The Prime Minister always says to "bring the evidence"
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2001
The Prime Minister always says to "bring the evidence" when told of his corrupt gov't. Having been forced to iniate an Inquiry into the Piarco Airport which moved from 400 million to 1400 million. He got a forensic report on it and what did he do with the evidence? He sat on it for almost one year until it was leaked by....any way read why he was sitting on the evidence
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MASSIVE FRAUD at Piarco Airport Project
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2001
Newsday Editorial Thursday 29, 2001
The Lindquist Report on the Piarco Airport Development project now establishes the enormous, indeed unbelievable, extent of corruption involved in this scandalous affair. Ever since Justice Deyalsingh had pronounced on the illegality of the original contract and the country's engineers had condemned the non-tender award, the project had acquired a certain notoriety which grew as the work progressed. Still, what has now been revealed to us as a result of the investigations of forensic investigator Robert Lindquist amounts to a horror story beyond anything we had imagined. To begin with, this project makes history as it is the first to be conceived not simply as an effort to provide the country with a required facility but more so as a tremendous opportunity for plunder, for the exorbitant enrichment of friends and supporters of Mr Panday's government. Get all at Trinidad and Tobago Forum...
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PNM activist's home firebombed
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2001
PNM activist Oliver Alexander has blamed politics for the firebombing of his home yesterday morning.
Alexander, who said he was the one responsible for alderman Myrtle Gould of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Corporation severing ties with the UNC earlier this month to line up with the PNM, was asleep when the attack took place around 1.30 a.m.
Hours earlier, he had returned from two political meetings in Ortoire Village.
He said he was awakened by a crackling sound and when he went to investigate he saw fire in another bedroom at his home at Peter Hill Road, Mayaro.
Alexander said he woke up his wife, Marie, and his eight- year-old son, Kellon, who were both asleep with him, and they used buckets of water to put out the fire.
"I thought it was an electrical problem but when I looked about the room I found two soft drink bottles full of channa and the smell of gas was strong."
Alexander said he went outside to investigate and found a sponge soaked in gasoline on the right wheel near the gas tank of his car, which was also doused in gasoline.
Alexander said he immediately called the police.
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Attorney Jagdeo Singh jailed for corruption
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2001
Jagdeo Singh was found guilty yesterday on two corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in jail.
Justice Stanley John said it was a "very, very sad day" and added that he "was at pains to have to sentence a member of the profession", but it was his task to sentence Singh for the offences.
Singh, of Savannah Villas, Aranjuez, was ordered to serve two concurrent seven-year jail terms.
The judge also issued a warning that if a practice existed where attorneys met magistrates in their Chambers to discuss bail before applications are heard in open court, that practice must end.
He also condemned statements made during the trial, to the effect that it was not unusual for magistrates not to deal with matters in which clients had not paid their attorneys.
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The Thieving Edge
Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2001
Dear Editor
When you hear some of these UNC party officials and supporters say that the PNM use to thief and steal too, as their only defence on allegations and police charges against them, for corruption and public misconduct, it is the same as saying that they have now divided up our country between UNC thieves and PNM thieves. It is an insult to all of us who are are not any of the above and I call on people to reject that type of politicking and to let their voices be heard thunderously on Dec 10th. Now with the UNC having quite a few of those who they used to call PNM thieves on their side today. It is easy to know how to place your vote.
Cindy Williams
Ariapita Ave.
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A panoramic view
Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Terry Joseph
Government's cavalier treatment of what last weekend loomed as a major threat to our cultural self-esteem conjured up in my mind, images of the type of disdain with which its colonial antecedents regarded indigenous arts.
We're not here looking at degree, but set against events that took place on February 27, 1881, the subliminal message received by those who respect the achievements of our best steel orchestras was equally inappropriate.
On that weekend 120 years ago, Government sponsored atrocities against Camboulay Festival drummers were unleashed by Captain Baker, a British police chief ordered to action by a cadre of local elite historically suspicious of autochthonous culture. MORE
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Vacuum Voting
Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Denis Solomon
ON December 10 a lot of people, myself included, will be faced with the problem of deciding which is the least bad of the two or three candidates on the ballot. Some may even decide to try "tactical voting", e.g. voting for Team Unity or the NAR, knowing these parties cannot win but hoping they will do well enough to spoil the chances of the UNC or the PNM, whichever the voter hates the most.
But when you think of it, "least bad" can only have meaning on a scale of goodness or badness, which in turn implies that there might at some other time, be a candidate high enough on the scale to bring the benefits the voter desires. "Tactical" voting is even more a counsel of despair, because it implies, in addition, that the voter is writing off this election, and potentially all elections, as a dead loss for the nation.
But let us suppose that there were a candidate who would meet with the approval of our hypothetical voter and fill him or her with enthusiasm on polling day. What, apart from the type of hair on the candidate's head, or the television image of the party leader, would be the defining characteristic of such a candidate? MORE
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Re: The Creation Myth
Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2001
By Corey Gilkes
This is a response to a letter that appeared on November 24 taking Kevin Baldeosingh to task for his support of evolution. Now I am no apologist for Kevin Baldeosingh; I think he puts a bit too much reliance upon empirical data. But at least he represents a voice of reason in a society that is way too religiously conservative for my liking.
So for a student of tertiary education [political science no less] to be a staunch defender of the Judeo-Christian Creation story as historical, as a story to be interpreted literally, really underscores the need to restructure what we call higher learning. Quickly too before yet another person with unquestioned religious views becomes a politician creating and maintaining laws that should have rightly been consigned to the garbage. MORE
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Do Politicians Lie?
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2001
From: Kurt Garcia
Dear Editor
Is it possible anywhere in the world that a civil servant, an Army Captain at that, can wake up one morning and go shopping and just like that decide to buy one of the most expensive cars on the market a Mercedes Benz for his boss, who is the Prime Minister, without asking him a single question.
This is what the entire country is being told and are asked to believe by our Prime Minister.
Does any one alive believe this story.
Panday defends Benz buy
Prime Minister Basdeo Panday is insisting that nothing is wrong with the recent purchase of two Mercedes Benz sedans for official use and is daring anyone who has a problem with it to speak up.
Panday was asked to comment on the $.6 million purchase of the vehicles for official use by the prime minister, after he addressed yesterday's prize distribution ceremony for winners of the Carapichaima football league at the district's community centre.
He said he had had no prior knowledge of the purchase: "I don't buy anything for the household, that is done by the head of household. I don't know what he has done. Maybe you ought to speak with him, because he looks after running the household, I don't. I run the country." MORE
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Police search Gillette's office
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Police yesterday searched the former offices of Energy Minister Lindsay Gillette as the probe into whether he misbehaved in public office heightened.
Fraud Squad officers executed a search warrant at the Ministry of Information and reportedly removed several documents.
Gillette was responsible for information technology when a company owned by his relatives was awarded a lucrative spectrum multi-media licence.
This led to the Integrity Commission investigating the matter and passing a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions Mark Mohammed SC.
Mohammed last week ordered the police to investigate the matter to see if there was sufficient evidence to take criminal action against the minister.
Gillette said he was yet to be interviewed by the police.
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Restructuring our economy
Posted: Monday, November 26, 2001
By Mary K King
One question we need to ask ourselves is whether we have any real control over the fortunes or misfortunes of our economy given its present structure, in the context of globalisation. Clearly, with bad governance we can destroy what little we have got. Or we can spend it in non-optimum ways. Yet, with stringent direction from the World Bank and the IMF, starting in the darkest economic days of the NAR, through the PNM and now the UNC, we have been able to pull ourselves out of the debt crisis.
However, with the deepening global recession another debt crisis may yet be ahead of us. This government had at its disposal, over the last six years, some TT$60 billion of income from an economy, the foundations of which were built by previous governments under the strictures of the World Bank/IMF. Can this government unilaterally claim the results of spending money for which it did not create the foundation for its generation? MORE
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A code of silence
Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2001
By Donna Yawching
RECENTLY, reading about the "model school" air quality report, and Education Minister Roy Augustus' reluctance (indeed, refusal) to share it with the teachers, it occurred to me: This country is run like a Masonic Lodge. Not that I know very much about Masonic Lodges, but I understand they're very secretive organisations; and these are exactly the principles that are at work in our corridors of power. Another possible analogy might be the Mafia, where the code of omertà (silence) is the pivot around which all else revolves.
The T&T government is very similar. Once you've been elected, or appointed, to a position of authority, you suddenly join a very select club from which the rest of us are excluded: a club that controls the flow (or rather, the trickle) of information that is allowed to reach the public. And that trickle is permitted to do so only when it is in the inner circle's interest; anything negative is firmly suppressed.
Western democracy is based, essentially, on the public's right (yes, "right"-not "privilege") to know about all matters that concern its wellbeing. Our version, by contrast, treats information like a dangerous drug that must only be meted out in tiny doses, for the people's own good. Secrecy may be acceptable in issues of genuine national security, involving things like armies and bombs and whatnot; but most other areas of information do not fall under this heading. MORE
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Waiting for salvation
Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2001
By Raffique Shah
PEOPLE who believe in miracles, in the hand of God if not His fist, must be the only ones who also believe that December 10 and the general election will herald Salvation Day.
In my view, it will take all of the above, and maybe more, for the election to signal a better day for the people of this country. We often boast that this is a "blessed land" in which God was born, hence our luck in escaping natural disasters. No one can explain, though, why we have been cursed with more than our fair share of human disasters.
Take Robin Montano as one example of the latter. This "imps" was first foisted on us by Patrick Manning (take a bow, Patrick-as he insists on calling you) when the PNM was in the dumps following its stunning defeat by the NAR in 1986. Maybe the PNM salvaged him from some dump, because he does not appear to have come from the cultured domain of the Montano family. Ever since Manning granted him a licence to make an ass of himself, he has excelled in the field. But decent citizens who thought that we had seen the last of this gadfly when he quarrelled with Manning were wrong. MORE
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Optional obligation
Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2001
By Denis Solomon
As I once had to tell the President of the Senate, it is the despair of the semi-literate that words do not have precise meanings.
A fellow columnist once telephoned me to ask me the difference in meaning between a culture and a civilisation. I told him that any absolute difference between the two words must be a technical difference, limited to the field of anthropology. Word meaning interacts with sentence meaning and discourse meaning, or message. Within a certain range, the contribution of a word to the message is what the speaker or writer intends, and must be judged by the reader or listener on the basis of shared expectations. This is why different people can genuinely derive different messages from the same text. It is why poetry exists. It is also why pseudo-intellectuals can use words to mean nothing at all.
My fellow-columnist, despite being a poet as well as a journalist, couldn’t grasp my explanation, and saying "You obviously don't know", hung up in a huff. He later called me with another query. He had a problem with Lloyd Best's claim that the government wasn't so much irresponsible as un-responsible; he hadn't been able to find "un-responsible" in the dictionary. MORE
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PM loses in Appeal Court
Posted: Saturday, November 24, 2001
By Darren Bahaw
THE Court of Appeal yesterday confirmed a lower court judgment that Prime Minister Basdeo Panday was biased in his decision to omit a Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) proposal for a special cellular telephone licence.
The court, in dismissing the State's appeal of Justice Sebastien Ventour's judgment of September 28, 2000, also confirmed the quashing of the decision to exclude CCN's proposal and directed that the company's proposal should be considered afresh.
The ruling comes in the midst of a general election campaign in which Panday has initiated a fresh wave of criticism against the CCN Group, parent company of TV6 and the Express, labelling them as "the devil" and "the son of the devil", respectively, accusing them of biased coverage of his Government. MORE
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Stay Moral and Starve
Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2001
By Denis Solomon
To resort to crime under the stimulus of poverty may not be praiseworthy, or in the long run sensible, but it is at least understandable. That is, as long as you define crime as an act which demonstrably damages an individual or society.
But someone who perpetrates a "victimless crime" to feed his or her family (or for any other economic motive) is not reprehensible, but merely resourceful.
Which is the same as saying that "victimless crimes", for example, prostitution, fornication, adult pornography or homosexual relations between consulting adults, are a contradiction in terms and should be expunged from the statute books. In fact, in many enlightened countries they have been.
This country is not enlightened, and as well as keeping these "offences" on the books, we have several more which in addition to being oppressive are ridiculous: "obscene language", for example. I now learn that there is another, which goes by the name of "lewd and suggestive dancing". MORE
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The filth of corruption
Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2001
By Bukka Rennie
All this talk about "corruption" is rumour and "ole-talk", they claim. So we are to conclude that Gopeesingh, Makan et al were in fact arrested and charged on rumours.
So what does that say about our entire judicial set-up? What does that say about the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) whose only task, after investigations are completed, is to decide whether certain people involved are to be indicted based on the evidence at hand?
Yet the mantra continues: "Corruption in the NWRHA is rumour."
In a similar vein "voter-padding" in 2000 was deemed a figment of the mind of "sore losers" despite the fact that some 15-20 people were dragged to court to answer charges and at the moment are still before the courts, and for a while after the 2000 elections a certain leading member of a certain party unit virtually went into hiding. MORE
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Aah, the power of sleaze
Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2001
Terry Joseph
Evidence accruing from the hustings indicates escalating difficulty among politicians in differentiating between picong and patently offensive remarks.
It is also clear that no one party has monopolised this confusion and judging from recent statements by new blood on both major platforms, potential for continuity of the recklessness lies squarely ahead.
Even more disconcerting is the fact that these new examples are not victims of low-life upbringing or deficient education. Attorney-at-law Robin Montano and former head of the South Chamber of Commerce Diane Seukeran are not your common or garden-variety candidates. In fact, they are both offspring of legendary politicians, whose public conduct was never in question.
That Mr Montano could even think of saying what he did on Sunday about politicians who "do it to the public" takes us to a new plateau in platform speaking. Surely he knew that young children would form part of the television audience as his United National Congress (UNC) party introduced its candidates. MORE
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Soft talk for Ramesh
Posted: Sunday, November 18, 2001
By Denis Solomon
I DON'T know if CCN has decided to use Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to destroy Basdeo Panday. Destroying Panday is a laudable intention, but not if it involves the rehabilitation of Ramesh, who is infinitely worse. Ramesh has been appearing regularly on the TV6 Morning Edition, and the presenter, Paolo Kernahan, has been letting him give long speeches, and failing to press him with difficult questions.
Last time Ramesh was on, he was allowed to get away with the statement that if the Elections and Boundaries Commission had not told the President that the electoral lists were ready, the President would have delayed the election.
Paolo Kernahan should have immediately challenged this affirmation. The President has shown himself averse to any measure not supported by the strict letter of the Constitution. MORE
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Making a jail
Posted: Sunday, November 18, 2001
By Raffique Shah
DURING my 27-month stint as a prisoner of the State, there was a universal saying among "guests" at Her Majesty's Prison (as the institution was then known): "If you must make ah jail, do it while you are young!" Of course, other hardened criminals or stupid persons who had never been inside a cell, would, in moments they would live to regret, scream, "Jail 'ent make to ripe fig, you know!" The consensus, though, was that prison was no place for decent citizens, and certainly not for older people. The conditions are so brutal, even the young and strong have to steel themselves to survive. And for the old, the haven of the infirmary does not insulate them from the hellhole that is jail.
I got around to thinking about my one-time "home" following the recent arrests of several high-flyers in society, and in particular former senior managers at the NWRHA. I knew that even though they had only been arrested and charged, and guilt or innocence is yet to be determined, nothing in their lives would have prepared them for what they will have experienced over the past days. For starters, the simple process of being fingerprinted and charged is humiliating. I can only imagine Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Dr Ranjit Sookdar and Reynold Makhan having their hands in the firm grip of officers who would rub their fingers on an ink pad, then transfer the prints onto their files. Mug shots will have been taken, then the charges formally laid against them. MORE
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Political pipe-dream
Posted: Sunday, November 18, 2001
By Donna Yawching
BOTH Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and his sidekick Ralph Maraj have called for a postponement of the December 10 election, and for the installation of a "caretaker" government.
Given the daily scandals that are emerging regarding the voters' list, this might actually be a good idea. My own personal experience shows up the EBC's bluster as farcical. Not one, but two field workers presented themselves, at different times, at my door, and took note of my new address. So I felt safe in assuming that I would be well and truly ensconced on the electoral rolls. MORE
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Hair this: Ban Lifted
Posted: Friday, November 16, 2001
The Express
THE Parvati Hindu Girls' College at Debe has lifted the ban on cane-row hairstyles at the school.
"The principal told us the children can wear the style to school but because of the lice infestation the hair must be washed at least twice for the week," Karen De Coteau, a parent of one of the pupils affected by the ban, told the Express yesterday.
She said the decision was made at a one and a half-hour meeting held at the school compound yesterday afternoon. Present at the meeting were parents of pupils who had defied the ban, school supervisor Hortense Headly, and principal Pulmatie Bhemul.
De Coteau was one of the parents at the meeting.
Bhemul refused to comment and reporters were asked by police officers, summoned from the nearby Debe Police Post, to leave the compound.
De Coteau, who spoke to journalists outside the school compound, said she was not convinced her daughter would not be punished for wearing the cane row hairstyle.
"They may tell you one thing but when the children come to school, the teachers tell them something else."
She said there was also the matter of how the school would verify whether or not a child's hair was washed twice for the week.
As first reported exclusively in the Express, pupils were forbidden to wear the cane or corn-rowed hairstyle as it was said to be against the school's rules.
Pupils said they were told marks could be deducted from their end of term examination results if they defied the ban.
The hairstyle was said to be too elaborate and unhealthy, as it encouraged the pupils to keep their hair unwashed for several days.
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PNM: Shoot voter padders!
Posted: Friday, November 16, 2001
The word is out. PNM party supporters are being told to walk with their cameras, video and otherwise, and take pictures of strangers entering poling stations on election day.
They are also being told to take pictures of 'green band' maxi taxis and other vehicles that enter their districts full of passengers.
When they ask us for the evidence this time, they will get it.
The absence of the 'binders' from the poling stations during last years elections is an issue the EBC has not explained and seems unwilling to address. Questions as to whether they will be available this year, have gone unanswered.
A supporter who has never had an ID card, said that he has always been able to vote because the official were able to find his card in the binder and they use it to compare him to the photograph and compare the signature on file to the one he places on the oath he is asked to take.
There was no binder present at the poling station during the last election and this, combined with the fact that we were supplied with electoral ink that did not work properly, meant that anyone could have voted anywhere any number of times.
All you had to do was compile a list of the people who traditionally do not vote, for example: dead people, people who have migrated and, with a little help from the inside, the people who NEVER go out to vote.
This would account for the instances in which people who went to vote were told that they had voted already.
The plan is such a good one that one wonders if the EBC should not,
themselves, institute a mechanism or procedure by which the person who takes an oath, holds the oath he has signed up to his chest and a photograph is taken of them both.
In the event that it is later learnt that the individual was supposed to be dead, out of the country or the real person had a sudden urge to vote, we would have something indication of who voted in his stead.
Smile, you're on candid camera!
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UNC senator, Dr Tim Gopeesingh charged
Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Former chairman of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) and UNC senator, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, yesterday appeared in the Port of Spain Magistrates Court on nine charges of misbehaviour in public office.
Shortly after being released on $350,000 bail, Gopeesingh told reporters: "My hands are clean, my heart is pure and my conscience is clear."
He was confident that his integrity would be preserved and "at the end of the day my name will be cleared".
The offences were said to have occurred between December 1999 and January 2000.
After Magistrate Thomas-Felix read the lengthy charges, Gopeesingh was told he would not be called upon to plead as the charges had been laid indictably.
Russel Martineau SC, one of Gopeesingh's attorneys, pleaded for bail saying that his client was a well-known, leading gynaecologist and UWI professor.
Magistrate Thomas-Felix granted $350,000 bail and adjourned Gopeesingh's matters to November 23.
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Racial discrimination behind braids issue
Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Reply to: Remove braids or suffer low grades
From: Sharon Feldman-Nagel
Dear Editor:
I am a born Trini residing permanently in the US; none-the-less, Trinidad is my home country and I would like to comment on the attached article (!Remove braids or suffer low grades). I do not believe the reason(s) given by Principal Pulmatie Bhemul/the school administration, and by Sat Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha to be honest; I believe they do not wish to have such hairstyles in their Hindu school due to the fact that it is commonly worn by blacks/Negroes.
I believe it to be a racially discriminating motivation behind their decision. To say that such a hairstyle promotes poor hygiene is dottish! "Some of them gave in to the school ruling which said the style, among other things, was unhygienic." especially coming from people who consider themselves to be educators and representatives of education in our country. Any hairstyle could be unhygienic if one does not keep their hair clean. I remember the days of sitting behind a female class mates of Indian decent and counting the hair lice while the critters crawl through their hair, I remember stiffening after getting a whit of the rancid smell when my face get too close to their hair during an embrace of friendship; So to these two so call educators, I say "Doh try dat! Yu grown, speak the truth! At least have the nerve to honestly stand behind your conviction.
And to the young girls, I do believe school is a place of education and not a fashion house; however, there is nothing wrong with wearing your hair to school in braids (We black/mixed girls wore it like that for most of our school age, we did not have much of a choice, really!) once you don't go over board with the designs. Don't give in to these old racist who are set in their ways and refuse to come to reality...this is the twentieth century and the young people of today are more able to take a stance for humanity and what they believe to be their right.
Girls, stand up for what you believe in whether you wear braids for a fashion statement or not; do not let them dictate out of their racist belief about how you should wear your hair.
Fight them with intelligence, dignity and strength that we females are quite capable of.
Good luck girls,
SMFN in Miami
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Manning to EBC: Extend electoral re-registration
Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
In order to avoid running "the risks of serious dissatisfaction" with the election result, Opposition leader Patrick Manning is calling on the EBC to extend the period of electoral re-registration by one week.
Manning was speaking at a news conference at Chepstow House yesterday which was called to discuss the EBC's election exercise and the complaints about it.
Manning said the party was trying to make the best of a bad situation by ensuring at this stage that the country could have an election in which the population has some confidence in the result.
"If the result of the election appears in any way not to be the will of the people, then we are running risks," he said, adding: "I am not threatening anybody, I am merely pointing out a reality if I understand the society well enough".
Manning said the preliminary list which should have been published on November 5, only became available on November 7, even though the deadline for additions, deletion and queries was November 13.
Noting that the party had to verify this list by doing field work, Manning said that in the constituency of San Fernando East only, there were 5,000 deletions and 2,000 additions.
San Fernando East, - "one of the better organised" PNM constituencies - was nevertheless having tremendous difficulty meeting the deadlines, he noted. Furthermore, he said, on Sunday night, the EBC released another list of deletions, which had to be scrutinised and corrected by today.
The PNM Leader said it is "wholly impossible" to do the field checks in time.
Manning claimed that the UNC by contrast didn't have to conduct this exercise because the allegations of voter-padding have been laid at their doors, and because an improper list and an effective registration exercise worked in their favour.
In response to a question, Manning queried the EBC's decision to publish a list of deletions in the paper with the lowest circulation - the Guardian. (The Guardian's readership stands at 14 percent while Newsday's is 42 percent and the Express 38 percent).
Said Manning: "It is very curious indeed...And people like me who are trying to be dispassionate..to what conclusion am I expected to come? It is the kind of thing that the EBC just shouldn't do.
PoS North/St Ann's East candidate John Rahael added that the list published in the Guardian was not even a comprehensive one because all the names of people from the constituencies of PoS North/St Ann's West, PoS South, Laventille West and Arouca South were left out.
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Reckless spending of public money in football
Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
By Mary K King
A recent newspaper report announced that “we” lost some TT$9 million in the recent Under-17 football tournament.
The intrepid Mr Jack Warner said he expected the loss to be much more since the ticket prices were set low to fill the stadia and that no country makes money on these tournaments.
The idea was to showcase the country, I suppose much like the Miss Universe contest. Mr Warner thinks that this loss was worth it.
Surely, to him, it was worth it since he also said that this accounting loss did not include all the revenues from the tournament.
In particular, it did not include the revenues from the television rights, which went to the owner of them, the intrepid Jack.
The idea of the tournament is for FIFA and its officials to make money.
President Blatter of FIFA has confirmed that this is the only place in the world that an official of FIFA holds TV rights to FIFA tournaments.
T&T breaks new ground with intrepid Jack!
But the approach is larger than Jack Warner, it goes all the way up to FIFA.
Let us look at this as a business proposition; sport is big business.
FIFA owns the competition and countries hoping to make some money either from the tournament itself or, forlornly, to showcase themselves, bid to hold the tournament.
We are aware of the corruption that this kind of bidding engendered in the Olympics Games.
The intrepid Jack hinted at the same kind of corruption in FIFA when he told a Tobago steelband that had he known that they wanted to go to Germany he, as a representative of FIFA, would have gotten them German funding, even for their families.
The Germans were desperate to hold the FIFA World Cup.
Anyway, “we” got the privilege to host the tournament. “We”, with 30 per cent of our population living below the poverty line, had to provide the stadia at the highly escalated cost of some TT$350 million and, according to our representatives, the local organising committee chaired by intrepid Jack, we lost TT$9.45 million.
The income side of this equation included a TT$15 million gift from our Government.
In other words, we really lost TT$26 million. Gate receipts were just TT$2.51 million. We spent TT$5,590,677 to prepare the local team, a sum other teams also had to spend, none of which FIFA reimbursed out of their tournament profits.
The report did not say how these losses were funded; I presume out of the T&T Treasury.
The real revenue, however, was earned through the television rights paid for by the many countries to show the matches at home and the video material itself.
From these, FIFA made money, the intrepid Jack made money and the financial infant called the Government of T&T, with their hands in the lion’s mouth, lost money on our behalf.
Some say that FIFA gives a paltry grant to the countries to aid football, others that this is FIFA’s investment to cream off the profits.
The losses do not include the cost to use the stadia which pro rata is conservatively estimated at another TT$8 million since we are repaying TT$76 million per year on the off balance sheet debt we incurred to build them.
The people in charge of our finances can only be termed reckless since I hesitate to consider other alternatives.
The only conclusion one can come to, is that our officials charged with spending our money pay little attention to the need for proper husbanding and shrewd investment of our resources, a reflection of the profligate corruption and tainted spending of recent times.
Let us not forget that sport is a lucrative business (check out the salaries of professional footballers) and we should demand tangible returns on our investment, not the ole talk about show-casing.
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EBC setting stage for chaos
Posted: Sunday, November 11, 2001
By Raffique Shah
SOMETHING is very rotten deep inside the belly of the Elections and Boundaries Commission. This seems to be clear to all but the EBC commissioners and senior personnel, like Chief Elections Officer Howard Cayenne, who insist that their new lists of electors are as close to clean as we can possibly get. Yet, simple scrutiny of several lists has revealed suspicious omissions or inclusions of names in identifiable streets. The irregularities are so glaring, and the EBC's responses so dismissive, I fear that if people who have strong political ties feel that the results of the December 10 general election exercise are tainted, we could face an upheaval of horrendous proportions.
I shall not dwell of the allegations of corruption in the last general election, or on the fact that curiously, of the scores of persons charged with election-related offences, only two (as far as I know) have so far faced the courts. It might be interesting to find out what's the status of others who are still facing charges: will they be allowed to vote in the upcoming election, and if the answer is yes, will it be in the constituencies in which it is alleged they committed the offences? But that’s the least of the problems that face us on the eve of the snap election. MORE
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When ting no regular, trouble deh
Posted: Sunday, November 11, 2001
By Winford James
The African proverb in the title of this column, reworded in basilectal Caribbean English, captures an undeniable truth about the human condition: irregularities lead to trouble. And nowhere is it truer than in the UNC condition today.
In essence, the UNC is a house divided into two identities and enveloped by very dark clouds of corruption and misconduct in the management of the nation’s affairs. The Panday UNC is the stronger identity at the present time and is likely to be right up to Election Day, December 10, for political monoliths, especially those sustained by a living tribal icon, do not crumble and die easily, though they may lose considerable supporting structure. The relatively large crowds attending the meetings of the Panday UNC tells us that the monolith is still there, as does that UNC’s continuing attraction of high-profile persons despite the serious stench of corruption, which some of them have previously inveighed against publicly. But even as the Panday UNC stays alive, it is losing credibility among more and more people or, at the very least, strengthening its disfavour among those disgusted by its ways before the fall of the government. MORE
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World Pan Reps Agree On Festival 2002 Plan
Posted: Sunday, November 11, 2001
By Terry Joseph
Finland's Ari Vitanen, in his closing remarks, described yesterday's meeting of delegates from pan organisations from around the world as "an historic occasion", a sentiment unanimously echoed around the table.
The four-hour meeting, which was held at the National Carnival Commission (NCC) boardroom, Queen’s Park Savannah, brought representatives from Europe, the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago together to discuss the 2002 World Steelband Music Festival, which will be held here in July. MORE
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Sticks & Stones In TnT Bones
Posted: Saturday, November 10, 2001
Dr. Kwame Nantambu
Common sense and human sanity suggest that the health and progress of a nation are not measured by its financial and economic success but by how a government treats 'the least of these. And despite the fact that the IMF has given the UNC government 'top ratings at the external level, however, at the internal, inside level the ratings hit bottom'.
While economic life is booming in TnT, human life has been on a dialysis machine for a very long time. And this humane reality has forced a government minister to conclude that: 'no society can advance satisfactorily if too many of its people were left behind . . .. the privileged few (are) covering the wealth of the country while the masses grow dispossessed'.
The fact of the matter is that the wealth of TnT does not and must not belong to the chosen few but must be shared and experienced by the many. The haves must not live at the expense of the have-nots, as current public policy seems to dictate and legitimise.
In TnT today, the haves live in the plush penthouse surrounded by crass materialism and grandeur, at most, while the have-nots survive in the doghouse, surrounded by puppy chow and filth, at minimum. As a result of government's public policy, TnT is suffering from a severe case of life-threatening Euro-American-induced socio-cultural-economic-familial melanoma. MORE
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Case of the Missing Opinions
Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2001
Dear Editor
Whenever there is a matter with the President and the Law, there is always a loud barrage of legal opinions from certain legal and non legal members of our society. Whenever there is a matter with the Prime Minister and the Law there is a loud silence from these same legal and non legal people. In times like these when there is need for serious opinions on matters like conflict of interest, influence peddling, misleading of Cabinet, People and Parliament. Can their silence be interpreted as consent or partisanship ? Whither our Nation.
KURT GARCIA
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Clash of extremes
Posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2001
by Denis Solomon
It is no accident that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States took place in the midst of a cycle of anti-globalisation protests, soon after the American repudiation of the Kyoto agreement, and with Bush and Sharon lately elevated to the thrones of the United States and Israel respectively.
Islamic fundamentalism is one of the two prongs of a worldwide anti-market, anti-globalisation, and anti-modern movement. The other is composed of elements of civil society in the Western countries: the NGOs, environmentalists, workers and students, angered by the power of multinational business, who made their presence felt in Seattle and Genoa.
In the words of Ignacio Ramonet, editor of the prestigious French journal Le Monde Diplomatique, "the real masters of the world are no longer those [Parliaments and national governments] who wear the trappings of political power, but rather those who now control the financial markets, the international media houses, the information superhighway, cyberspace and genetic technology". MORE
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Headline muse
Posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2001
by Terry Joseph
NOT unlike The Rising Sun, a political propaganda publication that redefined the word 'periodical', the date of the next issue of Trini Tattler is probably known only to The Psychic Friends Network.
But if you're yet to read the patently fictitious Tattler, count that among your lucky breaks. It is nothing but a preposterous compilation of the most implausible stories ever, many of them dangling from equally outrageous headlines.
And if it were true, as some say, that these stories are routinely concocted by newsroom pranksters, it certainly would not be the first time trusted reporters duped a newspaper. MORE
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The great contracts hustle
Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2001
by Bukka Rennie
There are two kinds of people in T&T today, who seem to be quite capable of co-existing with the most vile and pronounced forms of corruption. These two are the middle-class professional profiteers and their counterparts at the lower end - the hustlers in the ETP, the "lumpen".
The mindset of these two sets of people are one and the same. One can hear them over and over again proclaiming either that "corruption is not an issue" or that "all governments are corrupt". And such an assumption, they believe, allows them the "moral" room, so to speak, to justify anything under this sun.
The "big-boys" are elements of the business-oriented "middle-class", who by their actions and their wielding and dealing are nothing but vulgar profit-seekers, devoid of ethics and morality, seeking at every turn the opportunity to enrich themselves, their relatives and very close friends.
These people are unmoved by the cost of their actions to the general welfare of the nation. Their "politics" is mere cover and extension of their economic hustle for government contracts to develop infrastructure and social amenities under the billion-dollar Public Sector Improvement Programme (PSIP) and under other contingency plans financed out of the budgeted Consolidated Fund.
The most glaring examples of this form of corruption, that will most certainly come to light in the near future, particularly if the government changes after December 10, involves the use of statutory authorities to cover all kinds of improper and illegal disbursement of taxpayers' monies, with total disregard for tendering procedures, even at times running afoul of conditionalities as mandated by well-established Public Service regulations and by international financial institutions such as the IDB and the World Bank.
And of course there are the concomitant cases of the blatant rewarding of the people who facilitated these transactions, with lofty social positions and astronomical salaries and perks. Imagine $60,000 and $70,000 a month. For what?
Every single Minister in this present regime, when they first came to office, requested a listing of all contracts given out by the respective ministries. Permanent Secretaries and accounting officers were either sent on extended leave, transferred and/or found himself/herself faced with a parallel "PS on contract"/"personal advisor to Minister", who virtually took over the affairs of the ministry.
"Contracts" are the obvious means through which "kickbacks", bribes and graft could be easily facilitated while, at the same time, the highly publicised and constant PR that accompanies the handing out of these contracts to do everyday tasks allows for the regime to "talk performance".
Suddenly we have found ourselves with a central government taking over every single everyday task, emasculating local government authorities in the process, and blowing up their significance to justify its kind of "performance" and to cover-up of corrupt practices, while in the mean the country cries out for vision and direction from a central government whose membership, though filled with the smarts of plundering, stands sadly lacking in intellectual capacity.
The boss was right: Dhanraj was the best Minister! And if these middle-class managers/hustlers facilitate the illegal transactions under the veil of "government contracts", then the lumpen in the ETP, besides doing cheaply the actual work required, provides "political muscle on the ground" for the regime, particularly in the Corridor.
That is the scenario that has been forced on us since 1995. And today it is pathetic that this regime that has collapsed in a mere nine months, has got the gall to come back to the electorate to talk about its performance. It is even more despicable that there are some people who are prepared to listen.
Even worse is the case of one notable lawyer whose now deceased nephew had hacked into the bank records of some present Minister, dubbed then as the $12-million man. He, that lawyer, informed this country boldly that if the "name of that Minister was ever released, the Government would fall," suggesting thereby that the corrupt Minister is prominent in the regime.
But today that same lawyer is busy offering himself to be part of the very regime. No one asked him. He is offering himself, of course, with a litany of silly conditions that even he does not take seriously. So madly is he in love with this country and so madly he wishes to serve. All his efforts will serve to do is seek to make "corruption" a non-issue.
The citizenry will answer on December 10. But the level to which some of us have sunk is, to say the least, frightening!
http://www.trinicenter.com/BukkaRennie/
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Why not a racial tag, Sat?
Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Remove braids or suffer low grades
Pupils who wear cane-row hairstyles to classes at Parvati Girls’ Hindu College, Debe, were given an ultimatum yesterday: Remove the braided look by today or suffer a deduction of five per cent in each subject in their end-of-term examinations. MORE
From: Cindy Williams
Dear Editor
It is seems like in this country every time we take two steps forward, there are some people intent on taking us ten backwards. Case in point the contrived controversy in my mind about the Cornrow/Canerow debate, that rears its ugly head ever so often. I would not apportion blame as yet, but I would like to ask the administrators at Parvati Girls Hindu College, why a racial tag should not be put on this issue.
Can they answer [1] Who uses Cornrow/Canerow. [2] Who would a ban against such usage affect. [3] Who needs to plait their hair in 8-10 plaits as necessity. [4] Whose several thousand years tradition is being denied. [5] Since when lice is associated with Cornrow/Canerow alone Mr Maharaj.
I would further hope that you are all aware of people's cultural and human rights and that someone hair is not part of the uniform of a school providing it meets the requiremnet of neat and tidy, which can also be affected by cultural biases, something that has been the Maha Sabha's bossman pet topic for decades now. Is he also implying that Rastafarian girls would not be welcome at that school.
Finally it is an abdication of duty for the Ministry of Education not to intervene in this situation, as taxpayers funds are being used to support in my mind what is obvious discrimination. What hurts is that people would see situations like these and not intervene and speak out, but then turn around and complain about distrust, cynicism, ill will and all the negatives of society, while by their very attitudes, they allow these things to fester and grow.
Another cornrow incident from our archives
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Gillettes’ deal goes to DPP
Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2001
FORMER attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said yesterday that he sent certain documents to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) concerning the granting of a special licence to a Gillette-owned telecommunications company.
Maharaj said while in office he had sent documents to Mark Mohammed SC, concerning the granting of the licence to Computers and Controls Holdings Limited, a company owned by relatives of Energy Minister Lindsay Gillette.
According to Maharaj, there was a conflict of interest in granting the licence which, he said, was given without tender or sanction from the Permanent Secretary in the Telecommunications Ministry Carol Clark.
"It appeared to me from information I had that there was the whole question of abuse of public office arose (sic) and the question as to whether the transaction was corrupt arose and, on that basis, I sent the matter to the DPP," Maharaj said.
Lindsay Gillette was Telecommunications Minister on December 11, 2000 when the special licence was granted to Computers and Controls for frequencies in the bands 1895 MHz, 1910 MHz and 1975 to 1990 MHz.
A bid by another Gillette group-owned company for the same frequencies, Open Telecom, had been previously stymied by the court.
"The question is you cannot have a minister in the Cabinet sitting as the minister responsible and getting a favour for himself and the company in which he is associated," Maharaj said.
"In legal terms, this is influence peddling. It is a conflict of interest."
However, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday told reporters yesterday: "In Trinidad and Tobago, everybody has an interest in everything. What you going to do about it...shut out people?’ Panday asked.
Once a deal was above aboard and transparent, Panday said he had no problem with it.
"This is a small country, you know. You think I could discriminate against you because I know you. I cannot do that," the PM insisted.
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Cro Cro crackles at police kaiso show
Posted: Monday, November 5, 2001
By Terry Joseph
Calypsonian Cro Cro was the toast of Saturday night's police service calypso competition final, charming a full Grand Stand at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, into zealous participation, then enjoying a solid encore.
Performing as one of four guest acts, Cro Cro was at his articulate best, detailing every biting word of three calypsoes evidently selected to make clear his stance in the politics of the day.
He waded into fellow-calypsonian Gypsy, whose ascendancy last December to the House of Representatives on a United National Congress (UNC) ticket has been the subject of much controversy. Cro Cro described it as "disappointing the little black boy", reconfiguring one of Gypsy's winning lines into a weapon.
In the song "Gypsy Wrong", Cro Cro scolded his colleague from opening line to closing chorus, veering off only to chastise former Elections and Boundaries Commission chairman Sir Isaac Hyatali, whom he described rather uncharitably.
For a remake of Gypsy's "Sinking Ship", Cro Cro accompanied himself on guitar, training his guns on UNC political leader, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, and including comment on a house in Kensington, a shooting-death at the official residence and the sacking of former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
On the latter matter, when Cro Cro sang "Panday I find you farse, you playing up in your mother's …" the crowd gleefully completed the rhyme. And that was tame.
Were it another type of event, thousands might have faced arrest for singing choice obscenities, but as Saturday night's show was put on by the police service, members of the audience took extraordinary liberties in concluding rhymes baited from the stage.
In "Dole Chadee Say", a song chiding Maharaj for presiding over multiple executions of murderers convicted during his stewardship, Cro Cro imagined what fate would befall the former AG were he to ever do prison time. All the singer needed to do was suggest: "They go rock 'im" or "they go pull 'im" and the crowd inserted risque phonetics to finish succeeding lines. Trinidad Rio caught the same wave with his chorus: "Everybody only rockin' up, rockin' up".
The competition component saw 12 contestants vying for a $12,000 first prize donated by Dairy Dairy. Defending champion Golden could do no better than sixth position for her two numbers ("Judgment Day" and "Wizzie"), while last year's second-placed contestant PC Roger Mohammed ran off with the bounty.
Singing under the moniker "Bodyguard", Mohammed teamed up with Gregory "GB" Ballantyne to compose his first song "Natural Progression" and relied on the writing skills of former national calypso monarch Luta for "Mash Up Man"; the pair that took him to the throne. He also won the prize for most humorous song.
Gary Hercules was second and Wizard of Id third.
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Cop goes on trial for girl's murder
Posted: Saturday, November 3, 2001
TT Newsday By Akilah Phillip
TEARS STREAMED down the face of Police Constable Nicholas Leith yesterday when Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls said he would be charged with the murder of Anisha Neptune.
Three hours later Port-of-Spain Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix, read the murder charge and remanded Leith to prison. It is alleged on May 1, 2000, Leith murdered Neptune at Four Roads, Diego Martin. The charge was laid indictably and Leith was not called upon to plead.
Leith, 41, of Broome Street, Diego Martin was attached to the Four Roads Police Station.
Leith's wife wept profusely as Magistrate Mc Nicolls told the court: "I therefore find on the evidence that Constable Leith shot Anisha Neptune which caused her death on May 1, 2000."
Neptune, 17, was shot while standing near a telephone booth outside the station. Her father Oswin Awong sat silently throughout the ruling.
Her mother, Molly Neptune, was not in court for the decision.
It took Magistrate Mc Nicolls 15 minutes to summarise his findings as he analysed the evidence of the 20 witnesses who testified during the inquest.
Magistrate Mc Nicolls noted the coroner's function was not to determine the guilt, rights or liabilities of anyone. He pointed out Leith's attorney Keith Beckles had asked him to make an objective and clinical assessment of the facts of this case and the law in relation to those facts.
Mc Nicolls said he examined the content of Leith's testimony. However, he added, the evidence of Anisha's mother was the most critical in arriving at a decision.
Magistrate Mc Nicolls singled out the testimonies of Charmaine King, Peggy Ann Eligon, Molly Neptune and Blayne Richards in his summation of the evidence.
He said: "While it is true that there are conflicting versions of what transpired on the night in question, it is not the function of the coroner to attempt to reconcile them."
Silence filled the court room as Magistrate Mc Nicolls ordered a warrant be issued forthwith for Leith's arrest. Anisha's father calmly walked out the building.
In a brief interview with reporters Awong said: "This was a heart rending decision since everyone was interested in the outcome of the case."
He said justice was done in the matter but the outcome of the inquest did not put the memory of his daughter to rest.
Awong said: "That was my daughter, my pet."
Meanwhile police officers expressed their shock and disbelief at the ruling.
When hearing resumed before Magistrate Thomas-Felix, Beckles stated his eagerness to begin the matter since the prosecution had all the exhibits in their possession.
Supt Maurice Piggot told the court within two weeks he would have the file from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). The case was adjourned to November 13.
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EBC removes 75,000 from voters' list
Posted: Friday, November 2, 2001
The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has removed almost 75,000 persons from the annual list of electors published on July 1. The updated list published by the EBC on Wednesday revealed that 74,464 persons have been removed due to death, migration or incorrect addresses.
The July 1 list had 958,227 persons and the list on Wednesday contains 883,763 persons.
During the house-to-house survey which ran from May to September, an estimated 1,800 Itinerant Registration Officers (IRO) visited households throughout Trinidad and Tobago to verify the EBC registration records.
The addresses of persons who were not found were later visited by EBC Field Officers employed to make the final checks before the names were taken off the voters' list.
A preliminary report published by the EBC in September revealed that 219,301 electors could not be found at the addresses given. As a result these persons were written to and some 60,000 responded by the deadline. However, those persons whose names are not on the updated list can still visit the registration offices in their area to update their status with the EBC.
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EBC to decide who will be UNC with the Rising Sun symbol
Posted: Friday, November 2, 2001
It is now up to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to decide which of the two factions of the United National Congress (UNC) is the rightful owner of the party's name and rising sun symbol.
EBC Chairman Oswald Wilson told reporters yesterday that the commissioners had heard submissions from the two factions, one led by Deputy Political Leader Ramesh L Maharaj on Wednesday and the other led by Political Leader Basdeo Panday earlier in the day.
He said: "We just heard the other side and we have to consider the representations made by both sides before we come to some decision, bearing in mind the election is on December 10 and Nomination Day is November 19."
Wilson added that the Representation of the People Act did not expressly give the commission power to make a determination in the matter. Our Returning Officer has to decide who to accept as candidates on Nomination Day."
He said the commissioners haven't yet decided how it was going to make a decision.
Commissioner Raoul John said he had nothing to add to what Wilson had said, adding that the EBC "always comply only with the law and we would". He said: "We have said before that we cannot have two persons with the same symbol."
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Gypsy pulls out of Panther show
Posted: Thursday, November 1, 2001
By Terry Joseph
FOR "safety reasons", Junior Culture Minister Winston "Gypsy" Peters has been removed from the playbill of the November 17 show Pink Panther in Concert, where he was due to make a guest appearance.
Show promoter Randy Glasgow yesterday said his organisation had received "an overwhelming number of calls" from persons who either threatened to disrupt the event when Gypsy came onstage or vowed to boycott the concert because of his inclusion.
"We’re getting the same story from the ticket outlets," Glasgow said. "They are reporting that people who come to purchase tickets are saying outright that they will boo Gypsy and some even said they will pelt him while he is onstage. MORE
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