When officialdom declares itself more enraged over the breaking of thelaw that protects the identity of a victim than over the crimeperpetrated against the victim and its own tardiness in apprehendingthe known perpetrators, it is time for right-thinking citizens to riseup and get rid of that officialdom.

No end to exploitation.

2011-11-10T11:34:00.002-04:00

People who know their value, appreciate it.
People who appreciate their value, exploit it.
People who exploit what they appreciate, profit by it.
Thing is, some people know their only value is to exploit others.
The latter people are easily identifiable: they simultaneously straddleseveral bandwagons...or switch 'twixt bandwagons with consummate ease,like the razor grass in the swirling storm.
Hence,come government, go government, their calves become fatter and fatterand fatter, while the herded masses more magger grow.

Dr. Ghany! You lie!

2011-11-04T18:06:00.003-04:00

Re: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/11/04/ghany-senators-can-act-pm

wherein Dr. Hamid Ghany is reported to have intoned that:

The Constitution makes provision for a senator to act as Prime Minister in the absence of the PM.

Dr. Ghany! You lie!

And I say so without equvocation, having long ago argued the point at length.

Dr. Ghany and others who share his view are prone to take things out of context to justify a point. One may not adopt such a position with legal interpretation, even though the practice is to turn this way or that.

So, while the reality of the relevant constitutional provision allows that a Cabinet Minister may be authorized to perform the functions of Prime Minister, only the dumb would ignore what the constitution elsewhere says of what qualifies a person to become, or temporarily perform the functions of, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago!

Like I said, I have already written at length of this topic: way back in July 2008. Any who care to see how I dissembled the Ghanyian position may so do by visiting: http://earlykid5rivers.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-cannot-act-or-perform-duties-of.html

I gone!

Reflections on the demise of Muammar.

2011-11-03T18:39:00.000-04:00

History unerringly informs that, in every era, at some instant and place or the other, the masses of people would erupt in anger at what passes for their leaders, then out the window and into the nearest graveyard fling them. History also unflinchingly advises that very such explosion is catalyzed by leaders who become so consumed with power they believe they are a law unto themselves, thus can neither do wrong, nor be wronged. We have never yet reached that point (though, on the odd occasion past, we came quite close to the brink). As long as this administration sails close to shore, I know we never shall.

Trinidad and Tobago's cocoa is the best in the world and it's because all our cocoa is in the sun.

2011-10-25T09:24:00.002-04:00

“I have nothing to hide. If some people say forensic audit, then go ahead, because I have no cocoa in the sun, so I’m afraid of nothing.”

The man who dropped that bombshell was toeing the baleezay line: since, at the time, he was taking his cue from his line Minister, Emily Dick-Forde, who had earlier stoutly defended Calder Hart this way:

“Mr Hart’s resignation would have been a surprise, but it also would not have been, because I think if any of you as human beings would have been hounded and treated the way he has been, I think you all would understand. So, a resignation is part of normal governance, people move on, but I think in the circumstances, we in Trinidad and Tobago should be very ashamed of what has happened, a person, a human being has been treated very, very badly, by us.”

The Trinidad Newsday story whence the above were culled went on to state:

Annisette then admitted he had spoken to Hart on Sunday after Hart fled Trinidad. He declined to give details of their conversation, saying it was a personal call.

From their talk, did he expect Hart to return to Trinidad? Annisette said, “Yes, yes. He didn’t give a specific time, but he will be back.”

Court protocol demanded that pre-action protocol letters be served on Calder Hart...so they were.

Pure protocol demands Annisette and Dick-Forde be served pre-action protocol letters as well...so proceed, for Trinidad and Tobago's cocoa is the best in the world and it's because all our cocoa is under our brand of the sun.

I gone!

Sat plagiarizes Anand at will.

2011-10-20T23:06:00.002-04:00

The following presentation is colour-coded for easy referencing.

Compare what Satnarayan Maharaj recently said:

The PNM during all its time in office never sought to address the special needs of the African community. It was Dr Keith Rowley who had made the comments during a debate in 2003 that Costatt should focus more on young black males. He has now admitted that the PNM government of the time should have had the courage to stand by that programme.

It was Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Ford who, while contributing to the private motion brought by the then opposition calling upon the government to operationalise the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: “The need to focus on the needs of some of our young African males is a real need. Regardless of how it is framed for it to make it seem discriminatory to any other group, we cannot deny this is a vulnerable group in the current painful crime rate.” After such revelations were made and nothing ever done to address the situation, race is the card being played in some parliamentary debates and on a number of “talk” programmes on radio. I applaud Dr Rowley’s punch line: “African youths were overachieving in the jails and underachieving in the classrooms.”

We must remember the words of former Police Commissioner Hilton Guy, who called for personal responsibility: “When you have parents praising their unemployed children who wearing $2,000 sneakers and everything they’re wearing is a ‘brand name’ and they come home in the night with a bag of goodies, the children you are growing here, you are not only sowing the seeds, but fertilising the criminal. Stop blaming others.” The PNM has ruled this country for over 40 years. It must take much of the blame for the present situation. We cannot ignore the reality that some of these areas have degenerated to slums and crime dens.

It was only a few weeks ago that we saw a by-product of this type of neglect from a 14-year-old girl who smeared social media networks with racist comments against the Prime Minister. Some politicians came to her defence but the nation heard not a word from her parents. Afro-Trinidadians are victims of a political culture, where politicians use people for votes and then forget about them until the next election. The “new PNM” should put more effort into making meaningful contributions in the Parliament rather than try to use racist propaganda that benefits no one.

(See: http://www.guardian.co.tt/node/23226)

to what Anand Ramlogan said three years and two months before Sat said what he recently said:

Recent statements made by prominent PNM officials show pangs of political guilt over the sad state of its “natural constituency” (to borrow Danny Montano’s expression).

Dr Keith Rowley chastised his colleagues for not owning up to what was, in truth and fact, an official policy of the Government in the form of the infamous “Afros First” affirmative action plan for student admissions at Costaatt.

In the Senate, Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Ford said the Government needed to do more for “our young African males.”

Contributing to the private motion brought by the Opposition calling upon the Government to operationalise the Equal Opportunities Commission, she said:

“The need to focus on the needs of some of our young African males is a real need. Regardless of how it is framed for it to make it seem discriminatory to any other group, we cannot deny this is a vulnerable group in the current painful crime rate.”

For the record, I actually agree with her.

Almost immediately, people were calling in on radio talk shows to justify the need for affirmative action, blaming the UNC, the Church, Sat Maharaj and “Indian teachers” for the plight of black youths.

I am tired of hearing PNM supporters blame everything and everyone, except the Government and their beloved ruling party, for the present predicament.

We must remember the words of former Police Commissioner Hilton Guy, who called for personal responsibility:

“When you have parents praising their unemployed children who wearing $2,000 sneakers and everything they’re wearing is a ‘brand name’ and they come home in the night with a bag of goodies, the children you are growing here, you are not only sowing the seeds, but fertilising the criminal. Stop blaming others!”

“African youths were overachieving in the jails and underachieving in the classrooms” (to use Dr Rowley’s words), not because of political neglect by the UNC and NAR governments.

And black leaders have a duty to stop making excuses and offering baseless explanations.

The man I support for the next President of the USA, Barack Obama, faced a severe backlash from the African-American community, because Rev Jesse Jackson (who didn’t realise his mic was still on), criticised Barack for “talking down to black people.”

What Barack has done is to call for the black community to take some ownership and responsibility for its actions.

The PNM has ruled this country for over 40 years. It must take some blame for the present situation.

Are we supposed to ignore the reality of the slums and shanty towns it created, and pretend to imagine the great city of Laventille that it built?

...Afro-Trinidadians are victims of our political culture, where politicians use people for votes and then forget about them until the next election.

The political paternity test shows that the Laventille of today is a PNM creation. It’s high time it takes responsibility for the mess that it has made in our backyard.

(See: http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-07-27/ramlogan.html)

then, tell me whether Satnarayan is guilty of plagiarism or not: for nowhere in what Satnarayan said did Satnarayan say he was saying what Anand before had said.

Btw, Satnarayan Maharaj is the Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (Auspicious Assembly of The Everlasting Law).

I gone!

Flagging on the highways and byways while wearing a crown.

2011-10-20T10:33:00.002-04:00

The news that the colossus temporarily designated to take the wheel would find himself in the predicament of having to flag down a passing vehicle to get to his desired destination brought a smile to face, for, on hearing it, my memory swiftly raced back to these lines from Maestro Aldwyn "Lord Kitchener" Roberts:

FLAG WOMAN

You have no band
Without ah beautiful Flagwoman!
You have no band
Without an experienced Flagwoman!
The band will have no control
The music will have no soul
The revellers wouldn't play
Their usual mas' on Carnival Day!

Chorus:
A woman with the happy touches to set you bumping
Sure to get your rhythm when she start waving
When you see she get dat fever is plenty trouble
Whether you're sick or single
You bound to wiggle!

I always know
From my experiences long ago
A flagless mas'
Is like a ship without a compass
When you playing without a flag
The whole rhythm seems to drag
But is only a Flagwoman
Could put some pepper inside the band!

Chorus:

Ah different band
When a woman is in command
The way she move
She put everybody in she groove
She wining from left to right
The Flag flying like a kite
That generates the moves
And make you jump like ah kangaroo!

Chorus:

For Carnival
Ah done have plans for the bacchanal
Ah making sure
Ah find exactly what ah looking for
Ah peeping thru the Arcade
Watching all the parade
Man, ah wouldn't jump in ah band
Lest it led by a Flagwoman!

Chorus:

(The above was transliterated by me, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCRwG48a8BQ)

Oh yes! The news of the colossus flagging down vehicles on the highway sure had me wistfully smiling.

But, on a serious note: Wey de hell was his security detail? or, do we now have to put a woman in charge of such arrangements?

...Man, ah wouldn't jump in ah band
Lest it led by a Flagwoman!

PP, or bust!

2011-10-17T01:42:00.000-04:00

When the People's National Movement adopted MAGNUM EST PNM ET PRAEVALEBIT, it damn well knew what it was doing, for, thereafter, it embarked on an insidious plan to ensure, whether in power or not, PRAEVALERE it did. Hence, under the PNM, no appointment to any public business oversight office was ever made in oversight: rather with both the magnifying and guaranteeing of PNM domination in mind. Such was the case even when, to a gullible public, it appeared otherwise.

If you think I fabricated that, perish the thought, else perish, ENIM MAGNA EST VERITAS ET SEMPER PRAEVALET and, the undeniable truth is the worst PP is better than the best PNM!

Concurrency matters.

2011-10-15T11:48:00.002-04:00

Whuh you could buy with TT1¢, eh?

And, ever tried to buy something costing TT$8,000.00 with cash?

Jeez!

It's time to:

do away with the TT1¢ piece,
replace the TT$1.00 with a coin,
introduce a TT$500.00 bill!

All in favour, say, "Aye!"

All against, wait outside, because this here is serious business!

Welcome to the Ponderouser ©!

2011-10-14T10:23:00.003-04:00

pon·der·ous [pon-der-uhs]

adjective

1. of great weight or influence; heavy; massive.

pee·wat [pee-waht]

noun

1. a thing or person of minuscule or inconsequential weight or influence; a lightweight.

Welcome to The Ponderouser ©!!

The land where, to succeed, you have to be, or befriend, a ponderous person!

Yes! Welcome to The Ponderouser ©!!
The land where only peewats get gunned down for the things they say or do.
And where only peewats does pay their lightbill!
And where only peewats does pay their traffic tickets!
And where only peewats does pay for the gas they get from NP!
And where only peewats does get disconnect by WASA!
And where only peewats does have to wait and wait and wait to get a HDC house!
And where only peewats does get a general runaround when dey visit a govament office to do ah simple transaction!
And where only peewats does actually have to sit and pass dey regulations or driving test before dey get a Driving Permit!
And where only peewats does have to take a number dat calling four years down de road just to apply for a passport!
And where only peewats fight up with KFC for a bread, even though they have six CAPE distinction or university degree!
And where only peewats does lose dey life savings when financial havens crash!
And where only peewats does have to deposit 130,000 if dey want to borrow 100,000 from de bank!
And where only peewats does cyar even get de time of day from dey member ah parliament!
Buh wait na??!!!!!

Whuh de jail wrong with me boy? You know, instead ah pressing 2011 on mih Time Machine console, I press 2009???

lol

I gone! Going back to the present and beyond where all things are looming bright and beauteous!

Whirrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm!!!!!! Zwooooshhhh!!!!!!

Ponderous issues of our sincerity.

2011-10-13T11:19:00.000-04:00

Without casting aspersions on anyone real or fictitious, as one who prides himself on and jealously guards his independence of thought and expression, I must ponder aloud and sincerely whether there is anybody, be it man or beast, in Trinidad and Tobago that's Calpurnian enough to be integrated into the Integrity Commission?

In my view, Integrity Commissioners aren't intended to be diplomats, since integrity and "diplomacy" cannot coexist: the former is blunt and unyielding, the latter, pliant and ingratiating.

And, since integrity is unyielding, the only conceivable option is to allow all investigations to run their full courses regardless of any wobble; for, truth be told, we are fed up of persons in public life escaping opprobrium on the grounds of some Integrity Commission proven or alleged faux pas.

Divvy it up directly among the poor!

2011-10-12T10:02:00.000-04:00

Subsidies are existential: they exist to buffer the weak from the buffeting of economic vicissitudes.

To be effective therefore, subsidies must be progressively applied rather than in across-the-board fashion. So, who have more than enough corn already need crocus bag to store the excess, not more corn; and who have no corn or not enough, need!

Trinidad and Tobago's population presently hovers around 1.32m; and, with the average family unit comprising 5 persons, that means there are 264,000 households in this twin-plus-five island state.

Now, in delivering the 2011-2012 National Budget, the erstwhile Minister of Finance disclosed:

"...in Trinidad and Tobago poverty is estimated at 17 percent of the population with the level rising to 30 percent in some geographic areas..."

(See: Managing Our Social Safety Net, page 23 of the 2011-2012 Budget, at: http://www.finance.gov.tt/content/Budget-Statement-2012.pdf)

In layman terms, what he really meant is:

"...in Trinidad and Tobago, it is estimated that every sixth person you meet, or, a total of 225,000 persons comprising 45,000 households, live in poverty: in other words, they do not even earn enough income to eat..."

(See your calculator for the computation.)

Wherefore then, may anyone in their right mind justify the untouched continuance of the Fuel Subsidy, a subsidy which comes at a cost of TT$4.8b per annum and whose true cost is much higher, given that a quarter or more of the subsidized fuel is siphoned off at will and with impunity?

Wherefore then, too, would anyone in their right mind object to the following suggestion?

If one quarter of the Fuel Subsidy be redirected straight onto the pockets of those 45,000 households (by way of the Ministry of The People and Social Development's Direct Cash Transfer Programme?), then, after allowing for a management fee of 5%, each presently-poor household would get TT$25,300 per annum, or $2,100 per month.

(See your calculator for the computation.)

Paradigm shifting Trinbago.

2011-10-10T10:36:00.003-04:00

The news that unemployment has risen (and been rising since 2009 thereabouts) gives cause for major concern...and fount of major headache, if not immediately and adequately addressed. For, whenever national fortunes take a turn for the worse, society's most vulnerable are the ones who first and mostly feel the pinch.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the segment predominantly upon whom such a sorry lot has fallen is: the Afro-Trinbagonian. The overall lot of the Afro-Trinbagonian is what it is as a consequence of a sustained plethora of misguided/misapplied political motives over the years.

It is time we, as a nation, stop behaving like the proverbial ostrich and deal with the unsavoury problem. If we don't it will surely ferment until it becomes untenable. Those responsible for that to which I've just alluded were shooed from office in May 2010 and replaced by those whom we yet believe have the capacity for getting the politics right.

My expectation, therefore, is the 2011-2012 National Budget will begin the rectification process, for the last Budget evidently did not.

Plain talk, like yawning in spirited company, might be bad etiquette, but at least it's honest.

Auditor General must intervene in UDeCOTT.

2011-10-06T22:34:00.002-04:00

Law is a stratified thing -undermine its precedents and the whole shebang collapses.

But, when law collapses, it does not in domino-effect fashion, rather in cascades. It cascades because every law derives its power from some other law. In other words, every law is part of a wider network. Hence, in some way or the other, every law impinges on every aspect of how society's business is ordered.

That's why legal draftsmen are so highly-prized -theirs is the task of ensuring the construct of every law is properly designed, set out and laid. When legal draftsmen muck up, the law as enacted won't withstand the tests of time and probity. Hence, when crackshot legal draftsmen abound (or are given their due latitude) every law, ab inito, is settled...meaning, unchallengeable.

This discussion is thus preambled as it really is intended to address an alarming confession made by Mariano Browne, a former Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister in the Ministry of Finance, concerning the overbearing delay by the Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago [UDeCOTT] to have its accounts prepared, audited and published.

Initially, under the rubric "Shut down UDeCOTT!", I had posted in my blog and copied to several others an article which began this way:

To that, Mr. Browne emailed me the following response, which he also posted in the JahajeeDesi forum):

That is incorrect on several grounds.

First, Udecott's financial statements do not have to be audited by the Auditor general.

Second Financial statements were completed for 2007. 2008 and 09 were delayed by PWC who feared to publish in light of the COI as they did not know where that was going.

Third, Ms Jerlean John is on record as saying that she is not signing of on any accounts/ statements before her time.

So there you have the reasons for the delay in 08 09. And of course 2010 cant be published if you have not agreed 08 09.

If periods before 2007 were not filed that is a secretarial oversight which be easily corrected.

Mariano Browne
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device available from bmobile.

In my honest opinion, his attempt at rebuttal flopped for several reasons. Moreso they warrant criminal investigation into misbehaviour in public office as a start, for his amazing admission that the non-submission by PWC of its reports for three years was by design, not accident:

"Financial statements were completed for 2007. 2008 and 09 were delayed by PWC who feared to publish in light of the COI as they did not know where that was going"

constitutes a series of acts of hiding/withholding evidence in which he (and his Cabinet colleagues?) were complicit!

The Attorney General needs to let the Anti-Corruption Bureau have a go at this, then turn whatever is unearthed over to the Police.

Though several reasons exist for the complete rejection of Mr. Browne's explanation, the only one with which I shall here treat is his notion that

"Udecott's financial statements do not have to be audited by the Auditor general."

I object! The laws, as I'd stated, insist they must. Indeed the laws insist that the books of all State Enterprises are to be audited by the Auditor General! Here's what our Constitution has to say (highlights are mine):

Establishment of Office and functions of Auditor General.

116. (1) There shall be an Auditor General for Trinidad and Tobago, whose office shall be a public office.

(2) The public accounts of Trinidad and Tobago and of all officers, courts and authorities of Trinidad and Tobago shall be audited and reported on annually by the Auditor General, and for that purpose the Auditor General, and for that purpose the Auditor General or any person authorised by him in that behalf shall have access to all books, records, returns and other documents relating to those accounts.

(3) The Auditor General is hereby empowered to carry out audits of the accounts, balance sheets and other financial statements of all enterprises that are owned or controlled by or on behalf of the State.

(4) The Auditor General shall submit his reports annually to the Speaker, the President of the Senate and the Minister of Finance.

(5) The President of the Senate and the Speaker shall cause, Port to be laid before the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, at the next sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives after the receipt thereof, respectively.

(6) In the exercise of his functions under this Constitution the Auditor General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.

119 (9) For the purposes of subsection (8) and section 116(3) an enterprise shall be taken to be controlled by the State if the Government or any body controlled by the Government-

(a) exercises or is entitled to exercise control directly or indirectly over the affairs of the enterprise;

(b) is entitled to appoint a majority of the directors of the Board of Directors of the enterprise; or

(c) holds at least fifty per cent of the ordinary share capital of the enterprise, as the case may be.

In my thinking:

by placing the provision vesting the power in the Auditor General to deal with State Enterprises immediately after the subsection where he's empowered to delegate, can only be interpreted that, regarding State Enterprises, such power may only be exercised by the Auditor General, or auditors whom the Auditor General chooses, not whom the Board or CEO of any such State Enterprise does.
in effect, therefore, what 116 (3) does is expand on the description of the institutions described in 116 (2) which the Auditor General must examine.

Furthermore, the Constitution contemplates the Auditor general having to deal with more and more "clients" as time evolves, for Section 117 (5) of our Constitution guarantees that:

The Auditor General shall be provided with a staff adequate for the efficient discharge of his functions.

Let us see what precedent shall come undone of this! For justice may only be served in this instance when the citizens get full disclosure concerning the inner secrets of UDeCOTT over the Hart-filled years especially.

As we await that justice, just remember what Lord Atkins said while we wait:

"But whether the authority and position of an individual Judge or the due administration of justice is concerned, no wrong is committed by any member of the public who exercises the ordinary right of criticizing in good faith in private or public the public act done in the seat of justice.

The path of criticism is a public way : the wrong headed are permitted to err therein : provided that members of the public abstain from imputing improper motives to those taking part in the administration of justice, and are genuinely exercising a right of criticism and not acting in malice or attempting to impair the administration of justice, they are immune.

Justice is not a cloistered virtue : she must be allowed to suffer the scrutiny and respectful even though outspoken comments of ordinary men."

http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/890137/

And that was in culmination of one of the most famous cases ever fought in Trinidad and Tobago: Andre Paul Terence Ambard vs The Attorney General Of Trinidad, in 1936.

May God help us see the light!

Shut down UDeCOTT!

2011-10-06T02:20:00.002-04:00

One must not be surprised the "breaking" news that, for many, many years the Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago [UDeCOTT] has not filed, far less, prepared, any financial statements for the past seven (years), nor has not been audited by the Auditor General of Trinidad and Tobago (as required by law, whether such statements are prepared or not) sent me into guffaws, for, invariably, the local media are slow on the draw: if they weren't they would have heeded my alert of 2008, which was given in my analysis of the stern admonition none other than the Commander-In-Chief, His Excellency The President, gave to the entire staff of said Auditor General way back in March 2008.

Please read:

>>All would be well if you do as I say and NOT as I do!<<.

Any State-owned company that has not prepared or submitted financial reports for such a long period as UDeCOTT has, ought to be shut down by imperial edict [order of Corporation Sole], or, wound up, placed in receivership, liquidated, stopped from operating, however one may want to describe it, for it's the Public Purse which is at risk when such companies do business, hence, when the brown, smelly stuff hits the fan, it's T&T's future generations and the weakest of the present who have to pay, since the Fat Cats make sure they hoff their money before things fall apart!

And, may God help us to see the light!

From one Richard to the next.

2011-10-01T07:48:00.002-04:00

From one Richard to the next:

Dear Richard Seecharan,

In commenting on Minister Warner's publicly-expressed hope for funds to execute his Ministry's 2011-2012 programme, you alleged that:

"...this PP govt is sinking deeper and deeper into a pile of BS and feces.
One prays and hopes fervently that they see the error of their ways and start taking governance seriously - so many people placed their faith and trust in the PP, confident that there will be drastic change from the PNM. The nation needs a successful PP govt, we are in serious trouble, but alas! the PP does not seem to understand what is required of them."

My dear Richard, this gov't has no choice but to sink "deeper and deeper into a pile of BS and feces (sic)", for:

when it ascended the throne last year May, it met a T&T landscape entirely overwhelmed by said pile of BS and feces (sic); which, at once
it recognized to be the pervasive manifestation of 54 years of PNM's MAGNUM ET PRAEVELIBIT crap; crap that
over said 54-year period had become so entrenched, said pile had become thoroughly bottom-driven; hence,
to staunch it, this gov't had to hold its breath and descend, literally, into the depths of hell (which, as all know, is not a task the squeamish embrace); ergo,
everyday since then, this gov't gets deeper into the said pile, as, shovel load by shovel load, it removes said "BS and feces (sic)".

In summation:
The task is of epic proportions, as many generators of pure BS and feces (sic) are still hard at it, even as they yet squat where they were installed by the shooed regime. So the cleanup ops will be time-consuming and, as all cleanups go, sometimes will require rough effort, other times, a delicate touch.

Some of us may not be there to rejoice when it's completed, but, completed, under this gov't, it shall be!

Parting shot:
If I were still a wagering man, I'd wager that by May 2015 said pile of BS and feces (sic) and the relevance of those who deposited it would be no more and that, from long before then, T&T would be able to inhale and exhale with consummate ease and delight and that, any new crap would be sent packing with dispatch.

But, I took my chances on January 24th 2010, then on May 24th 2010...and won. No need then for me to linger at the gaming table -there's work a-plenty yet to be done.

© Richard Wm. Thomas,
    kid5rivers.com
    Five Rivers,
    Arouca,
    Trinidad and Tobago.

The freedom-loving people of are free at last!

From: CCDSJ_TT <CCDSJIntl@gmail.com>
To: caribbeantalk <caribbeantalk@yahoogroups.com>; CongressOfThePeople <congressofthepeople@yahoogroups.com>; jahajeedesi2005@yahoogroups.com; PeoplesPartnership@yahoogroups.com; TrinidadTobago@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 2:55:18 AM
Subject: [**CARIBBEAN*TALK*] JACK wants mo money: 'I would like to see plenty money boy. Plenty, plenty money'

Like we said yesterday, this PP govt is sinking deeper and deeper into a pile of BS and feces.
One prays and hopes fervently that they see the error of their ways and start taking governance seriously - so many people placed their faith and trust in the PP, confident that there will be drastic change from the PNM. The nation needs a successful PP govt, we are in serious trouble, but alas! the PP does not seem to understand what is required of them.

Warner hopes for ‘plenty’ money in budget
By Richardson Dhalai Thursday, September 29 2011

Declaring he was optimistic that the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure would benefit from “plenty, plenty money” in the 2011/2012 nation budget, however, Minster Jack Warner tempered his expectations saying the nation’s purse was “limited’ with his Ministry facing stiff competition from other Ministries which were also hopeful of increased allocations from the Ministry of Finance.
Speaking to reporters while on a tour of road rehabilitation works at the Tarouba flyover, Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway, San Fernando on Tuesday night, Warner was asked what he would like to see in the national budget for his Ministry. “I would like to see plenty money boy. Plenty, plenty money,” he responded.

“I want to see money for PURE. [Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency]. PURE alone is asking for $1.3, $1.4 billion dollars. I want to see money for that. I want to see money for flood mitigation so that we can prevent flooding in the country,” he said.

“I want to see money for land slips, for bridges, so that we can arrest the problem in these areas, I want to see money for traffic wardens so that we can have traffic wardens doing what traffic police supposed to do. So I want to see plenty, plenty money, and I not so sure I seeing that,” Warner added.

Asked if he was not optimistic about increased budgetary allocations, he said, “No, I have to be realistic. The money is not there, and it is just a limited amount of money to do so much, and no more, but while I want plenty money, I have to be realistic.

“But hopefully they will find some money for the Mamoral dam as well; all these things are needed and they are vital, and while I am anxious, the other Ministers are equally as anxious,” he added..
http://newsday.co.tt/politics/0,148053.html

Overtime Learning.

2011-09-28T09:35:00.002-04:00

Over time, I've learned the following:

All politicians talk:

some talk all the time,
some talk some of the time,
very few hardly ever talk...Hardeo Hardath instantly comes to mind.

A few walk the talk,
a few balk...even when it's time for them to walk,
many simply talk...and talk...and talk

And that, my dear people, is no ol' talk!

By Naipaul's logic, we need more jails.

2011-09-24T08:21:00.004-04:00

Ever since Sir Vidya Naipaul in 1967 deemed us to be pretentious chameleons of the "forrin" landscape, the description and definition have paradoxically stuck like yet-unsated leeches do to the aperture they created.

Now, given that "forrin" to most Trinis means "USA", what prevails in 'Merica is expected to be followed...ASSiduously, if need be. Hence, it is expected that 13,000 persons ought presently to be behind bars in Trinidad and Tobago...and three times that number outside on parole.

Oh! By the way! What's in a name? Call it what you will, to those behind its razor-wire-topped fences, the facility on the Churchill/Roosevelt Highway at Santa Rosa, Arima will still be a jail.

The thing to remember is, jail eh nice: it imprisons both inmates and custodians.

And, justice for ALL!

2011-09-20T03:22:00.002-04:00

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/JAIL_FOR_ALL-130175588.html

What's wrong with these personalities in whose name the "P" letter is pivotally harboured? Don't they know how to treat with persons brought before the courts on criminal charges? Why the ebbing and flowing then?

Just recently, De P. Person found no cause further to detain a school of fish rounded up in a seine -of which the entire expedition was allegedly telecast- because all was not well with the implicating evidence.

Now, we have another who is insisting that another catch must be detained, because even though they were ready to be processed, all is not well with the processing plant.

Come on, J. P. Madeira! With one-two initials like that, even if you weren't the hallmark you are, surely you ought to know that, unless and until otherwise is finally proven, all charged are presumed innocent -regardless the preponderance of damning evidence to the contrary at the time they are snared?

Such are the provisions of the law of this land...and for potent reason too: as, sometimes the unpalatable gets caught in the fisher-of-badmen's net merely because the mesh size was too fine (granted, sometimes the fish one wants to fry evades the dragnet because the dang mesh too big), or, when it's a really mammoth-sized badman being sought, instead of palanging or spearfishing, the fisher-of-badmen insanely opts to use a wall of death!).

All that to express alarm over a local magistracy operating like if things are normal when we are in a State of Emergency -how could Jones P. say that these junior judges' across-the-board absence yesterday is excusable on the grounds that mechanisms were put in place to cope with the inevitable upheaval that would ensue their having to attend a two-day wellness session (for which the had been summoned long ago) and, over which upheaval, to those "anything(s) which fell through the cracks and (those) any inconveniences to anyone, the (spokesman for the)judiciary apologises sincerely."?

In my book, the book needs to be thrown at those who perpetrated what may only be described as an employer-approved sickout.

And, may God bless our nation!

High on chicken!

2011-09-17T07:34:00.002-04:00

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,147380.html

Wherein details of a one-tonne marijuana bust at Pt. Lisas port are given:

Marijuana compressed in the container of chicken? What the...???!!!!! No wonder chicken prices of late have been so high?

The dance of the bull versus the tiger.

2011-09-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Dear Peter!

Re: Your commentary at http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,147061.html

Good commentary, as usual! And the questions you posed are most apt, viz:

It is said that one can ride a tiger, but the danger comes when the rider tries to dismount. The current state of emergency brought the analogy to mind, as we wonder how and when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will return the country to normalcy. Having mounted that tiger, and controlling it for the time being, what will happen when she dismounts?

Given the wide readership of the Trinidad Newsday (print and online), I decided to respond this route.

Perhaps the answer will be found in the following tale?

There is a folk dance called “Dance of Bull Fighting Against Tiger” which is very popular in Ongnigod Banner of Chi Feng City, Inner Mongolia.

It is performed by four people, among whom two act as a bull (one as bull's head, the other as the bull's tail), one acts as a tiger and the last one acts as a woodcutter.

The performance paces through four stages:

The bull, the tiger and the woodcutter come onto stage together to form a triangle;
The bull fights against the tiger;
The bull and the tiger lie down to have a rest;
The bull fights against the tiger fiercely and then the quick-witted woodcutter fights against the tiger by trickery and beats it to death.

The dance has been spread for nearly a hundred years.

According to a legend, in the ancient times there lived a red-haired tiger near Ulaanban Village and it often came to the village to cause disturbance. So this place was once called “Ulaan Bar” which means “red tiger” in Mongolian.

The people who suffered a lot from the tiger decided to collaborate to fight the tiger and finally succeeded in beating it to death.

Afterward, the villagers invented a dance imitating a bull's fight against a tiger to celebrate the victory.

Later, with the arrival of many new migrants, new movements have been added to the dance, such as “somersaulting”, which give highlight to the tiger-fighters' distinguished moral qualities: brave, quick-witted and strong-minded.
[See: http://www.asiavtour.com/China_Inner%20Mongolia_Arts%20and%20Crafts_a169_s17.html]

Why I chose this tale by way of reply/comment on your commentary?

Well! Kamla is a Taurus, inno? And we, the people who damn fed-up with the tiger's marauding antics are formed into a partnership, ent?

'Nuff said!

I gone!

Carry on, MV PP!

2011-09-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

Ever since being gruffly treated by a machine that long laboured for the better, many, including some considered as good friends, have been urging me to shy away from the present government administration, or, worse yet, to lambaste it in the open. Suffice it to say, none and nothing have convinced or will convince me to veer off my long-accustomed course, since the present (and foreseeable) replacement options comprise a mishmash of the witless, hopeless, clueless, careless and wotless.

Move along, NiLeung!

2011-09-08T05:56:00.000-04:00

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/_Max_away__Kamla_to_leave_T_T_too_-129429668.html

Wherein Opposition Member of Parliament for Laventille West, NiLeung Hypolite, is alleged to have chastised His Excellency President George Maxwell Richards for leaving T&T at this "very important time", perhaps the best advice NiLeung may be given is that he ought to follow His Excellency's excellent suit...but, doh come back.

Labour statistics to make a politician cringe.

2011-09-01T18:17:00.000-04:00

CALing it as I see it.

2011-08-19T05:41:00.003-04:00

The public must surely be bemused (if not, confused) over the recent "I resign! No! You can't resign! Okay! I'll stay!" thingy with Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL).

Moreso they might be, if they peruse the following excerpts from the Companies Act and the interspersed, highlighted comments of mine:

CHAPTER 81:01

COMPANIES ACT

An Act to revise and amend the law relating to companies and to provide for related and consequential matters.

*[Assented to 6th October 1995]

Section 1.

This Act may be cited as the Companies Act.

Section 2.

This Act came into operation on 15th April 1997. (So, it has been in operation long enough for none but whom the law excuses to be excused.)

Section 74.

(1) A director of a company ceases to hold office when—

(a) he dies or resigns; (Everything turns on this, but please continue reading.)
(b) he is removed in accordance with section 75; or
(c) he becomes disqualified under section 68 or 69.

(2) The resignation of a director of a company becomes effective at the time his written resignation is served on the company or at the time specified in the resignation, whichever is later. (In other words, no board member's resignation can be valid unless served by said director on the company. So, any board member serving otherwise is a clown.)

Section 76.

(1) A director of a company is entitled to receive notice of, and to attend and be heard at, every meeting of shareholders. (If Cabinet members held any discussions concerning the instant issue, they could have only properly so done i.a.w. 76. (1), meaning: the Minister of Finance, in his capacity as Corporation Sole, or whomever he delegates for the purpose at which meeting, in any event, the CAL Board ought to have been invited, present and participated.)

(2) A director—

(a) who resigns;
(b) who receives a notice or otherwise learns of a meeting of shareholders called for the purpose of removing him from office; or
(c) who receives a notice or otherwise learns of a meeting of directors or shareholders at which another person is to be appointed or elected to fill the office of director, whether because of his resignation or removal, or because his term of office has expired or is about to expire,

may submit to the company a written statement giving the reasons for his resignation or the reasons why he opposes any proposed action or resolution. (Well? Did he? or, didn't he?)

(3) The company shall forthwith send a copy of the statement referred to in subsection (2) to the Registrar and to every shareholder entitled to receive notice of any meeting referred to in subsection (1), unless the statement is included in or attached to a management proxy circular required by section 144. (And, if he did, did CAL comply with this legal mandate? If not, why not?)

(4) No company or person acting on its behalf incurs any liability by reason only of circulating a director’s statement in compliance with subsection (3). (In other words, CAL nor Minister, nor anyone for that matter, can be hauled before the courts or penalized for relaying such information to the Registrar. It is clear the intent of the law here is to let things be known rather than hidden.)

Section 84.

(1) Directors of a company may appoint from their number a managing director or a committee of directors and delegate to the managing director or committee any of the powers of the directors. (Just to remind: a committee could comprise just one person.)

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), no managing director and no committee of directors of a company may—

(a) submit to the shareholders any question or matter requiring the approval of the shareholders;
(b) fill a vacancy among the directors or in the office of auditor;

Section 85.

An act of a director or officer is valid notwithstanding any irregularity in his election or appointment, or any defect in his qualification. (This is a saving-grace provision, for it protects any injured by the incompetence of such an official.)

If you noticed, Section 74 deals solely with a director demitting office before when due...director...not, Chairman! If Nick resigned as Chairman (the Post-Cabinet briefing suggests it was), then everything is moot, for Corporation Sole, being the controlling shareholder, is the one who ~~cals~~ calls the shots where such CAL matters are concerned. And, Corporation Sole did! But, then again, did he? After all, he hasn't said anything?

The topic is so grave and the modern-day dispensation so warranting of being frank with the public's business, it behooves full disclosure (in compliance with the principle of uberrimae fidei) of all correspondence passing between the parties involved, to dispel all the hot air and long-winded agitation the "I resign! No! You can't resign! Okay! I'll stay!" thingy has been generating.

I gone!

For an online read of the Companies Act, click >>here<

FRUSTRA RAMESAR ET PAUCULUS COMMORATI

2011-08-17T10:31:00.000-04:00

RE: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,145658.html

CARPE DIEM IPSO FACTO FRUSTRA RAMESAR ET PAUCULUS COMMORATI

PER OMNIA SAECULA SAECULORUM REQUIESCANT IN PACE ALIOQUI AMITTITE EOS NOVIT ENIM DEUS QUI SUNT EIUS

Strike the iron which it's hot! The Day of Rest and Reflection touted by Ramesar and his minority flopped miserably! Let them henceforth not even say: "Boo!"...else we will wash our hands so completely of them that only to God would they be able to turn for recourse!

VALE Trinbago!

Dengue on the increase!

2011-08-11T06:04:00.001-04:00

Incidentally, according to Mike, what has increased is not the incidence of Dengue Fever per se, rather, the incidence of a Health Minister coming clean about it...unlike in the past.

Sensationalize is not equal to sensitize.

2011-08-07T11:28:00.005-04:00

(Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.)
(Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more.)
What you say?
(Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.)
(Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more.)

Woah Woman, oh woman, don't treat me so mean,
You're the meanest old woman that I've ever seen.
I guess if you say so
I have to pack ma things and go. (That's right)
(Ray Charles' Hit The Road Jack!

Watch the video at at: http://youtu.be/Q8Tiz6INF7I)

As a connoisseur of fine music, the headline startled me out of my wits, for it clearly harks to a love gone sour to the point where the woman dumps the man. "Could the unthinkable have occurred?" I wondered, in a daze.

As one who reads between the lines, I quickly gathered my wits, allowing my eyes to dance down through what the brain eventually deduced as diatribe dominated by a screaming banner.

What banner? The one, reproduced below, saying, "HIT THE ROAD, JACK!" If you click on the picture, you will get to read the actual August 7th 2011 Sunday Express article it introduced.

Headlines inherently sensationalize -else few would be tempted to read what they foreshadow- but real journalists do not rely on headlines to stay in business -else local weekly rags would dominate the printed media landscape. True journalists sensitize, not sensationalize.

So, the only conclusion I may make of this "Hit The Road, Jack" caption is it represents what appears (better yet, is alleged) to be a concerted effort by dark forces to bring the Kamla-led administration to its knees (which warlords in days of yore to their mortal enemies did, the easier to lop off a head), for, rather than sensitizing its reading public of the meat of the issue -the establishment of a Cabinet-committee to facilitate the project- the publishers of the Sunday Express opted to sensationalize over a prudent norm long-practiced. Heck! the East/West Corridor Highway Upgrade back in the 1970s and '80s involved a multi-disciplinary Cabinet-team...and none fussed over its appointment or work! Ent, Peter?

If it wasn't sensationalism, the publishers wouldn't have relied on innuendo to defend their hyperbolic banner argument -for instance:

Sources told the Sunday Express that since the splitting of Warner's ministry there has been some strain and "hidden tension" at Cabinet meetings in Port of Spain.

(ibid)

What sources? And, if the "tension" is hidden", how did such "sources" detect them? Maybe "sources" ought to be appointed Commissioner of Police? Or, maybe Julian Pena is up to her old tricks? But, that's sensationalizing, as, forsooth, sensible assessment dictates "sources" is just a less exotic way of saying "Quixotic".

Innuendo can be just as damning as hard evidence; but while both have to overcome proper and full scrutiny if they are to be accepted, the former rarely does -the overwhelming majority of the time the innuender is a also gossiper (one who delights in seeking to augment their importance in the overall scheme of things by spreading derogatory stories of others, especially others whom they abhor).

Hard evidence has led me to deduce the above -for donkey years the Express Newspaper has been ill-disposed towards Jack...and a leopard does not change its spots.

Before I forget, the citizens' need to be sensitized of the truth of matters led me to make this commentary!

I gone!

Is New Politics in charge, or Old Politics, pray tell?

2011-08-06T10:57:00.007-04:00

I thought New Politics had long inspired (and demanded of) us to move with alacrity in fixing our country (natural and built infrastructure, inter alia)?

...The time to have a Charter for Change is now!... You are ready for action -let us get on with that job!

Winston Dookeran -Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Youth Assembly (Saturday August 19th 2006).

I thought New Politics long informed (and demanded of) us to jettison the old ways of thinking and doing things?

There must be no limits to our possibilities, as we take on the noble task of building a united country and a strong nation.

Winston Dookeran -Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Youth Assembly (Saturday August 19th 2006).

Also, that

The government changes the procedures; we are about changing the whole process.

Winston Dookeran -Power Without Knowledge (2003).

I thought New Politics long prompted (and demanded of) us to coalesce to defenestrate the perpetraitors (sic) of our national development?

...a single party that we will construct to challenge the PNM and form the Government will come together in a combined, unitary force to change the culture and political reality in our land.

Winston Dookeran -Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Youth Assembly (Saturday August 19th 2006).

So, how come New Politics is suddenly telling (and demanding of) us to follow Old Politics processes?

However, there has been a process for the disbursement of funds that require the line ministries to be able to articulate whatever transfers they wish to make at this end of the fiscal year from one vote to a next vote and that has to be processed between the line ministries and the Ministry of Finance and I believe that is what is being refereed to by the non-release of funds.

Honourable Winston Dookeran -Post-Cabinet media briefing (Thursday August 5th 2011).

The verbosity alone suggests la plus ça change, la plus c'est la même chose.

Could it be something else said to the Youth Assembly presaged New Politics' resignation to the brutal reality?

I will be the first to admit that change is never easy.

Winston Dookeran -Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Youth Assembly (Saturday August 19th 2006).

If the answer is a yes, then what

...we are witnessing in Trinidad and Tobago today is the exercise of raw political power without the knowledge to unearth lasting solutions.

Winston Dookeran -Power Without Knowledge (2003).

In which case, we've been shortchanged, for

Power without knowledge is a high price to pay in a nation as intelligent as ours.

Winston Dookeran -ibid.

Ae! Bonjhay!

Consider this! Then, seef you could outspin it!

2011-08-01T09:07:00.000-04:00

Flight 523 stopped just short of a 61-metre deep ravine after crashlanding in a rainstorm. Utter devastation would have followed, had the plane slid down the ravine.

The harrowing event reminds me, in a macabre sort of way, of how another touchdown ground to a halt, also during heavy rains.

In case you forgot, by 5/23 our journey had gone so awry, we were all within a Hartbeat of Doomsday.

But, unlike 523, Doomsday was then averted, not by the pilot's skill, but because a group of artful passengers was able to shatter the glass ceiling and clip Captain Baleezhay's wings during Flight 524.

Consider that! Then, seef you could outspin it!

Dr. Morgan Job speaks.

2011-07-31T08:26:00.001-04:00

The followed is posted by kind permission of Dr Morgan Job

Books have been dangerous things. Ideas rue mankind. The only way forward for our janmabhoomi is this: the youth must abandon the Marxist ideas in Eric Williams' books; and the pervasive pimping of an ideas of race, culture or racial identity symbolized by Eric Williams as Black cult leader, Khafra Kambon, Suruj Rambachan, and Sat Maharaj as voices of an Indian, Hindu, or African race.

Marxist ideas informing policy should incite ridicule or laughter, but you hear them from the mouths of politicians, trade union leaders every day! Trinidad and Tobago is an anti-intellectual society that promotes people like Sat Maharaj, Gladiator, Sadro, Harvey Burris, Umbala, Khafra Kambon, Crocro, Aloes, Keith Rowley Camille Robinson-Regis and others to build careers promoting ideas: the same ideas as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), Afrikaner Apartheid, colonial race theorists, race ideas that made Hitler famous.

The comfort of ignorance often comes packaged in books. Eric Williams' History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago gives comfort to racists in subtle ways, by reinforcing stereotypes, or rubbing out the memory of many important men who helped create the History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago merely because it served the purpose of the PNM Cult or more perversely because their skin colour marked them as undesirable.

Ideas rule mankind. Ancil Roget, and Keith Rowley without knowing it are disciples of Eric Williams History. They have declared war against the people of Trinidad and Tobago the better to serve the idea that PNM is the natural party of government. Their ideas come from Williams' doctrine. They are devoted to Karl Marx' ideas. They must have a statist view. They must desire to "control the commanding heights of the economy", impose redistributive taxes on business/private sector, which they call "justice". They must desire a state monopolized education system run for the benefit of trade unions and politicians, not the true clients:the children and their parents.

Marx' ideas imbibed from Eric Williams' books is part of any explanation for the state of this country: Williams boasted that he wrote History of the people of Trinidad and Tobago as an Independence gift to children.

Williams asserted that "Solomon, Butler, and Cipriani labored in the vineyard, only to produce the barren fruit of Albert Gomes." Williams' statement is a poisoned chalice. It is a wicked, vindictive, malicious, deceitful and tendentious statement. It reminds us of Hitler's "Big Lie."

No individual worked harder or more diligently than Albert Gomes did for decades from the 1930s through to 1956 to create or promote a Trinidadian national identity. Eric Williams was nowhere while Gomes fought on behalf of Shango people, Shouter Baptists, calypsonians, steel pan players, dancers, writers,..In this Albert Gomes Centenary Year, no account of the History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago purporting to be a gift to lift children makes any sense while it dismisses Albert Gomes as a "barren fruit." One vicious sentence naming Gomes a "barren fruit" in a book claiming to be a history of the people of Trinidad. Such a statement can issue from a morbid mind, twisted by the imperatives of political mobilization of mobs in an intellectual barracoon society, a narrow, provincial, midden of tribal feeling.

Job had the benefit of reading Lord Acton's Lectures on Modern Hiistory as an undergraduate in 1964. History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago is a demonstration of how not to write history. That is not the way you write history to give children ideas of how to engage the past. It is not the way to help children focus in respect for differences, individual responsibility and productivity. Eric Williams' History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago confirms Acton's wisdom: "A man is justly despised who has one opinion in history and another in politics, one for abroad and another for at home, one for opposition and another for office." The book fails to meet modern standards of rigor. It enslaves Black children in a world of old racist stereotypes, and vulgar prejudices.

Sat Maharaj, Khafra Kambon, and Selwyn Cudjoe are devoted to the kind of parochial narratives that Williams' book promotes. They are champions of a genre spawned by Williams Negro in the Caribbean, Capitalism and Slavery and such ethnic particular works. History of the people is aptly described in Elsa Goveia's words as "New shibboleths for old." When Wendell Stephen rudely sucks his teeth during Job's delivery of the book of the day it says he is manacled like a limpet to PNM Cult ideas derived from the rubbish Karl Marx put in Eric Williams' head.

This PNM Cult polemic as a history book is a trap. It demeans the French creoles. It never elevates the Hindus from the coolie barracks. It keeps the Blacks focused on entitlement, grievance, envy, jealousy, "Massa Day Done. My purpose is to take from those who have had too much for too long and give it to those who have had too little for too long" (Eric Williams) and a moral justification for skulking which leads the mind to love long racist debates about "Reparations" from whites. "Reparations" never involve the African ancestors who hunted, manacled and sold their own people!

Lee Quan Yew never told the people of Singapore such rubbish. Mariano Browne and Williams' apologists who accuse Singapore of succeeding because of an undemocratic totalitarian regime are ignorant of the destructive power of Williams' incitement to Negros in the PNM Cult culture base.

Ideas rule mankind; and Williams' ideas never incited PNM Cult devotees to emulate "Indians", or "Syrians" whom they envied, and sometimes brutalized during election campaigns.

We must emancipate children from the ideas that separate them into Sat Maharaj race categories. Sat and Kambon deliver a toxic cocktail to innocent children as race pride. The races of Sat, Kambon, Cudjoe and Suruj do not exist, but for the purposes of pimping ignorance or ideas of Africa, or India. Eric Williams' ignorance of economics conflated Capitalism and Slavery. His ignorance of genetics permitted the stereotypes of History of the people.

Children must be liberated from our conmen and pimps who imprison their minds with the help of Williams' outdated tribal narratives

Arise, Sir Vincent Capbearer!

2011-07-30T11:13:00.004-04:00

"The Finance Minister hasintroduced a wage restraint policy,by virtue of the five percent cap being applied to wage and salary negotiationsin the public sector."

BGWU's Vincent Cabrera, word-for-word, June 15th 2011

(http://www.workersunion.org.tt/where-we-stand/nwu-media/bigwusaysrejectthefivepercentcap).

Thus and then was born the five-percent capriciousness. Not before or after. Not by any other. Unless it was sinisterly hatched, having been ex-contexto plucked from the Guardian's rave review of how the Prime Minister's outfoxed the Grand Duke of Olde Talk?

"...The fact that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was able to broker this agreement with the PSA after one meeting is a huge feather in her cap and in the caps of her collaborators. It consolidates her reputation...as someone who is able to mediate seemingly intractable differences between and among groups with widely divergent interests..."

(http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fcnDXumJ2vsJ:www2.guardian.co.tt/node/10613+trinidad+guardian+watson+duke+kamla+feather+in+her+cap&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&source=www.google.com)

But, to do that would be to credit the trade union leadership with more creative juices than they have displayed. So, let me resume the original angle.

Percentages, since whenever, are statistical expressions of averages -that's what the "per" in percentage means. So "five percent" can only refer to the maximum possible increase in total wages and salaries without throwing things out of whack.

Wages and salaries, since whenever, are part of yearly recurrent expenditure -it's called "recurrent" because, well, it recurs with predictable regularity. It's predictable because the die is cast before the year begins. Minimum yearly recurrent income too can be predicted fairly accurately. For instance, revenue from gas and oil may be determined by calculating what their average prices were over the previous twenty-year period.

Regardless of the situation, a wise pursekeeper must at all times be aware of how much is recurrently coming and going out of the purse. Else all hell would break loose if funds aren't there to settle commitments.

A windfall is an unexpected financial gain. Keyword: "unexpected".

No wise pursekeeper therefore looks to a future windfall in planning recurrent expenditure...or goes on a spending splurge because of a windfall. Oh, no! A wise pursekeeper salts away for the rainy day and invests a part of the windfall in activity which increases recurrent income.

The upshot is that wise pursekeeper tends to be unflappable -they keep a tight cap on things. Even their emotions. Especially when the purse they keep is not theirs but everyone's.

Back to Cabrera!

"The 2011 Budget was based on anoil price of US$65.00 per barrel and a Natural Gas price of US$2.75 per mmbtu.The oil price is presently US$111.05 per barrel and the price of Natural Gas isUS$4.73 per mmbtu. This means thatgovernment’s revenue as per foreign exchange earnings from oil and gasincreased by at least twenty five per cent (25%)..."

BGWU's Vincent Cabrera, word-for-word, June 15th 2011

(http://www.workersunion.org.tt/where-we-stand/nwu-media/bigwusaysrejectthefivepercentcap).

No, Vincent! It simply means there was a windfall. Therefore, cast your eyes upwards and drink deep of what I already said of "windfall"! While, the next paragraph:

"...During the period 2006 to 2011Government’s expenditure grew from $37.7B to $48.9B. However during the period2007 to 2010, the percentage of government’s expenditure on salaries and wagesfell from 20.7% to 17.9%..."

(Ibidem)

is incongruous -the two sentences speak to different time periods.

Enough of that! To the chase!

Having previously seen how the madcap out of golden cups sometimes sip, it stands to reason someone has the envied task of being the cupbearer.

In royal circles, the one who fulfills such duty is knighted as the Royal Cupbearer.

Cupbearer!

Cabrera!

Sir Vincent Capbearer

Almost homophones, aren't they? How about "Capbearer"? Even closer, ent?

Arise, then, Sir Vincent Capbearer! On none but you is such an inglorious accolade worthy so to be accorded.

Incidentally, latest census figures reveal only about five percent of the populace possess the qualifications for the post of Royal Cupbearer.

How sweet the cement that binds?

2011-07-29T06:19:00.006-04:00

During its yesterday's Statutory Meeting, the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) suspended Catherine Joefield -one of its two Aldermen- for twenty-one days.

Catherine Joefield

The alderman had earlier ran afoul of the TPRC -by obstructing the good conduct of council meetings and business over an extended period. She is one of the two aldermen appointed on August 5th 2010 by the elected members of the Council, in keeping with the Regional Corporation Act.
The elected TPRC members are:
Khadijah Ameen (Chairman), Rosanna Sookdeo (Vice-Chairman), Andrew Mooteram, Brian Joseph, Colin Rodney, Erwin Hope, Esmond Forde, Graham Butcher, Dianne "Smally"Bishop-Bajnath, J-Lynn Roopnarine, Khublal Paltoo, Ria Boodoo, Sookdeo Bharath, Steven Sam and Winston Ramsaroop. The other alderman is Jamieson Bahadur.
In the normal run of things, the TPRC's action would not have raised an eyebrow, however, as the vote was taken, Council members, TPRC staffers and visitors in the public gallery were stunned when two People's Partnership Councillors -Erwin Hope and Ria Boodoo- thumbed their noses at their own colleagues by siding with the two Peoples National Movement (PNM) members present -Steven Sam and Colin Rodney- to oppose the suspension.

Erwin Hope

Ria Boodoo

Maybe they did not understand it, but, by doing their own thing, the Hope-Boodoo connection signalled their support for wajang behaviour in the conduct of the public business, as, in essence, that is why the motion to suspend was brought. Even the two PNMites ought to have supported the motion, as, since March 2011, during the runup to the PNM's internal elections, their own leader had made it clear under his watch wajang behaviour would not be tolerated. (Never mind he himself is allegedly a wajang).
It's left to be seen what censure will be visited upon the mavericky pair by the People's Partnership, since, in matters of this sort, some clear directive is usually given to Council members by their parties prior to the vote.
But, then again, maybe the cement which binds the two mavericks is so well-applied, no threat of censure would faze them in the least?

ADDENDUM (2011, July 30th 0723hrs):

>>The Municipal Corporation Act of Trinidad and Tobago<<.

Like they want to kill The Golden Goose, or war?

2011-07-27T06:19:00.005-04:00

Given the blusterous response of what passes for trade union leaders in this country to yesterday's uncapping-the-5% meeting, it's clear they're not clear of how or with whom properly to negotiate, but very clear on how to muddle when clarity is needed.
All that to say every single one of them are rhetorical radicals who would never really put their life, limb, or personal worth on the line to advance this country.
I challenge any of them to debate me on this topic and, if I lose, I shall join in strenuously -but, civilly- arguing their "Please, Kamla! Uncap!" cause.
Speaking of their personal worth, it is time to bring the wealth of trade unionists under public scrutiny, for I can't understand why it is alleged how so many of them live -even in retirement- in such opulence, while bawling from the rooftops that their members ketching dey nenen.
As to the Golden Goose, doh get tie-up! For, despite her trooping colours, she's no chicken.

Jai, Trinbago!

Invoking Ian's Idiom.

2011-07-26T08:36:00.002-04:00

It is alleged that an elected representative was once asked, "Why do you keep making decisions concerning your constituents without consulting with them?"
The elected representative replied, "Because people don't really know how to make the best choices where their own interest is concerned!"
The elected representative haughtiness was cut short by the rebuttal, "That makes you living proof of what you allege."

For those who came in late...

2011-07-20T07:27:00.003-04:00

...or who reached long time but have forgotten:

Politics is in everything! And,
"politics" is a civilized way of conducting war, plain and simple!

The corollaries would be:

We can't escape political impact! And,
if we want to prevail, we cannot remain silent or witless -we have to engage in a constructive manner!

However, every act of construction involves destruction -consider the simple building block, how it's made and knocked this way and that, sometimes split asunder to make a perfect fit.

So it has been from time immemorial! So shall it be till the cows eventually stop coming home!

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM ADERAM

Was he speaking of sex?

2011-07-18T07:54:00.002-04:00

Re: http://www2.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/07/18/indo-trinidadians-take-stock

To report on a conference held the previous Saturday, the Trinidad Guardian of Monday July 18, 2011 preambled by excerpting this comment from the speech delivered by Swami Prakashananda:

"Indians have to live with the fact that others do things differently from them...."

I thought the Swami was speaking of sex, but quickly disabused my mind on realizing the conference was themed:

Indians, You Have Arrived: Where Do You Go From Here?

In isolation, one would spin that any which way. In context, the guru was speaking of the role of Indo-Trinbagonians in the development of their communities and the wider world:

“We have moved up the socio-political and economic ladder...But these are all outer movements. “Have we moved inward to embody the Indian ethos—dharma and its elements? “It is only this movement that can help us make any meaningful contribution to the development of T&T.”
Prakashananda said development was not a selfish process:

“We have to develop the whole. In other words, we cannot think of developing ourselves without thinking of others or the environment.”

Prima facie, introspection is good, for, like mortification of the body, it is good catharsis for the soul. However, in a country such as ours, where few can claim ethnic, emotional or spiritual purity (and even those few must concede we all sprung from one common ancestry, thus all of us are inextricably biologically-related), the continued focus by any part on on its intrinsic qualities will do more to keep us apart than weld us into one (the Guardian ensconced its reportage under the rubric "Indo-Trinidadians take stock".

In my view, until we understand that we are firstly, secondly, thirdly and throughout Trinbagonians and that Trinbago is a callalloo, we won't begin the task of making these islands the paradise they were intended and gifted to be, which is the only reason why, for purposes none present controlled, we were assembled here by whatever means.
In future, then, such discourses must be open to the whole.

All the same, Jai Trinbago!

GO AHEAD! ONE DAY THE CHEESE WILL STAND ALONE!

2011-07-14T21:08:00.003-04:00

Dispassionately discerning from faraway and, as one organized to think no neat public policy originates or permanently prospers but by intelligent input obtained of the beneficiaries, my mind has set on assessing ongoing agitation in our labour sector as inevitably emanating from serious errors committed by both sides which inhibit the attaining of accord; thus, peace cannot be restored till protagonists implement tempering factors, such as the five I trotted out in mirrored order below.

Firstly, since public-sector trade unions represent the men and women upon whom Government depends to execute its vision,

1. Government must view those unions as its colleagues, not enemies, consequently treat them as important stakeholders in everything it contemplates or does and,

2. Unions must view the good health and prosperity of The Public Purse as their primary concerns (“No money, no love!” Not so, Sparrow?), hence must exhort their members to give a full day’s work for a full day’s pay.

Secondly, unbridled access to and exchange of correct and relevant information promotes understanding and reduces hostility. Therefore,

1. Government has a solemn duty to put all the material facts on the table when negotiating with the unions and,

2. Unions have a duty to analyze and present those facts to their members in a wholesome, not bullying, fashion.

Thirdly, because capricious decision-making and action involving industrial practices are banned by our laws and precedents,

1. Government must put its best offer on the table from the outset to avoid protracted (consequently morale-depleting) negotiations and,

2. Unions must avoid giving the impression the door to continued negotiation is closed when it’s still wide open.

Fourthly, where mutual trust and respect is lacking, innovation to instil such becomes a necessity. Therefore,

1. Government must involve the public-sector unions in the very process of deciding what it can offer them and,

2. Unions must open the remuneration packages of their officials and negotiators to ongoing public scrutiny.

Finally, hotheadedness escalates negativity and invariably results in the cheese standing alone. So,

1. Government must never employ short-fused individuals to negotiate on its behalf and,

2. Union negotiators must avoid playing to the gallery.

Such are some of the considerations which would help morph the entire public sector into a vivacious and flexible machine, which are the attributes it needs to acquire if ever the government is to deliver to the people, deliver to the people, deliver to the people!

I gone!

What part of this does any government minister NOT understand???

2011-06-03T15:59:00.000-04:00

The Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago (the supreme law of Trinidad and Tobago) pellucidly states as follows:

THE CABINET

75.- 1. There shall be a Cabinet for Trinidad and Tobago which shall have the general direction and control of the government of Trinidad and Tobago and shall be collectively responsible therefore to Parliament.

2. The Cabinet shall consist of the Primer Minister and such number of other Ministers (of whom one shall be the Attorney General), appointed in accordance with the provisions of section 76, as the Prime Minister may consider appropriate.

APPOINTMENT OF MINISTERS

76.-3. The Ministers other than the Prime Minister shall be such persons as the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, shall appoint from among the members of the House of Representatives and the Senators.
[See: http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Trinidad/trinidad76.html]

Now! What part of this does any government minister or legislator, incumbent or aspiring, NOT understand??? Eh????

One year later...

2011-05-22T15:02:00.003-04:00

If I were to rely on a poll to see how I fare after being overwhelmingly elected to any office, it'd have to be a poll which tapped wholly those who thumbed me up, not down, on election day.

That said, one year later, I'd rather continue with Kamla and Jack, than Rowley or Patrick: for, like Peter, my memory yet remains as sharp as a tack and clear as the sky on a cloudless day.

Who is to benefit?

2011-05-18T17:40:00.001-04:00

Politics is civilized warfare; is it not?
In civil societies, it is through political engagement (call it "election process", if you wish) that rulers (victors) and losers (opposition) are chosen; is it not?
To the victor belongs the spoils of war; do they not?
So! What the ....?!!!!!!!!!!
Are the PNM marauders to be left to continue raping the land by holding on to the plum contracts they finagled between Christmas Eve evening and May 25th 2010??
Of course not!
Bosslady! Doh study them, nah? The fierce urgency of now demands that all haste be made to strip those who yet have their hand in the National Till of every continued hold on it! To heed not is to deny the 432,000 and their dependants their long overdue just due.

Here's the deal!

2011-05-13T19:56:00.001-04:00

We voted for the team led by Kamla!
Kamla led the team because the teamsters knew no other could lead better!
Re: 2, nothing has changed!
Ergo, certeris paribus, no other shall lead!

Growing towards our death.

2011-05-11T20:18:00.000-04:00

That first quarter 2011 sales of new cars have jumped by more than 17% indicates growth yes, but towards death rather than new life: for we neither manufacture cars and or their raw components, nor re-export them. All that to say, when we buy cars, we contribute to the growth of foreign economies, rather than ours.

Damn straight about that one!

2011-04-30T17:03:00.002-04:00

“But I am an eternal optimist and believe that tomorrow the sun is going to shine brighter than it has shone before.”
Those aren't my words: those are the words of Errol McLeod, MP for Pointe-a-Pierre.

[See: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2011/04/30/mcleod-not-satisfied-pp-s-performance]

Damn straight about that one, Senor McLeod!

Viva UNC!

Where are these 126,000 housing applicants?

2011-04-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,139706.html

wherein it is stated by Housing Minister, Roodal Moonilal, that:

"...126,000 citizens already on the waiting list for State housing..."

I am yet to be convinced that 126,000 persons have applied for state-supplied housing accommodation -as the Housing Development Corporation [HDC], of late, to defend its misguided bulldozing of foodcrops, has been hollering- for that would mean some 500,000 to 600,000 citizens are homeless.

Time to review!

2011-04-19T20:14:00.002-04:00

The prudent do not wait till the financial year ends to begin the planning process for the ensuing year.
Time, therefore, to review who did what [and what was done by whom] since the end of May 2010, so that the necessary adjustments may be made. And, believe you me, fine-tuning is needed...for the thing to run smooth.

Longing to have a hart.

2011-04-13T17:43:00.000-04:00

Dear DPP, COP, A-G, Whomever,

Where is Calder Hart?

Wasn't he the guy whose escapades galvanized the premature demise of the PNM?

Where is Calder Hart?

Dr. Rowley's homonymous amorphousness.

2011-02-07T10:20:00.001-04:00

Re: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Rowley_raises_blackmail_issue-115452199.html,

wherein Dr. Keith Rowley raises the chilling spectre of blackmails hovering over our Prime Minister

Dr. Keith Rowley [of late, how opposite to all that's good andproper he seems] has become forkier-tongued than before he was. Hisbifurcated blusterings don't surprise me, though -he is a PNMite...all PNMites evolve from a Baleezay patch...Baleezay patches are known habitats of the lowdown and cold-blooded and untesticled.

Back then, Dr. Rowley was obsessed with black males in general:

"...Mr. Speaker, in education, if you take time to look at thestatistics, if you take time to talk to the social workers, the factwould be demonstrated that the Afro-Trinidadian male is anunderperformer in the national community of Trinidad and Tobago.
...Thebottom line is the Government acknowledges that that is a problem thathas to be dealt with. It has to be dealt with, otherwise the effect ofnot dealing with it would be there for all of us across the country,because if there is a body of people who have aspirations of the goodlife, like everybody else, but they do not have the means or themechanism to enter as productive citizens, they would become a problemfor the rest of the country. If all they are left to do is toimpregnate the young Afro-Trinidadian female creating anothergeneration of underperformance, they enter into a cycle of perpetualpoverty and destruction and the Government has to deal with that..." (See: http://kid5rivers.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-is-national-scandal-and-shame.html)

Now? His obsession has zeroed in only on a special type -thehomonymous. And he drives home his bloated point with a venom thatsuggests an intense jealousy of the way the Prime Minister rebutted hergovernment's critics -that the buck stops with her.

The Prime Minister's handling ofwhat seemed to be a sticky situation, has left all in a state ofecstatic joy...that is, all but those tabankacized by her rising to thetopmost position. And, tabanka, as we know, so stupefies the heartbroken that they are unableonwards to move.

Guess then, one has no alternative but to excuse Dr. Rowley for his obtusebehaviour, as he is reeling from a double-dose oftabanka -Manning now has embraced him in order to deliver the coup de grace.

All in favour of my aside, say: "Aye!"

All those against, move aide!

The ayes have it!

Now! Let's onward move, as, in undoing the havoc wrought by the PNM, there's so much to be done and so little time!

Lesson from Egypt: People's Partnership, or bust!

2011-02-05T16:58:00.000-04:00

Before the rapid advances in information technologypermitted us concomitantly to observe and participate in events in anypart of the globe, distant occurrences, as has recently been happeningin Egypt, had little immediate impact upon us, or were littleinfluenced by us. But, the world is now changed, perhaps for better,perhaps for worse, but, regardless, for good. Hence, too, theexpression "neighbour" in "When your neighbour's house is afire, wetyour own!"

Hence, whatever now affects or guides the Zulu inSouth Africa, the Eskimo in Anchorage, the Bedouin of Sudan or theMaroon in the Blue Mountains can and will be determined, in part, byour response or lead. Now, at last, via real-time observation of andcommentary on world events, we have the means to address that to whichDr. the Reverend Martin Luther King alluded, when he enjoined that:"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught inan inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment ofdestiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly!"

Our history is inescapably bound to Egypt, if not by genealogy orreligion, by dint of the similarity of social structure which permitsthe minuscule minority to hold and exert overwhelming sway of thecommanding heights of the economy.

We made a monumental move to overturn the tables when we rose upagainst the PNM and put the People's Partnership into office. We neverbelieved that by that mere act, all would overnight become well, forthe price of democracy equates that of liberty -eternal vigilance.

Against such backdrop, let us learn from the ongoing events in Egypt tounderstand that, in Trinidad and Tobago, if any move towards socialjustice is ever to come out on top, then the people must unite as onecongress, for it is only by national, joint action that whatevermachinations those who oppose such a purpose have in mind or in train,may be derailed.

Those who don't get it will, sooner or later, get it. Ask Mubarak!

T&T a democracy? Oh, really!

2011-02-03T06:31:00.001-04:00

The bare-knuckled fact of the CL Financial Bailout Plan is thattaxpayers dollars are being sought and have been committed to cushion asmall bunch of private investors -the larger portion is adequatelycovered by the Deposit Insurance Scheme.

The size of the bailout boggles as it toggles between TT$15b and TT$22b! Billion$ have already been paid!

My question is: "Since we are a democratic country, why must so much be made available to so few?"

Given that the wealth accumulated in our National Coffers was yieldedup due to our fortuitious circumstance rather than assiduous effort -wedid not put the oil and gas there, He did!- that treasure trove belongsto, therefore is for the benefit of the many rather than the few!

"The many" comprises the 600,000 Trinbagonians living in, or almost in,the firm clutches of poverty. It is therefore to them that any bailoutis to be offered, so that poverty in Trinbago may be eradicated onceand for all!

To get a good idea of what lasting impact embracing such a stance would have, ponder on this:

At this stage, why the leeway to the PNM?

2011-01-28T10:25:00.001-04:00

Recent public statements made by the Minister of Labour have raised some Jep nests. Those utterances concerned his reticenceat dispatching certain members of the of the Unemployment ReliefProgramme [URP] managerial staff because of their "political colour".

Depending on the type of Jep, his utterances have provoked scathing attacks on, or spirited defence of what he said.

Regardless, because the persons are, every manjack, politicalappointees, his statements have brought to the front burner the role ofpolitical appointments in formulating and executing government policy,which is what, because of who I am, I wish here bluntly to address.

From time to time [especially when the PNM is notin power], public furore arises over the ethnicity of "politicalappointees". On the face of it, in a multi-ethnic society such as ours,it makes eminent sense for every employer to strive for ethnic balancewhen hiring. But, ought such ideal take precedence over, or be temperedby, the need to achieve efficiency? Or, put another way, is efficiencyin the workplace compromised when ethnic balance is out of kelter?That, I'm afraid, is the million-kilogram elephant long in the room!

Inmy view therefore, the Minister, in belabouring his point of view inpublic view, has now unwittingly ripened the time to deal, once and forall, with the issue many have chosen to ignore [maybe in the misguidedhope that, by closing their eyes, it would disappear?].

Thereality is that the composition of Trinbago's population predominantlycentres around two ethnic groups -the Indo-Trinbagonians and theAfro-Trinbagonians. Birds of a feather flock together; as a naturalresult, Trinbagonian social, economic, religious and politicalactivities and alliances by and large develop and sustain themselvesalong such ethnic lines. Within the political sphere, the evidence ismanifested through the United National Congress [UNC] and the People'sNational Movement [PNM], which, despite their best efforts atconvincing the public of otherwise, are held by the public asrespectively catering to the needs of the Indo-Trinbagonian andAfro-Trinbagonian publics.

But, though a different ethnic groupdominates each of the UNC and PNM, each warmly accommodates members notof its feather. Hence, within each political group one finds a minoritywhich represents diversity. However, in that diversity, except for theUNC, the minority never attains any meaningful topmost position.

Becauseof their intrinsic composition, neither the UNC nor PNM can be faulted,on ethnic grounds, concerning the political appointments they make -aminority is a minority, any how one looks at it, so none can reasonablybe expected to draw from its minority to make the majority of itspolitical appointments. To find and apportion fault, therefore, one hasto look for other premises. Seeing that such political appointmentsimpact upon the wider citizenry, then the first area to examine must bethe political appointer, for the fish rots from the head and the waterupstream has to be clear for thewater downstream to be clear.

The long misconception has beenthat politicians make policy for those whom they appoint to implement.I say "misconception", because creating policy is the primaryresponsibility of management, therefore, politicians are indeedmanagers of our national resources -of which the human is but oneelement- for, in creating policy, politicians, in essence, define whatneeds to be done, when and how what needs to be done is done and submitto being answerable to some higher authority when things go awry. Inthe end, their tenure is renewed or truncated depending on the way theyanswer -meaning, how they dealt with the problems on their plate.

Thus,when subordinate political appointees become problem-makers rather thanproblem-solvers, the political office that appoints them must have the guts tosubstitute them, for, as already mentioned, the water downstream canonly be clear if the water upstream is clear.

Given the nature of Trinbagonian politics, that means, the 2010 generalelections being over, whereby the PNM has been dispatched from controlof the upstream because of its endemic corruption, the PNM mustsimilarly be dispatched from every downstream point, to make room forthe different breed of water molecules coming from the upstream point.

It's untenable for any who withstood PNM's withering assault over theyears 2002 to mid 2010 to be asked to kowtow to the PNM's residuals foranything. Thus, bluntly put, anyone who does not comprehend, or whoopposes that, has no appreciation for all and any who laboured long andhard to remove the corrupt PNM régime from office.

Moving on but FESTINA LENTE

2011-01-27T09:39:00.002-04:00

Speaking of "moving on", it is time now to move on with the business athand! Not now to embrace that time, is to move backwards in time andpurpose -to the dark days of the PNM.

The business at hand of which I speak is the one which was handily handed to the Kamla-led administration -when four hundred and thirty-two thousands of us decided to move on, as from May 24th 2010!

Waxing classical:

In case you've forgotten, on thatgreat day, EX ORIENTI VENIMUS SCIVIMUS VICIMUS -Illuminated by the Sun,we came, we voted, we won!

NICETERIUM MAXIMUM EIECTARE PNM NIHIL OBSTAT -The greatest benefit ofthat victory is that all obstacles to parking aside the PNM have beenremoved!

Mais, celui qui hésite est perdu -But, he who hesitates is lost!

It is the prayer of all that FESTINA LENTE -hurrying slowly- would not move the tsunami to turn against the May 24th tide.

If Christopher Columbus had listened to the recognised

2011-01-23T10:11:00.002-04:00

If Christopher Columbus had listened to the so-called founts ofknowledge of his time, what would the shape of the world be today?

ThePNM and that for which it stood/stands have been soundly ejected. Suchejection, by law debars the PNM from controlling "things" unless,sometime in 2015, they can convince the majority to put them first pastthe pole. Wherefore, then, are they still permitted the leeway theystill enjoy?

Who is seeking the people's interest?

2011-01-21T09:15:00.000-04:00

Though the premise "people" prominently pictures in the names of allthe Trinbagonian political aggregations of the day, real questionslinger as to whom, for each of those groupings, that premise applies.

Any explainers?

No veneration without representation.

2011-01-21T02:35:00.005-04:00

The long-established norm is for representatives of the people tobecome objects of veneration not long after their exaltation to suchhigh offices.

In the face of that, the most despicable thing arepresentative of the people can do is to turn his back on the peoplehe was elected to represent.

Therefore, any representative who commits such a crime is worthynot merely of being thrown overboard, but of being overboarded in thesame way those freedom-seeking colonists did to a very valuable cargoof overtaxed tea, when, disguised as Indians, they dumped lock, stockand barrel into the cold, deep, dark sea at Boston Harbor, during thenight of December 16th 1773.

Then, the galvanic cry was:

"No taxation without representation!"

It'sa source of great distress that recently, in some parts of Trinidad, avariation of the Boston Battlecry is beginning to be heard:

"No veneration without representation!"

Investigationsreveal that the "no veneration" wailing was triggered because somerepresentatives have turned their backs -and guns- on the very peoplewho gave their all to have them installed them into public office -theyhave begun to represent themselves, their families, their lovers andclose friends, no one else.

To whom much is given, much is demanded. Let this voice in thewilderness wordily warn all representatives of the people -and none ofthem in particular- that none of them is to expect veneration withoutrepresentation.

To Anand!

2011-01-17T12:34:00.004-04:00

Almost nigh on twelve months ago,along with many thousands of browbeaten, I took the deliberate actionof liberating the political party to which I belong of its leadership.To us, that leadership had descended into the realms of irrelevance -itwas no longer responsive to the wishes of us, its members.

As,history records -and such things history indelibly always does- it wasa wise and most timely shift. Within days, that new leadership was ableto seize the opportunity when it came a-knocking. So it was that whatcommonsense and commonfolk hopes and prayers long yearned to be donecame to be done -the new leadership forged, for the sake of our commonliberty, a united stand against the party that brought us fromcolonialism to a state of independent misery.

So it came to passthat we readily and enthusiastically plunged, feet first, into the epicbattle to rescue and redeem Trinidad and Tobago. The odyssey is nowotherwise known as "the General Election Campaign, 2010".

It's not yet a year since the dust settled, but, already, the outcome of that struggle is of the stuff of legends.

Speakingof legends, it is clear to all but the myopic or cynic in our midstthat the constant attempts at humiliating the embryonic governmentadministration are all contrived. However, those attempts are notshaped of altruistic motives, rather of egoistic and desperate ones.Hence they are forgeries!

See how intended-to-uplift ministerial aspirations, actions andstatements are routinely bundled, then perversely warped into trash bythose whom the People's Partnership roundly defeated! It is almost asif the People's Partnership government is being hounded by a pack ofoppositely-disposed Rumpelstiltskins,since that the People's National Movement [PNM] is hellbent oncontinuing its long-accustomed ways -turning all the people's gold intostraw?

The latest example of the PNM crowd's freakish behaviouris to be gleaned from the rush of snide remarks hurled hither andthither about what Trinbago's Attorney-General [AG], the erstwhileAnand Ramlogan, noted about a grand piano.

As he explained in a Trinidad Express interview,the AG's comments came during the cut and thrust of a Parliamentarydebate. During one such cut, the AG thrust in the face of the formerPrime Minister some news which had recently come into his [the AG's]ken;

that a slew of grand pianos were bought with the taxpayers' money during the former Prime Minister's term; and that
they were bought by the University of Trinidad and Tobago, when it was headed by Dr. Ken Julien.

The AG further expounded that, having been bought, one of those pianoswhich ought not have been bought in the first place could not belocated. So, straightforward individual that he was, the AG then askedthe one for whom that particular piano that ought not to have beenbought but apparently was bought, if he could say where he leftit...and he did.

Whereafter, the piano that ought not to have been bought was located more or less where the one who was asked said it was.

Thefurore which then erupted surprises me not, for as earlier stated,we're stuck with a bunch of oppositely-disposed Rumpelstiltskins whowould travesty tremendous thresholds to turn the tides to their tendency. Of that,they'd have better luck turning a sow's ears into silk, for the wheelsof justice inexorably always grind, thus justice, though many timesdelayed, over time is never denied.

In their demonic glee totrip up the Attorney-General, themselves instead they have ensnared,for they did not understand that, masterful advocate as he is, what theAttorney-General accomplished was to get the man in the piano seatpersonally to implicate himself -the former Prime Minister cannot infuture deny he had no knowledge of the transaction, which he tried withthe Church-for-Juliana issue[wherein he claimed he was not the "PM" mentioned in a certaindocument.]. On that occasion, it was our current Prime Minister, thedoughty Kamla Persad-Bissessar who spilled the former Prime Minister'sbeans. [See: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,120828.html]

Any then who doubts the sincerity and sagacity of the People'sPartnership will have a hard time convincing others of the honour of theirmotives.

God willing therefore, for as long as they weigh anchorand hold true to the planned course, the team of incumbents at thegoverning helm shall remain intact and continue to prevail, for itcomprises women and men driven by honourable intent.

It was in thorough endorsement of such vision and mission four hundred and thirty-two thousands of us stained our fingers on May 24th 2010,a day that will forever remain etched in the glorious records ofTrinbagonian history. Those who refuse to come to terms with thePeople's Partnership victory, or who actively or unwittingly strive toundo it, will fall by the wayside -whenever the tide turns, they thatthickheadedly twitch against it always do.

Anand and the lately-appearing piano.

2011-01-16T23:24:00.000-04:00

I doubt very much that the PNM and its operatives can ruffle the Honourable AG's feathers.

Now! What are the facts of the grand piano caper?

An emperor did build for himself -out of our money- an imperial sanctuary.
The imperial sanctuary, being an imperial sanctuary, needed to be equipped only with high-end everything.
Eventually, after multi-million dollar curtains were installed, the emperor hearkened to music supply.
Where instrument of music was concerned, the emperor decreed thesteelpan to be unworthy as it was not grand enough for the venue.
After some time elapsed, the emperor's chief sycophant -who headed an utterly unaccountable university [UUU]- was summoned.
The emperor's chief servant decided to go with a grand piano, one of the grandest class.
One niggling problem existed, though -how to get the grand piano aboard without arousing the same ire as the curtains did.
Suddenly, the emperor's chief sycophant -who headed an utterlyunaccountable university [UUU]- smiled an eureka, for he had the brightidea that all he had to do was introduce a course of grand pianosthroughout his UUU and, bingo!, the trail of the emperor's grand onewould then be easiest able to be hidden.
So said, so done...literally!
For a while.

Now that the grand piano caper is uncovered, it's natural for lost info to be found.

It's simultaneously natural, too, to pelt the book behind that emperor's and his chief sycophant's behinds!

Any takers?

Would could us less if we, the people, just buy the damn drugs!

2011-01-16T04:53:00.000-04:00

Re: http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,134158.html

wherein, regarding illegal drugs, asuperficial account is given of how much was intercepted and seized bythe various long arms of the law during 2010, to wit:

by the Police:

260 illegal firearms
5,057 bullets
109 kg cocaine
2,024 kg marijuana.

and, by the Coast Guard:

2,316 kg marijuana worth $22 million
20 kg cocaine
1 hand grenade
1 AK47 rifle
US$15,000 currency,

Given the street-rates of the various items seized, the total value of the seized stuff is as follows:

In light of the above, we, the people, are shocked that, havingexpended hundreds and hundreds of millions to outfit and maintain thePolice and Coast Guard units devoted to illegal drug interdiction, thereturn on such investment is so dismally paltry!

Therefore, we, the people, believe that the status quo cannot be allowed to continue!

Recommendation:
Pull back those funds and divert them to establish and run a NationalFencing Operation [NFO], wherewith we, the people, would simply buy theillegal drugs from the dealers -at street prices- then we, the people,would see a dramatic increase in the quantum of the illegal stufflawfully expropriated!

Moral:
In serving the people, serving the people, serving the people, we, thepeople, we, the people, we, the people, want to see value for our, thepeople's, money, want to see value for our, the people's, money, wantto see value for our, the people's, money!

God bless!

Now is the time to treasure the Trinbagonian Treasured!

2011-01-14T08:23:00.003-04:00

To: All and no one in particular.

Whatever good thing or accolade you have in mind for me, I'd rather that now you bestow it on me, rather than after I am gone.

I so request having recently witnessed, yet again, regardingrecognition of the sterling contributions several have made to thebenefit of Trinidad and Tobago, the stream of post-mortem promises publicly madeby several.

It is long-established that a prophet is not without honour, except inhis own country. So, please, all whose penchant is to rush, ad nauseam,to pronounce in public what they devise to do in post-mortem honour ofour heroes, kindly, regarding the demised Trinbagonian Treasured, stuffit, okay?

Finally: for us properly to toast the Trinbagonian Treasured,terminate, today, the tarrying! Thence, timely, tenderly, transmit tothem the temporal thoughtfulness their transcendent toils foreverfurnished us, passim.

The Grand Duke of Olde Talk.

2011-01-12T10:26:00.001-04:00

Re: Paragraph three of http://www.guardian.co.tt/beta/news/2011/01/12/we-have-weapons-mass-destruction

wherein,in his continued frantic push for increased benefits for PublicServants, Watson Duke, President of the Public Services association ofTrinidad and Tobago is reported to have said:

“Wehave weapons of mass destruction,” he said. Asked what these weaponswere, Duke replied: “We can’t talk that here...That is to be felt, notseen.” He added: “We are incensed. We are mad. Every single publicofficer has the right to be mad and hateful towards the Government.”

And, also:

"A one per cent cut in the context of 15 per cent inflation is like a 14 per cent cut."

And, also, that the present [2011] salaries of public servants pay for only half a day’s work.:

Remember this nursery rhyme?

Oh, The Grand Olde Duke of York!
He had ten thousand men!
He marched them up to the top of the hill!
And he marched them down again!

And when they were up, they were up!
And when they were down, they were down!
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down!

Seems like The Grand Duke has resurrected, this time not of York, but of Olde Talk?

From any which way that is a fair assessment, for, despite earlier commenting -but in more philosophical tone-it is necessary to return, from another angle, empirically to treatwith what the seeming-belligerent Duke has bluntly stated, as abovequoted.

Over the past few months, The Duke of Olde Talk, as ifprompted from others labouring to hold the reins, has been doing hisducal, but assiduous, best to give the impression that the lot of thePublic Servants is a most serflike one, by caustically decreeing thatthe offer of a five percent [5%] increase in salaries [extended tothem, if they, at once, settle], is an insult to theirintelligence. His claim is it is too minuscule adequately to stave offthe caustic effects of inflation on Public Servants' salaries, sincethe last occasion said salaries were increased.

In hisassiduousness, the Duke of Olde Talk has been duplicitous, for, truthbe told, over the past eleven [11] years [1999 - 2010], Trinidad andTobago Public Servants have benefitted from a seventy-four point fiveseven percent [74.57%] increase in salaries.

Over the eleven-year period, between 1999 and 2011, then, PublicServants have benefitted from constant salary increases that measuresix point seven eight percent [6.78%] per annum on theSecond-Standard-Student Calculator Scale!

By the same Scale, an increase of one percentum [1%] and not one cent more,is more than adequate to address any shortfall Public Servantspresently experience...unless the past settlements were sellouts-something which history reveals many negotiators have done withoutcompunction.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so let the keyboard go silent a bit while mouse takes charge.

Parting shot:

The Grand Duke of Olde Talk has asked all Public Servants to work tosuit the salary they get -only for half-a-day. We, the people, wouldwelcome that, as, consequently, Public Service productivity wouldincrease by leaps and bounds.

Oh yes!

The Grand Duke of Olde Talk!
And ten thousand union men!
All marched right up to the top of the hill!
But then marched right down again!

And when they were up, they were up!
And when they were down, they were down!
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down!

Extrapholating.

2011-01-09T10:54:00.002-04:00

Extrapholating [I claim all rights to the expression "extrapholating"and to every source or derivative thereof] from the ongoing PH taxiphurore:

It is clear that those who insist that our laws, as exist,comprehensively provide all avenues phor the provision of publictransport suphicient to our needs, must also believe that the laws ofthe land are immutable.

Phuthermore then, we are still a colony of Merrie Olde England.

Easier to ban tattoos.

2011-01-07T10:31:00.002-04:00

Persons calling for enforcing existing law regarding PH vehicles mightas well insist that taboos be banned and, furthermore, are ignorant ofthe law -the law itself permits for any law to be made, amended, suspended,or repealed.

Westminster! Oh, Westminster!

2011-01-05T00:00:00.001-04:00

Don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that, having evolved outof the English governance system, it is natural that, at present, bothin fun-loving Trinidad and Tobago and Merrie Olde England, a Queen be in chargewhile a bald-headed Duke holds lesser sway.

Long live the Queen! But, tut, tut, you're too elementary, my dear Watson!

Thinking of greener postures.

2011-01-01T13:00:00.002-04:00

Regarding all the circumstances surrounding the Greens of England -who were mauled while basking on the green grass of Tobago:
seeing that:

the Green Fund was established for the purpose of preserving and restoring the environmental aesthetics of Trinidad and Tobago; [See: Part VIII of http://www.ttparliament.org/legislations/a2000-91.pdf]
and that, identified amongst such aesthetics is the protecting of endangered/threatened plant and animal species; [See: http://www.news.gov.tt/index.php?news=541];
and that the human being is an animal, supposedly the only rational one; [See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human]
but that, if there be any who daresay that humans are not animals, then the mauling of the Greens of England shows that we are;

perhaps, if, out of the existing Green Fund, monies cannot be had adequately to make restitution to the Greens of England, then we needto establish a second Green Fund, for, anyhow one looks at it, theGreens of England have become the lightning rod for implementation ofsame.

Broken oaths invite retribution, ent?

2010-12-28T05:58:00.000-04:00

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

A Minister or a ParliamentarySecretary shall not enter upon the duties of his office unless he hastaken 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!

What are the consequences to Ministers or a ParliamentarySecretaries, if it is found that they, having taken and subscribed suchoaths, are not giving their all in discharging their duties, or aretreating with some people in a bigoted, or spiteful, or maliciousmanner?
And, by whom are such consequences to be visited upon the errant?

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

2010-12-27T12:17:00.002-04:00

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

Anyone who believes or believed that, upon their receiving thesecond-soundest cutarse they ever got, the People's National Movement[PNM] would have just rolled over and died like a semp -with its twofeet 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 PNMand it shall prevail!]. "PRAEVELIBIT", you see, translates to "it shallprevail".

As used in its fifty-five year-old motto, "prevail" is a verb, anintransitive 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 acommand word, as it imposes a duty to act upon whomsoever "shall"applies.

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

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

Never mind the weapon, but the mind!

2010-12-24T06:44:00.000-04:00

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.

2010-12-23T08:45:00.000-04:00

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 socialimmanence or experience. Thence comes the dictum that "No man is anisland!"

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 recordfor the umpteenth time, how vigorously I endorse using social welfareprogrammes 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 SOLLUCET OMNIBUS SED EX VOCE CLAMENTIS IN DESERTO MEMENTO TEMPUS FUGIT SICTRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI PNMITIS DELENDA EST IN CAUDA VENEMUM PAX VOBISCUM

Translation:

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

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

People, not machines!

2010-12-20T09:01:00.000-04:00

Crimes -whether against the person or not- are committed bycriminally-minded people, never by any any machine: for every machine-whether the machine is sophisticated or not- is a tool wielded by ahuman 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.

2010-12-17T09:21:00.006-04:00

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

whereinit is reported that Senior Magistrate, Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan, ingranting, carte blanche, liquor licences to scores of applicants,opined:

"You must come to makeobjections if you are serious, otherwise the committee will assumeeverything 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 andtrying to quell it. It has been a problem over the years,"

Sufficeit to say that perhaps that's why so few have faith or hope in thejudicial system these days? For how could a judicial officer simplyapprove things carte blanche, despite personal knowledge that, by sodoing, a problematic, untenable or objectionable status quo shall bemaintained?

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

(1) Sessions for the granting ofcertificates for the issue or renewal of licences shall be held fourtimes a year on convenient days to be appointed by the licensingcommittee in each licensing area or district, as the case may be, andany such session may, at the discretion of the licensing committee, beadjourned, either generally, or, as respects any particularapplications, to such other days as the licensing committee thinks fit.

(4) The licensing committee in the exercise of its discretion may, atany session, or at any adjournment thereof, examine any person who, inthe opinion of the licensing committee is able to give evidencerelevant to the application before it and for that purpose may summonthat 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 acomprehensive list of the criteria of which account must be taken inconsidering liquor licence applications. At least three of suchcriteria are worthy of herein mention:

(2) Objection to the grant of a newlicence or the transfer of any licence to new premises or to any personmay be on any reasonable ground including including any of thefollowing 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 madeare unsuitable either owing to difficulty in supervising them, [etc].

As if the legislators who made that law had envisaged days such as inwhich 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 havearticulated [as at caption], she did not adjourn the session and summonHis Worship the Mayor to appear before he committee requires urgentexplanation, 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.

2010-12-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

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

"indeed [the basic] peril of ourdemocracy...is that the major decision on who is to be voted into poweris left to the uninformed, the fickle, the prejudiced, who are allbereft of the fundamental ideas as to socio-economic development, in anelection process influenced by those who have the gold. Hence thoseelected from a vast pool of aspiring politicians (an indication of theskill set required to be elected) are not there because of theirunderstanding of the social and economic problems we face, or what todo in these circumstances. Hence the elected ones satisfy the basicneeds of their supporters via handouts, subsidies etc that may be inconflict with good social and economic governance."

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

PP: Perfect polity!

2010-12-15T06:58:00.000-04:00

Persistently, post Persad-Bissessar's perspicaciously-proportionedPeople's Partnership pre-empting perpetual Patrick predomination,plenty "perusing" persons, publicly, privately, plethorically pretendpanic -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, perfectpolitical preference? Prohibit PNM! Praise, promote, People'sPartnership polity!

Peace!

JB takes on a new meaning.

2010-12-13T12:17:00.003-04:00

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, butby merrying themselves with another type of JB -Jack Bashing.

Sigh!

Death by not-drinking?

2010-12-10T10:59:00.005-04:00

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

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

It is incomprehensible that a town which has existed sincepre-Columbian times [it originally accommodated my First Peopleancestors in a huge settlement called Cu-Mucurapo (Land of Silk Cotton Trees)]; and that, overhundreds of years, has evolved to house many thousands of upstandingcitizens -some of whom have contributed to the birth and progress ofthe steelpan [Tony Williams, please take a bow!]; of which citizens, one became the love of my life and mother ofour two children [God bless her soul!]; and which has thrived, despitethe 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, thenwither away and die, because a dozen watering holes [each cateringmainly to the non-St. Jamesian lot] were ordered to curtail dispensingmind-altering libation whenever the Cinderella knell is tolled.

Incomprehensible, I tell you!

Of such and such and such.

2010-12-10T09:57:00.000-04:00

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 sincethe May 24 general election"

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

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

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

The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness! Remix.

2010-12-09T07:21:00.000-04:00

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:

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

May Iremind all, through you, sir, that, on April 10th 2009, I had sent toyou 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 eonsago, thus will continue to use wit and pen in defence and encouragementof democracy and justice wherever.

God bless!