The PM never heard of a paper trail
Posted: Sunday, September 30, 2001
THE EDITOR: The new leaders in every country today with political aspirations, should be comfortable with checks and balances and should harbour no qualms of being held accountable by the rank and file. As a matter of fact, countries no longer need politicians for the efficient governance of a country, they are a dying breed with enormous egos and minimal managerial, financial and economic expertise which are the primary skills needed today, in the effective running of any country. In other words just being a lawyer is not sufficient.
A situation developing in TT as we speak, is a case in point: here it is, the PM of the country, the highest position in the land, is not the least bit conversant with a "paper trail". His name shows up on a cheque in the amount of US$50,000. from Miami and the PM calls it a campaign contribution.
This is his explanation: "All the time, we receive party contributions and sometimes people want the political leader to know they contributed to the party and it is entered in the party's account." (Which is to say that Basdeo Panday and the UNC are one and the same). In the modern world that is known as commingling. It is not possible to have a cheque made out payable to Basdeo Panday, who later signs it over to the UNC party. This cheque made out to Panday must be entered into his account which must be taxed as unearned income and should be declared as income to the Inland Revenue. I do not know the limit on campaign contributions in TT (I doubt we have any) but US$50,000 - $300,000.TT - far exceeds the amount that could be donated as a campaign contribution.
The amount of US$50,000, exceeds that which is considered a Gift in the United States, it was not given to charity and the Treasurer of the UNC can find no record of the US$50,000 in question. (So where the money gone?) The Opposition and the Gang of Four should remain vigilant - all illegal practices that were allowed to flourish in the past should be addressed and eliminated. Fortunately for all of us the era of checks and balance and accountability will change the way we live in TT, this change will not come about overnight, neither would we all suddenly become paragons of virtue but at best, this is a prescription for a better way of life for all the citizens of TT.
ULRIC GUY
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BIR levies Tobago Regional Health Authority
Posted: Sunday, September 30, 2001
( Newsday ) The Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) has levied on the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) for not paying millions of dollars in taxes that were to be deducted from salaries of scores of doctors and nurses under its control.
In yet another case of mismanagement plaguing regional health authorities, the BIR has given the TRHA until December to clear its debts dating back to two years.
In response, the TRHA has issued letters to all its employees, stating that it would tally the total amount of taxes due from each employees and deduct the money in four tranches beginning with this month's salaries and ending in December.
On Tuesday, all the doctors in the Scarborough Hospital collectively signed a statement offering their resignations, prompting the TRHA to call an emergency meeting with all its employees on Wednesday.
The letter from the BIR to the TRHA said the Authority "failed, neglected or refused to adhere to certain sections of the PAYE regulations and the Income Tax Act".
The BIR accused accounting staff at the TRHA of taking instructions from "senior officers", which caused them to either not deduct the taxes for the years 2000 and 2001, or to incorrectly deduct them.
Newsday has learnt that the BIR wrote letters to the TRHA in August 1998 and in March 2000, informing them that the taxes had to be deducted and warning them to do so in the quickest possible time.
Nurses told Newsday that on September 21 they received letters from the TRHA — whose board was only recently appointed — telling them that as a consequence of the BIR's directive and "to lessen the impact on the Authority", withdrawals would be made from their salaries in four tranches for the 2001 arrears.
"We stopped them. We told them that they couldn't touch our salaries just like that," nurses told Newsday, adding that their grouse was not with the current board, since it was the former board, chaired by Clyde Adams, which allowed the situation to develop.
Adams was the National Alliance for Reconstruction's (NAR) representative for Canaan/Bon Accord in this year's Tobago House of Assembly elections.
TRHA officials also informed the nurses that in the case of arrears for 2000, they have directed BIR officials to meet with employees to work out arrangements for payment.
Public relations officer of the TRHA, Michael Stewart, said yesterday that "a contingency plan will be put in place but it is yet to be finalised", following a meeting of the board and the doctors and nurses on Wednesday.
He said: "Everybody will be given a listing of liabilities with a view of how it would be paid."
Nurses said they were presented with two options at the meeting.
"Either we borrow the money from the bank and pay the taxes, which we disagree, or they borrow and pay it off and each month they would deduct money from our salaries over a 12-month period. We haven't as yet decided," nurses said.
The TRHA has given the nurses one month to make a decision. The nurses said they would soon be meeting with a representative of the Public Services Association (PSA) to decide on their next course of action.
The doctors, however, have maintained that they were not responsible for the chaos and will not pay the money.
Newsday understands that the doctors, having held back their decision to collectively resign, are meeting with their lawyers to decide what next to do.
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Africa's Burkina Faso
Posted: Saturday, September 29, 2001
I wish, through your medium to make a contribution to this year's under 17 FIFA football competition, hosted by and in our country. In discussions with many people I recognise there are a few countries which are little known. I have therefore identified the less known and/or heard of countries whose footballers are our guests and we their hosts and to give some historical and geographical data on their existence. In this regard, I have chosen Burkina Faso with some comments on The Republic of Mali, both of which have a common border.
Burkina Faso is a flat landlocked country - which can be sourced at 12.15 degrees North Latitude and 1.30 degrees West Longitude on the African continent. This puts it at about the same position as Grenada on the line of latitude.
It was previously known as 'Upper Volta' which, in much earlier days, was part of the Mossi Empire. All reference to Burkina Faso prior to its name change must be taken as Upper Volta which is one and the same.
Burkina Faso shares common border with and is surrounded by six other African Nations, to wit by Mali, whose footballers are also our guests, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire as the clock ticks. It became a French protectorate in 1897, a French Colony in 1919, got its autonomy within France in 1947 and became an independent nation in August, 1960. It underwent a name change from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means the "land of upper men," in August 1984.
Burkina Faso is mostly flat land, has a land area of 105,870 square miles - 54 \+ times the area of Trinidad and Tobago, with a population (1999) estimates of 11,585,898 mostly French and tribal languages. Its capital and largest city is Ouagodougou which formed part of the Mossi Empire prior to becoming a French Protectorate in 1897.
Its land comprises of desert, low lying hills, high savannahs, with its highest point 2,405 feet above sea level. Its Head of State is President Blaise Campaore who has been in office since October 1987, its head of government is Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, in office since February 1996. It is divided into 45 administrative provinces.
Its religious distribution is given as Muslims 50 percent, Christians (mostly Roman Catholics) 10 percent and Indigenous beliefs 40 percent (formerly referred to as Animists). As regards the Republic of Mali, situated and identified at 16.00 degrees North Latitude and 3.00 degrees West Longitude, also landlocked, bordered by seven other West African nations with a land area of 478,819 square miles - over four times the area of Burkina Faso - with a population of 10,429,124 (1999 estimates) extending northeast into the Sahara Desert.
Its capital is Bamako, far south west of the country, close to the Niger river which flows through into Guinea. One of its legendary and historical cities is Timbuktu, which was the intellectual centre specialising in Islamic studies. Mali became a French possession in 1898, and an independent nation in June 1960, simultaneously entering a Federation with Senegal which did not hold. With the withdrawal of Senegal it became the Republic of Mali. The children of Mali enjoy free secondary education - ages 7-16 - and is given an international literacy rating of 31 percent. I hope you will find this information useful and pass it on to the reading public who may be interested in the study and further research.
ANTHONY
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The PM never heard of a paper trail
Posted: Saturday, September 29, 2001
THE EDITOR: The new bred of leaders in every country today with political aspirations, should be comfortable with checks and balances and should harbour no qualms of being held accountable by the rank and file. As a matter of fact, countries no longer need politicians for the efficient governance of a country, they are a dying breed with enormous egos and minimal managerial, financial and economic expertise which are the primary skills needed today, in the effective running of any country. In other words just being a lawyer is not sufficient.
A situation developing in TT as we speak, is a case in point: here it is, the PM of the country, the highest position in the land, is not the least bit conversant with a "paper trail". His name shows up on a cheque in the amount of US$50,000. from Miami and the PM calls it a campaign contribution.
This is his explanation: "All the time, we receive party contributions and sometimes people want the political leader to know they contributed to the party and it is entered in the party's account." (Which is to say that Basdeo Panday and the UNC are one and the same). In the modern world that is known as commingling. It is not possible to have a cheque made out payable to Basdeo Panday, who later signs it over to the UNC party.
This cheque made out to Panday must be entered into his account which must be taxed as unearned income and should be declared as income to the Inland Revenue. I do not know the limit on campaign contributions in TT (I doubt we have any) but US$50,000 - $300,000.TT - far exceeds the amount that could be donated as a campaign contribution. The amount of US$50,000, exceeds that which is considered a Gift in the United States, it was not given to charity and the Treasurer of the UNC can find no record of the US$50,000 in question. (So where the money gone?)
The Opposition and the Gang of Four should remain vigilant - all illegal practices that were allowed to flourish in the past should be addressed and eliminated. Fortunately for all of us the era of checks and balance and accountability will change the way we live in TT, this change will not come about overnight, neither would we all suddenly become paragons of virtue but at best, this is a prescription for a better way of life for all the citizens of TT.
ULRIC GUY
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Panday has insisted on maximum leadership
Posted: Saturday, September 29, 2001
Abstract: Express
( Lloyd Best ) RATHER than accept democratic competition within the UNC, Panday has insisted on maximum leadership and one-man rule. He simply refused the reconciliation he could have had at a much earlier stage. The charge is that he was lenient on corruption and ready to subordinate the public interest to crony business concerns. He has now pleaded guilty to completely the wrong thing.
As if it were a matter of personal prerogative, the Political Leader is still talking about his own private experiment with party elections and his own culpability in allowing dissent to go on too long. He will now pay the price. The split within the UNC support will be hard now to heal in a generation or less.
The PM has also led the Government into a state of total paralysis. Nobody knows what the next step should be, least of all the Leader. Panday seems not to have had any sense of the way both country and parliament have been delicately balanced, if not altogether hung. There’s been no room to fire or hire. Only a man whose instincts are deadened by the drunkenness of power can have been so reckless as not to weigh consequences.
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The finger points at Prime Minister
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2001
THE EDITOR: I have observed with great consternation and abject horror, the self destruction of the UNC and hope fervently, that some miracle would be wrought to effect some salvation even at this late stage.
Looking at the entire scenario microscopically, the chief destroyer appears to be no other than the Hon Prime Minister Basdeo Panday for whom I had the greatest respect and admiration. However, recent events over the last months, demonstrated a leader exhibiting a plethora of behavioural patterns. As such respect and admiration jumped clean through the window and is now replaced by horror and bewilderment.
Referring to your Ministers as corbeaux, Judases and jackasses is so cras. What a metamorphosis! A Prime Minister commands respect by being respectful, not demands it. In politics never give the opposition guns and ammunition to fight you. All this paranoia and nonsensical raucous, because four Parliamentarians with "Testicular Fortitude" stood firm for participatory democracy (instead of autocracy) and adherence to the Party's Constitution.
All this rhetoric about National Unity, now rings hollow. Inclusion, yes, but at what price? By exclusion, and compromising the rock bed of the UNC? Get rid of the foundation members and hardworking Ministers for they want to challenge the Maximum Leader. Get rid of the "Gang of Four" they want to hijack the Party and cause division.
All this pandemonium because "Four wise men" saw the light and stood firm for democratic principles. The others who shamelessly prostrate themselves at every turn, choose to remain in darkness, which is worse than being blind. For what? Political Survival?
One observes with great trepidation, incidents such as the Police search of the home of the UNC treasurer, Unanan Persad, dismissal of two ETP Managers associated with the AG, the attempted evacuation of ex-Senator Barbara Burke and the downsizing of Ministerial portfolios and regard same as evil tactics.
Add to this list, threats of disciplinary action and expulsion of the "Gang of Four" who suddenly are not performing. Now wrap the package with gift paper called "What reconciliation" and one would see who wants to divide a viable and pro-active UNC. Is there salvation? I hope so.
H A CHARLES
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When computers are blamed for poor service
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2001
THE EDITOR: The totality of the pains, the anguish of the frustrations and the despair caused by their ridiculous excuses can only be equated to the World Trade Center's recent demise. That's the service handed out to long-suffering customers in their efforts to utilise TSTT Net Xpress service.
I have just about had more than I could possibly bear with TSTT Net Xpress Service. To say it is less than satisfactory is not even beginning to scratch the surface. At this point I can use some rather colourful adjectives to describe it but not one of these adjectives will be suited for this newspaper's column.
When in May of this year, I started having problems downloading e-mail, my repeated calls to this behemoth, and letters of complaint to the editor of the three daily newspapers about TSTT's anything-but-sterling internet service merely resulted in a couple of phone calls featuring technological excuses and a pledge to improve it. So I accepted their rhetoric hoping these problems would all be sorted out soon enough. Little did I know that several months would pass and I would still have that problem, and then some.
So what's a customer to do? Call the TSTT Net Xpress help desk, of course? Then, what are you told? "It's your computer's fault." "You're the only person complaining."
"We haven't had that complaint in months." Those are the sublime responses. Now, the ridiculous noes.
"There is a problem but we have foreign consultants working on it, troubleshooting the entire system but we can help you delete your (unread) messages."
Thus, my efforts at getting some kind of intelligent response has been a total exercise in futility. At this point I must empathise with the internet café‚ owners, who must indeed be going through hell losing revenue as a direct result of TSTT’s incompetence.
Used to be that you couldn't get through to TSTT Net Xpress help desk at all. Now you get through but it's your computer's fault. So, maybe TSTT can only take one small step at a time to make their service not so much better, but rather, 'less bad.' But TSTT’s effort, it seems was also an exercise in futility, because not only are we having problems receiving e-mail, the problem is compounded as we're now having problems sending e-mail too. Ineptitude and bureaucracy must be at an all-time high at this state-controlled institution that boasts hundreds of millions of dollars per year in profits.
Monopolising a product at any level certainly does not make for exemplary service. So, we're stuck with the shoddy, sloppy service meted out for good monies paid. To whom can we switch? It's not like the USA where one can switch to Earth Link or AOL or AT&T and many others. The other ISPs here all use part of TSTT’s infrastructure so they may very well be just as slow. Then there's the issue of the other ISPs not having a toll free number to dial-up, which would mean long distance charges to my phone bill for every minute that I'm online.
So, what am I and the many others in my position to do? Well, if this, my second letter of complaint does nothing, who knows? So here's another letter and here's to receiving another ridiculous excuse. How about here's to a service that works then maybe we could salute it with pride. I won't hold my breath.
Enough lamentations. Perhaps I should have written this letter before the budget was delivered then perhaps Mr Yetming would have got rid of the foreign-used consultants whom TSTT claims are working to alleviate the problems and utilise the services of equally qualified nationals who could hardly do worse.
PHIL LOPEZ
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Baksh not being part of the dissident group?
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2001
Minister Sadiq Baksh yesterday declared that he is not a member of the Gang of Four.
He told the media he is not part of a dissident group of United National Congress (UNC) MPs who have embarked on an anti-corruption crusade.
"I am not part of any gang. I am not a gangster," he insisted. I am not aware of the existence of any gang. Even if it existed. I would be no part of it".
Baksh, the MP for San Fernando West had been advertised as one of the Gang of Four and scheduled to speak at a meeting at Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj's Couva South constituency office on Wednesday night. However, Baksh did not attend the meeting and calls to his home and cellular went unanswered.
Sources close to the AG said yesterday: "It seems as though Minister Baksh is backing away from his support."
Evidence of Baksh not being part of the dissident group became clear during Trevor Sudama's address at the meeting when he said: "We ain't no gang, we are three musketeers. We are going to bring a political change to Trinidad and Tobago."
Baksh said he was busy on Wednesday meeting with persons at his constituency office, and was not aware that Gang of Four activists were looking for him on Wednesday night. Baksh said he had made his position clear on the current political wranglings.
"My record is clear. I am not for divisiveness. I am not involved in any rancour and discord. My religion does not allow that," he said.
However, he admitted that "there are many things we have done as a party and government, but there are also things I would like to see happen. We need to develop machinery and organs in the party so that it can function continuously rather than only at election time."
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The finger points at Prime Minister
Posted: Thursday, September 27, 2001
THE EDITOR: I have observed with great consternation and abject horror, the self destruction of the UNC and hope fervently, that some miracle would be wrought to effect some salvation even at this late stage.
Looking at the entire scenario microscopically, the chief destroyer appears to be no other than the Hon Prime Minister Basdeo Panday for whom I had the greatest respect and admiration. However, recent events over the last months, demonstrated a leader exhibiting a plethora of behavioural patterns. As such respect and admiration jumped clean through the window and is now replaced by horror and bewilderment.
Referring to your Ministers as corbeaux, Judases and jackasses is so cras. What a metamorphosis! A Prime Minister commands respect by being respectful, not demands it. In politics never give the opposition guns and ammunition to fight you. All this paranoia and nonsensical raucous, because four Parliamentarians with "Testicular Fortitude" stood firm for participatory democracy (instead of autocracy) and adherence to the Party's Constitution.
All this rhetoric about National Unity, now rings hollow. Inclusion, yes, but at what price? By exclusion, and compromising the rock bed of the UNC? Get rid of the foundation members and hardworking Ministers for they want to challenge the Maximum Leader. Get rid of the "Gang of Four" they want to hijack the Party and cause division.
All this pandemonium because "Four wise men" saw the light and stood firm for democratic principles. The others who shamelessly prostrate themselves at every turn, choose to remain in darkness, which is worse than being blind. For what? Political Survival?
One observes with great trepidation, incidents such as the Police search of the home of the UNC treasurer, Unanan Persad, dismissal of two ETP Managers associated with the AG, the attempted evacuation of ex-Senator Barbara Burke and the downsizing of Ministerial portfolios and regard same as evil tactics.
Add to this list, threats of disciplinary action and expulsion of the "Gang of Four" who suddenly are not performing. Now wrap the package with gift paper called "What reconciliation" and one would see who wants to divide a viable and pro-active UNC. Is there salvation? I hope so.
H A CHARLES
Macoya Gardens
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Living in fear
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2001
( Terry Joseph ) NEVER one to overstate the case, Mother relied heavily on a well-classified library of old folks' sayings, borrowing appropriate epithets to ride shotgun with her core point in any current affairs discussion.
As the plot thickened, an adage that just yesterday seemed unassailable would be deftly replaced by the precise value of maxim necessary to reflect recent increments in the particular bacchanal, avoiding wild sensationalism as a matter of policy and basic embellishment as a matter of course.
Even finality was subject to calibration. "Time longer than twine" was invoked only for serious matters over which she had no control. It was a senior-league saying, not interchangeable with fluffy threats like "The longest rope has an end", "What ain't pass could still meet you," or pie-in-the-sky stuff about every dog having its day.
The difference between newly installed doctrines and those they rescinded was sometimes far too subtle to be appreciated by an inexperienced ear. And when accuracy of interpretation depended largely on identifying nuances in her phonetics and often-imperceptible adjustments of body language, I sometimes went away with an entirely wrong impression.
It was her bearing as she said: "Cockroach have no right in fowl business" that made the point, so you not only had to listen carefully, but look for a turn of the wrist or if her ample arms went fully akimbo in the flourish. A head toss, particularly when enhanced by rolling eyes, could speak of doomsday without uttering a single word.
Were she here to experience this month's variety of conversation pieces, Geraldine might have gone into performance mode several times, but certainly while musing on shenanigans in the House of Representatives during the budget debate.
She would have been itching to rumble from first hearing of all the Judas and jackass talk that opened the September season, dispensing aphorisms as required by each moment.
It would have come late, perhaps not until all other options expired, but were she with us in these troubled times, I was bound to hear a version of "Cockroach have no right in fowl business", with mother Geraldine protracting the penultimate word to create a mood of inquiry.
With increased revenue expectation from price hikes on liquor and cigarettes, it would not be unreasonable to ask for Finance Minister Gerard Yetming's projections as to how many people were expected to consequently drink and smoke less and if those statistics had been factored into his equation.
But mother had no need to go that deep. Failing an impressively detailed supplemental note, Geraldine would have blithely described the measure as "spinning top in mud" and by extension, consider the entire document a kind of "ratchifee". Parliament's puerile misinterpretation of tobacco and alcohol addiction as mere vices, was sure to elicit one of her favourites: "What is death for crapaud is joke for schoolboys." In the sum, she may have concluded the budget "didn't change the price of cocoa".
But there was "more in the mortar than the muktar". In a series of sideshows that continued right through the debate, we also learned that "two man-rat can't live in one hole". Worse, where such vermin came in gangs of four and had the temerity to pelt picong "choo-pool", accommodation at any level was deemed impossible.
And talk about "having cocoa in the sun!" Geraldine would have conscripted some faded photograph of the family home to help dramatise her presentation. She may also have dubbed the Social Development Minister Mano-"ha-ha-ha" Ramsaran after his attempts at damage control.
An extremely astute woman, Geraldine wasn't likely to fall for all the talk about A People's Budget, especially after the debate in the Lower House, which had little to do with us, dedicating so much of its time to firing salvos across the floor and lateral sniping.
It would start as fun, she and her cronies engaging in telephone or face to face street-level analysis, but we who were close to her would always know when "water more than flour". It was at times like those we heard about the impropriety of cockroach getting into fowl business.
And when Geraldine stopped laughing, it was generally not a good time to be alive. We would be quiet like Vincent Lasse, hoping no force majeure pushed her to the next level. Indeed, it was not until we heard a particular saying we knew to be a cry of release that it would be safe to come out again.
But we lived through those episodes and no doubt will survive the current crisis, replete in the knowledge that time longer than twine.
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Fishing Complex - a history of neglect
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2001
THE EDITOR: There is a long history of neglect associated with the Cocorite Fishing Complex, a facility which falls under the blanket of the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources.
This division is responsible for the physical maintenance of the structures on the compound, the surrounding land space and the payment of bills and taxes connected to the working of the facility.
Approximately seven years ago, storms destroyed the finger pier that serviced the facility; no move to replace the pier was made by the division. A dirt embankment was laid in by Thomas Peake and Co to ease the problems caused by the missing pier.
The adjustment suited the Division and so the pier was never replaced.
In May of 2000, we lost our water supply due to the non payment of the bill by the Division. Operating a retail fish market without running water was very taxing and dangerous to national health.
In June of 2001, a letter addressed to the owner of the market came to the compound, warning of the eventuality of sale of the market for tax arrears to the tune of twenty thousand, seven hundred and ninety dollars ($20,790.00), placing emotional stress on the people who depend upon the facility for a living.
In August of 2001, the power supply was cut because of non-payment of the bill. Fishermen usually leave for sea very early on mornings and sometimes late at night. Very often, we do not return from sea until the late hours of the evening when, of course, it is dark out. The loss of the power supply is, at present, our frustrating neglect.
On the last three occasions that we approached the Division we were met with total unawareness of what was happening, and told that there were no funds readily available to remedy the situation. This facility serves approximately 40 boats, with an average of 20 of them working on a regular basis.
Being aware that funds are released for the upkeep of these facilities makes for negative speculations.
We are hoping that making the public aware of the existing situation would bring much needed relief.
A KINGELE
The Cocorite Fishing Association
Western Main Road
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Stop Acting Like Jamettes
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2001
Independent Senator Martin Daly yesterday called on high office holders to stop acting like jamettes.
"Stop jamettising themselves and stop jamettising the country," he stated.
"I feel especially bad when our public officials behave like jamettes in front of foreigners," he added.
Daly, speaking in the Budget debate in the Senate, said that the only reason why the government had not fallen was because the "mutineers and the leader needed each other. "They are locked in embrace, like two scorpions dancing," he noted.
In a contribution which hit all political sides, Daly said the Budget was affected fundamentally not just by the events in the United States on September 11, but by the events of last Saturday (when the Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj made his budget contribution in the House of Representatives).
"That is the day that the mutiny in government coalesced, crystallised and couldn't be explained away," he said. Daly said if foreign investors were made timid by the events in New York, he could imagine what they thought when they saw members of the government "cussing up each other", "first-class quality singing and butting" among the office-holders". In a clear reference to the Prime Minister's frequent response to questions about corruption, Daly said: "Bring the evidence? You still have evidence when the boys singing like canaries?"
"You have a spectacle now, members of this government singing and telling us what is going on.. Slapping the man..our Prime Minister.. in the face with the glove, challenging him to a duel and he will have to duel back either in the Cabinet or at the polls because we can't run the country in the way we doing it now."
And the government was still on its legs, he said, because of "the inability of the man who has got the gauntlet to duel back without careful thought".
Daly wondered what people thought when he saw the Prime Minister saying, in the presence of the Acting US Ambassador, David Stewart, that the country's financial system was under threat from a self-righteous group, bent on destruction. And, the Independent Senator noted, that after "two towers and six buildings collapse", the Minister of Agriculture "calls a press conference to tell us — not how much food we have... if the US goes to war and the ships can't bring the US food here, but to say 'I ain't get seven trips and Carlos (John) going Australia and Duprey going too."
Daly later added: "He (Sudama) wants to go to Australia? Give him a pirogue, because that is all we might be able to afford" if there is a global crisis as a result of war.
Daly said add to all of this the saga of UP (Unanan Persad)-Well, that (one) is days of our lives"- and the statements by Manohar Ramsaran accusing the Attorney General, "the guardian of the constitution" of treachery. Daly said while all this was going on in the government, the PNM's response was a picture of a house in London. He advised the Opposition that if it had a "buss a mark" it must be true. He said it was disturbing that the question was raised about the ownership (of the Campden Apartment) but the response has pointed in the direction of a tenancy. "If yuh buss a mark, it must be good because it is only once yuh could buss it," he said, adding that he hoped the issue of the Campden flat would be resolved.
Saying that he kept hearing about "catching people after they tief", Daly said the Budget invited comment on how to prevent the misuse of public property before it reaches the hands of the custodians of public office. He lamented also that the new doctrine in this country in examining public projects, was to dismiss as unimportant, questions of whether "we paid too much or whether people are unjustly enriched, as long as it is built".
Daly stated that the attitude with which people entered public life was significant. He said all governments since independence, had failed to tell their wealthy supporters that their financial backing did not mean that they would get anything in return.
He added that some public officials and their appointees had no proper concept of public service and felt it was about free cars, free cell phone and free house that they don't need. They used public office to "big up themselves", he noted.
Others, he said couldn't do public service without damaging the economy. That, Daly said, was how "we tief from we own self".
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America has sneezed - try to avoid cold
Posted: Tuesday, September 25, 2001
The Mighty Sparrow said, "When America sneezes, the world catches the cold. Even if the US Government pumps a lot of money into the economy, it will affect people all around the world." An admirable philosophical statement from a highly travelled and great calypsonian, and how true it is.
We are advised to take heed of Sparrow's foresight as we suffered in the boom days due to our greed, extravagant spending and an inept and corrupt PNM Government.
The citizens are in the correct frame of mind to reflect on the country-building policies of the NAR Government between 1986 and 1991, so the mistakes made by the PNM Government would not cause any government to be side-tracked to keep the ship of State afloat.
It has been mistakenly said that the policies introduced or imposed upon the citizenry by the NAR were harsh and oppressive but they are responsible for our good fortunes today. What NAR policies? Are you a PNM, UNC or nincompoop?
Recession will hit us. Jobs will be lost. New jobs will not be created. New investments will be sparse. Homes will be broken. Mortgagees will suffer again. Squatting will increase. Crime will increase. Child labour will be rampant. The rich will be filthy rich and the poor will be recognisable.
The politicians will be enemy number one, so Mr Politician, practise the oath you took and come up with something to avoid the cold now, for America has sneezed!
LYSTRA LYTHE,
Sangre Grande.
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A new kind of war
Posted: Tuesday, September 25, 2001
THE EDITOR: Nobody thought that the USA would have been attacked in this fashion. It was properly planned, and it was done with great precision with the hijackers all moving at the same time.
This kind of war is even more dangerous than the one commonly fought with sophisticated weapons because no one knows when or where the attack will occur.
Fighting terrorists is a lot more complicated than fighting the common enemy. The whole world is at risk and extreme precaution must be exercised with persons who come from countries who specialise in this kind of warfare.
The war of today is not fought on the battlefields anymore, but using more brain-power rather than weapons. Imagine these terrorists went to America to learn to fly, learning the whereabouts of the country, while hijacking their own planes using them as weapons to destroy American property and taking the lives of so many innocent people. The actions of these people are inhumane, and are truly the disciples of Satan.
President Bush must think seriously before attacking Afghanistan with so many poor people who are at the mercy of these wicked people themselves. The world at large is in for a great deal of attacks by these terrorists. This seems to be a new kind of war, where the attackers strike at anytime and any place.
The whole world is in turmoil with these satanic agents who are carrying out satan's dirty work, and with many false prophets who are working on the destruction of souls as is stated in the bible. The nations of the world must go back to Almighty God begging for forgiveness, and showing love to one another as was instituted by Jesus Christ himself.
War and terrorism are not the answer to international problems, but fruitful dialogue with world powers humbling themselves and seeking peaceful solutions going to God Almighty asking for world peace where nations of the world would live in peace and harmony forever and ever.
HORACE DESORMEAUX
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A low blow to our sporting public
Posted: Tuesday, September 25, 2001
THE EDITOR: This is not meant to be "I told you so" article but just a reminder of the parlous state of our sports and the continued failure of the powers that be to address the growing problem of youth deviance by providing an obvious ( but not the only) solution. It is now past history that our Under 17 World Cup Football team has like saltfish been zero (0) rated. These youngsters were sabotaged when we waited until the 11th hour to provide the necessary training to equip them to match the quality of play of teams like Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, France etc.
We dealt the sporting public a low blow by denying them an opportunity to see a properly trained Trinidad and Tobago youth team stand up to our 'adopted' team Brazil and others. Enough of the post mortem. We are now left with four World Class Stadia. Are they going to remain as memorials of World Cup 2001 and nothing else? I keep repeating again that we need urgently a Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Sport, one similar to the Australian Institute.
Let me provide some of the information I have collected in relation to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
The AIS is regarded internationally as a world best practice model for elite athlete development. The AIS is the pre-eminent elite sports training institution in Australia providing athletes with world class training facilities, high performance coaching, state of the art equipment, a world class sports medicine and sports science facility. A national network of advisers help athletes with educational guidance, career planning, job searching and personal development to make sure that they plan for life after sport. The AIS offers training in 26 sports eg Athletes with disabilities, athletics, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, golf, gymnastics, hockey, netball, rugby, football, swimming, tennis, triathalon, volley ball, strength and conditioning programs. Training is also offered in Bio-mechanics, nutrition, physiology, physiotherapy/massage, psychology. From the above, it can be seen that the AIS offers a comprehensive programme. What would the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Sport do for our country. Right now we have a problem with youth deviance together with the talented but frustrated youth who may be on the brink of launching into deviant behaviour.
We have no programme in place except to use the courts to send these youths to remand centres which are known training school for hardened criminals. Recidivism is the result.
While there is talk about doing something to counter react the increase in youth crime and deviance, it remains, as usually happens in this country, "just ole talk." In a few areas of sport in this county we produce the occasional `world beater', a once in a generation phenomenon and a large number of `willing but unable' third raters. Our netball team once the best in the world can not make it to the next World Cup.
We are talking of sending our athletes abroad for training. How demeaning! Our swim team shows promise but at the rate we are going will never be world beaters. Our boxing programme is in shambles. Our basketballers are jokers compared to Cuba, Argentina, Australia, Japan, China and don't even talk about the USA. England is sending their cricketers to the Australian Institute for training. Will we be next? To talk about Golf is to collapse laughing. The same thing goes for tennis.
One does not expect someone to wave a magic wand and provide an Institute of Sport immediately in this country. It takes planning and not that much money. I heard Michael Agostini speaking recently on a TV show and remarking that he had continuously suggested to Trinidad and Tobago that they take a serious look at the Australian Institute. I doubt anyone has done so. I understand that Australia/The Australian Institute has offered to help our Government if we wished to set up a similar institute. No takers. In this country of numerous negative role models it is possible that the positive ones can come from sport eg, our local Tiger Woods, Venus and Serena Williams, Michael Johnson, Pete Sampras etc. We have wasted and mis-spent billions of dollars over the years. Why can't we create a Heritage trust for our children and their children in the form of an Institution of Sport?
Those of us who study Taoism (The Way) know that without vision the Way remains dark and undiscovered. Our youth need guidance.
Our youth need to be shown the correct path. Our youth need inspiration. It is about time that men and women in this country demonstrate that they are neither myopic, spineless or too obese and lacking in energy to provide this country with vision and leadership.
If you consider Australia too distant, there is an Institute/Academy much closer to home. Check out Cuba and the success story of their Institute.
M HOTIN
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US must accept some blame for terrorism
Posted: Monday, September 24, 2001
THE EDITOR: While the tragic attack upon the civilian population of the United States is inexcusable we should not remain unmindful of the intolerable suffering perpetuated over a protracted period upon the Palestine people by the Israelites and their co-hosts supported and supplied with weapons of destruction by the United States. Are American lives more sacred than Palestinians?
I do not with to appear callous. All life is sacred. Having to some extent concerned myself with the Arab-Israelites question from as far back as the mid-nineteen forties after having read D H Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I believe more than some that I have a fair knowledge of the historical background of both the peoples and events. DH Lawrence had the highest regard and respect for the Arab, he expressed much disgust at acts of betrayal carried out against the Arabs at the hands of western statesmen. Little has changed. Their background shows that these people were not given to terrorism. This was to change with coming events. The vast migration of European Jews into the region at the conclusion of the second World War and the establishment of the State of Israel brought devastation to the indigenous Arab population.
Driven from their homes and businesses to seek refuge in Jordan, they became the permanent residents of refugee camps where most of them spend their last days. It is here where their children and grandchildren were born and live out their lives. Destitute and without hope, what is to be expected other than a terrorist explosion? It was not that these poor victims of exploitation, injustice and neglect did not with patience for a considerable time not bring their plight to the world's attention. The records of the United Nations attest to this. Their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Playing no prominent part in world affairs and wielding no clout politically or militarily they have been unceremoniously ignored. Witnessing the suffering of their elders the younger generation took the decision to take the fight to the home of their persecutors. This is in brief the conditions and circumstances that gave birth to Palestinian terrorism. American implication in all this must be recognised. In order to fully comprehend the Arabs' unhealthy hatred for the United States.
The tragedy that struck America some days ago would never have materialised had the United States adopted and implemented a fair and just Middle-East policy over the years. Times over atrocities committed by the Israelites against the Palestinians have received nothing but a slap on the wrist from the American whereas Palestinians violence in response received condemnation from the United States.
How often have peace accords arrived at failed to bear fruit for which the Jews must bear sole responsibility? Has the United States, the broker of these accords, ever taken any firm and positive action that would contain the Jewish state from committing further atrocities against those helpless Palestinians?
For years the United States has had it in its power to enforce a just and lasting peace in the region but failed to do so because of its pampering of the Jews. The hunting down and punishing of the perpetrators of the atrocity committed in New York and Washington would resolve no issue nor bring any peace. The road to peace lies at the root of the problem. Removing Osama Bin Laden - like Carlos before him - will accomplish nothing other than make way for those yet unnamed. Where there is no justice expect no peace. of this I am convinced beyond any shadow of doubt. On the other side of the coin sight must not be lost of the fact as experience has shown terrorism accomplishes nothing. Those who sanction its practice become the victims of their own reoccurring decimal.
An act resulting in such excruciating pain for victims and their families regardless of how justifiable the cause can never be condoned.
D HERMY
Woodbrook
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Basdeo Panday, hinting at firing some ministers
Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2001
Basdeo Panday is hinting at firing some of his Ministers, he has drawn a link between the Attorney General and the Opposition PNM.
He was yesterday speaking to reporters after the Budget debate. Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, MPs Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj were critical of Government's handling of corruption during the just-concluded budget debate.
Panday said he was surprised to see "the level of co-operation and similarities between the views" expressed by Maharaj "and the Opposition PNM."
"I also loved Laventille MP (Fitzgerald) Hinds' opening remarks when he said 'Welcome to the fold'. So we know who the conspirators are."
Asked how he would describe the statements from his three MPs, Panday said: "I think I couldn't give a better description than Hinds. He did it perfectly."
Panday quipped: "What I'm worried about is who is the Bin Laden and where is the Afghanistan? I think that was a very good description, then we certainly have to keep looking for a (Osama) 'Bin Laden'. We know who the suicide bombers are."
Asked if he would direct his "aircraft" in that direction, Panday said: "Like the US we have a lot of investigating to do. We'll fight 'terrorism' in the Cabinet and without."
On whether he thought Maharaj's procedure was the correct one to adopt, Panday said: "No. I'd have thought that such a matter should have come to the Cabinet. Cabinet members are hearing of this for the first time. That's not the way to be a member of Parliament or Cabinet with collective responsibility."
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Speak out against war
Posted: Sunday, September 23, 2001
THE EDITOR: We have just witnessed the horrific consequence in the United States of America of the madness of war. No war, covert or overt, can be fought without the participants on all sides suffering the devastating consequences of war. In the world today, we in the Western world boast that we "Keep the Peace by constantly preparing for War."
It is the "great Western, Christian civilisation" which has led us into two world wars. Now we totter on the brink of another. Truly, we learn nothing from history and we continue to repeat the errors of the past. Sadly, it is the innocent who pay the price for the folly of politicians.
We have a moral duty to tell America the truth. As a placard shown on the media asks: "Americans, think why you are hated all over the world". It is a question the citizens of that country more than any other must ask their politicians and those in the arms industry to answer.
Had Osama bin Laden been still fighting against the Russians, aided and abetted by the American CIA, he would be hailed as a freedom fighter and a devout Muslim. He would have been seen as a true believer of Islam who gave up the comfort and luxury of his peers in Saudi Arabia to fight for the just cause of removing the yoke of a foreign oppressor and exploiter.
To explain the horrors we have recently witnessed, we must tell ourselves that we are all partly responsible. We have kept silent when we should have spoken out. If we do not speak now we risk endangering the future of our children and of the whole world becoming engulfed in a nuclear war. We each of us have a duty to speak out now.
We have been witnesses to the devastation of Vietnam where the deadly defoliant Agent Orange was sprayed over that country. Unborn generations will be born deformed, demented and victim to cancer. Even some of the American pilots and crew members have become victims because of that weapon of war.
When incendiary bombs were used, we vividly remember the picture of a girl, running naked with much of her skin burnt off. She had no hospital to go to.
We are witness to the heartless destruction of one of the most ancient civilisations in Iraq where the USA and its sidekick Britain continue to bomb that country without authorisation of the United Nations.
The help of the United Nations is not being sought in the present crisis. They can be dispensed with. With the help of Britain and some other European countries the ‘Great, Western, Christian civilisation' (words of President Ronald Reagan) can proceed with its crusade against Afghanistan.
Let us pray that President Bush does not plunge the world into a final, cataclysmic war. He is threatening fire and brimstone and the slaughter of millions of poor, innocent people.
He should be seeking the cause as to why this Himalayan calamity has struck the ordinary people of America. That disaster has its roots in Western policy commencing hundreds of years ago.
Today, Bush shamelessly offers a bounty of five million dollars for Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. This is real life. I thought that former president Ronald Reagan was the only film star who had become president. Now we have another!
This is not play-acting. This is real life. We do not want precipitous action to serve political purposes. Countless millions may be killed.
Let us pray that sanity will prevail.
B RAMDEEN
Attorney, author, former MP
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Yetming usurping the AG's duties
Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2001
Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj yesterday condemned Finance Minister Gerald Yetming's decision to hire a private firm to draft legislation, saying Yetming was usurping the AG's duties.
Yetming announced his decision to hire a private firm to draft legislation on mutual funds at a forum, "Budget 2002 - Impact on the Private Sector," held at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Westmoorings on Monday.
The Finance Minister had said he planned to use a private firm to draft legislation on mutual funds as the Attorney General's Office was inundated with work.
Yesterday, Maharaj told reporters: "There is a shortage of legal staff but the way the system operates, the Minister of Finance shouldn't decide for the AG what his functions are, his duties are.
"The holder of the office of the AG will decide whether, in any particular legislation, his chief parliamentary counsel and his department cannot do it and what kind of assistance it needs, " he said.
Maharaj said Ministers' decisions "to draft their own legislation" and contract people in "Singapore, Japan, India, America to draft legislation" are often a "total waste" of taxpayers' money because "sometimes when it comes back, it goes to Cabinet, it comes here to be vetted...the whole process has to be started over and the money is a total waste.
"That is why the holder of the office of the AG should decide with consultations with independent legal officers of the Ministry whether they can do it and what kind of assistance they need," Maharaj said.
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UNC's Sudama calls UNC's Budget ambitious
Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2001
Speaking in the Lower House, Sudama - regarded as one of the "dissident Gang of Four" by his colleagues - prefaced his delivery by saying he was simply doing his duty under his oath. He said he intended to make certain observations and hoped they would be accepted in a good spirit.
He felt the Budget was a "bit ambitious in its objective" and also felt the theme of "One Nation, One People" may only "reflect an empty slogan."
On corruption, he questioned systems in the Budget such as the Tax Fraud Investigation Unit.
"What's the scope of the unit? Does it apply to the wider public apart from public officers because there is abundant evidence?.. there are people who couldn't pay their rent in 1996 and are now buying expensive property in expensive locations, and buying BMWs and Pajeros," he said.
He questioned how the Finance Minister would proceed with investigating corruption and how one would determine if allegations were supported by evidence.
"I think if we're going to project a serious image that we're dealing with corruption and irregularities, we must adhere to certain standards and we must show it," he added.
Despite growth, he said there could have been even more without corruption (to which the PNM benches pounded their support).
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Rowley questions US$50,000 cheque from UNC group
Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2001
During his contribution to the 2002 Budget debate in the House of Representatives, Opposition MP Dr Keith Rowley displayed a copy of the US$50,000 manager's cheque made out to Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. The cheque was dated December 7, 2000 - the week before the last general election.
Rowley said the Prime Minister could not remain silent on this latest controversy.
"Today I am saying silence is not an option. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago must explain this," Rowley insisted.
Panday was not in the Parliament chamber at the time, having left at the lunch-break. He did not return.
Rowley said he was "looking forward to the Prime Minister entering the (budget) debate to explain the circumstances under which he was in receipt of these and other monies because there are other cheques, you know. This is only one instalment, you know."
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Gypsy/Chaitan hearing set for Monday
Posted: Friday, September 21, 2001
( TT Newsday )Hearing of an application by Junior Ministers Winston "Gypsy" Peters and William Chaitan for leave to appeal to the Privy Council takes place before the Appeal Court at 9 am on Monday.
Attorneys for the Junior Ministers filed the application for final leave on Wednesday.
The hearing will be heard before the same three Appeal Court judges who heard the appeal in the constitution motion filed by Peters and Chaitan. They are Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide, Justice Sat Sharma and Justice Rolston Nelson.
The Ministers are challenging the ruling of the Appeal Court which agreed (by a two to one majority) with the judgment of Justice Ivor Archie that the election petitions filed to unseat them did not infringe their constitutional rights.
Peters and Chaitan had filed constitutional motions claiming their rights were infringed by the election petitions filed by Opposition PNM candidates during the December 2000 General Elections. The PNM candidates Franklin Khan (Ortoire/Mayaro) and Farad Khan (Pointe-a-Pierre) claimed they are the lawful Members of Parliament since at the time of nomination and election Peters and Chaitan held dual citizenship to the US and Canada respectively.
Peters and Chaitan then filed constitutional motions claiming that the election petitions infringed their rights.
The constitutional motions were dismissed by Justice Ivor Archie. The Junior Ministers then appealed this decision. The Appeal Court with a two to one majority (Justice Sharma dissenting) upheld Justice Archie's judgment and dismissed the appeal. The Junior Ministers then appealed the Appeal Court's decision and they made their application for final leave yesterday.
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Attributes of the corbeau all too common
Posted: Friday, September 21, 2001
IT WAS the Prime Minister who first voiced his concerns about the presence of corbeaux in the ruling party, concerns later echoed by a junior Minister at a Diego Martin constituency meeting.
Because of its dietary lifestyle, the environmentally-friendly corbeau possesses certain useful attributes: keen eyesight, a bald head and neck, and a beak and claws that are razor sharp.
It uses these to sight food from a considerable distance away, to probe into it without messing or matting the feathers, and to cut and enjoy its meals delicately, all this in the same order according to the attributes listed.
The last named operation is analogous to an epicure using a knife and fork on a filet mignon.
If you are thinking straight, the staple diet of corbeaux is carrion.
Have the PM and the junior Minister, by their utterances, unwittingly let the cat out of the bag?
RL DUCHAUSSEE
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Gypsy and Chaitan file Privy Council appeals
Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2001
Attorneys for Junior Ministers Winston "Gypsy" Peters and William Chaitan yesterday filed applications for final leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The Ministers are challenging the ruling of the Appeal Court which agreed (by a two to one majority) with the judgment of Justice Ivor Archie that the election petitions filed to unseat them did not infringe their constitutional rights.
The application for final leave was filed just before 4 pm in the Registry of the Court of Appeal by attorney Devesh Maharaj.
It was endorsed on September 5 by certificate from the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The attorneys now await a date on which they would appear before the same three Appeal Court justices and make a formal application for final leave.
On August 6, Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide, Justice Sat Sharma and Justice Rolston Nelson granted attorneys for the Junior Ministers conditional leave to appeal to the Privy Council.
The conditions which had to be complied with before the application could have been made included a Ł500 security deposit within 30 days; the settling of the record of appeal and having it certified by the Registrar of the Supreme Court within 30 days; and having the record of appeal sent by the Registrar of the Supreme Court to the Registrar of the Privy Council within 30 days for certification. The Appeal Court had given the attorneys 45 days in which to apply for final leave. That period ended yesterday.
Peters and Chaitan had filed constitutional motions claiming their rights were infringed by the election petitions filed by Opposition PNM candidates during the December 2000 General Elections.
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Dark, bleak days ahead for BWIA
Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2001
THE EDITOR: My condolences to all those affected by the unconscionable attacks on innocent people of all nationalities, and especially nationals of Trinidad and Tobago.
Since aviation is my field, my thoughts go to those on the aircraft, both passengers and aircrew.
We have been cursed to, as the Chinese say, "live in interesting times."
There is strong evidence that the world air transport industry is about to go through unprecedented changes.
I put this out as my own take on the scene, and it falls pretty well in line with what I have written previously.
I apologise for any toes on which I might tread, and will be happy to correct any inaccuracies if they are pointed out to me.
The formerly strong exponents of "free market" trade have suddenly found that the icons of the free market may be paper tigers when faced with the current situation.
It is being publicly stated that the major US carriers, without exception, will be bankrupt by the end of the year if nothing is done. Major European carriers that have had the lucrative transatlantic route as their cash cow will have to truncate many of their less lucrative routes in order to attempt to merely survive. Several sources indicate that BA and Virgin will be badly affected. In some markets, airline traffic is expected to tank, down as much as 35 per cent.
The potentially staggering liabilities of both American Airlines and United Airlines in the WTC and Pentagon incidents put their survival in question, even if the US government comes up with the current subsidies sought by the US airline industry (US$ 15 billion). No company could survive the huge liability under the present system, so either the system will change, or AA and UA will be sent the way of Braniff, EAL, Eastern, Pan Am, and the loss in confidence will prejudice the ability of Delta, Continental, USAir, etc, to raise the capital they will need to survive.
Although it will be in direct contradiction to long stated and dogmatic policy, I think that there will be interference in the free trade system, as the alternative, large scale bankruptcies in the airline industry, is almost unthinkable.
The implications to Caribbean communication and tourism are very significant (the Caribbean is a very competitive region, and yields are comparatively low).
There will be great instability in the supply of seats to the region, and the added costs of expanded security procedures will dampen demand for seats, which, as a result of market shrinkage, will become even more expensive. A vicious circle.
There will soon be a lot of new aircraft slots, or very cheap "almost new" aircraft, in the market, so maybe BWee’s re-equipment will become easier.
What I think is amusing is that frantic efforts are being made to pay foreign carriers all kinds of subsidies, and rebated landing fees, special fuel prices, etc, etc.
Yet BWIA is being forced into battle with "mature" aircraft, high rents in the new airport that have been foisted on them, and generally treated like an unwanted outside child. Add to this the millstone that the Government has tied around BWIA’s neck, that is to say Category 2 status for Trinidad, and it is easy to understand how the US soldiers in Vietnam felt. Go out and win the war with hands tied behind your back, and be careful not to embarrass us by hurting anybody. Oh yes, and don’t forget, be careful not to make money because you are an "essential service."
Pardon me, folks, but your glaring hypocrisy is showing, "ah seein de Emperor bare bamsee."
I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong on any of these matters, so if anyone cares to debate, please feel free.
SIMON KELSHALL
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Senators praise President for recognising mistake
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Senators yesterday praised President Arthur N R Robinson for being "man enough" to acknowledge his mistake and correct it, rather than "cling" to it.
Independent Senator Martin Daly said this could only enhance the institution of the President.
He was commenting on the decision of President Robinson to rescind the firing of EBC Commissioner Raoul John.
"I think it is extremely good news because I firmly believe whoever you are, you must follow the Constitution and what the legislation provides. It's a very good example for others who seek to excuse breaches of the law on the grounds of performance or emergency," Daly said, in an obvious reference to former NWRHA Chairman Senator Tim Gopeesingh.
Daly stressed however that many people, "including myself", had concerns about the operations of the EBC. Noting that there were lawful mechanisms which could be employed to investigate those operations, he said he hoped that those mechanisms would be employed.
Asked whether the EBC's decision to defy the President set a dangerous precedent, Daly said that whenever there were these "big issues", he believed that both sides should take a conciliatory approach. "This thing came up, and in no time at all it reached a massive confrontation. Why can't people dialogue and discuss these things before they frighten the whole population...The public is traumatised by all these big events".
Daly said the problems of the EBC were not going to go away. "People have legitamate concerns and if you are a public official and someone questions what you are doing, you answer them on the issues, not by insulting them," Daly said.
Daly who said last week that he had a difficulty with someone who could negotiate directly with the government for things to be put in the Budget, also sitting on the EBC, maintained that he believed this matter (John's dual portfolios) needed to be explored. "I don't think it needs to be the subject of a dogfight," he said.
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Looking at this tragedy with wisdom instead of retribution
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
( R. A. Daniels ) How can a man speak with wisdom when his only skill is to parrot his Master's words? He has no wisdom of his own. He has no ideas of his own. He only repeats what his master has already said.
Do you understand how The New World Order toppled the dreams of Third World countries struggling to develop their own economies and defense systems? Do you know that The New World Order is a combined force of the most powerful countries and companies, and that their sole purpose is to control the world's economy? Do you know how the United States, while preachy democracy, has undermined the free expression of countries around the world? Do you understand that the United States is identified by several human rights organization as among the most violent and hostile nation in the history of the planet?
You say, you know the US has not been saintly. Apparently, you have no idea how demonic the US has been. If you knew you would understand that the terrorism directed at us is not only the result of The New World Order, but also a response to your President George W. Bush announcement that the US intends to build a missile defense system in outer space to further impose its influence on developing nations.
Now, if someone stood outside your home and threatened to take your lunch money each day you left for school, would you not want to strike back?
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EYE IN THE STORM: To make the angels weep
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
( Gladstone Holder ) Tragedy struck the United States last Tuesday morning, September 11, while all the world watched in dread and compassion for them as all children of God - just like the onlookers. An unprecedented attack wreaked havoc on two of its most characteristic symbols - its money power, represented by the World Trade Center in New York, and its military power, as represented by the Pentagon in its political capital, Washington D.C.
It is ironic that its horrific losses should have been inflicted, not by military planes but by three commercial planes, owned by US companies. Two of the planes crashed into the twin towers of the Trade Centre, causing them to collapse and bringing death to thousands. A third plane slammed into the Pentagon while a fourth crashed in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The death toll for the passengers was 266. The number of civilian deaths, not yet known, is expected to be very heavy.
This was the work of hijackers who boarded the planes, paralysed the passengers and crew by brandishing knives and then carried out their destructive mission.
When the Security Council Coalition bombed Iraq in 1991 they used nuclear-tipped shells and advanced military planes. There is an ironic discrepancy here as well.
Suspicion for the masterminding of these attacks quickly fell on Saudi millionaire, Osama bin Laden, whom the United States has branded a terrorist and has vainly called for his extradition from Afghanistan to stand trial for the bombing of the United States Embassy in Kenya in 1998. According to EIR magazine of April 4, 1997, having been expelled from Sudan for plotting terrorism, he had taken up dual residence in the United Kingdom and Afghanistan.
Some independent US journalists, dissatisfied with the FBI's quick suspicion of bin Laden, asked for the evidence. That complex, wrecking exercise, carried out with professional precision and commitment to their deadly cause, called for expert planning and training which President Jimmy Carter would wish he could have commanded when he attempted to rescue the US hostages held in Tehran by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The mission required clear vision and able co-ordination.
Those doubting journalists were perhaps struck by the odds against bin Laden carrying out such an expedition as would tax the ingenuity of homogenous think tanks in the US. They asked questions: How did the hijackers manage to get on the flights? Were they searched? What passports did they have? What were their nationalities.
The complaint was made that there was too much emphasis on technology and not enough on human intelligence (HUMINT) on the ground. The opportunity given to the wreckers seemed too easy to be credible. It would later be disclosed that the hijacking pilots were US trained. Two polls carried out voted strongly for the precaution that the US should not retaliate until it was sure who the perpetrators were.
The US has been wrongly certain quite often. The voters no doubt remembered when President Bill Clinton, claiming he had strong evidence that Sudan was making dangerous chemicals, bombed the plants - only to discover the products were pharmaceuticals for children.
Some Americans were clearly unhappy when early in the day, President George W. Bush promised to hunt down the operpetrators even before he could have had an inkling of who they were. He also said: "Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I assure you freedom will be defended."
I can almost hear the question immediately thrown back at him: Freedom for the top 20 per cent? In the profession of journalism, where its practitioners are accustomed to official cover-ups and misinformation, scepticism is an essential trait.
There is, for instance, a glaring discrepancy that shortly after the bombing, the name of bin Laden surfaced. Yet the US Intelligence Services, with all their advanced technology, had no early warning of such a massive and far-flung undertaking.
The FBI, according to news reports on Thursday morning (September 13), said they had identified 50 people who had connections with the attacks. How would bin Laden, their prime suspect, from -a remote base- in backward Afghanistan, have been able to recruit, organise and keep in touch with a scattered army of people around the world?
It has been a week worth watching closely, putting the information under the microscope and utilising a background of knowledge to distinguish truth from speculation and propaganda, between real goals and red herrings. Some people have said that, following the deadly attack on the United States, this world will not be the same again. They don't all mean the same thing, the same outcome.
Nevertheless, there are some tell-tale signs. In the first polls, American opinion was that the government should not strike back in reflexive anger but should first make sure who the villains were. That evidently set off an alarm bell. For less than 48 hours later, commentators started speculating that the US might bomb Afghanistan where bin Laden presently resides.
Execution and vengeance without evidence and without trial, the democratically ascertained opinion of the American people being of no account. That option might prove dangerous to the plans of the ruling class. Hence the relentless stream of brainwashing being poured out on the American people and any others who might watch or listen. It is also a calculated attempt to frighten the Taleban to hand him over to the US or expose themselves to death by an enraged and mighty US. So much for the Rule of Law.
A nervous US, however, whose eyes were opened by a dastardly act of indiscriminate violence, is no longer prepared to go it alone as in the past when President Ronald Reagan bombed Libya on mere suspicion or on less than cast iron information by his Intelligence Services. Was that 'a blight on the civilised world' as Secretary of State Colin Powell said of the recent attack on the US?
It now seeks to involve its friends and allies in Europe in an understanding which asserts that an attack on any one state in the NATO group of countries is an attack on all.
It is a standard self-preservation device even if the majority of its NATO members may not be fully aware that they cannot expect equality of treatment in any given situation. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, however, as befitting the most experienced member country of the Union, has been cautious on the matter. He is reported as saying it does not mean automatic support for any US unilateral initiative. The proposal must be put on the table for discussion by the Organisation - the voice of reason and decent behaviour.
Meanwhile the American people are being shifted away from their national call not to seek revenge for the terrible injury until the truth is known. They are being goaded into seeking vengeance. The injury was inflicted on them by a gang of mercenaries but they are behaving more rationally than their leaders.
In all this blindsided hurrah about retaliation it was interesting to hear a speaker on the BBC say: Americans have no understanding of how other cultures may see their response as legitimate warfare.
Remarkably confirmed in The Nation's superb edition of September 13 in which a presumably American terrorism expert, Chris Dobson, said: "No sane pilot would ever fly a plane into a skyscraper even with a gun at his head - because he knows he is going to die." Let him consult the Japanese about Kamikaze.
Even more remarkably, Dobson goes on: "No one alive today is capable of such acts other than bin Laden." The propaganda has become hysterical. Why? And how long will it take homo sapiens to learn that violence begets violence.
In this context Malaysia's Mahathir bin Mohammad said: "Retaliation will lead to the death of many people and will be followed by more counterstrikes." America regards him as an enemy; he will not accept from it orders detrimental to his people's welfare.
Two more leads. Journalists like to go for the analogy. They called last Tuesday morning's savagery a second Pearl Harbour, referring to the morning of December 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed the base, with heavy US losses in men and ships. That attack was just what the US government needed to rouse its people to join World War II - a war that would revive its economy.
Six decades later the slaughter in New York and Washington might provide the opportunity for it to engage in a new-war, perhaps in the Middle East, to stave off the threatened financial recession.
Tuesday's devastation in the US is a tragedy for the whole world, some say. It ain't necessarily so. Behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining, my mother used to say. Sometimes out of evil cometh good. It could be the start of a new Renaissance - if the US would take off its blinkers and see that its own arrogant and bloody-minded behaviour has driven the world to embrace the culture of violence.
I am an unwavering Sherlock Holmes fan and one of his favourite axioms by which I live is this: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
* Gladstone Holder is a former teacher and former Chief Information Officer.
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"What so ever thou shall soweth, that shall ye also reap"
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
( Oluko ) For years I have contemplated this scripture and how it applies to my life. If you kill, you and yours will be killed. If you steal, someone will steal from you. Some call it Karma others retribution, what ever it is, we must be aware of our actions.
The US Government, as most of us know, committed many horrific, murderous, and terrorist acts. Not only against Africans, but dozens of others. Their goal to dominate and control resources and to set the world up so that they would be on top, caused millions and millions of people to be slaughtered.
How can America at this point seriously believe that they don't have blood on their hands?
The entire country was based on the blood, torture, and maiming of Native Americans and Africans. Although, I am deeply sorrow for the families, I must look at the big picture. By bombing Afghanistan, a country mainly populated with women and children, we start a whole new era of revenge and hatred.
A good friend stated to me her thoughts. She said, "if they weren't chasing capitalism and material gain, maybe more lives would have been saved." She went on to say," no country's come in the hood to terrorize us, we have our own form of terrorism." She was referring to the CIA, bringing drugs in the neighborhoods, police brutality, and poverty. That made me think, how many lives were taken this year from gun violence throughout the US. Anybody got the stats?
Peace and Love
Oluko
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Calls for Gopeesingh's dismissal
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
ABSTRACT: Editorial The Express
Two months ago, after the Auditor General's revelations of misappropriated funds in the North West Regional Health Authority, chairman Dr Tim Gopeesingh distanced himself from the activities of the executive management. He presented what he must have thought was a water-tight defence, saying the Auditor's report contained nothing on him.
In a public statement issued on July 2, Dr Gopeesingh said: "The Auditor General has not in any way questioned the integrity of the chairman nor found any evidence of impropriety or abuse of power on his part or apportioned any blame to me, the former chairman."
The PMSL Report which investigated matters arising from the Auditor General's report, and which was laid in the House last Friday, found the chairman guilty of an abuse of power.
Regarding his handling of the particularly worrying case involving a cheque for $1.6 million, representing termination benefits paid to four NWRHA executives, the report concluded: "Acting without reference to the Board when he discovered the resignation of the executives and the issue of the cheque for their respective benefit is also an act of abuse of power and this was a flagrant abuse in the nature of a cover up."
Given his previous position on the Auditor General's report, one would, at the very least, have expected Dr Gopeesingh's resignation on a report concluding "abuse of power". Instead, the former chairman and current Government Senator, has embarked on an unseemly personal campaign aimed at holding on to his position in the Senate.
To a direct question from Clevon Raphael of the Sunday Express regarding his handling of the $1.6 million cheque, Dr Gopeesingh offered a response that would be hilarious if were simply a joke: "I considered the whole situation," he said, "and I realised that I would have put the organisation into a crisis if I had attempted to dismiss four people at the same time. They looked quite contrite..."
Surely Dr Gopeesingh, who has been boasting of his management training, knows that such an explanation serves merely to embarrass him.
Notwithstanding all this, however, he continues to make it clear that he has every intention of clinging to his position in the Upper House. His main argument now is that this is a decision for the Prime Minister.
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The EBC has not ruled out taking legal
Posted: Tuesday, September 18, 2001
The EBC has not ruled out taking legal action against the State to reverse President Arthur NR Robinson's revocation of Raoul John's appointment as a commissioner.
The revocation came on Friday because Robinson perceived a conflict of interest arising out of John's positions as a commissioner and as president of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Wilson said it was clear Robinson did not act in accordance with the law and "there's no question of our (the EBC) accepting the President's decision.
He suggested the proper procedure was contained in Section 136 of the Constitution, which makes provision for revoking an appointment only after a tribunal of judges or former judges has been set up to investigate and advise the President on grounds for dismissal.
Asked whether the commission rejected the President's decision, Wilson said: "We don't see that it is proper in the circumstances at all."
As for the EBC's options, he said: "In the final analysis it can mean that we can ask the court for a declaration concerning the matter. I'm not saying we are going to go that way. We won't want it to reach that far."
Wilson said Robinson "must reverse his decision" to avoid the matter reaching the High Court.
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Central Intelligence Agency monitoring locals
Posted: Monday, September 17, 2001
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is reportedly monitoring the movements of several locals whose names have appeared on a list of suspected international terrorists.
Those persons reportedly underwent military training in Libya recently and belonged to a sect of a Trinidad and Tobago organisation with camps in several parts of the country.
A senior police officer confirmed yesterday that local security forces also have increased surveillance on the group as a precaution after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and parts of the Pentagon in Washington last week.
Security have been heightened too, the source said, as there were several US-based interests in that country.
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Recriminations and reproaches are flying thick and fast
Posted: Monday, September 17, 2001
THE EDITOR: There is a perception among supporters of the United National Congress that the policy of transparency espoused by the leadership has not been given effect. Recriminations and reproaches are flying thick and fast. There is also an intense pessimism over the apparent unbridgeable chasm in the party and many of my colleagues have drawn a parallel between what prevailed in Germany 70 years ago and the convulsions in Trinidad at the dawn of the new millenium.
A group of doctors has provided me with the following interesting account of the roots of the Third Reich, as described by William Shirer. On Monday January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler drove over to the palace for an interview with Chancellor Hindenberg that was to prove fateful for himself and for Germany (the Robinson/Panday concordat.) A few moments later, Hitler emerged after being administered the oath of Chancellor of the German Reich. That evening, there was a massive torchlight parade to celebrate the victory.
From the palace, Hindenberg looked down upon the marching throng, pleased that he had picked a Chancellor who could arouse the people in a traditional German way. Whether the old man in his dotage, 86 old and fading with senility, had any inkling of what he had unleashed that day is doubtful (Robinson ruminates ruefully.)
A stone's throw away, Hitler stood at an open window with excitement and joy and laughing until his eyes were full of tears. The third Reich was born and Hitler boasted that it would endure for a thousand years. It lasted twelve years and four months, but in that flicker of time, it caused an eruption on this earth more shattering than any previously experienced, raising the nation to heights of power and then plunging it to depths of destruction and desolation (the rise and fall of Indians).
The man who led his country to such dizzy heights and to such a sorry end, was a person of undoubted genius, Intoxicated with power, he overreached himself. To most foreigners, it appeared that a charlatan had come to power in Berlin. To the majority of Germans, he had the aura of a charismatic leader whom they followed blindly for the next twelve tempestuous years (he too had sycophants).
The rising son had shown surprising talents not only as an orator: as the undisputed leader of the party, he gave his colleagues a taste of ruthlessness and tactical shrewdness. Not long after, some of his party cronies decided the moment was opportune to challenge his leadership. He had become too dictatorial for them. He had to be reduced in size. They were like elephants out to catch the express train. Sensing the threat to his position, Hitler quelled the intrigues of these “foolish lunatics” (jackasses and Judases). He demanded dictatorial powers for himself as the party's sole leader (I am the boss). His opponents accused him of a lust for power and of lending a blind eye to corrupt practices. Hitler, they said, was bringing disunion and schism into their ranks by attracting shadowy people around him.
With venom and twisted lips, he barks that he shall have absolute control of the party and the dissidents should retire (resign, resign.) Establishing the leadership principle which was to be the law of the Third Reich, the Fuhrer had arrived! No wonder he was impressed with Rudolph Hess' thesis that “the deeper the dictatorship was rooted in the broad masses, the better he understands how to treat them psychologically. In order to reach his goal, he must be prepared to trample on his closest friends” (even on those who put him there.)
Hitler acknowledged that there were scoundrels in the party but says, “I shall hold on to them as long as they can be of use to me.” Nincompoops, the parasitic oligarchy, homosexual perverts or just plain dishonest feeble-minded men were all the same to him if they served his purpose (witness the Crown Plaza fiasco.)
Such are the likes of men whom one gathers around oneself in a drive to become maximun leader of a nation which has given the world Eric Williams (philosopher-historian), Rudranath Capildeo (mathematics wizard) and Brian Lara, among the pantheon of greats.
Selwyn Ryan asserts that “such leaders suffer from the delusion that they are as indispensable and invincible as the minions in their entourage tell them that they are.” It appears that the more hatred one generates, the more subservience one receives. Will all this end in pandemonium?
SYAM
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Why this visit from China?
Posted: Sunday, September 16, 2001
THE EDITOR: “Gang of Four, Gang of Four!!” was the cry from the Basdeo loyalists, and as I write the UNC constituency executive elections are about to occur. But, spectator that I am, my historical mind travels backward to Moscow 1998, and earlier Beijing 1963-1969.
The parallels will not fit exactly, but close enough to amuse.....and alert your readers. Moscow first. I see Mr Panday as the composite picture of Yeltsin and Chernomyrdin, ailing, beleaguered, besieged, fighting to postpone the political sunset. Win or lose the short-term battle for the ascendancy in the UNC, the wheels of a cosmic Juggernaut roll him slowly on to the festival of Ratha Yatra.
Around June/July 1998, Yeltsin fired Sergei Kiriyenko (Ramesh) who, according to a credible journal, had started within the Cabinet “a well-intentioned assault on the freebooting ways of the oligarchy” led by Berezovsky, “financial baron turned political wheeler-dealer, the most ruthless of the so-called New Russians in the art of turning money into power.”
The journal adds that “Men made rich through political connections in the post-Soviet economy have wielded substantial influence ever since they got rich buying up government assets at bargain prices.”
It continued (they) “two years ago financed Yeltsin's come-from-behind election victory.” Moscow also turned to placing the economy in private hands — shifting however “to belong to well-connected operators who bought state properties at bargain rates and stripped their assets.”
[My note: UNC today, NAR and PNM yesterday]. These “notorious oligarchs” got “a set of sweetheart deals that made (them) partners with their cronies in government.” Yeltsin was fading. The Duma (lower house) called on him to resign, offering him for his colleagues “guarantees that they would not be prosecuted or harassed once they left office.” Finally “But even if Yeltsin can hang on, he is a profoundly diminished political figure.” In Trinidad Kiriyenko will only have to wait.
Take a leap to China, from whence the UNC “Yeltsinites” or, as you will see, “Maoists borrowed the phrase “Gang of Four” — not knowing perhaps that a woman (allegedly Madame Mao) was a major mover in the “Gang”.
Simply stated around 1963 “serious disagreement and rivalry” erupted between Mao Tse-tung (party chairman) and Liu Shao-chi (chairman of the People's Republic). Although from the 1940's there was clear and effective political alliance between them, Liu came to disagree with Chairman Mao (Basdeo Panday) on the loosely co-ordinated patterns of development which characterised the Great Leap Forward.
A purge took place (remember the Gerard Yetming intervention) and by 1968 many were out — including Mayor Peng Chen of Beijing, Deng Hsiao-ping and Liu himself (Ramesh).
Mao then embarked on a gigantic upheaval (1966-69) turning China inside out. Phase one was the Red Guard violence “against revisionists” inside the party. Members were beaten by young men loyal to the Chairman “discreetly supported by the Army.”
The Chinese Army?? Question for Parliament: “Will the Government (a) table the recently signed Military Agreement (the second entered into) by General Chi Haotian, Defence Minister and Mr Basdeo Panday for public information — since strategically and geo-politically there is no common interest between the two countries (b) explain whether the UNC (Panday) Cabinet has commenced political relations (as distinct from commercial and social interchange) considering the General's hope for :”enhanced military-co-operation.”
A careful look at the photos of General Chi Haotian suggest his age was thirty-five during the period of the Red Guard activity.
Is that why the “Maoists” are shouting and screeching — “Gang of Four?
ARTHUR L MC SHINE
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Robinson fires EBC commissioner Raoul John
Posted: Saturday, September 15, 2001
PRESIDENT Arthur NR Robinson yesterday revoked the appointment of Elections and Boundaries Commissioner (EBC) Raoul John following mounting criticism over public statements he had made regarding which voters’ list would be used in the event of a snap general election.
In a brief statement, Robinson stated that the instrument of revocation was sent to John yesterday and chairman of the EBC, Oswald Wilson, was also informed of the decision by letter.
Robinson met with John on Thursday and asked him to resign from the post but John refused. The revocation was made in accordance with Section 136 of the Constitution.
Grounds for removal
SECTION 136 of the Constitution provides for the removal of a commissioner of the Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC).
Section 136 (7) states: “The officer may be removed from office only for inability to discharge the functions of his office whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause, or for misbehaviour and shall not be removed except in accordance with the provisions of subsection (10).
Section 136 (10) states :
“Where the question of removing the officer from office has been referred to a Tribunal appointed under subsection (9) and the Tribunal advises the President that the officer ought to be removed f
If the President seeks advice he has to appoint a tribunal consisting of a chairman and not less than two other members “all of whom shall be elected by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) from among persons who hold or have held office as a judge of a court of unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in some part of the Commonwealth or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court”.
Section 9 requires that the tribunal shall enquire into the matter and report on the facts to the President and advise the President whether the officer ought to be removed from office on any of the grounds contained in section 136 (7).
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Balance his list of Terrorists
Posted: Saturday, September 15, 2001
Dear Editor
I would like to make a public appeal to PM Basdeo Panday to balance his list of Terrorists by adding those people who steal or misappropriate monies and resources from the public purse [especially of the sick and dying] and the people who seek to cover it up. Those actions also deprive citizens of much needed goods and services and not only that of elected representatives who may 'vote' against a Budget.
Anti-Terrorist
Kurt Garcia
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Are we in danger of state terrorism?
Posted: Saturday, September 15, 2001
( Clyde Weatherhead ) THE EDITOR: The "infidel" has been attacked!!! Or has it? The ordinary working people of the United States have been made to suffer the brunt of yesterday's brutal terrorist attack.
I join with all the peace-loving people of the world in expressing sympathy and support for those ordinary people who have lost their lives and for those who have been working desperately to save lives. Terrorism, whether the acts of individuals, organised groups or states must be condemned and cannot be supported as a means of solving any problem or resolving any issue.
The act of terrorist violence carried out in New York and Washington yesterday must be condemned.
At the same time, the people of the US, the ordinary Joes and Janes who have paid with their lives and suffering, and all of us must understand that this was the inevitable backslash of a decades-long history of 'might-is-right' state terrorism by the Empire builders of the 'New World Order' of US global domination. MORE
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Letters between EBC John and President A.N.R. Robinson
Posted: Friday, September 14, 2001
The following is the text of John’s letter to the President following his request that John should resign and the President’s letter to John revoking his appointment.
EBC Raoul John's letter to the President dated September 13:
Your Excellency
I have given careful consideration to your request that I should resign as a member of the Elections and Boundaries Commission because of your perceived conflict with my presidency of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
As I mentioned to your Excellency, when I became eligible to hold an office in the Chamber which would probably lead to the presidency, I consulted my then chairman Sir Isaac Hyatali and my other colleagues on the Commission. The unanimous view was that no such conflict existed. Moreover, the first person to congratulate me on my appointment as President of the Chamber was the former President of our Republic, President Noor Hassanali. Obviously, he did not perceive a conflict. However, as you are well aware: “Quot homines tot sententiae”.
I would think it a slur on the Chamber of which I am president were I to concur in the view that a conflict arises between the presidency of that body and the membership of the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
In the circumstances I cannot accede to your Excellency’s request for my resignation.
#########
The President’s letter to John dated September 14:
Dear Mr John,
When you paid a courtesy call on me on Wednesday, June 12, 2001, as the new president of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, accompanied by the outgoing president, I congratulated you on your being president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and also member of the Elections and Boundaries Commission.
As a consequence of matters reported in the media, I invited the chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission, Mr Oswald Wilson, to the President’s House on Monday, September 10, 2001, and expressed my concerns to him about your activities. I expected those concerns to be brought to your notice without delay.
On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, I invited you to The President’s House and asked you to submit your letter of resignation from the Elections and Boundaries Commission. In reply to my request, I now have your letter of refusal dated September 13, 2001.
In your letter, you have stated reasons which I consider invalid or otherwise irrelevant. Since it is clear that you have declined to accede to the request of the President that you terminate your relationship with the Elections and Boundaries Commission, I have no alternative but to revoke your appointment. The Instrument of Revocation of your appointment is attached.
I wish to thank you for the valuable service that you have rendered as a member of the Elections and Boundaries Commission and wish you success in your office as President of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
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Mr Panday's terror tactics
Posted: Friday, September 14, 2001
PRIME Minister Basdeo Panday has an unfortunate penchant of trying to bend any event to serve his own political interest, particularly if he believes he is able to so disguise his intention that it appears to be in the national interest.
The latest example of this is his assertion on Wednesday that any deliberate vote against the budget that Finance Minister Gerald Yetming is due to deliver today could be considered an act of terrorism against the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
Mr Panday was seeking, quite inappropriately in our view, to gain political capital from the bloody terrorist attack on the United States of America by metaphorically equating that act of murderous sabotage with any demonstrated criticism of the fiscal package that his administration submits today. Abstract: Trinidad Express
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Burning of Constitution by AG recalled
Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2001
THE EDITOR: According to the Honourable Mervyn Assam in a television broadcast and newspaper report "It is well known that the Attorney General burnt the Republican Constitution and today he speaks of the sanctity of it..."
Of course he was alluding to a decision of the United National Congress executive where a motion to hold the constituency executive elections was passed by the overwhelming majority of members, most of whom contested under the Team Unity banner in the recently held executive elections. Mr Assam and fellow parliamentary colleagues of the Prime Minister saw the defeat of the position of the Prime Minister to postpone the elections as acting ultra vires the Party Constitution.
He sought to ascribe ontoward motives to the Attorney General as one who fails to uphold the principles of the law by seeking to create a nexus by the burning of the Republican Constitution several years ago and the present position adopted by the Attorney General in his current impasse with the Prime Minister.
May I remind the Honourable Prime Minister, Assam in particular, and the country in general, that the burning of the Republican Constitution by the present Attorney General was a symbolic gesture to protest the denial of the fundamental and constitutional rights of the residents of the Guayamere village who were at the receiving end of oppressive might of the Government of the day. The residents were being denied their basic human rights enshrined in the constitution; their right to enjoyment of property and their denial thereof without due process. In other words, the Constitution had failed to protect them.
Were it not for the present Attorney General, the residents rights would have been trampled upon and they would not have been adequately compensated. These are the same people who toiled and sweated to build the UNC. Where was Minister Assam then? Did he lift a finger in condemnation of the highhanded attitude of the PNM Government? I cannot remember Minister Assam protesting then.
The burning of the Constitution epitomises the contempt of the Government for the respect of the peoples right contained therein and not the other way around as Minister Assam would have us believe; probably he is yet to understand its siginficance. The burning of the constitution in many parts of the world is merely a gesture of protest when the constitution fails to protect its citizens. Maybe Minister Assam is fortunate that he has not had the cause to protest in his life.
ROBERT
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Burning of Constitution by AG recalled
Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2001
THE EDITOR: According to the Honourable Mervyn Assam in a television broadcast and newspaper report "It is well known that the Attorney General burnt the Republican Constitution and today he speaks of the sanctity of it..."
Of course he was alluding to a decision of the United National Congress executive where a motion to hold the constituency executive elections was passed by the overwhelming majority of members, most of whom contested under the Team Unity banner in the recently held executive elections. Mr Assam and fellow parliamentary colleagues of the Prime Minister saw the defeat of the position of the Prime Minister to postpone the elections as acting ultra vires the Party Constitution.
He sought to ascribe ontoward motives to the Attorney General as one who fails to uphold the principles of the law by seeking to create a nexus by the burning of the Republican Constitution several years ago and the present position adopted by the Attorney General in his current impasse with the Prime Minister.
Ricky
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Can Government be sued for mismanagement?
Posted: Sunday, September 9, 2001
My house has been burgled on four occasions and my car broken into twice. On one of the four occasions that my house was broken into my maid and (at that time three-year-old) daughter were locked in the bathroom. On returning home that day and finding my maid and child unharmed, my reaction was "Thank God that nothing happened to them." None of this was published in the newspaper for it is a common occurrence and that reaction is a normal one to crimes and atrocities that are committed daily in this country. That is the level of tolerance that we have reached. People break into our homes and we accept that as norm. When we are left unharmed we thank the powers that be for the kindness of the thieves that came by.
School children are taking guns and knives to school and teachers in some schools are scared of the violence that takes place between gangs at school. What will become of these children in a few years time? Children going to school just simply disappear and remain unaccounted for in this small island of ours.
This is our civilised society. We sit behind burglar bars and multi locked doors and tell our children what it was like to walk to school and to take a walk with the family on evenings and what houses looked like without burglar proofing and what sleeping throughout the night was like when there was no fear of another break-in. We tell them about the days when policemen were respected and when a lot of people would have been behind bars but for some technicality of the law. We explain that in those days one would not wish to be seen with someone like that. We explain about "shame". We explain that in our civilised society there is nothing wrong with Government Ministers getting a pay rise and bringing in two foreign cars thereby making $400,000 while they are in office.
That is called working the system and is perfectly legal and accepted behaviour.
"Tell me again, what happened to the man who killed a two-year-old child?", my daughter asks. I explain that like us all, he too sits behind bars in a small space. He gets food and drink. He walks around once a day, often in a larger space than ours. He probably also thinks of the days when he was free to walk anywhere he wished. He is able to sleep throughout the night. I explain that in this civilised society murder and suicide are both wrong and that life is sacred and that double standards are acceptable as long as one does not get caught. I further explain the importance of being able to make lots of money so as to afford good lawyers.
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"Back pay" for Africans
Posted: Sunday, September 9, 2001
By SELWYN RYAN
LONG before the issue of reparations for the after-effects of slavery was placed on the international agenda, the Mighty Chalkdust asked in song about his “grandfather’s Back Pay”. Chalkdust’s cri de coeur found its echo at the recently held United Nations Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia in Durban, South Africa where some of the descendants of the millions who were exported into slavery were forcing the issue into world consciousness, just as the Jews had previously done successfully in respect of the Holocaust, and the Koreans had also done in respect of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers and businessmen during the Second World War. The Japanese in Canada and America, we recall, had also been compensated for what had been done to them during World War II, so too had some of the native peoples of Canada and the United States by the Canadian and American governments. If apologies could be offered to these groups and compensation paid, why exclude the victims of a “holocaust” that was arguably far more devastating in its impact than any of the above?
To the best of my knowledge, the two voices which were first heard publicly supporting the reparations’ demand in Trinidad and Tobago were those of novelist Earl Lovelace and Khafra Kambon of the Emancipation Support Movement. They argued that the formal emancipation which was achieved in 1838 did not go far enough, and that a new struggle had to be waged to ensure that those who suffered indirectly from that experience, were given their “grandfathers back pay”. Kambon and Lovelace were part of an international movement that was developing in the Afro-American and Caribbean diaspora which also had resonance in parts of Africa. One of the leading spokesmen of the movement was Kenyan-born Professor Ali Mazrui who, in a position paper written on behalf of the International Reparation Movement, “Global Africa: From Abolitionists to Reparationists” expressed the view that the costs of slavery and colonialism remain all too evident in the African diaspora. Mazrui argued that the disproportionate black presence in the jails, the disproportionate black infant mortality rates, and disproportionate self-destructive black violence were all malevolent consequences of slavery, colonialism, and racism. “The damage of the past is in the present. The black community is chained to the bondage of its own tragic history. Far from being obsolete, slavery and its aftermath are live issues ... not [mere] chapters in books.” The costs of “bondage of history” are real and continuing.
Many in the Caribbean and the United States are sceptical of this demand for reparations which they believe would never materialise. There are also those in Africa, like the President of Senegal, who are firmly opposed. Questions have been raised as to who would pay the impost. Would Africans and Arabs who were involved in the trade as slaves also be called upon to pay? To whom would remunerations be paid, the descendants of those who survived the middle passage, the descendants of those who died en route, or the families and communities from which they came? And what about the Amerindians?, ask others.
Mazrui’s reply was that reparations need not involve making direct monetary payments to descendants of those enslaved since this could never be operationalised.
Reparations could take the form of helping Africans in the diaspora and on the continent to “re-empower themselves domestically and in relation to the international system”. Mazrui in fact called for a “Middle Passage Plan” analogous to the Marshall Plan, the aim of which would be to eliminate or reduce the impediments to democratisation in Africa and reduce impoverishment in the diaspora.
This programme of “democratic reparations” would also involve skill transfers and the provision of massive scholarships for the needy, all aimed at empowering the descendants of those who were not given their “two acres and a mule.” The debt owed to Africans was not time barred, Mazrui argued, “The violators of Africa and the African people owe their descendants a moral debt which cannot be made subject to a statute of limitations.”
One recalls that the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha was hostile to the call for reparations. The secretary of the SDMS argued that it was not true, as Mazrui claimed, that “the long night of slavery” was more cruel and damaging to Africans than the brief period of indentureship was to Indians. This claim, in his view, was a “bogus excuse for laziness and also an excuse for failure. The Indians have suffered more than the Africans; whatever the Indian community achieved, is the result of tears, hard work and persuasiveness [sic] to succeed.” The president of the Maha Sabha also re-echoed Maharaj’s view that “Indians are courageous and hard working. They don’t resign themselves to failure or make excuses not to succeed. Indians sacrificed and denied themselves of many basic things in order to save.”
No one could however seriously argue that that indenture was more brutal than slavery. While slavery and indenture were both brutal and inhumane, the former was more so in that it involved not merely physical brutality, but the near complete destruction of the various cultures of Africans. What was involved in the latter case was the deliberate and systematic destruction of African family systems, religions, music forms, languages (linguicide) and in general all the cultural shock absorbers and supports that made a people a people. Africans, in short, were involuntary victims of a cultural holocaust. As Mazrui noted, “the persistent message was forget you are African; remember you are black; forget where you came from; remember what you look like; don’t look at the map, look at the mirror; forget your culture, remember your skin colour. The persistent refrain of being an exported African in the diaspora was forget you are African and remember you are ‘black”.
While it is true that similar attempts were also made to deracinate the Indians, the post-slavery environment in which such attempts were made did not permit the plantocracy and official colonial elites to be as radical in the pursuit of this goal as was the case during the slavery period. Moreover, there was no Protector of the Immigrants to even routinely report on the conditions of servitude experienced by enslaved Africans. The SDMS’ assertion that Indians suffered more than Africans was a polemical statement which had no basis in historical fact, but was part of a deliberate plan on the part of the Maha Sabha to rewrite Trinidad’s history in a manner that served the mobilisational goals of the organisation.
One understands that some attempt was made to reach a compromise at the Durban Conference as to how the reparations issue would be addressed, and that part of the arrangement would involve a New African Initiative which would boost aid to Africa without linking this to any recognition by states such as the United States, Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal for their role in the slave trade.
African States were divided on the issue. The moderates indicated that they would be satisfied with an apology which “affirmed their humanity” and an enhanced aid package for Africa. The more radical element however insisted on an apology and reparations. Their dignity was affronted by proposed compromise. As one African delegate asked angrily, “why didn’t Germany promise development or financial aid to Holocaust victims? Why should Africa always be on the receiving end of deals that denigrate our dignity?”
Diaspora activists also insisted that Africans in the diasporas of the Americas and the Caribbean also had to receive their grandfather’s long overdue “back pay” in kind, since it was widely agreed that direct cash payments were not a meaningful option.
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Final footsteps for Wayne Rodriguez
Posted: Sunday, September 9, 2001
Singer Wayne Rodriguez, 27, a former member of Xtatik, who won the 1998 Road March with the hit "Footsteps" and who also went on in 1999 to be crowned Young King, was found hanging in the bedroom of a Seascape Apartment in Cocorite.
He was hanging from the ventilation blocks in the bedroom with electrical wire around his neck.
There were two boxes beneath him. It appears that he climbed up on the two boxes and kicked one off in order to suspend himself.
He was found by his road manager Joseph Richards with whom he shared the apartment.
His manager Alvin Daniel said the suicide was "out of context". Daniel also said that Rodriguez was looking forward to the future.
Close friend and member of the Junior Calypso Committee, Duane O'Connor, 21, who lives within walking distance of Rodriguez' apartment, was one of the last people to see him alive around 6 am yesterday.
"At the time I was by my girlfriend at Fort George, and shortly before six, I woke her up telling her I wanted to go and check Wayne. When I reached home, I realised his car was not there so I just tell myself he still liming. I went to get a glass of water and when I look through the window, I saw him pull up shortly after six. By the time I called him out he was already inside."
A teary-eyed O'Connor said last Thursday while Rodriguez was performing at Upper Level Club, he noticed him (Rodriguez) behaving strangely.
"He smoke three cigarettes in less than half an hour. That was definitely unlike him. Then out of the blue he said he wanted to go on a diet."
Young men on the block at Seascape shared stories and speculations about Rodriguez with reporters yesterday. One said Rodriguez, normally a private person, told them he had seen his estranged wife with a man at a party and had become depressed.
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After 15 months in prison Illegal immigrant freed
Posted: Saturday, September 8, 2001
Alie Marah, the illegal immigrant from Sierre Leone who was in prison for 15 months awaiting deportation, was released from the State Prison around 2 pm yesterday.
A smiling Marah was greeted outside the prison by founder of the Living Water Community, Rhonda Maingot, and David Walcott, Editor of Afrikan Option.
On Thursday the Minister of National Security, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, agreed to have the deportation order stayed, so consideration can be given for granting him refugee status.
The Prime Minister, acting in accordance with recommendations made by the Permanent Secretary in the National Security Ministry, stayed the order in accordance with provisions of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees.
Further, it was advised that until such consideration and determination of Marah's Appeal, he should be released from prison and into the care of the Living Water Community.
Marah was ordered deported from Trinidad on January 25 earlier this year. An appeal was filed, copies of which were sent to the Chief Immigration Officer and the Ministry of National Security.
Marah wrote to Walcott and disclosed that he had attempted suicide three times while incarcerated in prison. Walcott informed the media of Marah's plight and his plight was highlighted.
He added that both Walcott and Maingot supported him during his several bouts of depression, and now that he is free, he is eager to make contact with his mother, father and other relatives.
Marah fled Sierre Leone because of civil unrest in that country and came to Trinidad.
Last week, President Arthur N R Robinson requested a report from Prime Minister Basdeo Panday on the matter involving Marah.
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Our politicians get away with proverbial murder
Posted: Friday, September 7, 2001
Years of not addressing the condemned murderers has led to an elected government doing away with our ties to International Human Rights institutions in their bid to hang these murderers. Years of an elected government avoiding the land issues of the Jamaat led to the Coup attempt in 1990, a subsequent Amnesty given by the elected government with a later excuse by the same elected government that the Amnesty was null and void. Years of a health service which has gone from barely functioning to now dysfunctional.
Years of paving the roads only to have them dug up again - truly our streets are paved with gold if one adds up the amount of money spent on paving them.
Who pays for all this - only the people and the coming generations who have to repay the loans these elected government took to do all of the above in our name! Is it the government's money or is it the people's money? The Companies Act allows shareholders to sue the Board of companies if there is mismanagement. Can the people collectively or individually sue anyone in government for mismanagement? Now, in the midst of a rift in an elected government we have agents of two state apparatus (the Police and the Housing Authority) "dealing" with two prominent political figures one a senator no less and the other a ruling party treasurer.
Their crime was to back one faction of the ongoing rift in the government. This clearly is an abuse of executive power. This incident smacks of Adolf Hitler, Doc Duvalier and Saddam Hussein and you name it! The perpetrators must be found and drummed out of office.
Nine Years have passed since the above observations in 1992. Has anything changed? Has anything changed for the better?
HAROLD CHANG
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Persad: police search politically motivated
Posted: Friday, September 7, 2001
United National Congress (UNC) Treasurer Unanan Persad broke down and cried yesterday as he recounted how police officers of the Chaguanas Task Force searched his home and business yesterday morning looking for "dangerous drugs".
Persad called a press conference at his restaurant yesterday afternoon, flanked by embattled Oropouche Member of Parliament Trevor Sudama, Barbara Burke, and UNC executive members Ted Carasquero and Helena Amoroso.
His attorney, Shastri Parsad, stood close by. Persad said he intended filing a constitutional motion against the State seeking unspecified damages. It was an emotional Persad who recounted the heightening political crisis over the past week, during which he said Prime Minister Panday threatened "they will pay the price for their actions," and pro-Panday Ministers and Senators declared war against the 'Gang of Four'.
Persad said he had no intention of resigning his position or leaving the party, and pledged "my life and every drop of blood to ensure a free and stable country and party".
Persad said it was his wife who called him while he was doing an interview and told him the police were parked on his compound.
"I was shown a warrant to search my premises for dangerous drugs. It is my sincere belief that the spurious search of my premises was politically motivated and a manifestation of the threat by the political leader that he would pay the price for his action."
Persad said he allowed the search because he had nothing to hide, and said the "police officers were embarrassed to the point of being apologetic".
The party treasurer said police officers went through his filing cabinets and computer desks "which contain sensitive documents from the UNC regarding the finances of the party and several Government Ministers and high party officials".
Persad said he saw several officers reading the documents and "I fear that these documents are now no longer confidential".
The businessman/politician said the search was conducted in the presence of his family and his new daughter-in-law. He sobbed as he spoke of the body search of his wife, Mintra and daughter-in-law, Sasha, who wed his son only four weeks ago, saying they were all distressed and embarrassed.
"My son and I were asked to empty our pockets. My wife is a very private person," said Persad.
"My daughter-in-law must be wondering what kind of family she has gotten into. I am ashamed to look at my wife and daughter-in-law."
Without calling names, Persad spoke of leaders who used the army and police to intimidate persons who oppose the political leadership.
"I am not going to be intimidated. I am going to stand up against any type of dictatorship in Trinidad and Tobago," he said. "I am going to promote democracy and protect the poor from the rich people who want to control governments, from insurance companies who have enlisted PR companies to control Ministers and Government''. He insisted that he had never before been arrested and charged with a criminal offence.
"My character is beyond reproach," he declared.
Sudama wanted to know who had authorised the search, noting that Panday was also National Security Minister.
"There must have been some ground, some evidence," he said.
Amoroso and Caracquero also spoke of alleged political threats made because of their decision to support the 'Gang of Four'.
Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said he was surprised that Unanan Persad's house and business were raided by police officers for illicit and dangerous drugs.
"Even though I am deputy political leader and MP for Couva South I am also Attorney General. I have to be objective in this situation even though it is a political matter," he said.
Maharaj said he also called the Commissioner of Police to find out what was going on as he always does when members of his constituency lodge a complaint with their MP. Persad is expected to submit a report to the Attorney General.
The Attorney General said many people who are involved in Sunday's UNC constituency elections have called him and complained about being threatened.
He assured that as a member of the UNC Government he was putting machinery in place to get to the root of all the threats. Maharaj hopes to deal with the allegations of threats and other issues in a press statement which he is expected to release today.
"Any reasonable person who is committed to Trinidad and Tobago and loves Trinidad and Tobago will be very concerned about threats of this nature," he said.
He said he was hopeful that everything will go well for the elections on Sunday. "It is very important that people have a free and unhindered right to vote."
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Questions Regarding Reparations
Posted: Friday, September 7, 2001
( Jeff ) Date: Thursday, 6 September 2001
Greets All
I was wondering how ones and ones here on the board felt about these questions I have regarding reperations: do the descendents of the Ashante Kingdom (as well as other African tribes) also have to pay reperations for the millions of Africans that they sold to the Europeans and Americans? And does reperations also include all the Arab nations that had their hand in the slave trade? And what of the Cherokee Nation? Do they also have to pay reperations for the African slaves they owned? Who gets the money? Is it right that I have to repay money to a person of African descent even if they are ten times richer than me (Thinking of 'ol Jesse Jackson, whose a walking economic entity here in America)? Is that right to take away from my own children to repay that person who is richer than us simply because of the color of the skin? Or does the money go to educational institutions to help us all overcome future racism?
In the Spirit of Reasoning, no disrespect intended.
Peace
Jeff
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( Ayinde ) Date: Thursday, 6 September 2001
There are two sets of payments to be made.
1: All who participated in the colonization of Africa especially through the Berlin conference must pay reparations to those African nations.
2: All who profited from Slavery should pay reparations to all Africans who are nationals of other countries outside of Africa.
Once there is proof that anyone or group, including African people, participated and profited from the Slave trade they should pay reparations. This payment is due to all Africans both rich and poor. The money should be distributed proportionally to the countries with African populations to be administered by bodies in those countries. NO guilty party has the right to determine what Africans should do with their money. Africans who are wealthy today are also victims of the experience and they are equally entitled to compensation. Yes, Jesse is also entitled to the same amount as a poor African.
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( Jenny ) Date: Thursday, 6 September 2001
Reparation is not charity it is compensation. If a rich man is wronged, the courts award him damages. They don't say he is not entitled because he is rich.
I agree with Ayinde, if you can show that some Africans profited, then they must also pay.
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( Jeffrey ) The United Nations Racism Conference was marked with controversy even before it started due to efforts of some delegates to 1) equate Zionism with racism and 2) demand reparations from countries that benefited from the African slave trade.
The first African-American Secretary of State has decided to boycott the Summit at Durban in South Africa. After all, he represents an administration that has its roots in capitalism in the Confederate states of south USA.
While the evergreen Cuban President was articulating the views of the African diaspora on the need for reparation, two West African countries, even at the highest level of delegation, took a different stance.
Followers of African history would take note of the fact that slavery resulted from tribal wars and that was not the only reason. With the advent of the Europeans to the African shores, kidnapping of fellow Africans was the norm and the perpetrators became known as slatees!
The use of sugar cane rum was encouraged to weaken the fighting skills of African warriors as well. There, the reasons put forward by the Senegalese president was a rather honest one, while the Nigerian President Olosegun Obasanjo called only for an apology.
The Jews, who had been compensated for the holocaust they suffered under Nazi Germany, are accused of being racist by the Palestinians. One must look at the Israelis through the Ethiopian Falashas indeed to see the evidence.
Surely, the Middle East crisis, along with the conflicting views on reparations, caused discord among the delegates in Durban, South Africa.
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Panday enjoying 'rabble rousing'
Posted: Thursday, September 6, 2001
THE EDITOR: Mr Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, is currently enjoying a field day of rabble rousing with the people of this country. Mr Panday is obviously the most obtuse Political Leader and Prime Minister this country, in its 39 years of Independence, has ever experienced.
What the people of the county don't seem to gather as yet is that Mr Panday's primary objective is to excite and aggravate the selfish loyalty of his followers because of his fear of losing the case now before the Privy Council with respect to the Chaitan and Peters election case. It is for this reason that he repeats very vociferously that his alleged "dissident" Ministers want to ensure that the PNM regains the control of Government.
It was abundantly clear during the election campaigning for the executive of the UNC party that Mr Panday was never in favour of Mr Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and his Team Unity slate of candidates. On the other hand, his brother, Mr Subhas Panday, openly supported and campaigned for Mr Carlos John and his slate of candidates. The Prime Minister was never enamoured over the landslide victory of Mr Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and his Team Unity colleagues. Is there any wonder then that Mr Maharaj was never appointed to act as Prime Minister?
Mr Panday is campaigning, vehemently laying the groundwork for the next General Elections, which he 'warns' is probably due before the end of the year. And although the entire country is incensed over the widespread accusations and claims of corruption throughout the Government services Mr Panday yet succeeds in getting the acclamation of his gullible followers from the highest levels of the society to the grassroots. While the support at the grassroots emanates from pure cultured instinct, at the higher levels it appears to be one of self-gain and to hell with the rest of the society.
Can anyone recall anywhere in the international sphere a sitting Prime Minister describing his serving Ministers in Government in such pejorative language and disreputable tenor that Mr Panday has been doing? This behaviour and language of our Prime Minister only bring this country and its people to ridicule and shame. Why would a Prime Minister be so antagonistic towards his Attorney General because he is intent on investigating accusations of corruption in Government service? Where has gone the commitment to transparency?
Why would he threaten one of his Ministers and excise a substantial part of his portfolio because he expresses his earnest desire to see all claims of corruption investigated? Why are the people of Trinidad and Tobago so gullible and accommodating to a Prime Minister who displays such total disregard for honesty in public office, law and order in the society?
ALEXANDER LEGALL
Tunapuna
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Insult to imply corbeaux are UNC members
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2001
As I fly over Port-of-Spain, I cannot help but wonder why politicians continue to denigrate us corbeaux at every opportunity.
Referring to us in the same context as "Judas" is bad enough, but to imply we are members of the United National Congress (UNC) is insult in the extreme.
Unlike many politicians, we as a species take our duties very seriously. Corbeaux are garbage removers, and we can boast that no other living creatures devour carrion they way we do.
Politicians, you will agree, create the stuff.
There is one important overriding consideration for humans to bear in mind: their health will deteriorate if we decide to go on strike. Which politician can make such a claim? My brothers and sisters work in the most unsanitary locations, and we make no claim to being overworked, we do not ask for overtime, or any compensation whatsoever.
We do not demand positions on State boards, but we do eat sponge cake.
I have done my bit to highlight the plight of us corbeaux in the local and British media. My story has been told in a recently published book, Tales From the Cockpit.
In India and Africa, we are dying in frightening numbers, and because our service is appreciated on those continents, several studies are underway to determine the cause of the demise of our species.
So heed this warning: if politicians continue to insult us, we will consider mass migration to countries where we will be appreciated.
Grommit,
The Corbeau of
Chancellor Hill
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Cabinet a reminder of Rawan
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and his Cabinet are reminiscent of Rawan and his royal advisors. Rawan never wanted to hear the truth and never accepted that his action of kidnapping Sita, the wife of Ram, was wrong and adharmic. It was never the intention of the Cabinet Ministers of Lanka to tell their King that he had taken a wrong course of action. These ministers were not bothered about the consequences of Rawan's actions so long as they were indulging in the largesse of the offices they were enjoying through his grace.
The Cabinet Ministers of Rawan's Lanka seem no different from the Cabinet Ministers of the Government of today. These Ministers are not concerned about the welfare of the State but only themselves. They have no love for the Prime Minister and if they have any at all it does not go beyond what he can give to them.
The strong position taken by Ralph Maraj can be compared to the courage of Vibhishan, the brother of Rawan, who told King Rawan that the kidnapping of the wife of Ram was wrong and that he should surrender her and beg Ram's forgiveness. But, like Panday, Rawan kicked his brother out of the kingdom. He preferred the flattery of his Cabinet colleagues than the truth of his very dear and trusted friends.
Just as Rawan was defeated at the hands of Ram, so also the political sunrise of Panday would come to set and truth and the people's interest would take precedence over Ministers' personal agendas.
The Mareeches, Sabahus and Tatakas within the Cabinet need to be purged and not Ramesh, Sadiq, Ralph or Trevor, who symbolise the democratic will and conscience of the people.
DH Singh,
Chaguanas.
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What is the so-called UNC rift?
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2001
THE EDITOR: I have listened to the many political analysts on the so called rift in the UNC. They have all misread the situation. They have agreed, however, that Mr Panday is getting down in age and that he has a major heart problem. Mr Panday himself has admitted that the lion is getting stronger than him.
It is understandable that because of his love for politics he will not want to demit office completely, but will settle for something less difficult, like for example the position or President of Trinidad and Tobago.
He will also like to provide his family with the luxury they are accustomed to.
Knowing him as we do, he will do a better job than Robinson in manipulating a ceremonial office into an executive one. Mr Panday realises to be an Indian President with an Indian Prime Minister is a prescription for chaos.
The mistake that he made however, is that he did not level with his colleagues; perhaps he could not. His appointment of Carlos John as a Super Minister was sufficient to indicate that he wanted him to be his successor to show a balance if he is to become President. "Vote for Carlos John and make my brother happy was no accident."
Having lost to Ramesh Maharaj he has now struck another deal with Patrick Manning. Their recent meeting had nothing to do with reinstatement of Keith Rowley in Parliament, but instead to deal with Rowley and Ramesh. The deal was very simple.
"I will give you back the government, and you must make me President." Any political idiot will tell you the split now in the UNC will benefit the PNM. "This is the plan." All those who are talking reconciliation are fooling themselves.
Neither Ramesh, Trevor, Ralph or Sadiq will get a seat to fight on a UNC ticket. When the Privy Council hands down their decision sometime in October, against Gypsy and Chaitan, Parliament will be dissolved before the start of the election petition and before the PNM's convention.
The government will be handed back to Manning on a platter. Patrick Manning will become Prime Minister and Basdeo Panday Leader of the Opposition temporarily. When Robinson vacates Panday will be installed as President. Panday is preaching national unity, Manning will implement it.
FIZIE SULIMAN
Princes Town
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Lady B Dies In Brooklyn
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2001
BEULAH BOBB, solo calypsonian and one of four female singers in the genre known as the United Sisters, succumbed to cancer at 1 am yesterday at Booth Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.
Born in L’anse Fourmi, Tobago on March 25, 1957, Bobb, one of mother Beryl’s ten children, started her calypso career at age 17, singing under the sobriquet Saga Ting Mama and won the island’s crown for two successive years.
Based on her double triumph, the Mighty Sparrow invited her to move to Trinidad in 1980, to join the cast of his Young Brigade Tent. Shortly before her first season in Trinidad she changed her moniker to Lady B.
But since 1977 when she was first selected for the National Calypso Semi-Final, Lady B has made it to that penultimate rung every year, establishing a record among women and running second only to Chalkdust overall. Her greatest disappointment, she told author Rudolph Ottley, is that she never made it to the next level – the national final.
However, in 1986, Lady B was crowned National Calypso Queen and five years later, went on to win the Caribbean Song Festival with the United Sisters, with a song she wrote called "Ambataila Woman".
Her songwriting this year catapulted 15 year-old Patrice Roberts of the Toco Composite School to a double victory. Lady B’s "Doh Go Dey" and "The Peace Song" won Roberts prizes valued at more than $100,000, by copping both the Junior Soca Monarch and Junior Calypso Monarch titles.
Bobb, who taught music and drama at the Toco school, recognised Roberts as one of her more talented students and since last year, wrote songs for the teenager. When asked why she didn’t keep the prize-winning songs for herself, Bobb replied: "I am a producer of corn. I can’t eat all. I have to share with friends."
She has had her share of popularity with calypso tent crowds over the years. Among her best-remembered pieces are: "Fight Back", "Hostage", "Adda Adda Ringbang" and "Whoa Donkey", the latter as part of the group The United Sisters, which included Singing Sandra, Marvelous Marva and Tigress.
Yesterday Singing Sandra, the only sister currently living here, spent much of the day weeping her heart away, beyond consolation, saying she and Lady B had known each for a very long time. "She had asked to be cremated," Sandra said, "because she knew what her illness meant. But it fooled everybody, because just recently, they said it was in remission."
Bobb, who has also worked with the Community Development Division, was herself at school for the past three years, reading for a Bachelor’s Degree in Music (with emphasis on calypso). She finished her programme and was scheduled to graduate next month. MORE
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Watch your language Mr Prime Minister
Posted: Tuesday, September 4, 2001
THE EDITOR: What will it take, to get the nationals of Trinidad and Tobago out of this complacency that we patronize: day in day out, every day of our lives? I pay homage to VS Naipaul now, although I differed with him in the past, when he referred to the nationals of Trinidad and Tobago as being "MIMIC men". His utterances are more prophetic now, than ever-the man is a social prophet of the highest order.
Let's take the Prime Minister's remarks: "that he is in charge". How can he be in charge? When: the IMF and the World Bank are in control of our fiscal policies, while the Privy Council has taken over the Judiciary, and foreign investors set the tone: with regard to revenue sharing in Trinidad and Tobago, and to crown it all we are dead set, on doing away with our Trinidad and Tobago currency, replacing it, with the US currency. (dollarisation).
The Attorney General's open defiance of the Prime Minister, has set some precedent in governmental protocol. If the Prime Minister is in charge, as he said he is, after this protracted joust with the Attorney General, why does he lack the fortitude to call his bluff and send him packing. One has to wonder, if the Prime Minister's power lies in his bark and not his bite.
The absence of accountability in government and the prevalence of alleged wide-spread corruption in government agencies in Trinidad and Tobago, have created a malaise, which has trickled down and has affected the behaviour of the general public. We no longer fear external punishment or experience internal guilt.
A grand scale "talk show" now exists in Trinidad and Tobago, every day a new "talking-head" joins the fray, with only monologues, no dialogue (confined to politicians only). The nationals of Trinidad and Tobago are not allowed to participate in the charade because we do not count. Labour unions are rendered impotent by political investors, while the working middle-class, fight for monetary appeasement and the poor has all but given up the fight, for a decent life. (Who is in charge).
I will tell you who is in charge: the ordinary man on the street with his vote we wield real power, with out our votes, no one can make the idle boast of being in charge, no one person, can ever be in charge of a country unless it is a "dictatorship".
The last time I looked, we were still a creeping dictatorship, we have not gotten to a full blown dictatorship as yet-so watch your language Mr Prime Minister.
U. GUY
Point Fortin
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Why Basdeo Panday stormed off to bed?
Posted: Tuesday, September 4, 2001
Abstract: The Express
Prime Minister Basdeo Panday last night stormed off to bed after being defeated in his attempt to get a postponement of Sunday’s UNC constituency elections. In reporting on the UNC executive meeting to the media afterwards, UNC deputy political leader Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj described the vote as "overwhelming".
Apart from Panday, only three other persons on the executive supported a postponement—chairman Wade Mark, general secretary Fazal Karim and policy and strategy officer Roodal Moonilal.
Ironically, Panday was outmanoeuvred by his executive in his own home at the PM’s official residence in St Ann’s. The party meeting was originally scheduled for the UNC’s Rienzi Complex but ended up at St Ann’s after Panday requested a relocation, saying he had a commitment to attend a function for visiting Chinese Minister of Defence, General Chi Haotian. In the end, the Prime Minister missed the function altogether. Officials at the PM’s residence confirmed after the meeting that he was in bed and would not be attending the function. Earlier, he was said to have a cold and sore throat.
About five minutes before the end of the meeting, Mark emerged telling reporters that he had a family emergency. On his departure, the UNC’s international relations officer Ralph Maraj took the chair. Party vice-chairman Joseph Theodore had previously left the meeting to attend the function for the visiting Chinese official.
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Slavery was wrong and must be condemned
Posted: Monday, September 3, 2001
An article written by Gwynne Dyer and published in the Express on August 27th, entitled "The Legacy of Slavery", caught my attention and left me both angry and, in some ways afraid.
Mr Dyer discussed the issue of reparation to the descendants of slaves. He argued (some might say correctly), that Africa is the world's poorest and most troubled region. That assessment I had no trouble with. When he further argued that: "those demanding reparations for slavery are effectively saying that that's (slavery) the reason for Africa's present problems, or a big part of it", I became a little wary.
As a person who has followed the United Nations debate on reparation for what has been described as the "atrocities" of forced human enslavement, I found his conclusion to be unsound.
Those who argue for reparations are not effectively saying that slavery is the cause of Africa's highly publicised social and economic problems, but rather, are trying to have some recognised committee or body condemn the practice that saw human beings traded and worked worse than animals.
Secondly, he argued that "there is no evidence that the slave trade did any lasting harm to Africa as a whole between the 17th and 19th centuries (by which time the British Navy had effectively ended it)."
I beg to differ! The slave trade did have an effect of importance on Africa. I had to wonder if Mr Dyer had ever heard of the term "population genocide"?
During the slave trade Africa lost some of its most skilled in traditions such as weaving, while whole villages were lost along with many lives. And, contrary to what he wrote, the British Navy did not effectively end anything. After the slave trade was abolished in 1807 many slaves were still shipped to various places in the Caribbean.
Also, when he argued that the process of slavery did not involve European invasion, I had to question my whole study of history and the "A" that I recently attained in the Cambridge A-Level West Indian History exam, since none of the historical authors I based my studies on ever argued in support of his theory. I tell you, Eric Williams (one of the regions most outstanding historians) flipped in his grave! Mr Dyer, didn't the Europeans obtain slaves by travelling into the interior of Africa, burning the villages, and in the madness gathering up the strong, while leaving the very old and very young to die? If that doesn't constitute "invasion" to you, it certainly does to me!
Mr Dyer's article touched a chord deep within me. I decided to write a response to him simply because the true facts surrounding the horrors of the 400 years of slavery (in the British Caribbean, since in Spanish colonies, for example, slavery lasted longer) have been hidden in too many myths.
The people of Trinidad and Tobago, and by extension every people in the world need to wake up and embrace their true history. Some like to say that you don't know where you're going until you know where you've come from. I'd like to end this letter in the words of Marcus Mosiah Garvey "a people without a history is like a tree without roots".
N. MARCELLE
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Hear the voice of the people, PM
Posted: Saturday, September 1, 2001
(Yorke Hunte-Suite) I couldn't help but notice the irony of the present conflict between the AG, Ramesh L Maharaj, and the PM, Basdeo Panday.
The Prime Minister, for the purpose of preserving his parliamentary majority, and by extension the Government, is fighting tooth and tail, to the very end, to have the voice of the people prevail in the courts of law. Even though Gypsy and Chaitan were imposed on the people, Panday's prominent argument is that the voice of the people must prevail.
Yet for his own party, Panday wishes to disobey the voice of the people and insists on shutting them up. The voice of the people has shouted Team Unity at the top of its voice. Yet this does not please Panday's ears, since he would be required to share power and eventually hand over the reigns to Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
So he (Panday) goes about continuously demeaning the AG by repeatedly appointing closet Baptist Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Minister of Smiles and Apologies, as the acting Prime Minister, while his remaining "loyal" Ministers talk about purges and political laxatives this minute, and mediation, unity and political rehydration in the next. The deputy political leader is entitled to a better dispensation, for God's sake.
Bro Panday, the voice of the people is the voice of God, according to the gospel of Mr Manning. You will do well to do the dharmic thing, notwithstanding your admission of not being a good Hindu, and invoking Allah's blessings on Hindu gatherings, and listen to the voice of God.
Remember, Sir, whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
Yorke Hunte-Suite,
La Romain.
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Afro-Trinis among the wealthy
Posted: Saturday, September 1, 2001
THE EDITOR: Who exactly is it that Selwyn Cudjoe and the National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) trying to empower? Is Dr Cudjoe trying to teach the increasing number of Afro-Trinidadians who drive BMW's, Audis, Benz, and Toyotas how to gain wealth? Is he trying to teach the hundreds (if not thousands) of Afro-Trinis holding high-end financial positions at major local, and multinational firms, industrial, and financial companies, and state agencies just how to make money? Hah.
In this country, Afro-Trinis count for wealth in no uncertain terms. The Afro-Trinidadian community counts among its own many, many lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, industrial managers, financial managers, contractors, teachers, well-paid state employees including managers, supervisors and the like.
These people own homes in Westmoorings, Valsayn, Maraval, Trincity and other top locations throughout the land.
Afro-Trinis own businesses like newspapers, financial empires, and budding enterprises all over the place. Many of these people can probably pay for Selwyn Cudjoe to fly to and from the USA every day for countless number of years.
How is Mr Cudjoe, and his NAEAP going to "empower" these Afro-Trinis?
The fact is that among each race, you must have the poor, middle-class, and the rich. God knows that there are much more poor Indo-Trinidadians here than there are rich.
Take a drive through any poor community in Central or South Trinidad and you will see them.
Do you hear anybody offering to "empower" these people? Even Panday, and the UNC, long seen to be an "Indian" government, are falling short in giving some of these impoverished Indo-Trinis good roads, water, electricity and such.
What Trinidadians of every race need to do is to stop seeing themselves as "victims" each, and every time the world does not dance to their tune. I travelled to Canada last winter, and in the middle of the cold, heartless weather, there were white Canadian vagrants begging for a few coins, their unprotected hands, and feet turning blue with the brutal cold. Who was "empowering" these white people in their own homeland.
One of the main roadblocks to the progress of people collectively, and/or individually, is the pre-occupation of their time with perceived victimisation, or self-pity. These people spend most of their time blaming everyone, and everything for their failures in life because they become too lazy to get up, and change their lives.
The best thing that Cudjoe, and his NAEAP can do is to make Afro-Trinis realise that they are not doing their cause an iota of good if they continue to blame society for all their misfortunes. They imprint these values in their children from young, and so, the lazier kids know that whenever they fail, they have an excuse.
Their classmates "make it" because of their race, religion, colour, familial contacts, and so forth.
They are too pre-occupied with why others make it, and do not focus on exactly why they did not make it.
Everybody suffers. The challenge in life is to shake off the pain, and succeed, and no one can do this when others give them the comfort-zone of excuses for failing. As a closing wish, I want Cudjoe to tell us how he can "empower" Brian Lara, Dwight Yorke, Ato Boldon, and Lawrence Duprey.
EDWARD WILLIAMS
Port-of-Spain
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Sudama hits Panday: PM tool of big business
Posted: Saturday, September 1, 2001
(The Express) A political body-blow for the Prime Minister was delivered yesterday by his longest political associate in the Cabinet.
Food Production Minister Trevor Sudama accused Prime Minister Basdeo Panday of "intimidating" UNC members and of "performing" for the "parasitic oligarchy".
Sudama was responding to a comment from Panday at a meeting in Barrackpore on Thursday night in which he accused an un-named minister who had been in the news recently of being a non-performer (See pages 6 & 14). Sudama is among those ministers who have been publicly speaking out in recent times.
Responding yesterday, Sudama said:
"In terms of performance I don’t know who he is referring to. What I can say, however, is that he performs, but he performs for the parasitic oligarchy because they call the shots. If they say jump, I think his question is how high. If they say go to Miami, he asks when. So that is one dimension of performance that we have had," Sudama told the Express in an interview at his constituency office in Debe yesterday.
Sudama also accused Panday of using intimidatory tactics against UNC members in the run-up to the September 9 constituency executive elections. More
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