UNC

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.

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

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:

Just a quick pointer - while the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has put out the specifications for laptops that 'public' tender has started on (see the specs here), there were remarks made about a laptop in the local media (Newsday, perhaps? ) that did not do much to answer questions regarding a cheap laptop that India was making.

It has been unveiled, complete with video:

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.

From a distance, some emails came across that defined the specifications for the laptops that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago will be paying for so that children can have them. No, the People's Partnership isn't giving them to the children - you are, out of your treasury. Being able to identify that means you are intelligent. Not being able to identify that means you are...

Since the election, I've been glad to hear the dolting adoration of the new government fall away into critical thought regarding how Trinidad and Tobago governs itself. That the new Opposition Leader, Dr. Keith Rowley singled out Jack Warner regarding a possible conflict of interest has created friction within the social networks around me.

I first asked this question in the run-up to the recent General Elections and got a few responses.  The general conclusion then was that voters only have the power to hold their representatives truly accountable when they stain their fingers in a polling station (or to a lesser extent in internal party elections, e.g. UNC, or leaving to form your own party, like COP).  This power becomes diminished when we revert to traditional voting patterns of supporting the status quo despite their poor performance.