pnm

So the State of Emergency is extended. Effective today, the curfew as announced by the Prime Minister will be from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. We all knew it would happen; the government has a luxury of a strong majority that made the Opposition no more than a lubricant for all of this. In fact, the Opposition was as effective as oiled brakes - a result of their own time as government and it's democratically judged efficacy.

But I'm apolitical. I'm more interested in issues. And in the issues department, the best equivalent of most of the debate was, "my mummy can beat up your mummy". It was a true embarassment to watch. But the grandstanding was in full force, I suppose, with live cameras on the scene and a captive audience of those who want to know what's going on in Trinidad and Tobago.

Let me get to the issues.

A friend asked on facebook for our thoughts on whether the Opposition has the welfare of the country at heart by defeating the "hanging bill" in Parliament this week.  It triggered the usual discussion about hanging.  Along the way, he said that based on the murder stats from the years around the last set of hangings in T&T, hanging definitely is a deterrent.

They say a week is a long time in politics.  A week ago, I thought the main news item that would've occupied the front-burner would've been the Guardian's reporting of a top government official being fingered in an alleged conspiracy to wilfully pervert the course of public justice in relation to charges against two former People’s National Movement ministers.  Or the criticisms of Hon.

According to reports, PNM and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley criticised the government's handling of the threat posed by Tropical Storm Tomas, describing it as an over-reaction.  Dr Rowley delivered the criticism during his feature address at the PNM's Women in Politics seminar at Balisier House on Sat 30 Oct 2010.  The stories may be found in the Trinidad Express,

While perusing an online forum where Trinbagonians discuss national issues, I engaged a long-time contributor who has been crying out for stronger campaign finance regulations as a key solution to our disturbing legacy of political corruption.  I had been a supporter of his call, but sometimes wondered if such regulation would be a central solution, or whether other types of reform may be more critical at this time.  After relentlessly pressing him for online articles that shaped his views, and analysing same, I have concluded that, while important, there may be two other more urgen

Strange, CLICO policy advocacy groups continue to oppose the governmental solution being offered. They keep shooting out letters to minister Dookeran, PM Persad-Bissessar and whomever else they feel could help them. The strange part is that while they claim that other options are available to the government they refuse to make these options public choosing instead to let it remain hidden in these letters.

The media has been flooded with politics regarded flooding. The new Prime Minister has been flying around in a helicopter and taking tours of the flooded areas - inflicting her whims on the local elected representatives as she sees fit to the chagrin of just about anyone who wants to be chagrined. The rains come, Acts of God as any Insurance company would have in their legal documents, but I'll note that there doesn't seem to be a large proportion of people going to their respective places of worship and discussing rain with their Creator.

The local government manifestos released by the various parties for the elections on 26 Jul 2010 may be found below:

When Dr. Rowley, leader of the Opposition, starts asking questions about the proposed Aluminium Smelter, I scratch my head. There has been so much outcry in the past about it, whether  it be about the environment or the failure to provide jobs to residents in the area where the smelter itself is planned, enough so that it's likely that this was one of  the political failures of the People's National Movement (PNM) and the past leader of the PNM - Patrick Manning.

I've just witnessed T&T's first national political debate prior to an election, televised live on CNMG's C TV (find the recorded video here).  Here are my initial views.