ANTHRAX?
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Posted By: Davy De Verteuil
Date: Tuesday, 30 October 2001, at 10:32 a.m.
Soon Americans will tell the US Administration (enough)stop threatening us stop the paranoia....
We have surrendered the congress curtail our liberties, sanction indefinite murder on Afghanistan who we know could not have pulled-off 911 attack, turn a blind eye to the many Arabs Afro-Americans detained and abused since the 911, cease endless of Arabs money,in the guise of preventing launder etc etc etc...
The US Admin is terrorising the American people without restraint.
What a funny situation that US, the only super power on this planet is unable to dig out those involved in this "horrible act" but within few hours after the attack on WTC and Pentagon had mentioned the name of Ossama bin Laden as the prime suspect without getting any reliable evidences and that is the chief reason, majority of the world citizens are now expressing their expressions against US bombing.
One more funny event is that American agencies could not trace Levy Chandra who was kidnapped or disappeard from Washington few months earlier but Bush administration at once declared Ossama bin Laden responsible for September 11 dilemma. Independent people rightly consider it as the "pre-planned move".
Posted By: Ayinde
Date: Tuesday, 30 October 2001, at 12:24 p.m.
Would the U.S. Admin stage fresh attacks on the their population to rekindle support for a failing, illegal attack on Afghanistan?
Posted By: Davy De Verteuil
Date: Tuesday, 30 October 2001, at 10:40 p.m.
What you do outside you bound to bring it home.
As we all know charity begins at home so too are the value systems we desperately try to conceal in the name of "I am just doing my JOB".
Drugs coming into the US was always a controlled supervised affair after all it was meant for a targeted segment of American society and until it happened to reach into the hands of the children of the rich and famous and the upper middle-class then the US government agencies felt the need to try and put a stop on the smuggling/import.
The Italian Mafia for example would murder any of its delivery-boys who were made out to be pushing dope to no whites in and outside of the US.
Drugs is effectively a destroyer of lives and society than racial segregation is, in fact more so, to-boot.
(Orchestrated/controlled) Anarchy and turmoil have been the foundation pretext for building America...if Hollywood could not do the JOB then the state agencies came into action and when the impact on US interest abroad was not impressive then 'simple' we do it at home.....Examine carefully the US embassy bombings in Africa and the 1983 German disco bombings that killed Black servicemen.
Who were the handlers of US ammunition storage facilities working under stressful dangerous conditions during WWII?
Ask Oliver North where did he took Reagan and Bush drugs and who gave him the diplomatic and federal cover.
What the DEA/CIA has done abroad it will not shy away from doing at home. The most successful in history is Sep 11, 2001. Congress with the exception of one person maybe the only one with insight not to mention courage surrendered instantaneously even on matters yet to be brought before the house.
1)The issue of Anthrax as we see it, it is too controlled to obvious and at the same time overdone by the media.
2)The Administration was far too cautious and circulative "still is" in it's response.
The American Administration of hysteria, sympathy, and mass-murder is all to apparent in it's drive for public approval whenever it needs to achieve any hidden agenda that certainly will not get pass the general public not even congress.
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Chronic Anthrax
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2001
By Denis Solomon
The United States authorities admit they have no evidence of the source of the anthrax germs being disseminated in that country. They are nevertheless doing their best to avoid public panic by planting the idea of a local origin, for both the germs and their users.
In a way this is understandable. It is also not without precedent. During the Cuban missile crisis, it was impossible to follow, by reading the American newspapers, the progress of the Soviet missile-transporting ships as they steamed toward Cuba. (Freedom of the press is practically indigenous to the United States, but American newspapers co-operate very readily with the authorities in a time of national crisis.) The Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination is widely believed to be a cover-up, and the then Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, is on record as saying that the truth would never be revealed. MORE
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May the farce be with you
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2001
By Terry Joseph
This being a land of theatre and tan-ta-na, our major comedy-script options are either portrayals of reality's inherent humour or the farce, exaggeration of normal existence to the point of absurdity. Evidently, we choose the latter.
Among the best known exponents of this style was 17th Century French playwright Moliere, whose broad swipes at the pretensive society of his day and comments on the arrogance of those responsible for its guidance, conspired to produce some of his most famous works.
In Tartuffe, a play that satirised religious hypocrisy, Moliere so incensed the dominant Roman Catholic Church that at his death nine years later, burial on holy ground only took place (and even so, under cover of a dark night) after his compere, King Louis XIV, intervened. MORE
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Why Afghanistan under attack?
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2001
By Bukka Rennie
Let the truth be told! The Caspian Sea is rich in oil and gas deposits. However, these rich reserves are useless until they can be explored and transported economically.
George Monbiot in an article in the Guardian titled "America's pipe dream", argues that the only route that makes political and economic sense is via Afghanistan. In fact Monbiot surmises that "Afghanistan is as indispensable to the regional control and transport of oil and gas in Central Asia as Egypt is to the Middle East."
The article also indicates that in 1995, UNOCAL, a US oil company, was seeking vigorously to negotiate pipelines from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan into Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea and there was talk then about a "1000 mile pipeline".
In fact, Monbiot showed how certain economic variables and political considerations ruled out all the other options when he advanced the following:
"...Transporting all the Caspian basin's fossil fuel through Russia or Azerbaijan would greatly enhance Russia's political and economic control over the central Asian republics, which is precisely what the West has spent 10 years trying to prevent. MORE
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Husband of State witness executed
Posted: Saturday, October 27, 2001
By Ken Chee Hing
A bullet through the brain ended the life of an El Socorro man, whose wife is the State's chief witness against attorney Jagdeo Singh, now before the Courts on bribery charges.
Rudolph "Horseman" John, 36, a father of two, was lured from his Sadoo Trace, El Socorro Extension, San Juan home around 9 pm on Thursday. Half an hour later, Morvant detective Constables Liston Taylor and Sunil Ramoutar, on routine mobile patrol along Lady Young Road, received a wireless report that a body was seen inside the abandoned Jusamco quarries off Lady Young Road.
When they went to the quarry they discovered John's blood stained corpse lying face down in some bushes, his hands bound behind his back with women's underwear and a handkerchief. One half of a pair of socks and a large bandana were found wrapped around his neck. Police speculate the socks and bandana were used to gag John. A gunshot, fired into the right side of John's head, exited through the left side near the ear. The grass around his body was soaked with blood.
His wife, Sherry Ann Basdeo, 32, has been in protective custody ever since she began receiving death threats and shots fired at her home. She has been living at a secret location in the United States and is due back in the country this weekend.
Ag Snr Supt Desmond Lambert, Ag ASP Derrick Trim, Homicide Bureau officers Insp Lester Hutchings and Sgt Ancil Corbett, Cpls Henry Dann and Tom Bernard, PCs Murray, Graham, Taylor, Ramoutar and Aslim Hosein visited the scene.
After DMO Dr Iqbal Ackbar viewed the body it was removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary. An autopsy will be done on Monday at Forensic Sciences Centre. John, police said, was a career criminal and had a narcotics matter pending in the Magistrates Court.
His mother Joyce Surujnath, 52, a mother of seven, said on October 17 he spoke to her on the telephone, saying he had learnt that hitmen were hired to execute him and a fee of $1 million was paid to them.
"I don't know why anyone would want to kill my son. He was a quiet person, who sold fish for a living and who never interfered with anyone," Surujnath said.
Surujnath said she learnt of her son's death from his wife, Sherry Ann Basdeo, who telephoned her from the United States on Thursday night and told her he was shot dead.
Yesterday Homicide Bureau and Crime Scene Unit officers searched John's home for clues. The lock on the front gate had to be cut to gain entry into the premises.
The case against Jagdeo Singh is listed to start in the High Courts next Thursday. It is alleged that an attempt was made to bribe a Port-of-Spain Magistrate and Court Prosecutor, in order to secure bail for a client.
Up to yesterday, no arrests had been made and detective Cpl Tom Bernard, of Morvant CID, is continuing investigations.
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December 10 may prove to be TT's day of reckoning
Posted: Friday, October 26, 2001
THE EDITOR: While John Humphrey and other Government ministers scoffed at the relatively small turnout at Ramesh's rainbow rally (the crowd was dwarfed by the vast size of the compound), they may be ignoring the true size of the audience. Not the people at the Trade Fair grounds or the neighbours hanging out their windows looking on; but indeed the people in TV land who number in the hundreds of thousands.
Television is the most powerful communication medium invented so far by humankind. It is personal, at times interactive; it imports and exports cultures, it alters tastes and shapes opinions. Television is a people controller. Based on this, Ramesh was able to reach more people than the regulars bused to the loyalists meetings.
The message of Panday and his loyalists is hysterical and desperate, dubious and even obscene, while Ramesh comes across as calm and methodical; sticking to what the party had set out to do. There he is daily exposing his leader as a fraud who wants to have his way despite his being part of shaping the party's constitution which governs them all.
Already the tremors have turned into a rumble in the heartland. Families are already being torn apart among the faithful. Son against father, neighbour against neighbour, street versus street. At this stage the confrontation is verbal; however as the situation becomes more desperate things could turn ugly.
What is clear is that the Prime Minister and his loyalists are ignoring the hard questions of corruption and trying to sweep this important issue under the carpet. His puerile attempts to bury allegations of corruption with name-calling will only fool the most illiterate. The plebeians are awakening to Mr Panday's long history of political chicanery and December 10 may prove to be indeed a day of reckoning.
SELWYN CRAIGWELL
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Celebrating Excellence
Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2001
TERRY JOSEPH - Saturday night's In Celebration of Excellence concert went far beyond its originally scheduled midnight closing time, but nearly one hour later, the audience was giving Exodus not one but two encores.
Sub-titled Pan Royale, the fund raising concert was held at the Queen's Royal College (QRC) grounds and some 1,500 patrons braved the $100 ticket price, a bargain when you consider the combination of worthy cause and exquisite entertainment. MORE
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Vexing To The Spirit
Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2001
TERRY JOSEPH - An item treasured universally by Christians, is the one-page tract called Desiderata which, among other equally Utopian things, beseeches us to: "Avoid loud and aggressive persons for they are vexations to the spirit."
As if by copyright specification, the last line of each printed scroll unfailingly reminds us its original was found in Old St Paul's Cathedral a little over 300 years ago; a time well before ultra-powerful audio systems were invented. MORE
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Basdeo Panday, World's greatest town crier
Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2001
LYSTRA - Basdeo Panday is the greatest crier this world has seen. One who is very kind, jovial, keen helpful to the face but extremely dangerous in a flash.
He verbally abuses everyone, even people who stood by him in his problems. He has openly chastised those he had praised seconds before. He has heaped scorn on even his most fanatical followers.
After he has had his bellyful he laughs and says that he was misinterpreted. He is not to blame but points to someone else and even the journalists believe him.
He has killed many parties. He has destroyed many politicians in the process. He has hypnotised aging friends to come to his defence when in their senses they act differently.
It is a burning shame that this country is overpopulated with so many fanatics, racists, "jackasses" and liars. It is embarrassing to see people who profess to be literate can be fooled so easily.
They act as zombies at election time. We time come! Jobs for all. Better this, that and the other and all you see is cosmetics.
The common call from the supporters of the two warring factions on the scene is yuh eh see de leader is one ah we?" and he pulls his hair.
The answer is "Yea boy, dat is true yeh." All principle, moral values, ethics and basic values of life are cast aside even the values they give or purport to give to their children. Tears done now. Vote NAR.
LYSTRA
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Counting on Tunapuna again
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
By Bukka Rennie
The piece about Tunapuna (Democracy more than fresh air) created quite a stir. The major thesis was that Tunapuna is a microcosmic reflection of the landscape of T&T. Every social, religious, cultural manifestation found equal representation there, particularly in the days gone by.
That the open "savannah" in the middle of this place, which was "neither town nor country", was then the lungs of the community until the skewed civil planners destroyed it; that this great mix of different people and cultures therein provided for Tunapuna a particular spirit of universal freedom, a spirit that was instinctively republican and democratic, a spirit that was exhibited by the people of Tunapuna at all levels.
From this line of thought it was extrapolated that, not surprisingly, many politicians and political parties have maintained over the years that to win State power in T&T elections, you have to win Tunapuna.
Tunapuna was always marginal. That is an historic fact. The argument posited was that precisely because of its nature and history one could count on Tunapuna to be the constituency to break the back of "one-manism", maximum leadership and gubernatorial, old-school politics. It was a warning to the unwise.
Many people responded by e-mail while others telephoned to add their two-cents worth to this viewpoint. Here are a few of the responses that came:
A "DA" e-mailed: "...Well ole man... only time will tell. A nice warmingly-written piece. One love, DA."
Mr A Defreitas e-mailed: "...Bravo..! I love this article, keep up the clever writing. This is such a relief from the mundane. Thank you..."
Mr C Heywood of Atlanta and a past resident of Tunapuna also e-mailed to express his enthusiasm: "...Just recently I spoke to Reverend Brian Jemmott, who resides in Atlanta, about Tunapuna, that special place. You have rekindled so much about Tunapuna. You left out the Razaccks, the Bains, Thora Best, Lloyd's sister, the Springers, the Fosters, Dalgo, and the snackettes and rum shops, where some of the current crop of legal luminaries spent some time. There is much to be written about Tunapuna..."
And there were those who questioned my failure to mention people like "Sing Sing" and "Gemima", Manda, Annette, Lillian and Vida, etc, stalwarts of the early grassroots PNM mass movement and the backbone of the Tunapuna market women-vendors.
As was the case in most of the then progressive nationalist parties of the so-called underdeveloped world struggling to break the back of colonialism and imperialist domination, the grassroots women took to the forefront to make the sacrifices and virtually carry the movement on their shoulders.
So too did the famous Tunapunians, such as "Sing Sing" and "Gemima", only too be discarded later as the mass movement grounded into a constipated party shell that lost its way, betraying in the course of time its historic purpose and seemingly incapable of rekindling any progressive content.
Not surprisingly, the very children and grandchildren of these stalwarts mentioned have continued to be unmoved by the latter-day PNM. It is phenomena that is not unique to T&T but has become common throughout the world; it is the transformation of the nationalist anti-colonial, anti-imperialist vanguards into neo-colonial defenders of the status-quo at the expense of the democratic development of the people.
A Mr Hosein telephoned and agreed with the view that there was that equality of positioning of the races and cultures, that "sharing", that was reflected in the mosaic that was Tunapuna and that it was best expressed in the use of that "open savannah" which was central and spinal to all that happened in Tunapuna.
But he questioned any attempt to attribute any aspect of democratic politics to the famous "bad-johns" of the past era. He was of the view that they never discussed "politics" in the course of their daily affairs. At least he had never heard them do so.
But the point he missed was that the democratic spirit they portrayed was not essentially by way of articulation, but moreso by what they demonstrated by the stance they adopted over and over again. They were sycophants to nobody. They questioned everyone's intentions and they were fearless in defending what they choose to defend. They had a sense of morality that was their own. They did not seek validation for their actions from anyone other than themselves.
I can recall the Mascals (Mccall and Clock) insisting that we go to school, study and do well because the opportunities were there for us to do better. We could not dock school with them around. They insisted that we not be like they were. Compare that with the likes of the block and street people of today who induce school children into all kinds and forms of criminal activity. That was unheard of long ago in the East-West Corridor.
That is what we mean today when we say that social milieu has become morally decadent. So decadent, in fact, that they now have nothing to defend and will sell their souls and anything else, even their votes, for a mess of pottage. And no one, no organisation, whether social or political, has sought to address this question.
We are counting, we say again, on Tunapuna, that special place that is neither town nor country, to make the difference, if only it can lay claim to and reaffirm its past glories. Let Tunapuna lead the breakaway!
http://www.trinicenter.com/BukkaRennie/
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You are Wrong Prime Minister
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Dear Editor
I would like to humbly suggest to Prime Minister Panday that death and disgrace are not the only two ways out of the Trinidad type political system as he so loudly proclaimed to ex-President Clinton.
I am sure he knows about a third way, it is called resignation. It is something you hand in when you find yourself leading a minority government or embarassing revelations of improprieties as a leader forces you to do or forces you to consider it. I am certain in his recent political history, he may have heard of it from his political opponents and may have even considered it, even negatively at that. So his statement cannot be a truth.
That is why we have General Elections on Dec 10th. Thank You
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Crisis in our news media
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
THE EDITOR: Our major newspapers in TT are taking globalisation (which is the most over-used word today) beyond - Business, Trade and Technology - to a new dimension, foreign news.
Because of our penchant for foreign news and everything foreign, we are force-fed to the extent that our local news is superseded by foreign news - not only CNN. On Sunday 7th, Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th breaking news of one of the most historical events in our political history since the attempted coup d'etat in 1990, was upstaged by the bombing of the Taliban in Afghanistan by the American jets. Both Newsday and the Express had this event with prominently displayed photos on their front pages - fighter jets booming in the skies, with captions depicting the might of America's conventional and nuclear munitions enhanced with a front page caption: Allies Bomb Afghanistan and It's War.
I am not advocating isolationism but why do we sell out to everything foreign even to a war thousands of miles away, while we play down the political war that is raging right here at home between the UNC and PNM?
The war abroad can only impact on our lives in TT indirectly but "our war" would have far reaching effects on our lives now, and for some time to come.
Why are our problems at home not given precedence over a foreign waged war on the front pages of our local newspapers? Why two days of "sale" of this foreign war?
After the UNC's explosive meeting on Sunday evening at the Queen's Park Savannah, I could not wait for Monday, to get my hands on a local newspaper, to my dismay, our local newspapers had gone foreign, neglecting to showcase the furor that our politics had ignited here at home.
At first glance, one could not help being jolted out of his or her mind by these high powered war jets on the front pages of our major newspapers. Not for one day, but for two days running. The faint of heart could have gotten the impression that our beautiful island was taken over by some super power, taking into account, what is going on all around the world today.
To believe everything coming from the US is superior and better than our own, is one thing but to put the declaration of war in Afghanistan - between the Taliban and the US, on the front pages of our major newspapers while historical events regarding our politics are being ignored, is not what one will expect from our print media or any media in our little island. We may be small but we should all think like the US - everything American comes first, this stems from the nationalism that exists in that country, so if we continue to ape the US, let us be "positive apes" and put our country first, the same as they do.
Ulric Guy
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What goes around comes around, Mr Panday
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
The Editor: What short memories we all seem to have. Is it really true that we in Trinidad have seven-day memories?
Didn't Mr Panday know that Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was a man to be feared when he ousted Kamla Persad-Bissessar one Carnival weekend when the rest of the country was having fun and installed Ramesh without even Kamla being first aware?
Who does Mr Panday think he is? The only other person (whom I believe) believed himself to be a supreme leader was Hitler. Look at what Hitler did to the world.
What about when he convinced the two former PNM ministers, Lasse and Griffith (who never had any public grouse before with Mr Manning) to cross the floor? Who were Judases then?
Why is he going about crying shame on the three dissidents now? Doesn't he know what goes around, comes around?
Why is Mr Panday comparing the fall of his party by blatant corruption (by members of his own team) to the September 11 disaster in New York and Washington?
What an insult to all those people who lost their families in that tragedy. Why can't the Panday loyalists see Mr Panday for what he really is? Don't they know that where there is smoke there is fire?
Don't they think that Mr Panday owes them an explanation for the US$50,000 cheque, the “house in London”, etc? What about transparency? Is he afraid to divulge his assets and liabilities?
What about when he first came to office and attacked the reporter at the Trinidad Guardian? What about his attack on Mr Ken Gordon for which he paid dearly through his pockets?
What about the rice deal where $30 million of your taxpayer's money was lost? What about being continuously warned about Dhanraj Singh and when he ignored all the warnings and said that Singh was his best Minister? Now Dhanraj Singh is in jail awaiting trial!
Is that what these loyalists are sanctioning? What about all the teachers whom he called criminals? What about the insultive ways in which he answers reporters?
What kind of Finance Minister is Minister Yetming if he could bring out a budget ignoring the situation in the USA on September 11, 2001? And only after numerous warnings he now jumps on the bandwagon and declares the same warnings?
Why is Mr Panday selling the country to CL Financial? Doesn't Mr Duprey know that when you affiliate yourself with one party you have to take the blows too?
Does Mr Kuei Tung really expect us to believe him when he says he has no political affiliation?
Why can't Jack Warner and Carlos John see themselves (through most of the public's eyes) for the fools they are? There is a saying, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time!"
Cindy
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Marijuana seized as Cops arrest 29 Rastafarians
Posted: Monday, October 22, 2001
By Ken Chee Hing
Western Division police swooped down on a St James Night Club and arrested 29 men comprising Rastafarian and Bobo Shanti followers, who were held with large quantities of marijuana on Friday night.
Some of the well-dressed men, who wore flowing garbs and carried ceremonial carved wooden staffs, started chanting "Jah burn down Babylon", when they were arrested. They will appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate tomorrow to answer to charges of possession of marijuana. According to police reports, around 10 pm officers led by Insp Narcis Cadette, including Sgt Dennis Julien, PCs Malco, Husbands, Watson, Powder and Western Division Task Force officers led by Cpl Constantine, gathered outside Club Prosperity at Bournes Road in St James.
The officers held 29 men between the ages of 18 to 43, with marijuana. Some of them were held as they were about to enter the night club, while others were held leaving the club.
Police sources told Sunday Newsday, they made the bust after receiving information that a group of Rastafarians were holding a concert at the night club, the theme of which was "Revival".
The officers also received information that large quantities of marijuana were being smoked by the Rastafarians in and around the club. In an unrelated incident, the same party of officers, around 4 am yesterday, arrested two men and a woman at Jeffers Lane, St James with a quantity of cocaine. The three were later charged and are expected in Court today.
Abstract Newsday
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Why Naipaul Alone ?
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2001
Dear Sir/Madam Editor
How did the Government come up with the decision to name the National Library after one of the country's Nobel Literature winners alone. Naipaul is deserving and so too is Walcott. What is the reasoning behind naming it after one and not the other. Should it not be jointly named or is the Government willing to provide rational to avoid and diffuse speculation that racial considerations are their primary motives.
People who raise the 'race boogey' in every situation could be very dangerous to this country, but it is the people in authority who do things without providing open and public rational that fuel these people and could be considered worse. Which also brings me to the fact that this same Government had also promised to name something after the late Kwame Ture [Stokely Carmichael] another outstanding citizen who had done well, and is yet to do so.
It must be said that for someone so brutally disdainful of other developing peoples and societies to name our National Library Complex after him singularly or jointly is a step in the wrong direction. His obvious literary genius is not a consideration in this matter, but his derisive, dismissive and divisive stature. Trinidad and Tobago we can do better.
Jasper Webster
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Where has the money gone?
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2001
THE EDITOR: The nation may recall that in the months of November and December 2000 all Municipal Corporations executed the E2k Programme, the objective of which was the collection and safe disposal of bulky and white waste. This programme was funded by moneys made available to the Ministry of Environment through an international donor agency.
In a letter of request the Ministry of Environment indicated that there was realised a surplus on this programme, and therefore the Minister of Environment proposed a phase II intended to focus on the cleaning of watercourses before June 30, 2001.
This was viewed by the Diego Martin Regional Municipal Corporation as a welcomed initiative for the following reasons (i) the inadequacy of funds supplied to the Corporation by the Central Government to deal with water courses under its jurisdiction (ii) the unwillingness of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Local Government to address those watercourses in the Region of Diego Martin for which Central Government is responsible (iii) the susceptibility of the entire Region to flooding during the rainy season. Further the initiative was considered timely as the Council was at that time, that is February 2001, developing a programme to clean and clear those critical watercourses which its funds would permit.
Although the Corporation acted expeditiously in forwarding to the Ministry the water courses to be included in the E2K Phase II Project and identifying the works to be undertaken to date the funding for such project has not been released. In the meanwhile the Corporation completed its own programme of cleaning, desilting and clearing some thirty watercourses but many other watercourses intended to be cleared, desilted and cleaned by the E2K Project Phase II remain unaddressed.
The latest response from the Ministry of Environment about the commencement of this Project Phase II disclosed funds are not available. The Council of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation finds this response incredulous, particularly since, as early as March 2001, a private company was selected by the Ministry of Environment to overseer the Project. The course of events leaves the Council of the Diego Martin Regional Municipal Corporation to ponder. "Where the money has gone?" While many areas in the Region are at risk of flooding during the rainy season, the threat of which the Minister of Environment could have long allayed had the admitted surplus from E2K Phase I been released to fund the erstwhile E2K Phase II.
BRIGID MARY ANNISETTE-GEORGE
Chairman Diego Martin Regional Corporation
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Down that slippery slope to ruin
Posted: Friday, October 19, 2001
Dear Editor
Once upon a time in this fair land, people were told to follow their leaders and I don't know if they did or still do. But what I do know is that it is not now safe to do so. Take the present scenario where you have several citizens active in public life coming before the national community and giving evidence for public scrutiny of attempts to murder them among other accusations. It is natural for any other citizen to think that they would be giving some level of assurance if not protection from the government of the day.
Instead what we have now witnessed is the unbelievable and untenable situation of the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security of this country, less than 24 hours after those revelations were made, poking fun at the allegations and encouraging doubt, ridicule and laughter at those who were bringing evidence publicly to support their claims. Is this not a clear abdication of duty by those responsible for the safety of each and every citizen? What manner of governance and governed allows things to take place like this without loud public outcry. Today we know who are being laughed at and ridiculed; do we know who would it be tomorrow? Is there not a massive travesty of Justice being committed here, and how did we as a nation come to this sorry pass?
But is this not the same country where a public official was killed and another public official charged for his murder. Did not the murdered man make a report to another public official? Can the nation remember what was that public official response to inquiries about that report? It seems like in this country by the silence of so many all notions of decency, right from wrong, public accountability and responsibility has been suspended on the altar of political and economical expediency.
Can we also now expect to hear any of the battery of experts on the Law and the Constitution whose only ability seems to be to advise the President, can we now expect of them to stand up for the right of citizens to be treated equally under the law and not be subject to ridicule by anyone in authority. What about the Church, Social, Civic and Community organizations, can they not see and feel our descent down that slippery slope to ruin and destruction.
KURT GARCIA
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Trini Humour
Posted: Thursday, October 18, 2001
BREAKING NEWS FROM RADIO TRINI
Radio TRINI reports that a cell of 4 terrorists has been operating in the Beetham Gardens/Sea Lots Area Police advised earlier today that 3 of the 4 have been detained.
The Police Spokesman stated that the terrorists Bin Sleepin, Bin Drinkin and Bin Fightin have been arrested on immigration issues.
The Police advise further that they can find no one fitting the description of the fourth cell member, Bin Workin, in the area.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police are confident that anyone who looks like Bin Workin will be very easy to spot in the community.
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Asking the right questions
Posted: Thursday, October 18, 2001
By Denis Solomon
The following is an edited version of Denis Solomon's contribution to a panel discussion on "The Way Forward" organised by the Constitutional Reform Committee at OWTU Headquarters, San Fernando, on Saturday, October 13, 2001.
I'd like to begin by telling you a joke.
Basdeo Panday goes to a bank to cash a cheque for US $50,000.
Teller: May I see some ID, please?
BP: You mad or what? I is de Prime Minister! Everybody know me.
Teller: Sorry, sir, but no cheques can be cashed without identification.
BP: But I does be on TV whole time, making speech! And you ain't see all me bodyguard and ting? Man, cash de damn cheque before I get vex.
Teller: Sorry, sir, everybody has to prove his identity. Last week Dwight Yorke was in here without his passport, and we had to get a football and make him keep it up in the air for an hour before we would cash his cheque.
But that gives me an idea. Perhaps you could say something to prove you are the Prime Minister.
BP: OK, OK-er-ah-er- Oh God, all I could think of to say is chupidness!
Teller: How do you want the money, Mr Panday?
So much for jokes. Now to serious business. MORE
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Democracy more than fresh air
Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2001
By Bukka Rennie
"I Like sex more than fresh air!" Those were words frequently uttered by one "Cow-Foot" Eugene of Tunapuna. Of course he naturally used the four-letter word which was more poignant.
Not surprisingly, he eventually killed himself after a particular love affair went sour. But today he remains one of the most often quoted sons of the soil of that quaint, provincial place that is neither "town" (urban) nor "country" (rural) called Tunapuna.
Dictators, at all levels, may have attempted in the past to exist here but only at their own peril. Sooner than later they were all forced to take to their heels.
The people of Tunapuna's by-gone days questioned everyone and everything for, like "Cow-Foot", they liked democracy more than fresh air.
In political circles it was said that whomsoever won Tunapuna invariably won the country. Whichever party that is. Tunapuna was/is a microcosmic take of the entire country.
Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Muslims and Hindus all held sway here. There were RC and AC schools, as well as CM and Maha Saba schools operating side by side in harmony as well as in caustic competition.
The Muslim "Hosay" festival was as a big an occasion in Tunapuna as anywhere else. Even the Sikhs had their presence here as best exemplified by the founder of Turban Brand.
Growing up in the Tunapuna of the '50s and '60s, it was not uncommon to see funerals of that obscure Hindu sect of Black Indians who pranced and danced in joyous pleasure on the way to the cemetery and cried mournfully at births. They were referred to as the Madrasi.
Even that open savannah in the middle of Tunapuna, which in fact was its "soul" until crazy town-planners thought differently, was at one time divided up into specific cricket practice pitches of clubs that were either comprised solely of Indo-Tunapunians or Afro-Tunapunians and yet others which comprised a full mixture of the two.
But if the cricket teams reflected the racial configuration, the football teams, both in terms of management structure and players, were nearly all mixed.
Tunapuna was the home at one time or another of people such as Learie Constantine, CLR James, Sir Courtney Hannays, Sir Pelham Warner, the Narinesignhs, the Rikkis, the Padarathsinghs, the Seeteerams, the Patels, "Effel" Mohammed, and even the well-known Marxist, Holassie, all fiercely and instinctive democratic if not "republican" in spirit. Always ready and willing in every which way to challenge Port-of-Spain, the city of the centre.
That open, liberal, fearless posture, that republican stance and defiance of authority pervaded all the Tunapunian ranks from top to bottom, to the extent sometimes of utter madness and near anarchy. Be it the doings of Mastifay, that other "Eugene" of a not too dissimilar reputation as the one with whom we began this column, or Red Ken, or the Mascals, or Foots, the stylish Dil Lil or the deadly Samuel Jacobs, or even the young turk who caught Wolf, the old "bad-john", sleeping and beat him almost to death, all the while proclaiming that "bad-john cannot sleep", or the one who after being advised by a judge in the High Court to take "his time" while testifying, would reply: "Your Honour, time waits on no one", there is reflected throughout in popular Tunapunian behaviour this common sense of disdain for, if not open defiance of, all centralised authority.
And it is not that it does not exist all over the East/West Corridor, but it certainly is the signal character of this "neither town nor country" place called Tunapuna.
Such disdain for authority outside of oneself and over and above oneself is the seedbed of democratic instincts and democratic nurturing. As I said to the CLR Conference at UWI, my first encounter with CLR was in fact an encounter with an "idea".
It happened at the age of 19 when I and other like-minded youngsters, all members of a very active PNM youth group on the Corridor, went to heckle a WFP meeting and found ourselves listening to the concept of the "right to recall" as elucidated by CLR, rather than heckling.
The concept opened our minds to the possibilities of genuine empowerment, since power would repose with the mass membership and all the citizens of a constituency who would then be expected to dismiss non-functioning representatives or even possibly rotate representation as deemed necessary down the road. It was all about putting authority where authority really belongs, in the hands of the people.
It was growing up in Tunapuna and the Corridor that made us open up to such a way of seeing. Not surprisingly, wherever we have gone since then have always brought instant confrontation with authority, moreso abusive authority.
My first week on the job at the Excise Department at Customs House brought confrontation with Fleming, the then comptroller. He rang the Excise Department one morning, I answered. He asked for Mr Payne and I told him that Mr Payne was not there, at which point he questioned angrily if I knew to whom I was speaking.
I replied in the negative and suggested that that bore no relevance to the matter at hand; Mr Payne was not there.
He slammed down the receiver and the next I knew he came into the department to confront me, suggesting that I should be more helpful in future if I wished to get ahead in the Customs. I stated an inability to comprehend the logic and asked for advice on how I could have been more helpful in this particular instance.
He said that I could have ran outside to see if Payne's car was still around. I in turn advised that I knew not which car Payne possessed.
At that point he left in a huff. I knew then that my career at the Customs would be short-lived.
What's the difference between Fleming's attitude and that of the leaders of political parties in T&T? Imagine that you join a party and when you attend the general council sessions, the maximum leader tells you to sit down because he is not happy with the position you express.
In such a case you and that leader should be rolling on the floor with fisticuffs being thrown.
What's the difference between the struggle that Morris Marshall fought and that of the UNC executive presently? The only difference is that Ramesh has the material resources that Marshall could never have commanded and so he died in the course of his efforts to democratise the party in which he believed.
The 2000 election brought numerous conflicts between maximum leadership and constituents over the choice of representation. The 2001 election will bring even more vicious confrontations on all sides and on all fronts. Every little step in this direction is a victory on behalf of the democratic process.
I am counting on Tunapuna to lead the way. For there the people love this thing democracy as much as they love fresh air.
http://www.trinicenter.com/BukkaRennie/
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What democracy?
Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2001
THE EDITOR: In Newsday's Sunday October 14 issue, an article by Dr Hamid Ghany, captioned The Threat To Our Democracy, his conclusion has brought out the political bias in his recent writings and his blindness as where the threat to our democracy lies.
He states in the article that "the threat to our democracy is one in which one political party cannot seek to besmirch the electoral process up front and then go silent on the earlier allegations if they win."
He goes on further to state "Trinidad and Tobago has ceased to be an example of the majoritarian model of democracy. It has now become more closely aligned with the consensus model of democracy given the nature of population growth and diversity.
"Political parties and even the President have to adjust to suit that paradigm reality. Political gridlock and deadlock will continue to be outward expressions of such a phenomenon."
Dr Ghany went on to chide the President in the following manner. "A President who fails to understand that can traumatise an entire nation by his antics and power plays which strike at the very heart of the tender process of consensus in a society such as ours.
"His repetitive bias and insensitivity to the needs of all citizens and his desire for brinkmanship while holding the supreme office of public trust are classic examples of his colossal failure to understand the diversity of the very nation over which he presides.
"It is almost as if he wants to exercise some elements of Prime Ministerial power that he once enjoyed. By using the Presidency to push the proverbial envelope on a growing list of simple constitutional matters that he has turned into situations of trauma and uncertainty, it is almost as if he were in the political ring himself sparring with both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition at times." I refuse to quote any further from his diatribe he believes to be an intellectual conclusion.
It is writers like Dr Ghany who fail to see where the threat to our democracy lies, in the autocratic actions of the Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of our peace-loving Republic.
Did he and others like him to whom ordinary people in the society look forward to for intelligent guidance raise their voices when the Prime Minister undermined the basic principle upon which democracy resides, the democratic will of the majority when he recommended to the President the appointment of "election losers" to be Senators and Ministers?
His conclusion is disgusting and disrespectful to the President of the Republic who has the courage to warn the country of a "creeping" dictatorship and a bully who must have his way at all cost. The people of Trinidad and Tobago must thank God that the country has a President whose integrity and morality is untarnished to guide the Republic eventually in a safe harbour.
The current political problems with which the country is faced is beyond the question of corruption although it has increased ten times under the UNC government. The issue is democracy and corrupt means to get into power, therefore the two challengers for the office of the next Prime Minister of the Republic have no moral authority to aspire to that office on the basis of how they gained leadership of their respective organisations in the past.
Badly needed are men of honour, integrity, honesty and morality on all sides of the political divide to manage the affairs of our beloved Republic.
JOHN M HACKSHAW
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TT must seize opportunity now
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2001
THE EDITOR: It may be a hard pill to swallow, but we have to face the facts. The single most important reason why there is a crisis in the country today is because we, the people, have allowed our voices to be silenced. So the only way to get out of the mess that we now find ourselves in, is for us to regain our right to let our voices be heard.
The more this chaos escalates, the wider the gap gets between the people and the political process of this country. We are being bombarded daily by strident claims about inclusion, upholding the Constitution, and about accommodations to rescue the country from corruption. But if we really examine what is driving all that talk, we will realise that it is all a clever use of words to draw us in as ringside spectators shouting support for one side or another.
Many times, if we listen to our own talk, a lot of it is a repetition of what they throw out of the ring at us. The tragedy is that when we let ourselves get caught up in the sound bites, we run the risk of losing contact with the core issues and we make it easier for them to use us as a platform to build their own empires.
So we are going into an election. In the present circumstances, that is probably the only way out of this mess. But all of us know that now, even more than at any other time in our recent history, no activity that relegates us to putting an 'X' next to a name on a piece of paper is enough to set our country on a self-correcting path.
Right now, one of the main points of contention is the electoral list. To the extent that we have a voters' list that does not correspond to the reality on the ground, is a cause for deep concern. When we have names of people apparently registered as living on land that has been lying empty for years, or allegations of significant numbers of people shifting their addresses across electoral boundaries just before an election, the matter has to be investigated.
Beyond a certain point however, an exclusive focus on the cleaning up of the electoral list, only serves the interest of the power grabbers. Going along that single-track route will only lead us to the same political arrangements (whether or not incumbents change sides). Even worse, we will be ending up with the same official institutional frameworks that are now proving to be totally inadequate for dealing with the complexities of our political reality.
Take for example the Constitution. As it stands, this legal document is at best a lame duck that can even be used to subvert the will of the people. Some months ago, in spite of widespread protest, we had the swearing-in of the defeated candidates (which Ramesh Maharaj defended tooth and nail). Today we again find ourselves in another entanglement - how to remove a minority government? When all is said and done, the Constitution has been of no help.
Then we have the Presidency. The question that we have to ask here is, of what use is a quasi-ceremonial Presidency in a complex society as ours? Since ours is a plural society with many competing interest groups, shouldn't the President have powers that would enable that individual to facilitate negotiation, conflict resolution and consensus building among the various groups? Moreover, given the prevailing circumstances where our brand of representative democracy continues to throw up a governmental arrangement that divides the country along racial lines, shouldn't the powers of the President be strengthened relative to those of the Prime Minister who invariably will have come into that position as a result of being partisan to one side of the racial divide?
It is against the background of issues like these that I am saying that we have to set our sights beyond the ballot box and move to take back power into our own hands. We have to do that to ensure that this country is run in our own interest. So whomever we vote or do not vote for, we must seize the opportunity that this election season presents, to build people-based political forums to generate our own action-oriented talk.
Every sports group, cultural organisation, youth club, church committee, village council, office lime, workers' association, farmers' cooperative, lamp-post lime, windball cricket side, women’s' group, residents' committee, small business network, must take on a political dimension. Our talk can and must count.
One urgent matter that we have to talk about is of course corruption. There are three things I want to say about that. First, what ever side the pendulum swings after the votes have been counted, we cannot let up on the call to bring the corrupt to justice. The NWRHA scandal cannot be left to die away. The massive over-spending on the airport has to be accounted for. So too the InnCogen deal. Secondly, we have to be able to distinguish between a corruption issue and a smear campaign. One obvious danger about a smear campaign is that it tarnishes the character of innocent individuals. But an equally important danger that is not readily recognisable is that it undermines our ability to stay focused on dealing with corruption. Everything gets watered down to a he-say and a she-say. Nothing more than ole-talk, which ends up being an effective cover for the real corruption to continue.
Thirdly, we have to examine the factors that make it possible for corruption to take place. To what extent do our official procedures and practices leave gaps for people to exploit? Is enough attention paid to maintaining efficient checks and balances in the operations of all sectors of our public service? How can we as a people find out about, and monitor the functioning of the various State agencies that are supposed to be working in our interest?
This election season is a good time to initiate the real talk.
OLABISI KUBONI
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So, is revenge sweet?
Posted: Sunday, October 14, 2001
By Donna Yawching
WELL, they've started. The bombs are falling. The missiles are being smartly guided to their targets (and beyond). The people have started dying. I wonder how Americans are feeling these days? Vindicated? Triumphant? Is the Pentagon keeping a chart where they can track the number of Afghani casualties and set them off against the 6,000 WTC fatalities? Can we hope that when they've totted up six or seven thousand, they'll be satisfied, and call for a halt? Or must it be a five-to-one payback?
Or are Americans —as I think and hope that at least some must be- starting now to feel stricken at what they have initiated? I have enough faith in the essential decency of the average Yank to suspect that this revenge may already be starting to sour in their mouths; that the satisfaction to be gained from dropping high-tech bombs on a city of third-world civilians is, in the final analysis, hollow. Okay, so they killed some of us; now we're killing some of them. Fair's fair, right? But somehow, it must feel like kicking a cat-kind of cruel and mean-spirited. I hope so, anyway.
Irony is not a quality that is well-understood in America; and so its citizens probably see nothing particularly incongruous in their government sending in one set of planes by night to drop bombs on the people of Afghanistan, and another set (by day? I don't know) to drop food and medicines. This is irony at its most delicious (literally): create misery, and then generously minister to it. Killing with a clear conscience. Yet a British reporter has pointed out that, even if every single one of the Americans' two million food packets were to be delivered, and found by a hungry Afghani, it would feed 27 per cent of the population for exactly one day. And about a month from now, winter will descend on an already harsh countryside.
I'm willing to bet money on what we will see on television in weeks to come. There will be reports of these humanitarian "care packages" being dropped and distributed. There will (if it is humanly possible to obtain) be footage of grateful Afghanis, displaced by one war or another, receiving this largesse from the considerate Western world that has-and this will be emphasised repeatedly-nothing whatsoever against them; but which has just got to drop bombs on their homeland as a matter of principle. This will, of course, make perfect sense to the Afghanis.
What we won't see on television is footage of the bombings. No frantic Afghani children wandering around the rubble seeking their shattered parents. No screams, no dazed faces, no heroic firemen, no overwhelmed hospitals-in short, no WTC emotion. The journalists' excuse, of course, will be that the Afganistan government doesn't want them on its territory-look at how it dealt with that poor woman reporter, after all.
Not mentioned will be the fact that the US doesn't want journalists there any more than the Taliban does-perhaps, indeed, less. You'll recall that the media was unequivocally blocked from the front during the Gulf War; all the viewers at home got to see were snazzy computer graphics of planes delivering neat little clusters of bombs onto X-marks-the-spot. Not a drop of blood spattered our screens; the only emotional coverage happened when an allied plane got shot down, and an American flyer got shipped home in a box. Yet many thousands of Iraqi civilians died during that war, and that doesn't include the estimated 500,000 children who have died since, as a direct result of US-led sanctions.
Excluding the world press from Afghanistan during the current conflict will be the Taliban's biggest, perhaps fatal, mistake. Their only hope for curtailing the carnage (besides surrendering bin Laden, which they've apparently decided not to do) is to let the "civilised" world see the consequences of its civilised acts as it sits down to its dinner. Gut-wrenching coverage was one of the factors that closed down the Vietnam War. For most people, out of sight is out of mind; if they can't actually see cruelty, it doesn't bother them unduly. But I am still enough of an optimist to believe that if they do see what their governments are doing, the horror will move them to action. The right action. Maybe I'm wrong.
What hurts me most about this conflict is the terrible, tragic waste; the futility of it all. Let us dispense with the propaganda for a moment: America doesn't have a prayer of winning a "war against terrorism", not even if Osama bin Laden's head were to be handed to them on a platter. Why? Because bin Laden, while indubitably a terrorist, is not "terrorism"; he is merely one of its myriad manifestations.
Terrorism is grievance made physical: a message that has got beyond screaming. It is brutal, it is terrible, it is conscienceless. If you don't at least listen to the message, it is inexorable. America refuses to listen. What's more, the super-power engages in actions that themselves cause new messages to be born. Killing bin Laden would be like killing the Hydra: nine new heads would grow in his place. You can kill people, but history has shown that you can't kill a grievance. All they do is go underground and fester.
Moreover, the question remains: who, exactly, defines terrorism, and terrorists? Yasser Arafat was a plane-jacking terrorist in the 1970s; today he's accepted as the Palestinians' leading statesman. Ariel Sharon inflicted a terrorist massacre on Palestinian refugee camps in 1982; today he's the Prime Minister of Israel. The CIA has organised terrorist activities around the globe (including Afghanistan): is America going to root them out, too? Cuba could validly argue that the US harbours virulent anti-Castro terrorists: can we expect to see NATO missiles homing in on Miami? What about Northern Ireland, land of bombings and surreptitious civilian murders?
Or is it only America (and its puppy-dog, Britain) that gets to define terrorism, in this unholy war? Can the rest of the world really live with that?
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UNC drowning slowly
Posted: Sunday, October 14, 2001
THE EDITOR: I do not mean to be unkind or disrespectful, but I am of the view that the health of our President has also affected him. I cannot find any other explanation for the behaviour of this one time bright young lawyer. I ask myself:
Why did it take our President days after the General Elections of December 2000 to appoint the Prime Minister? Why was the nation held in suspense about the above and the uncertainty of the President attending the House of Parliament?
Why the President did not read the Throne Speech? I was told he cannot read small print so I can excuse him. But why was he leaving the House not even conscious of the fact that the ceremony was not yet over. After all it was not his first opening of Parliament?
Why should it take our President weeks to appoint the Senators recommended by the Prime Minister? Why did it take days for our President to approve the changes in the Senate with respect to the Tobago Senator, as recommended by the Prime Minister?
It makes him look very bad when you consider that he has two retired Presidents who are alive and well and who I am sure will be only too happy to clear up any matter for him. Does he consult them?
The President does not have to act. It is the Opposition who has to move a vote of no confidence and cause an election.
The PNM's chances of winning have never been better. The UNC would drown in the water coming from their dirty linen.
Please Mr President, do not take from us the pleasure of us voters from getting rid of this Government.
CLYDE MARSHALL
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Time for Panday to wake up
Posted: Saturday, October 13, 2001
THE EDITOR: I am an avid follower of the political events that takes place in this country, recently I have been hearing our Prime Minister, the Honourable Basdeo Panday, calling his former friends by ugly names.
Mr Panday seems to have forgotten that it took the combination of two seats from the National Alliance for Reconstruction for him to become this country's leader. It took the crossing of Dr Vincent Lasse and Rupert Griffith for him to have a majority.
Now let us consider his most recent statements about his former three members.
He has called them 'Jackasses', 'Traitors', 'Rebels' etc. He has stated that these men are trying to topple his Government. He has even said that they, the dissidents have now put his children's lives in danger.
I believe the time has come for Mr Panday to really wake up and smell the coffee.
His government is really nothing without these men, even the present Attorney General, his 'yes' person, can't do the trick for him. Neither can 'sweet boy' Carlos John.
Mr Panday, if you are so confident about what the people want, go to the polls. This is a challenge to you.
Don't get your supporters all pumped up for nothing. You, a man of 'class', a man of 'distinction', a man of 'peace'? Now it's your turn. Manning did it in November 1995, why don't you do it now? Go to the Polls.
I FIELDS
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Privy Council reserves judgment in battle for Chaguaramas lands
Posted: Friday, October 12, 2001
By Darren Bahaw
The Privy Council yesterday reserved its ruling in a constitutional motion brought by the descendants of the original land owners of the Chaguaramas peninsula after a full day of legal arguments.
The land owners are claiming the return of lands, amounting to 12 square miles, beginning at Williams Bay and including the small chain of islands off the north-western coast.
Both the High Court in 1994, and the Court of Appeal in 1997, ruled against the claimants but they took their case to the highest court governing Trinidad and Tobago.
Lawyers representing the landowners, including Jan Luba QC, Ben Cooper, Vashist Maharaj instructed by Bindman and Partners, as well as James Guthrie instructed by the law firm of Charles Russell, who represented both the Attorney General and Chaguaramas Development Authority, took more than six hours arguing their points before the law Lords.
The case was heard by Lord Nicholls, Lord Millette, Lord McKay, Lord Hobhouse and Sir Christopher Slade.
In April 1941, the Chaguaramas lands were acquired by the colonial government and leased to the United States for a naval base for a 99 year period.
The lands were returned to the government when Trinidad became an independent nation in 1962, but the landowners are claiming that the area should have been returned to them when the public purpose for which they were acquired came to an end, after the US gave up the base in the 1970's.
Trinidad Express
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Naipaul Wins Nobel
Posted: Thursday, October 11, 2001
Trinidad-born author, VS Naipaul, has won the Nobel Prize for literature for works which "compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
A novelist and short story writer, Naipaul left Trinidad at 18 for Oxford University in Britain, then traveled extensively before settling in the U.K.
In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy, described Naipaul as a "literary circumnavigator, only ever really at home in himself, in his inimitable voice".
It added he was "singularly unaffected by literary fashion and models", and has "wrought existing genres into a style of his own".
Much of Naipaul's works are about post-colonial trauma, reflecting his Indian parentage and early life in Trinidad.
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Is This Justice ? Mr President.
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Dear Editor
It is with great amazement and disbelief that I look on at the spectacle taking place before our nation where an individual be he Prime Minister or peasant can take away the legal recourse that citizens are guaranteed under the Constitution before the courts of our land at the posting of a letter.
I am referring to the legal actions in which millions of dollars has been spent so far in the 4 challenges of the Election petitions concerning the results of the 2001 General Elections. This procedure to challenge the results of the Election is laid down in law. What law can there ever be that denies anyone the right to justice, by an individual or group that was party for the reason for the legal challenge or Electoral petition in the first place. This is the effect of what the Prime Minister is saying or attempting to do with a call for new Elections.
This must never be possible or made to happen and is deep into uncharted territory and would be a bad precedent for all time. An Election cannot be called to nullify legal challenges to a previous election. Think deep and hard Mr President. Natural justice demands it.
KURT GARCIA
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Prime Minister Basdeo Panday Announces Election
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
By Raffique Shah
Prime Minister Basdeo Panday triggered yet another controversy to the politically charged situation when, at high noon today, he called a press conference to announce that he had advised President Arthur N. Robinson to dissolve Parliament and call a general election on December 10. President Robinson, in an immediate response to the Prime Minister, asked the PM to "hold your hand". The PM has publicly said he will not "hold his hand".
Up to late this afternoon, politicians and attorneys were debating whether or not Mr Robinson has any discretion in the matter, and if he may choose a course other than calling the election. Matters of great concern to the President are the views of a large section of the population that the electoral list under which they went to the polls last December was at best badly flawed, and at worst fraudulent. It is felt by many, too, that the four elections related matters that are before the High Court make the 2000 election incomplete. A number of electors are also facing "voter padding" charges, and the police continue to arrest people on charges related to last December's election. And some are even questioning whether Mr Panday, who lost his majority in the House of Representatives last week, is authorised to call an election.
If the President does go along with Mr Panday's advice, it will be the first time in the country's history that two general elections are called within one year. Before that, the only other "snap election" was called in 1995 by Mr Patrick Manning, after only four years in office: he lost that election.
Mr Panday's announcement today did not come as a surprise. Last Friday, his government was outvoted in three Bills in the House. The Speaker, Mr Rupert Griffith, adjourned the House on a minority vote and the combined opposition forces were planning to move a motion to oust him from his seat at the next sitting of Parliament. That could have further reduced the UNC's minority position (Mr Panday could rely only on 16 of 36 members), and lead to a virtual gridlock in the House. Mr Panday's other option was to resign and have the President name a new Prime Minister.
The debate as to whether or not the President must act on the PM's advice will undoubtedly intensify over the next few days as Mr Robinson himself examines all his options. PNM leader Mr Patrick Manning has repeatedly said his party was not prepared to return to the polls with a "contaminated list". He repeated his view after the PM's announcement. And Mr Ramesh Maharaj, who recently resigned as Attorney General, has expressed the view that the President does not need to go along with the PM's advice.
Manning's PNM has struck up a coalition with Maharaj, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maharaj. The political climate in Trinidad and Tobago heated up soon after the elections for a new executive in the UNC were held in early June. Mr Maharaj's "Team Unity" won almost all the positions, with Maharaj himself running away with the Deputy Leader's title. The rift in the ruling party showed up during the campaign and widened afterwards. Although Panday's announcement came today, all parties (including the NAR) have been holding public meetings over the past few weeks.
Last Sunday, at what was dubbed his "25th anniversary celebrations", Panday filled the Grand Stand at the Queen's Park Savannah in a show of strength that was said to have been paid for-in that most of the participants were "bussed" to the venue. Maharaj held a public meeting in St James on Monday night. It was well attended and the main speakers, who included party treasurer Unanan Persad, exposed what they alleged were more instances of corruption in the government. And tonight, in San Fernando, the PNM hosts another campaign style meeting.
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Was it the same Panday in '95?
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
THE EDITOR: Basdeo Panday at a meeting in Gasparillo on Thursday night stated that the three dissidents who were holding late night talks with the "corrupt PNM" were "traitors" and "betrayed 39 years of struggle".
Surely the Hon Prime Minister must be speaking of the "corrupt PNM" of the old days.
But, was it not the very Hon Basdeo Panday who appointed an old PNM man the very month after the UNC formed the government in 1995, to "train" his Ministers - no wonder one of the "trainees" is now on 52 counts of fraud and in jail facing a murder charge.
As a matter of fact "corrupt PNM" is or was on several state Boards, under the UNC Government.
If Maharaj, Sudama and Maraj are "traitors", the treachery did not start this week, it started since the month of December 1995.
As a matter of fact, I said on several occasions that to be a "big thing in the UNC it seems as though you had to pass through the PNM first and the higher, the better."
But have no fear, the "sweat, blood and tears of all those who truly opposed the corrupt PNM for 39 years will surely fall on all the opportunists and traitors.
DAVE PERSAD
Attorney-at-Law
Couva
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UNC's Overdraft exceeds $100,000
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Unanan Persad the UNC party's treasurer, said yesterday, the United National Congress has no money in its coffers and owes a major bank more than $100,000.
He claimed there are more instances of "financial impropriety" in the affairs of the UNC and said the party's National Executive has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to look into the issue of a US$50,000 cheque which was made out to Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.
Earlier, at a news conference held at the Couva South constituency office, Persad had distributed copies of a letters between himself and Royal Bank which said one of the party's accounts has been overdrawn by $112,199.
The overdraft limit on the account is $100,000 and is secured by the party's Mutual Funds account, Persad said.
He claimed the account has been overdrawn on a continuous basis over the last few months.
Persad also claimed the account was "overdrawn by over $700,000 and $300,000 since the beginning of the year".
He said he instructed the bank not to honour cheques because of insufficient funds but the bank failed to comply with his request, stating that cheques which carry two of the three authorised signatures will be honoured.
The signatories to the account are Panday, Dave Cowie and himself, Persad said.
But, Persad said, while the cheques may be legally written, they are debited on an already overdrawn account.
He said: "That can be deemed an illegal act, as these cheques are knowingly issued when there are no available funds in the party's account."
He added: "During the financial review of the party's accounts, serious discrepancies and practices were discovered that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles."
He claimed it was these issues which he expected to discuss at the National Executive meeting, scheduled to be held on October 1, but was aborted when supporters of the Prime Minister held a meeting at the same venue.
Reading from a prepared text, Persad said he had information that funds of the party, "in excess of $100,000 have been used by the political leader for transportation of persons from all over Trinidad to attend last Sunday's rally at the Queen's Park Savannah."
He said expenditure was not approved by the National Executive, and "the situation was further aggravated by the fact that a claim for transportation of persons attending the Women's Congress in August, by the financial consultant Ache Jaggan for $27,800, cannot be verified."
The UNC treasurer continued his litany of financial discrepancies on the records by pointing out that subsequent claims for the same event were reduced to $17,850, then $16,000 and finally $15,450.
He said another disbursement for approximately $61,000 for transportation of persons to a Special Assembly at the SWWTU Hall on July 31, "cannot be justified nor substantiated".
He reiterated his claim of having no idea where the funds raised overseas in the name of the party have ended up.
Persad called on Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, the UNC's political leader, to explain "how party funds are utilised autocratically and indiscriminately". He accused Panday of not respecting the constitution of the UNC.
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Was it the same Panday in '95?
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
THE EDITOR: Basdeo Panday at a meeting in Gasparillo on Thursday night stated that the three dissidents who were holding late night talks with the "corrupt PNM" were "traitors" and "betrayed 39 years of struggle".
Surely the Hon Prime Minister must be speaking of the "corrupt PNM" of the old days.
But, was it not the very Hon Basdeo Panday who appointed an old PNM man the very month after the UNC formed the government in 1995, to "train" his Ministers - no wonder one of the "trainees" is now on 52 counts of fraud and in jail facing a murder charge.
As a matter of fact "corrupt PNM" is or was on several state Boards, under the UNC Government.
If Maharaj, Sudama and Maraj are "traitors", the treachery did not start this week, it started since the month of December 1995.
As a matter of fact, I said on several occasions that to be a "big thing in the UNC it seems as though you had to pass through the PNM first and the higher, the better."
But have no fear, the "sweat, blood and tears of all those who truly opposed the corrupt PNM for 39 years will surely fall on all the opportunists and traitors.
DAVE
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Giving the people power
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
By Bukka Rennie
The three UNC dissidents were told emphatically: "Join the PNM and live in the sky!" Reminds me of the underworld figure who fell out with Al Capone and sent "ole Al" the following threat: "When next I come to New York, be missing!" The suggestion being that the threatened should quickly acquire the propensity to become "ghosts" or face the violent, murderous wrath of common thuggery. I really hope it does not ever come to that.
I once had the unfortunate but memorable task of visiting Trevor Sudama at hospital to occasion pictorial evidence of the brutality that was meted out to him by certain elements in the sugar belt.
Sudama had been a central active member of a new formation, SPIWTU (Sugar Plantation and Industrial Workers Trade Union), in opposition to the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factories Workers Trade Union led then by powerful personalities who frowned on attempts by this new formation to gain formal recognition to represent sugar workers.
Trevor Sudama was set upon and beaten almost to death with what was described as "two-by-four pitchpine planks of wood with six-inch 'tata-mash' nails".
Those pictures were splashed across the front page of the newspaper that I then edited. Involvement with the group that produced that newspaper took me at least twice a week into the sugar belt from Orange Grove to Usine Ste Madeleine and put me in contact with lots of people, other than Sudama, many of whom are now gone.
I can recall stalwarts like Sammy Gowandan of Dow Village, "Manny" Alexander and Deo from Balmain, Nazir Allarakoo of Golaconda, Hamlet and his group from Petit Morne, Harry Ramoutar of Brechin Castle, and Loutoo and Mohammed of the Sugar Workers Action Committee on the McBean side.
There was this tremendous support on the ground for a new progressive thrust in the sugar belt but the backward trade union hierarchy sought to make things difficult, if not outright dangerous, for the progressives. Some of the earlier mentioned people had worked out plans to seize and occupy the offices of the union.
In fact a dry-run, led by some heroic women plantation workers of Golaconda, was actually implemented successfully without the All Trinidad Trade Union bureaucrats ever having the foggiest.
Nervous in the heat of the politics of the situation and worried about the possibility that the planned move may be deemed extra-legal, they decided to seek legal opinion. The lawyer they approached was Basdeo Panday, a most obvious choice given his background, and the rest is now history.
What I am saying here is what I know not what I read or what I was told. Panday embraced the process with messianic zeal and with the thrust from the masses below marched the sugar belt into the mix and mainstream of T&T's modern politics, never ever to be turned back. Sudama, though, almost paid the price for this progress with his life.
The question is: Will he ever have to pay so dearly once again? Sudama certainly cannot be considered to be a charismatic personality, in fact he is rather dull and dour, but is no less committed to the sugar-belt cause than anyone else.
In the past, from 1965-76, the quest for national unity was predicated on trade union consciousness and socialist rhetoric, and when all the attempts in this period to achieve political power failed and the so-called economic boom ensued, all and sundry fell back to a racial strategy.
Once again the objective situation is demanding a move away from racial strategies. The balance of forces indicates that political power can neither be achieved nor maintained without a minimising or significant reduction of the racial divide. Once again everyone is for unity, the popular term is "inclusion", of course minus the trade union consciousness and passé socialist rhetoric.
What is disturbing though is that in the presently ensuing debate most people tend to be responding to emotionalism and pique and the issues are blurred and not rooted to the day-to-day affairs of people's existence. It is as if we all have already found the secrets to living in the sky.
Take for instance the question of Clico's role in the present situation. Everyone today is for "inclusion" so to say that anti-Clico criticism is tantamount to demanding "exclusion" is in fact obfuscation. In this modern world government's relationship with corporations is a given reality, even more so as the CL Financial Group is a homegrown entity now seeking to extend itself outward into the global scenario and needs support from its base country.
The question to be posed therefore is what is the nature of the relationship, how can transparency be ensured and, given the fact that Clico's base activity is life insurance, whether or not the regulations that guide the treatment of mutual funds are being compromised? If the issue is posed like that then it can be resolved by rational, intelligent people.
We need to remind ourselves that human beings did not form societies to lessen but to increase their individual possibilities, as Tom Paine insisted. The only fundamental reality is the struggle to continuously broaden the power of the people as a collective force.
All the so-called leaders and their bands of fawning "imps" claim that they only wish to serve the people and in their haste "to serve", nobody takes time to contemplate the ideals of humanity and the changes in the Constitution of the country required to facilitate in a structural way, the foremost ideal, which is power to the people to the very last person.
The Constitution apparently is sancrosant. Matters not how far the actual politics on the ground have stretched the parameters of existing legal arrangements. We need to uphold at all times the higher law, which is the spirit of natural justice.
Once Constitution stands in the way of natural justice then it must be rooted out and changed with vigorous expediency. At the moment that is exactly what should be done with the present Constitution of T&T. But how and by whom is the train to be set in motion?
That takes us to the question of "parties". Parties are not "ends" in themselves, but rather they are "means" to an "end". The party is a strategy of utilising a structured minority to capture political power in order to implement policies and programmes that will serve to bring social and economic development to the society as a whole.
The party is not paramount, what is paramount is the collective will of the people and the constant expanding of their democratic way of life to the point where "parties" themselves become obsolete. There will always be struggle between various parties and even internecine conflict between leading individuals of the same party.
What is crucial though in this context is that the issues are not personalised but kept on a clear objective level and that there be clear-cut avenues through which the people can intervene to bring their collective wisdom to bear on the resolving of matters. To accomplish this no one must fear the human clamour of the masses below and no one must be allowed or be forced to live in the sky.
http://www.trinicenter.com/BukkaRennie/
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PNM approves resolution to remove Speaker
Posted: Tuesday, October 9, 2001
The People's National Movement (PNM) parliamentary caucus last night approved a resolution for the removal of Dr Rupert Griffith as Speaker of the House of Representatives. At a meeting last night at Balisier House, the party passed the following resolution:
"Be it resolved that the undersigned being a majority of the members of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago do hereby require that the Honourable Rupert Griffith, Speaker of the House of Representatives, be removed from office and therefore vacate the office temporarily and cease to perform the functions of Speaker, for the following reasons:
Grounds:
1: The Speaker has by his conduct in presiding over the proceedings of the House of Representatives on Friday, October 5, 2001, contravened the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives in such a way as to undermine the dignity of the Parliament and the authority of the elected representatives thereof.
2: The conduct of the Speaker has left members uncertain as to whether in the future he will continue to preside in the manner that is in flagrant disregard of the desires of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives and consequently the Speaker's judgment and impartiality are now in question.
Particulars
(a) Standing Order 9(1) of the House of Representatives states:
"Subject to paragraph (2) of this Standing Order, the House shall meet on Fridays and every adjournment of the House shall be to the next Friday unless the House, upon a motion moved by a Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary, otherwise decides. Notice of such a motion shall not be required and the question on the motion shall be put without amendment or debate."
(b) On Friday, October 5, 2001, upon a motion moved by the Leader of the House that the House be adjourned to a date to be fixed, the House divided; however notwithstanding that the "No's" were clearly louder that the "Ayes" the Speaker declared that the "Ayes" have it.
(c) Immediately thereafter in accordance with Standing Order 45, there were repeated audible calls for a 'division' which the Speaker refused to acknowledge. The Speaker then proceeded to declare the adjournment of the House to a date to be fixed, ordered the removal of the Mace and left the Chamber.
(d) The Speaker without lawful authority and in breach of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives arbitrarily refused to adhere to a lawful request for a division of the members of the said House.
(e) The Speaker in breach of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives made a ruling in favour of the minority of the members of the House of Representatives, which said action, is contrary to the established principles of democracy.
(f) On Friday, October 5, 2001, therefore, the House was not adjourned pursuant to its own order, thus constituting a most flagrant contravention of the Parliamentary democracy to which we subscribe. That this unlawful and undemocratic action was perpetrated by the holder of the office of the Speaker of the House makes this action all the more serious and detrimental.
The resolution was signed by Ken Valley, Colm Imbert, Camille Robinson-Regis, Jarette Narine, Eulalie James, Martin Joseph, Roger Boynes, Fitzgerald Hinds, Lawrence Achong, and Penelope Beckles.
The meeting was informed that it was also the agreement by the PNM members in Tobago, as well as the three UNC rebels and the NAR's Nathaniel Moore, that the Speaker should go.
However, the decision was taken that as soon as all the signatures are obtained, the resolution will be submitted to the Clerk of the House.
PNM also said as far as they were concerned the House ought to meet on Friday. The adjournment they insisted was illegal. They also plan to approach the Deputy Speaker, asking him to reconvene the House on Friday.
ABSTRACT: Trinidad Newsday
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Judge refused to adjourn Gypsy/Chaitan hearing
Posted: Tuesday, October 9, 2001
A High Court judge yesterday refused to adjourn the hearing of election petitions to unseat Junior Ministers Winston "Gypsy" Peters and William Chaitan. Justice Melville Baird, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Sixth Civil Court, said: "The interests of justice dictate that the petitions should go forward straight away."
Attorney Fyard Hosein, assisted by Devesh Maharaj, had argued for an adjournment of the petitions until the Privy Council determines constitutional motions filed by Peters and Chaitan. Hosein asked for the adjournment on the grounds that one of the issues to be determined is whether the High Court had jurisdiction to hear election petitions.
In his nine-page ruling, Justice Baird said: "The raison d'etre of the representation petition is to dissipate clouds of uncertainty that might envelop the country after an election.
"Delay, an ally of uncertainty, is therefore inimical to the spirit of the representation petition and abhorrent to the public mind."
Justice Baird said Peters' and Chaitan's constitutional appeals to the Privy Council were filed under Section 109 (1) (d) of the Constitution. He said this section excludes from the jurisdiction of the Privy Council any decision of the High Court relating to the qualification and election of a person as a member of the House of Representatives. He said the appeal to the Privy Council is therefore confined to whether the fundamental rights and freedoms of Peters and Chaitan had been infringed by the filing of the election petitions against them.
Justice Baird said: "The Privy Council, therefore, will not be addressing the issues of fact and law which would be needed to be resolved for the determination of petitions." He said the attorneys for Peters and Chaitan failed to demonstrate that the refusal of the applications for adjournment of the petitions will result in the denial of justice to them, a defeat of their rights or a miscarriage of justice.
Justice Baird said: "They presented nothing to the Court to show a denial of justice to them, or any threat or potential threat that justice denied them, or that their rights would be threatened, or that a miscarriage of justice would ensue, should the Court not grant the adjournment." Two defeated PNM candidates, Franklin Khan (Ortoire/Mayaro) and Farad Khan (Pointe-a-Pierre), filed the petitions to unseat Peters and Chaitan claiming that the Junior Ministers were not qualified to be MPs since they held dual citizenship at the time of their nomination and election.
These petitions are different from the ones filed by the electors Paul Phagoo and Princess Smart in an attempt to unseat PNM MPs Patrick Manning and Eulalie James. Justice Jamadar, presiding in the Port-of-Spain First Civil Court, also refused to grant an adjournment of these petitions last week. He set the whole of next week for the hearing of those petitions.
Justice Baird has scheduled a Court management conference in his Chambers today for preparations to be made for the hearing of the petitions filed against
