The happenings here in Trinidad and Tobago, now with (or without) Hart and with (or without) Property Tax Reform and with (or without) a true change in Opposition, amongst the happenings in my personal life, have me in the frame of mind where I am compelled to write about the elephant - or in T&T, the Manicou - in the middle of the room.
Inertia.
If there is a tone of displeasure here, it is warranted from this writer's perspective. How is it that the face of the country has changed so little for me over the decades? In speaking with one journalist a few weeks ago, my observations were echoed by someone who had more insight into what has been happening over the decades here than I. The faces rarely change, the problems remain the same, and the sliding scale of what is celebrated has slid below mediocrity.
I may sound negative, but isn't it somewhat odd that the country takes the day off when the national football team comes back from the World Cup after being eliminated, having scored only one goal - against themselves? I used to say that was celebrating mediocrity, but it isn't. It's celebrating less than mediocrity. It's a celebration of stagnation; a simple wave of enthusiasm was what was celebrated - a simple hope that something would change. Maybe I am become old and jaded. I am unimpressed with the idiocies tossed around like a dead shuttlecock in Parliament and in the rumshops. I have shaken my head over the years as I have seen more and more money poured into bad ideas - ideas that were so patently bad that even John Q. Mediocrity shook his head with the next nip of puncheon. {Read more}
...Nunez-Tesheira also explained in the same interview that Government decided to extend the deadline for the non-payment of property tax from September 15 to December 31, for this first year.
’March 31 is the date by which the bills must go out and then from September 15, penalties would accrue. We expect that we would be able to send out all the property tax bills during the month of April...and since we are extending the period for payment through the month of April, we are extending the deadline for the penalty to December 31.’
She added that Government was collecting a lot of data coming from two systems that were running parallel to each other- the Land and Building system and the Municipal and Regional Corporation system...
'Running parallel', to an external observer, might hint at 'redundant system' - but in a country where a fair amount of houses aren't in the Land and Building system and the Municipal and Regional Corporation system can be decades behind (I know, personally) - there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And, from what I understand, the systems are incompatible since Town and Country approvals don't deal in assessment numbers or deed numbers. Seriously. {Read more}
Yes, yes, it's old news. Calder Hart left. And every headline is as punny as possible (including this one) because there was a twisted sense of humour that created and defended the Hart a total of 45 times. When I heard the news on Saturday, I had better things to do than write about something that I predicted: I told many people that it was O'Halloran all over again. Perhaps the problem is that Trinidad and Tobago doesn't have sufficient history for Trinbagonians to study, thus they don't, thus they repeat it.
And, of course, the PNM isn't held in great esteem now - and neither is the man occupying the Honourable Office of Prime Minister, Patrick Manning (note the placement of Honourable). So what now? Calder Hart resigned, left and... umm... everyone has something to say.
Like many other people yesterday, I received an email from PriceSmart about their new site - PriceSmart.com. So I poked around their site and also did some price comparisons. We'll start with the price comparisons since most people will be interested in that. The technical review of the site will be at the bottom for those interested.
The Boomerang Test
For the review, I created the 'Boomerang Test'. It's rather simple - the Boomerang Test compares the cost of the item on the PriceSmart.com site with other international sites. If the difference between the PriceSmart.com price and the foreign retail price are large enough to purchase a plane ticket to Miami, the price fails the Boomerang Test.
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Ms. Marsha, an Attorney here in San Fernando that deals with conveyances. She's originally from Barbados; at 75 years young I imagine that she has many stories to share (we discussed that as well). Once the business aspects were completed, we spoke for a while about dates as references for numbers.
We spoke of the 1812 Overture, of 1942 (the Battle of Midway), and assorted other things. And because we were discussing World War II, which she lived through attached to her father's radio playing the BBC's London Calling, we ended up talking about the ship that was sank. The HMS Cornwallis.
She spoke of people diving for the supplies on the ship that were destined for Trinidad and Tobago - and how it's quite possible that everyone on Barbados at the time had something from the Cornwallis. An insult, she said, was to be accused of wearing 'Cornwallis shoes' or 'Cornwallis clothing'. An interesting piece of Bajan culture that would otherwise be lost in the sands of time. {Read more}
I sat across from an attractive female academic not too long ago as she asked me about helping her find a USB mass storage device for her Apple laptop. Trinidad and Tobago, of course, is a small market - and the people who bring down hardware bring what is most likely to sell. And Apple compatibility is really not as big of a draw as the typical Apple user may think. The majority of the market in Trinidad and Tobago uses the PC platform - so when people bring in computing paraphernalia, it's basically for the PC platform.
It wasn't too long ago that a Bajan friend had problems with Apple- you can read about it here and here - but to save you the trouble of clicking the links, I can simply tell you that reading it will make you think different of Apple. But really, it is just life in a small market.
It doesn't just mean Apples and oranges. Automotive parts for vehicles pre-abused foreign ('foreign used', aka 'foreign abused') vehicles are known for unavailability of parts, black licorice is an oddity instead of a commodity and the author has pondered selling his soul for a pack of Nutter Butter cookies at some times. It isn't to say that there isn't some demand for these items - it's that, relatively speaking - there isn't enough demand for such items. One day they will be on a shelf somewhere, and when they are found they aren't reordered because the businesspeople involved don't necessarily want their money tied up on dusty shelves.
Magazines arrive 2 weeks late. Bookstores and music stores are subject to the ordering taste and whims of the owners of the stores. {Read more}
Is it the right tack? Some may not think so. Lets consider a parallel. Let us consider broadcast rights in sports.
In sports, media companies are granted rights to broadcast and rebroadcast a sporting event - be it the Olympics, the Super Bowl, cricket, tennis, etc. A key difference between carnival and sport is that sports broadcasts are typically of people getting paid to move a ball from one place to another. This is not to diminish their ability with balls - it is in fact because they are so good with moving balls around that they get paid. Carnival, on the other hand, has people who have paid to play mas (for foreigners, that means dancing and prancing in costumes some deem artistic).
Thus, the very basis of the parallel is skewed: Sports broadcasts are of people who are typically paid to play with balls. Carnival broadcasts are typically of people who paid to play themselves. The balls joke was too easy. {Read more}
I would just like to point out that I'm supporting Gayelle here in Trinidad, that someone suing for coverage of what is labeled a cultural event is reprehensible.
I'd like to see everyone who was pictured or videoed under CNMG's copyright say that they signed a document stating that CNMG could exclusively display their images and videos for profit. Let me get this straight: people pay to play in bands, then the state owned enterprise CNMG takes the images of the people who spent money and profits from them?
Copyright. The government has taken a state owned corporation and made it in charge of commercial interests of Carnival - that's basically excising private enterprise and putting it in the hands of government. So the content that is owned by the State Owned Enterprise would belong to the government of Trinidad and Tobago which is supposed to be holding it in trust of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. What a brilliant way for the government to make money and assure more control of media in Trinidad and Tobago. A stupid tax with the capacity for censorship through a state run enterprise.
Hitler would be so proud! Not only getting the propaganda machine up but having the people subsidize it with their own spending on costumes, etc. {Read more}
Out of the blue, a message on the Trinidad and Tobago Drupal Group caused an impromptu meeting at Haagen Daz, Gulf City, here in Trinidad and Tobago. Being used to just Shivan Jaikaran and myself as being the Drupal-folk in Trinidad and Tobago, I was pleasantly surprised that there are many more of us.
After finally getting some time to look over the amendment to the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act (the amendment is attached below), I think that for the most part it is reasonable. One thing, though, bothers me.
Nowhere does it state that someone accused of being drunk can volunteer to take a blood alcohol test.
On the surface, this may seem like nitpicking. Even so, a breathalyzer only estimates the level of alcohol in the blood - and accuracy isn't guaranteed. There are ways in which a breathalyzer can deliver false positives (see this article for examples) - and these can be legitimate reasons for a person who is not legally drunk by their blood content to be tested as positive by a breathalyzer. Dental work, as an example, can cause false high estimates of blood alcohol - as can the use of mouthwash.
Then there is the question of the accuracy of the equipment.
The Amendment does note that the Constable can choose to use a blood alcohol test under certain circumstances - but those circumstances do not extend to someone volunteering to do a blood draw test for alcohol (ETOH). A blood draw is much more accurate since instead of estimating it actually measures the alcohol level.
And what also disturbs me is that in a hospital, the constable's first line according to the amendment is the breathalyzer when the person is in a setting that allows a proper measurement of blood alcohol by blood test.
In the United States, blood tests are regularly drawn in Emergency Departments - and their results are much more accurate.
The difference? When you fail a blood test for alcohol, you're nailed. There's no way out of it. But a breathalyzer? It's an estimate. {Read more}
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